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.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Despedida - A Saying-Goodbye
Here you go, Mom. My post... finally.
If you've been reading our (somewhat sparse) posts you know that we...
flew over the Andes mountains to Puno,
stayed in a boat in Lake Titicaca,
played "Capitan" in said boat,
went to the Peruvian Missions Summit and brought the AFCSA,
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!).
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.
-JLD
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 |
 |
| Kyle W. |
 |
| Peck, our English friend |
| Kyle G. |
 |
| Traci, Enoc, Alex, Trenton, Macy, David with Jakob, Alicyn, Kyle G., Shaley, Kyle W., Ariel, Taylor, Jenny |
 |
| David, Trenton, Alex, Enoc, Kyle G., Kyle W. |
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 :) |
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 |
Monday, June 13, 2011
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
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
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
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.
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...
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 :)
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.
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 :)
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 |
 |
| 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
Until next time!
Taylor
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Departamento de Voluntarios - Intern Apartment
I've got several exciting things to share in this post. The first is about a Bible study I've been doing with Stacy during our mentor time. The English speaking women's group was reading Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer when Taylor and I started going, and Stacy and I decided to finish the parts that the group had done before we joined. It has been a great study making me rethink my ideas of the Holy Spirit and the voice of God in my life. God has used this study to break down my wrong beliefs and to teach me so much about Himself. I totally recommend this study to any group of women, small or large.
The team had some visitors during Semana Santa that the interns were espeically excited about: Kelly and Sara Davidson! I'm sure John Mark and his family were excited since their grandparents were in town, but they weren't the only ones. It was so great to have the leaders of AFC, who have been wonderful mentors to all of the interns over the past four years, in town for a while. On a Monday we got to have a special time of conversation and yummy food from "the goddess of homemaking" that was reflective and encouraging. Thanks Kelly and Sara for being such great role models for us on so many levels. We love you!
Speaking of AFC love... the AFC South America group will be here in a little over two weeks. It is the interns' "job" to hang out with them while they are here doing ministry, encouraging the team, and learning about the culture. The team has been planning for their few weeks here and we are really excited about it. We would love for you to follow their blog while they are traveling and to pray for their preparation, fundraising, travel, and growth.
Now about the title of this post... I'm writing this blog sitting in the new intern apartment! Taylor and I moved from the Fletcher house to the apartment on Thursday after spending about a month furnishing it with help from the whole team. We will finish our time in Lima living in the apartment then in August, four new girl interns will move in for their 9 months with the team. Two of these girls, Lyndsay and Chelsey, have a blog already. Please pray for our preparations for them and for the time they have left in the states and the time they'll have here in Lima.
Big things are happenning in Lima!
Until next time,
JLD
The team had some visitors during Semana Santa that the interns were espeically excited about: Kelly and Sara Davidson! I'm sure John Mark and his family were excited since their grandparents were in town, but they weren't the only ones. It was so great to have the leaders of AFC, who have been wonderful mentors to all of the interns over the past four years, in town for a while. On a Monday we got to have a special time of conversation and yummy food from "the goddess of homemaking" that was reflective and encouraging. Thanks Kelly and Sara for being such great role models for us on so many levels. We love you!
 |
| AFC love! |
Speaking of AFC love... the AFC South America group will be here in a little over two weeks. It is the interns' "job" to hang out with them while they are here doing ministry, encouraging the team, and learning about the culture. The team has been planning for their few weeks here and we are really excited about it. We would love for you to follow their blog while they are traveling and to pray for their preparation, fundraising, travel, and growth.
Now about the title of this post... I'm writing this blog sitting in the new intern apartment! Taylor and I moved from the Fletcher house to the apartment on Thursday after spending about a month furnishing it with help from the whole team. We will finish our time in Lima living in the apartment then in August, four new girl interns will move in for their 9 months with the team. Two of these girls, Lyndsay and Chelsey, have a blog already. Please pray for our preparations for them and for the time they have left in the states and the time they'll have here in Lima.
 |
| The chair I'm sitting in now in the intern apartment. |
Until next time,
JLD
Monday, May 2, 2011
Aventura
It has been a while since I have posted a blog, and for that I do apologize. It has certainly been quite a few weeks and there is a lot of great stories. So lets get started.
The jungle.
If you read jennys post then you saw that we went to the jungle. This was an amazing trip, and I wish you could have been there, whoever you are. We went to a town called pulcalpa in the amazon jungle. While we were there we built the foundation for a church in a village of people who mostly spoke shipebo, a local amazona language. It was a little frustrating that after all this work we have put into spanish, there was a large group of people that we could not communicate with because they didnt speak spanish either. Overall the trip was a success as we were able to complete the project at hand, and also spend a lot of quality time with the kids and people of the area. we also had a half day were we went to the river and went swimming off a boat. I climbed a tree with a sloth also, which was a pretty sweet adventure in itself. When I got up in the tree i realized that it was covered in the largest black ants i have ever seen, and they were getting on me. I tried really hard not to move too much as I was hanging over what looked to be prime real-estate for anacondas and crocodiles. After trying to keep my cool for a while, a local told me they dont bite, which really wasn't very comforting.
Mens Advance.
I decided to bring a little AFC tradition to Lima. Last week the guys and I loaded up for a 2 day trip to get as far into the mountains as we could. We were far more than successful as we left sea level that morning and set up camp a few hours later at 14,800 ft. I was blessed with good health for the night, but i wasnt blessed with warm clothes in the well below freezing temperatures. Everything became well worth it just to see the stars from this place. THEY WERE AMAZING..... I have never seen anything like it in my life. I could not tell where constelations were because they were overwhelmed by clouds of stars. Later that night 3 of our 4 guys had to evacuate the mountain side to to major altitude sickness. Some cookies were lost, some heads were pounding, but all in all they managed to make it back down to 5000 ft were they could survive. When I woke up in the morning the end of my sleeping bag were my feet where was coated in ice. This gave me the impression that it had gotten very cold the night before. John mark and I woke up early, and being the adventurers we are we decided to set out for a nearby summit of 16000 ft. After one and a half breathless hours we reached the goal and stood at the highest point of our lives. It was a good, but very short of breath feeling.
Ministry,
We were able to organize a service project to do with the peruvians, in the neighborhood of Mark. We repainted an alleyway that had been covered with graffiti in support of a local soccer team. I was a little discouraged at first as not as many peruvians showed up as we had hoped, but the project turned out to be a blessing as we attracted the attention of some of the locals.
One of my friends at the beach came up with a great idea, and I would like it if you guys could be praying for it. He suggested that we get some of the older kids from the villa maria area, where we do our sunday morning kids church, and give them surf lessons. The surfing class here is for the most part dominated by the upper class. The kids in villa maria, will likely not have a chance to enjoy things like the beach very often. Im hoping that by taking some of them out there we will be able to deepen relationships, and maybe find a good niche for them.
Thanks for your prayers and support,
Kyle Glaeser
The jungle.
If you read jennys post then you saw that we went to the jungle. This was an amazing trip, and I wish you could have been there, whoever you are. We went to a town called pulcalpa in the amazon jungle. While we were there we built the foundation for a church in a village of people who mostly spoke shipebo, a local amazona language. It was a little frustrating that after all this work we have put into spanish, there was a large group of people that we could not communicate with because they didnt speak spanish either. Overall the trip was a success as we were able to complete the project at hand, and also spend a lot of quality time with the kids and people of the area. we also had a half day were we went to the river and went swimming off a boat. I climbed a tree with a sloth also, which was a pretty sweet adventure in itself. When I got up in the tree i realized that it was covered in the largest black ants i have ever seen, and they were getting on me. I tried really hard not to move too much as I was hanging over what looked to be prime real-estate for anacondas and crocodiles. After trying to keep my cool for a while, a local told me they dont bite, which really wasn't very comforting.
Mens Advance.
I decided to bring a little AFC tradition to Lima. Last week the guys and I loaded up for a 2 day trip to get as far into the mountains as we could. We were far more than successful as we left sea level that morning and set up camp a few hours later at 14,800 ft. I was blessed with good health for the night, but i wasnt blessed with warm clothes in the well below freezing temperatures. Everything became well worth it just to see the stars from this place. THEY WERE AMAZING..... I have never seen anything like it in my life. I could not tell where constelations were because they were overwhelmed by clouds of stars. Later that night 3 of our 4 guys had to evacuate the mountain side to to major altitude sickness. Some cookies were lost, some heads were pounding, but all in all they managed to make it back down to 5000 ft were they could survive. When I woke up in the morning the end of my sleeping bag were my feet where was coated in ice. This gave me the impression that it had gotten very cold the night before. John mark and I woke up early, and being the adventurers we are we decided to set out for a nearby summit of 16000 ft. After one and a half breathless hours we reached the goal and stood at the highest point of our lives. It was a good, but very short of breath feeling.
Ministry,
We were able to organize a service project to do with the peruvians, in the neighborhood of Mark. We repainted an alleyway that had been covered with graffiti in support of a local soccer team. I was a little discouraged at first as not as many peruvians showed up as we had hoped, but the project turned out to be a blessing as we attracted the attention of some of the locals.
One of my friends at the beach came up with a great idea, and I would like it if you guys could be praying for it. He suggested that we get some of the older kids from the villa maria area, where we do our sunday morning kids church, and give them surf lessons. The surfing class here is for the most part dominated by the upper class. The kids in villa maria, will likely not have a chance to enjoy things like the beach very often. Im hoping that by taking some of them out there we will be able to deepen relationships, and maybe find a good niche for them.
Thanks for your prayers and support,
Kyle Glaeser
Friday, April 22, 2011
i'm baaaaaaaaaaack!
well howdy!
as of yesterday at 9:30 pm, i am a peruvian again! it is such a blessing to be back here in lima, and i am definitely not going to take the rest of our time here for granted. i feel like i have a lot of catching up to do with so many people, and i'm really glad to be getting back here during Semana Santa (Holy Week), so that i can be involved with all of the activities and gatherings. but first, i'll catch y'all up on my adventures in physical therapy (aka pain) land and my time in texas.
i just completed three weeks of therapy in rockwall, and i have recovered full range of motion! this is really exciting, because it's now just a matter of time until my bone is fully healed, and i can have complete confidence that i will recover full use of my shoulder and arm again. it will be september or october before my bone is completely healed, and i'll be able to do whatever i want in terms of physical activity, but it's just nice to be able to use my arm. God gave us two for a reason, i figure. i had my last appointment with my doctor on wednesday, and while i have gotten fantastic reports from my therapists, my latest x-rays showed that my bone is about 60-70% healed, which is slower healing than expected. so, i got fitted for this cool ultrasound bone stimulator thing that i wear once a day, which will hopefully help my bone heal a little quicker. long story short, my arm feels pretty good, i can use it again, i just can't lift too much weight. not a bad deal, all things considered.
my last several weeks in rowlett were great! over my time at home, we got to go some great concerts (sister hazel and yonder mountain string band), some great games (a couple of mavs games, including the first playoff game), and eat some great food. i definitely got my fill of all of my favorite foods, everything from chile rellenos at pancho and lefty's, to fish tacos at flying fish, and loads of bbq and burgers from all over the place. it was so much fun getting to spend so much time with my family at home, both mom, dad, and matthew, and my church family at heritage church of christ in rowlett. it's been since high school that i've spent so much time at home, and it's always good to be back. i got to make several trips to college station also, to see folks and go to aggie baseballs games. i love it down there! also, last monday, my grandmother audrey westbrook (my mawmaw) passed away at the age of 80, and we had a graveside service for her last wednesday in foulke, arkansas. it was really difficult, but i was so glad to be home for all of that. she was an amazing woman, and i am looking forward to spending time with her again someday.
my flights yesterday went very smoothly, which is always nice. actually, there was one interesting thing that happened. i was really excited about the flight from miami to lima, because i figured that i would be able to hear lots of spanish conversations and stuff like that. but, it turned out that there were about 40 middle schoolers from a catholic school in quebec on a weeklong mission trip to lima all around me on the flight, and those kids could rapid fire speak that french. so instead of spanish, i was surrounded by crazy french-speaking kiddos. it was very strange.
anyways, thanks so much for all of your prayers over the past few months. it was challenging to be away, but God took care of everything, and i'm just happy to be here now! if you could keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next two months, we would appreciate it. thanks so much for everything that you do!
hasta luego!
-kyle w.
as of yesterday at 9:30 pm, i am a peruvian again! it is such a blessing to be back here in lima, and i am definitely not going to take the rest of our time here for granted. i feel like i have a lot of catching up to do with so many people, and i'm really glad to be getting back here during Semana Santa (Holy Week), so that i can be involved with all of the activities and gatherings. but first, i'll catch y'all up on my adventures in physical therapy (aka pain) land and my time in texas.
i just completed three weeks of therapy in rockwall, and i have recovered full range of motion! this is really exciting, because it's now just a matter of time until my bone is fully healed, and i can have complete confidence that i will recover full use of my shoulder and arm again. it will be september or october before my bone is completely healed, and i'll be able to do whatever i want in terms of physical activity, but it's just nice to be able to use my arm. God gave us two for a reason, i figure. i had my last appointment with my doctor on wednesday, and while i have gotten fantastic reports from my therapists, my latest x-rays showed that my bone is about 60-70% healed, which is slower healing than expected. so, i got fitted for this cool ultrasound bone stimulator thing that i wear once a day, which will hopefully help my bone heal a little quicker. long story short, my arm feels pretty good, i can use it again, i just can't lift too much weight. not a bad deal, all things considered.
my last several weeks in rowlett were great! over my time at home, we got to go some great concerts (sister hazel and yonder mountain string band), some great games (a couple of mavs games, including the first playoff game), and eat some great food. i definitely got my fill of all of my favorite foods, everything from chile rellenos at pancho and lefty's, to fish tacos at flying fish, and loads of bbq and burgers from all over the place. it was so much fun getting to spend so much time with my family at home, both mom, dad, and matthew, and my church family at heritage church of christ in rowlett. it's been since high school that i've spent so much time at home, and it's always good to be back. i got to make several trips to college station also, to see folks and go to aggie baseballs games. i love it down there! also, last monday, my grandmother audrey westbrook (my mawmaw) passed away at the age of 80, and we had a graveside service for her last wednesday in foulke, arkansas. it was really difficult, but i was so glad to be home for all of that. she was an amazing woman, and i am looking forward to spending time with her again someday.
my flights yesterday went very smoothly, which is always nice. actually, there was one interesting thing that happened. i was really excited about the flight from miami to lima, because i figured that i would be able to hear lots of spanish conversations and stuff like that. but, it turned out that there were about 40 middle schoolers from a catholic school in quebec on a weeklong mission trip to lima all around me on the flight, and those kids could rapid fire speak that french. so instead of spanish, i was surrounded by crazy french-speaking kiddos. it was very strange.
anyways, thanks so much for all of your prayers over the past few months. it was challenging to be away, but God took care of everything, and i'm just happy to be here now! if you could keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next two months, we would appreciate it. thanks so much for everything that you do!
hasta luego!
-kyle w.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)