returning on a jet plane.

howdy there!

i haven't done a blog post since the one right after i got back, so i am well past due.  and considering that we fly home tomorrow night, it might be nice to put something up.  jenny and taylor have done a great job with pictures, and i don't own a camera, so i'll stick with a few short words, and a few short stories.

agridulce is a new word that i learned a few days ago, and it perfectly describes how i (we) feel about coming back to the states.  it is spanish for "bittersweet", and we are all in that state.  the past several weeks have been much more relaxing since the aggies on the AFCSA trip and kyle headed out to brazil, but they have been perhaps my favorite time here.  i had a blast with the ags here in lima, and we had some great adventures all over this beautiful country.  between service work and good food in lima, a missions retreat and good food in arequipa, and lots of sand and questionable food in huacachina, we together had a packed two weeks.  one of my favorite adventures of their time here was when we rented a large van to take to the ruins of pachacamac and to the beach.  taylor and i went to pick up the van in a busy part of miraflores, and i was going to drive for the trip, which i was really pumped about, since lima is such a crazy place traffic-wise.  as we walked up to the van, we realized that it had a manual transmission, and seeing as how it had been quite a while since i had driven one, we were initially a little stressed about the prospect of driving a big van in wild traffic with an inexperienced driver.  but, it turned out to be smooth after all, and i only killed the motor once, though that was in the middle of a busy ovalo (roundabout).  when we dropped the van off, full of diesel and with no scratches, i felt one of the most intense senses of relief of my life.  but it was a blast getting to motor around the city, and i definitely have an affinity for using the horn now, like a real peruano.

as always, we all have many, many more stories than we can put on this blog, so please if you see us and you want to hear something about peru, ask!  i (again, we) would love to tell you about life here, and how we can see God working in this country.

jenny mentioned our surprise party, which was a blast, but i'll finish with a story from last night (my ultrasound bone healer just finished, so i'm ready to crash).  i have had the blessing of getting to do many things here in peru, but i got to visit with a few people that i will never forget last night.  i have gotten to know a teenager here by the name of moises who lives in a slightly less nice part of town (in the district san juan de miraflores) near our friend from church christian.  his parents own a restaurant in the house where he lives, and he seems like any other normal peruvian teenager, talking really fast in spanish and pal-ing around with his older brothers.  but, moises has been battling leukemia for the past two years, and christian, several months ago, wanted me to meet and talk to him about my experience with cancer when i was in high school.  as a cancer survivor, i definitely felt a bond with moises, and we were able to talk about how our relationships with the Lord were challenged by our sicknesses, but strengthened all the more by the experience.  i ask that you will pray for his health, and for his treatment, as his family came to a point where they could no longer afford chemotherapy, so he is taking natural remedies and vitamins.  as someone entering the health profession, i have some unease about those kinds of treatments, but he seems to be doing a lot better, and i have faith that God will provide.  i am also so thankful for his mother, as she treats us to great food every time we visit.  i will definitely miss her maracuya drink (passion fruit).  one funny (and not so funny) story we shared together was when he showed me a cell phone video of one of his chemo meds, in the IV bag, draining into the IV in his hand at the time.  it was bright kool-aid red, just like one of the most caustic chemo's i received, named doxorubicin/adriamycin.  it turns out that we definitely received the same drug, and we both laughed about how it turns your urine bright orange, and how it freaked us both out the first time we went to the bathroom.  after that visit, mark and i went to his apartment for a bible study.  i have been so blessed to come to this bible study most every week since i have been back, and this was my final time.  we began the book of luke, which is one of my favorites in the new testament, but what i will always remember is the time that we had laughing and reminiscing after the study.  we had a bumper crowd, as nearly everyone who has come to the study was able to this week, and silvia made spectacular peruvian hot chocolate with a hint of canela (cinnamon), and roxanna brought a great keke (cake), which was full of dried fruit and nuts.  they kept bringing me more and more slices of cake, and with all that sugar we all got a little hyped up i think!  we told stories and was able to tell them about my medical school starting in august, and how excited i was that i was going to be able to see my family and friends soon, but also how pumped i was at the prospect of coming back to peru and lima, which i hope to be able to do some day soon.  i will not soon forget the sweet peruvians that we have gotten to share the past months with, and i hope that we can mantener contacto (maintain contact) through skype and facebook and all of that.

i am going to miss this city and country, with its culture and food, but i am most sad about leaving these people, and i am so thankful for how God has blessed me (us) with so many wonderful friendships here in peru, and also for the team here, and for how they have taught me about the nature of our God not only through their words and mentoring, but also much more through their actions and love, in a 1 john 3:18 kind of way.  but, that being said, i am so excited about coming home!  in the next few weeks, i'll write another blog about what is going on, but as i was telling mark "selleck" clancy the other day, when you have so many things to look forward to, it is hard to be too sad about moving on.  and i do have many things to be excited about: texas, mom, dad, and matthew, all of my friends, finding a place to live in downtown dallas with shelby, cars and coffee, two weeks of camp of this hills (whoop!), college station, beef bbq bigger than my face, schlotskys, playing nicer guitars, so much tex-mex, summer time (sweating and sunshine!), free refills, getting to use my spanish in a new context, starting medical school, and getting to continue to see God working everywhere.  this has been a beautiful, sometime tumultuous, challenging, and blessed chapter of my life, but i am excited about turning the page.

keep us in your prayers today as we fly!  and as always, thank you for your prayers for us, this country, and especially for the work of God here in peru.

-kyle w.

Despedida - A Saying-Goodbye

Here you go, Mom.  My post... finally.

If you've been reading our (somewhat sparse) posts you know that we...


view from the plane

flew over the Andes mountains to Puno,

The Yavari

stayed in a boat in Lake Titicaca,


Kyle W.



Peck, our English friend



Kyle G.

played "Capitan" in said boat, 

Traci, Enoc, Alex, Trenton, Macy, David with Jakob, Alicyn, Kyle G., Shaley, Kyle W., Ariel, Taylor, Jenny

went to the Peruvian Missions Summit and brought the AFCSA,


David, Trenton, Alex, Enoc, Kyle G., Kyle W.

and tried to keep "cool" in the sand in Huacachina.

It was a fun, busy month with all our travels (three new places all in one month - Puno, Arequipa, and Ica/Huacachina) and with our great friends from the AFC.  It was such a blessing to work with them picking up trash and laying a cement floor with some of our missionary friends, the Burgess family; to hear about the happennings of the last 6 months, and to be able to fellowship and worship with them in the true AFC style that we've been missing.

The past week since they left (taking Kyle G. with them) has definitely been one of rest for the Three(?) still in Lima.  Surprisingly I've had a lot of firsts in our last couple weeks... my first time to eat at La Lucha (ask the other three about the oreo milkshakes), the first family group at Eulogia's house, the first scheduled time of open prayer with the team and Peruvians, my first haircut in six months (wow!).

Eulogia :)

There have been two meetings of our family group at Eulogia's house and both have been so encouraging and shown me the awesome spiritual growth that this family has had just since I've been in Lima.  The first was with Eulogia, her daughter Graciela, and son-in-law Edgar.  They had all these questions that made me think they are finally understanding what it means for them to be Christians.  This week I heard Eulogia pray for the first time and it was so touching.  She was so sincere in her want for God and her thanks to Him.  I've always heard that seeing the fruits of labor in a faith sense is hard and that usually all you can do is plant a seed.  But I was so encouraged to see the "fruits" that Eulogia, Graciela, and Edgar showed these past couple Saturdays sitting in their living room.  Praise the Lord for His presence here!

This Saturday we had a surprise despedida - going away party at Carla and Carlos's house.  We thought it was going to be a simple dinner with the family and walked into a room full of balloons and painted signs.  Pretty soon most all of our friends were there and we were having a blast.  I don't think we'll be forgetting that night anytime soon.  It was such a fun way to get everyone together at the end of our time here.

the girls at our despedida

 

Interns with the Flores family



Kyle W., the new intern Brad, and Mark

-JLD

novo lugar (brazil)

    I havent posted a blog in over a month and for that I am very sorry. Ill try really hard to make this one mind blowing. So the last month in lima has been pretty busy for me. The interns and I worked hard to prepare for the arrival of our fellow AFCers.  Their arrival was exciting, as they immediately jumped into action. over the next couple of weeks they tore through service projects traveled around peru, and adventured through the local gastronomy. Overall their adventure was a huge success. I was excited to get to see friends and build new relationships with people from home.  If you would like to read more about the AFCs time in peru go to www.afewinperu.blogspot.com  and read some of their post.

    Its been a strange feeling the past couple of weeks, knowing that our internship is almost over. Ive never been a big fan of saying goodbye to people. However having the AFC here to help transition back to the states has been a huge blessing. We have had the opportunity to spend lots of time together through multiple bus rides, devos and all sorts of service projects. We had a blast in a town called ica, a place that I have been wanting to visit since I arrived in Peru. In the middle of the dessert in Ica is a small oasis called huacachina (wakacheena). We got to go on adventures in the sand dunes in buggys, and slide down them on snowboard shaped boards. It was a great time for sure. Kyle and I walked around the oasis on the second day looking for the smallest fastest buggy we could find, and hired the guy to tear through the sand dunes with us. It was an adventure I wont forget.

   On friday night, I said goodbye to many of the friends I have made over the past 5 months. I enjoyed seeing everyone, and looking back on the friendships that we have built. Its fun to compare our abilities to communicate compared to when we first arrived. It was hard to say goodbye to everybody, but there is always a sense of excitement for what is to come. The next day I left peru with the AFCers bound for my next door neighbors, Brazil. My first impressions of brazil have been really good. I love the city we are in, called porto allegre. We have already been off to a busy start as we went to a profesional soccer game, and cleaned out a house thats getting ready for some new missionaries to move into. Im excited about the rest of our time in Brazil, and im sure that God will bring us some blessings, and great stories. Ill be back in the states on the 1st of july, so give me a call. If you bring the barbecue ill come.

God Bless,
Kyle Glaeser

Senioritis

Well I guess we've gotten our version of senioritis with our trip here when it comes to this blog. We now have less than a month left, and we haven't posted in about a month either :/ Oops!

Here's a quick update:

Kyle W and I went to the hometown of one of our friends who recently graduated as a doctor and Kyle got to help her with a medical campaign. We went to Canta, a small mountain town, and eventually to Lachaqui, a smaller town outside of Canta, and it was beautiful! I have lots of photos on my facebook if you're interested.

Panoramic view from Lachaqui

Kyle in Canta

Kyle G has been surfing his face off the past few weeks trying to fit as much in as possible before we leave and has almost died a couple of times... no worries...

Classic

The four of us flew to Puno with our friend Peck to visit Lake Titicaca and it was AWESOME!!!! but short. I wanna go back. We slept on a boat the first night, Kyle G got sick and had to go get an IV and eventually head home early, we visited some man-made floating islands made out of reeds, saw some traditional dances that were strange and sometimes a little inappropriate, ate some great food, and bought a TON of presents for family and friends :)

Kyle, Jenny and I on one of the floating islands

We had a missionary women's retreat a couple of weekends ago that was headed up by Stacy Yoakum and was AWESOME as well :) She did a great job. We spent the weekend resting and reconnecting with God through worship, prayer and study. It was a very refreshing and rejuvenating time for me and I think for everyone else that went as well.

The group :) We're silly

Currently the Aggies For Christ: South America (AFCSA) group is here for 3 weeks and we've been having a blast working with them, showing them the city, and just getting to hang out with friends we haven't seen in a while. Our mentor Traci got to come with them too, so we've also been enjoying spending time with her and having deeper conversations about our time here. They will be here until June 11th, when they head to Brazil. While they've been here, we've worked on a few service projects, seen a little of the city, shopped for souvenirs, and passed out fliers for and participated in La Gran Fiesta! This was a party that the church put on to celebrate a season of outreach in the church. There were over 100 people there!! Which is huge for us :)

Before cleaning up at a school in Villa Maria

Currently we are in Arequipa for the annual Peruvian Missions Summit (yes, that makes PMS and it is a constant source of laughs). The mission teams from Lima, Arequipa and Cusco get together once a year to catch up and have a time of encouragement. The AFC team and interns all took a 15 hour bus ride last night and we arrived this morning and have been resting and playing with the alpacas that live here :)

Until next time!
Taylor