Merry Christmas and Merry Moving

Family and Friends,

It's finished! Our belongings are all in a total of 6 crates and they have been successfully delivered to Des Moines, Iowa where they will stay for about a year. I'm not saying it was all fun or easy, but it is done thanks to some brave family and friends who heaved the crates onto and off of a truck as well as down a long flight of stairs.

Our Christmas began at the Great Wolf Lodge in North Kansas City where we spent the night. This hotel has an indoor waterpark, so we all enjoyed the slides and pools. That was our Christmas for this year since there is no sense is opening gifts that can't be taken with us to Guatemala.

We are now in Iowa and have had a great time seeing Shelley's side of the family. We'll leave for the southern part of the state on Tuesday morning and spend a few days with David's family before our final trek to the Kansas City airport on January 2nd. Our flight leaves at 1:02 pm and we'll arrive in Guatemala City at 8:15pm. Guatemala is on central time zone, so jet lag will not be a problem.

This is our final blog from the U.S. - well, at least for awhile. We'll do our best to keep up this site as our internet connection and time allows in Guatemala.

Enjoy the rest of your Christmas holiday and have a great 2006!

Love from our family to yours,
David and Shelley
Joshua and Kayley

Thank God for Snow!

Dear Friends and Family,

Wow! Just when we needed a little time to get the packing done, God sent a snowstorm that cancelled our classes and meetings. Those 12" allowed us to work for a day and a half. Much was accomplished and it looks like we'll actually get it all done. The kids had a great week since school was cancelled both Thursday and Friday. You can see they enjoyed the snow. It wasn't a good snow for packing or building snow forts, but they still managed to make some snow walls to hide behind.

This is finals week, so the parents will be completing their exams, with the last one on Thursday morning. Then they will pick up the Budget truck that evening, with plans to load and move it up to Iowa on Friday. The six crates of stuff will stay in Des Moines until next year sometime when it will somehow, someway, meet up with us in Mexico City.

We enjoyed our time at College Church in Olathe this weekend. The Sunday School classes were excited to have us and made us feel very welcome. We are pleased to be finished with our deputation for this time around, but we'll be back for some more of the same in 2009.

We hope your week will go well as you make final preparations for Christmas. It's a busy time, but let's remember what it's all about. It's called CHRISTmas for a reason!

Love,
The Webbs

Weekend in Oklahoma

Family and Friends,

We spent our final travel deputation weekend in Oklahoma, spending time with our friends and mentors, the Gunters. They were our first pastors. That was 15 years ago! Time flies! As we drove across the state line into OK, we realized we had never been there before. Not even to drive through, as far as we can remember! So, it was a weekend of firsts.

The Gunters, shown in the picture, pastor at Tulsa Regency Park. It was great to catch up with them and see how their ministry is flourishing there in Tulsa. The kids (and parents) enjoyed their home, which was beautifully decorated for the holidays. There was even a train under the Christmas tree. (I think they wore out the batteries!) They were wonderful hosts and treated us like royalty. Joshua and Kayley were troopers on the trip. They helped us to set up and they never grumbled even when arriving home at midnight in the cold.

On Sunday morning we traveled to Bristow, OK. We took the "long way" around but still managed to get to the church on time. The congregation was more than gracious to us and we enjoyed spending time talking with people at the potluck after the service. Good things are happening there and I'm sure will continue to as the church keeps growing.

This week is devoted to finals studying and crate packing. Ten days and we move the furniture out of our house - along with the crates. Much to do! It is hard to believe that the time has arrived. We do have one final deputation service at a Sunday School class at College Church in Olathe on Sunday, but that 15 minute drive is nothing compared to what we are used to. I'm not sure I should even count it!

Thanks for your continued prayers. God has been good to help us through this fall. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel and believe it's the warm sun of Guatemala getting closer.

God bless your week,
The Webbs