The Webb Page Newsletter - December 2006

The Webb Page
Volume II, Number 7 December 2006
www.thewebbspage.blogspot.com

¡FELIZ NAVIDAD! MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

First, we’d like to say a big THANKS to you all for your prayers and support this year. It has been a wonderful year and we are excited about our upcoming move to Costa Rica. This fall brought some special opportunities in ministry and in our personal lives.

Maximum Mission – October
We were privileged to help with another work and witness team, this time from Michigan. We worked in the area of Lake Amatitlan doing community service, VBS in the park and giving a jump start to a new church in the area. This picture to the left shows the final touches of paint being added to the sanctuary in Villa Nueva. It was a very productive week of ministry.


VBS at Colinas - December
Our local church plant held a VBS for three days in December. It’s a great time to hold a VBS here in Guatemala since the kids are on school vacation from mid October until mid January – yes, it’s their summer break. We used the theme of Navidad and the kids had fun learning about the angels’ message to the shepherds, the birth of Jesus and the three wise men. We had around 25 kids each day so it was a good turnout and a successful VBS. We are excited to hear how this church grows in the coming months.

Thanksgiving at the Beach
A highlight for our family was spending time with two other missionary families at a house very near the black sand beaches of the Pacific Guatemalan coast. It was a time to relax and have fun and be thankful for all our many blessings.
The photo includes Joshua and Kayley as well as Hannah and Abby Slingerland enjoying the beach. And yes, we enjoyed turkey!





Language School
We completed our final lessons at our language school in the first week of December. It was a good feeling to have completed the curriculum, but we realize we have much to learn. Studying does not end now, nor will it in the near future. There is always more to learn when it’s a second language. But we are truly thankful for such a wonderful place to study and learn.

A Little Wreck
We had a car wreck just two days from completing our daily trips to Antigua and the same day that we listed the car for sale on the internet with the missionary community here. How ironic! But God was with us and saved us from all the problems that could have come from this accident. We walked away without a scratch to the amazement of those who witnessed the event. You can read more on our blog at www.thewebbspage.blotspot.com.
Here’s our poor little Pathfinder after the incident. It held up pretty well except for the front chassis. We’ll miss this vehicle!



What’s Happening Now
Well, Mom and Dad are sorting, selling, organizing and packing things for the move to Costa Rica as well as spending some time in the office learning more about their future positions in Costa Rica. The kids are busy finishing up this semester at CAG. Since we are leaving the school a few days early, Joshua needs to take his exams early. This is a bit stressful for him, but he’ll be glad to be done with his studies for awhile. They will both miss their school and their friends here. This will not be an easy move for them as they have adjusted rapidly and this is truly home for them.

Future Plans
We will leave here on December 17th to visit family and friends in Iowa and Illinois. The first order of business is to arrange for our crates to be moved to Costa Rica. We are all excited to see what’s in them as we can hardly remember after a year.

We will fly out of Chicago on January 2nd, but not all of us together. David has meetings in South Africa, so he will be leaving that morning for his long flight to Johannesburg while Shelley and the kids will leave a few hours later for Guatemala. Shelley and the kids will have one day in Guatemala to make final arrangements and then arrive in Costa Rica on the 4th, and David will arrive about a week later. The kids’ new school does not start until January 15th, so they will enjoy a nice long holiday with lots of time to explore their new surroundings on the seminary campus in San Jose.

Merry Christmas!
This newsy letter will have to substitute for the beautiful Christmas card with a stunning photo of the Webb family, at least for this year. We are excited to celebrate the birth of Jesus with our family and friends and pray your holiday will be a special reminder of God’s amazing love for you.

God’s Blessings to You,
David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley Webb 

A Crazy Week!

Dear Friends and Family,

Yes, it was a crazy week! Two days before ending our time in language school, we were in a car wreck on the road from Antigua to the city. We are thankful to be unharmed, although we can’t say that for the Pathfinder.


It all took place when a man on his bicycle decided to cross in front of us on a highway. There was no way to avoid hitting him, but by turning hard to the right, we were able to avoid a head on collision. We then ran into a concrete culvert thing, kind of like a ditch and from the impact our vehicle turned on its side with the driver door on the side of the road. Apparently, the man is OK because by the time we were able to get out of our vehicle (after being pushed back onto our wheels by 10 or 12 bystanders) he was gone. Other people said that he realized it was his error and did not want to be responsible for the damage to our car or our bodies. So, that’s the big news of this week, but in all of it we felt protected by God. It is truly miraculous we were not hurt and that we did not seriously harm the man in the street.


The Pathfinder held up very well, except that the front chassis is broken in two. We have yet to hear from the insurance company, but probably it will be totaled. We are sad as it has been a great vehicle and really held up well in spite of the wreck. We are now believers in larger vehicles!

Otherwise, the week progressed as normal with the completion of our time in language school on Wednesday, a day in the office on Thursday and a Christmas party on Friday. Probably the best part of the week for us was the VBS we helped with at our church on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was a lot of work as we only have 4 or 5 adults to help, but the kids were well-behaved. We had around 26 kids each day, with a few less on Sunday. Lots of music, crafts and Bible lessons about the meaning of Navidad. They enjoyed it tremendously and received prizes for learning the memory verses. We are sad to have only one more Sunday at Colinas, but trust that God will continue to build the church through the labor of Pastor Daniel and the others.

We have two more weeks here before traveling to Iowa and Illinois for Thanksgiving and New Years. We’re busy sorting and packing to try to fit our clothes and things into our suitcases. We were allowed two 70 lb bags each when we moved here and now we can take only 70 lbs each to Costa Rica. That is the challenge for this week as well as continuing to prepare for our assignments in Costa Rica.

God bless you this week! And thanks for your continued prayers for our family during this time of transition.

The Webb Family 

Thanksgiving at the Beach

Dear Family and Friends,

Hope you enjoyed your turkey and all the fixins on Thursday. We enjoyed our short trip to the Pacific coast, staying two nights in a rented house with two other missionary families. It was our first time to enjoy the Pacific beach, so it was a real treat for us. The weather was perfect with temps in the 80s. The sand there is black (or dark gray) in color, so that was a new experience as well. The house we rented had two pools in the back yard that are to be shared with the surrounding homes, but we were the only ones there so the kids had the run of the pools. They made good use of the water. The waves are quite strong at this beach, so only the bigger kids could swim out a bit, but they had a ball dodging waves and body surfing.
Above, Joshua and Hannah enjoying the waves...and Kayley and Abby waiting for the wave to return.

And yes, we had a Thanksgiving dinner. Not quite the same since we did not have a big bird, but we did enjoy the ham, turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing. It was a blessing to have a couple of days off and to be in such a beautiful place as well.
Our first time to watch the sun set over the Pacific...beautiful!

This is our final week of language school. We are finishing up by focusing on writing skills. We are thankful for such a wonderful place to study for the year and pray that we’ll retain much of what we’ve learned to use in our positions in Costa Rica.

We are preparing this week for a VBS at our local church plant. It will be held for three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for two hours each day. It is anyone’s guess how many children may show up, but we are preparing for 50 the first day. We have been running about 20 on a normal Sunday, but expect more from the community. Please pray with us for this event.

After the VBS, we’ll be focusing on selling items that we cannot take to Costa Rica. There are many things we wouldn’t mind taking with us, but space is limited in our suitcases. We especially need to sell our vehicle as we’ll need to buy another once we arrive in Costa Rica. We appreciate your prayers as we list our items with the missionary community and hope to sell them all before we leave in three weeks.

That’s all for now. Thanks for tuning in and God bless your week.

The Webb Family 

Giving Thanks

Hello Everyone,

Well, First things first…We have officially completed the curriculum at Christian Spanish Academy in Antigua, Guatemala! Yeah! It was a relief to complete the final exam with good scores. We are returning to the school for six more days to work on additional writing skills, but no more exams. We thank God for a good year of studying and continue to pray that we’ll continue to learn and be successful in our new assignments.

Last week, after sharing a bit about the bus traffic here, we came upon a great example of buses being loaded to the max. These two were side by side and just couldn’t help myself but take a photo. We really will miss seeing the decorative buses each day. (By the way, they all have great names like Dora or Esmeralda.)



Another facet of transportation here is the motorcycles. They weave in and out of traffic going, in my opinion, waaaaay too fast, but I’ve not seen one wreck yet. Another unique concept here is fast food delivery. Now of course, that in and of itself is not unique, but delivery by motorcycle is a little different. And they don’t just deliver pizzas; McDonalds and Pollo Campero (somewhat like KFC, except don’t tell anyone here I said that…Guatemalans in general are a bit proud of their restaurant, which by the way is now in parts of the US and in Asia!) deliver as well. I would think the fries would be soggy by the time they arrive, but I’ve not yet heard a complaint.



Oh, and I must mention that we’ll miss Domino's Pizza here. It’s hard to describe, but it’s about 10 times better than in the states. Lots of cheese and toppings and just plain delicious.


Lastly, I tried all week to get a good photo of a taxi-van that they use here in the city, but without much success. Do you know it’s hard to get a good photo when you are moving and they are moving too? Lots of blurry images, but no good photos. Here’s the best I’ve got with just one man hanging out the door on the highway. We’ve often seen three or four hanging out since there is no more room to sit. Plus it makes a quick exit when it’s your stop! Many of the vans don’t have windows, just some kind of strong Saran Wrap. This is not a good sample of the van, but it’s all I’ve got for now.


We are excited to be taking a short vacation this week over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Of course the holiday is not celebrated here but we are taking a couple of days off since the kids will be out of school. We’ll leave for the Pacific beach Wednesday afternoon and return on Friday. This beach has black sand so that will be a new experience for us all.

There is much to be thankful for this year. I hope you will take time to count your blessings and tell God thanks for all He has done for you this year. We sure will.

Have a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

The Webb Family

Chicken Buses

Hello Everyone,
We’re very busy this week as we prepare for our final exam in our language school. So, this blog will be a short one as I need to get back to studying before long.

We are beginning to think about all the things we’ll miss (and not miss!) about Guatemala and first on the list is the interesting types of transportation here. Today we’ll highlight the “chicken bus” as we’ve affectionately heard it called. Not sure why it’s called that, but I can take two guesses. Either it’s because the people are packed on like chickens, (there are many times people hanging out the doors) or because they are willing to carry anything aboard or on the top, including chickens.

We will miss these buses because they are always bright and colorful and a natural part of life here. We will not miss them for the extreme way their “chauffeurs” drive. Fast and usually in two lanes is the norm. It’s best to just let them have their way, if you know what I mean. We laugh because almost all of them have a Mercedes symbol on the back… I don’t think Mercedes makes buses, do they?
This is Norma the Bus. I see a lot of her, so I'm guessing there's more than one. As this bus was beginning to slow just a bit, a young man opened the back door and got out to be ready to exit quickly. That's definetely a quick exit! (Notice the yellow sign in the background for The Waffle House or Casa del Waffle in spanish...don't think it's part of the chain though!)

That’s one part of life here that we’ll miss. What kind of buses do they have in Costa Rica? We don’t know, but we’ll find out soon enough.

God bless your week… if you think of us you can pray for our upcoming exams as we attempt to cram as much Spanish in as we can before the end of the week.

The Webbs
David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley 

Fall Party

Hello Everyone,
We had a different schedule this week as we did not attend language school, but instead attended trainings at the Regional Office in order to be prepared for our work in Costa Rica. We are looking forward to completing the final sections of the final book of the final level of our language school before Thanksgiving. Then our focus will be on packing and making arrangements for the move to Costa Rica. It will happen quickly. Can you believe it’s November!?

On Saturday the Armstrong family hosted a fall party for the kids. It was great fun as the kids made caramel apples, decorated cookies and ate lots of sugar. Yum-Yum! (Thanks to the person from the US who brought the caramels in their suitcase!) The weather even cooperated with some cloud cover and a light breeze. Beautiful early fall day.

Hannah Slingerland, Sydney and Elijah Armstrong, Joshua, Kayley and Abby Slingerland posing with their caramel apples.

One thing we are learning about missionary life is that people are always coming and going. During the party we realized this is the last time these six kids will be together since the Armstrong family leaves for the states in a few weeks for home assignment and we’ll not see them when we return in January. Someone is always going somewhere, it seems. And constant change is a regular part of life here. We’ll truly miss our special missionary friends in Guatemala but are thankful for the opportunity to know such great people like the Armstrongs and the Slingerlands.

We continue to have good attendance at the new church plant in Colinas. It’s a blessing to see people come and then even volunteer to help the next week. Our hope is the church will have 4 or 5 strong leaders (besides the pastor) before we leave so they can be trained and already ministering before we leave.

Thanks for your continued prayers. We appreciate you!

God bless,
The Webbs 

Harvest Fair

Dear Family and Friends,

It is beginning to feel more like fall here, instead of summer, so we’re enjoying the weather. During the day it warms up nicely, but at night the temperature drops a bit and feels like football weather (the American kind!). We’ve had a good week of studying in Antigua and are becoming more comfortable with the language every day. We praise God for how he continues to help and bless us during our year in Guatemala.

Tonight we had the annual Harvest Fair at the kids’ school, CAG. It was a great time of carnival booths, candy, food and costume contests. Kayley and Abby decided to dress as two of the 102 Dalmatian puppies. They were cute as could be. Hannah worked in a booth with a Hawaiian theme, so her attire matched her booth. Joshua did not dress for the occasion but did enjoy working in the 7th grade booth.
Hannah, Abby and Kayley ready for the Harvest Fair

This week will be interesting since Wednesday (Nov. 1st) is a holiday: All Saints Day. It’s my understanding that the 2nd is another holiday, The Day of the Dead, but since that is not a day off of work, the two holidays are celebrated together. It’s a day to remember those that have died and to honor them, a bit like Memorial Day in the states.

There are also those who believe that it’s possible to communicate with the dead this day and so people actually eat lunch at the cemetery and leave food there for their loved one. Also, it’s a big day for flying kites. There have been kites sold on the side of the road for weeks now, big beautiful kites with amazing colors. The idea is to tie notes to the kite string and send the kite as high as you can in order to communicate with your loved one in heaven. So, it’s not really a dreary day at all, but a fun day. Of course, not everyone believes in all this (some do I’m sure) but it’s an old tradition so people continue with it each year.

It’s hard to understand it completely, but I can tell you one thing: The Guatemalan people (and probably Latinos in general) seem to embrace death and are certainly not afraid to discuss it. It’s a very different concept of death than what I’m used to. I think I like it.

We continue to make lists of the things that must be done before we leave here in mid-December. Leaving here will not be easy, but we look forward to the life God has for us in Costa Rica. So, as we begin think about packing up once again, we thank God for all His blessings. May you feel as blessed as we do this week.

Love to you all,
The Webb Family 

Maximum Mission

Dear Family and Friends,

We’ve had a great week with a team of 12 from Indiana and many Guatemalans who lent their hands in the service projects of planting one new church, repainting a large park, remodeling a smaller park, building a Sunday school classroom and a wall extension and painting the entire inside and outside of a church.
This is some of the playground equipment the team repainted and repaired. The kids were enjoying it as soon as the paint dried. This park is only a half-block from the church.

WOW! It was a lot of physical labor, but worth it all. The team also held two VBS children’s programs and showed the Jesus Film twice. Through it all more than 50 people made decisions to follow Christ.
Emily Armstrong and some of the Indiana team leading songs during VBS in the park.

Our friends, Julio and Juan. Julio led the construction at Villa Nueva and his brother, Juan will be taking his first pastoral position in two weeks. We're proud of them both.
We were amazed to find an Iowa State fan at Lake Amatitlan. OK, just because he doesn't know what his shirt says doesn't mean he's not a fan!

After this week, we are feeling a bit tired this weekend, and thankful for a little rest. We have a normal week of language school and studying ahead, and we’re ready to get back at it to complete the final book in the series. We will continue to take breaks now and then to continue our training for Costa Rica and that will slow us down a bit, but we’ve got enough time to get it all done. We’re thankful for our year of language study.

Friday was parent teacher conferences and only good news to report. Both kids have done well in this school and are dreading leaving CAG. But we remind them that good things await in Costa Rica too. They are excited that they will have more freedom to run and play as our new home is located on a seminary campus with lots of space.

All in all a great week! A special thanks to out LINKS churches that support and pray for us. Thanks to our Los Angeles friends! And to our new Indiana friends, Welcome Home!

God bless you this week.

The Webb Family

Two Good Sundays!

Happy Weekend to Everyone,
It is Sunday afternoon and the Webbs are celebrating a second strong Sunday at the church plant in Colinas de Minerva. After switching our focus totally toward children we've had good attendance in both kids and adults for two weeks. Last Sunday there were 26 people and this week 30. We're excited to see how God is bringing the adults along with the children.


Colinas de Minerva Church of the Nazarene. Pastor Daniel leading us in a Spanish Happy Birthday for these three Guatemalans. Notice Joshua in the back working the sound.

It is our hope that Pastor Daniel will have enough help within a week or two to be able to begin teaching adults while others teach the children. We have 3 strong leaders so far and are praying for more.


Aren't the kids precious. They listen attentively (most of the time) and always participate in the music and lessons. The hope of gaining a prize doesn't hurt anything!

In other news, we're just now learning of a youth leaders conference that will take place the first week of January that we believe David will be attending. Here's the catch: It's in South Africa. Not South America, but South Africa! Wow! That means we're looking into changing David's airline tickets from the US to Guatemala so that he can arrive early enough to make a flight to South Africa from Guatemala. This also means that Shelley and the kids will be moving to Costa Rica without Dad. That will be interesting. God will provide!

This week we'll not be in language school (boo-hoo, OK, that was sarcastic!) but instead we'll be working with a maximum mission team (half Americans and half Guatemalans) to plant a new church and do some construction and compassionate ministries in another area. Looking forward to the week of Spanish practice. I'm sure we'll have some good pictures for you all next week.

Until next week,
The Webbs 

Looking Ahead

Dear All,
Another week has gone by here and we are beginning to realize that our time in Guatemala is coming to a close. We have about 9 weeks until we travel for the holidays and then on to Costa Rica. It will go by quickly.

We have been busy these last two weeks with regional training and Friday night we had a closing service to especially honor two families that are becoming regional missionaries. That means they are Latin Americans serving in Latin America. It was great to get to know the Bano family as they will be our neighbors in Costa Rica. He teaches at the seminary and she works in administration. The other family is the Soris family. They will be working in Guatemala with youth. And of course, there is Tessa. She has been serving as a volunteer missionary for over a year now and is work in the area of evangelism and church planting.

 
Our Training Team: The Soris', Tessa Philips, The Webbs, The Banos'

Today (Sunday) David had the privilege to talk by phone with the pastor of Central Church in Lenexa, KS during their church services. It was a great way to reconnect and share what has been happening here. Shelley and the kids went to church as usual, but the service was geared toward kids today, so Shelley led the music with the children and the Pastor gave a short Biblical message. It was great fun. By the end there were 17 kids and 9 adults in attendance. We think it’s a great start. And our prayer is that an adult Bible Study will develop as well.

Shelley begins this Friday to study more seriously her new position in finances. We would appreciate your prayers for her as this is uncharted territory. She has begun to understand the basics of accounting, but now needs to master the computer program.

This Saturday coming, a work and witness (testimonio y trabajo) team will arrive to work here for a week. The Armstrongs have asked us to assist them once again. We are so looking forward to it as we’ll work near Lake Amatitlan in planting a church and also do some construction on another church in the city. It will be a great break from language school. We are finding we need more and more of those as we get near the end.

Thanks for your prayers and have a wonderfully blessed week!
The Webbs 

The Webb Page Newsletter - September 2006

The Webb Page
Volume II, Number 6 September 2006

After a very busy, almost crazy busy summer, life has settled once again into a routine of school and trainings. But I’m getting ahead of myself because before that happened…

Visitors from Iowa
We had the wonderful opportunity to have David’s mom and sister visit us from Iowa. Neither had been to Central America before, so it was an adventure for them. For us, it was a chance to spend time with family and of course to “show off” the things we enjoy here in Guatemala. (OK, maybe some of the things we don’t enjoy also!) It’s almost impossible to describe how life is different here, so we’ve given up trying, but when you can show someone the differences, it makes a lot more sense. We are thankful we had the opportunity to spend four days with them.

 
David, Virginia (Mom), Tina, Joshua and Kayley at Lake Atitlan.

Language School, Again
We started back in language school after a break of 2 ½ months on August 21st. We have made good progress and now are in the final book offered by the school. That does not mean we have mastered it all, it just means we have it all in our heads and understand the basic grammatical concepts. We’ve found to apply it all successfully takes a lot more time. We are just now speaking somewhat decently in present and past tenses, and we learned all of that in our first three months here. So, I guess you’d say we are progressing normally with the ups and downs that go with learning a second language.

Church Planting
After working in the area of Colinas de Minerva this summer with cross-cultural teams, we felt led by God to continue helping there. The situation is a bit different than in most church plants since normally a cell group is started and then a church building is obtained. In this case, we already had the property and the building and great man of God, Pastor Daniel agreed to pastor there, but there is no consistent congregation as of yet. So every week, Daniel and David visit with people in the neighborhood and invite them to attend on Sunday. Some Sundays it is just Pastor Daniel and our family in attendance, sometimes some children show up and Shelley leads them in singing and in a short lesson, and other times some adults show up as well. It has been a great experience for us to first hand see the difficulties in starting a new church. It has also been a great blessing and test of faith to remain encouraged in the face of obstacles. We appreciate your prayers for this new church.

The Kids
Joshua and Kayley are back to school as well. They have adjusted well to all the changes this year and the school has been a big part in their easy adjustment. Joshua is in 7th grade and studying all the basic courses including an advanced math class in pre-algebra. He also is participating in band and drama. Kayley is in 3rd grade and loves most everything about school. One of her favorite classes is Spanish. She seems to have an intense desire to learn the language more and more. They are both looking forward to the future and to life in Costa Rica. It’s difficult to leave friends behind, and they will once again have to endure this loss in December, but they have learned there are always more friends waiting for them at the next place. (That doesn’t really make it any easier, but Mom doesn’t have any other words of comfort than those.)

Youth Leadership Training
In September, David had the awesome opportunity to be a part of a four day training event called SeminarioMas (More Seminary). For David it was an opportunity to meet the youth leaders he will be working with in Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. This was the first event of its kind in Central America for our church, so it was a big deal. Every Central American country was represented. David especially enjoyed meeting Emma, the national youth coordinator for Panama and Karen, the national youth coordinator for Nicaragua. It was exciting to see their hearts, passion, commitment. It is amazing to think that 75% of the people in Mexico and Central America are 25 years old or younger. Wow—what an incredibly important generation for the church to reach!! Below you can see David’s “team” performing a cheer. (David in upper left corner.)
 

Preparing for Costa Rica
There are many arrangements that must be made for our move to Costa Rica, so we’ve stayed busy emailing for shipping quotes, sending birth certificates to states for authentication and filling our forms for the kids’ new school in Costa Rica. Also, David has been doing some training with David Gonzalez, the leader for NYI (Youth) for all of Central America and Shelley has begun her training in the area of finances. There is much to learn and God always asks us to do more than we think is possible, but with His help, we can do whatever He has in plan for our future.

Prayer Requests
Pray for our preparations for the move to Costa Rica.
Pray for the church plant in Colinas de Minerva.
Pray for our continued good health and protection from illness.
Pray for God’s help in becoming more comfortable with Spanish each day.

Gracias!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! We are so grateful for your prayers and support during these first 9 months on the mission field. A special Hello to our home church in Woodlawn, TN, our most recent church home in Lenexa, Kansas (Hello Centralites!) and to our LINKS churches in Los Angeles! You are all a blessing to us and we would not be here without you.

God’s blessing to you,
David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley Webb 

A Week of Sickness...Ugh

Hello Friends and Family,

It has been a different week for us as Kayley and Shelley were sick for much of it. Both are doing better now after suffering from a cold and flu symptoms. It’s good to feel “normal and mostly healthy” once again. Many people have been sick here with colds so it’s not too surprising that we’ve been exposed to it too.

Our friends in South Africa, the Johnson’s, sent us this funny picture and we thought we’d share it with you. I had no idea my husband had such a green thumb! The Johnson’s were driving in South Africa and noticed this sign and just had to take a photo for us. It you are interested in seeing the Johnson’s blog, it’s www.thejohnsonsinafrica.blogspot.com.


 

Jeremy Johnson, our friend and fellow missionary, posing beside the DavidWebb sign.

Today was exam day for Shelley and lo and behold she managed to squeak by once again with a passing score for Grade F. There is only one more level to complete and that means only one more exam. Shelley tends to freak out a bit on exam day, so it’s comforting to know she’ll only be under this undue stress once more this fall.

David and Shelley will both be in regional training sessions for most of the rest of this week. David will attend classes on Thursday to take his exam while Shelley tries to learn more about accounting and finance, but the other days will be spent in training and preparation for our work in Costa Rica. The training will continue into next week but we plan on returning to language school next Wednesday.

We are in the process for applying for residency with Costa Rica. So far so good, except the state of Georgia did not like Joshua’s birth certificate. Go figure! So a new one has been ordered which will then be sent to the state of GA for authentication. Quite a process. Here’s the good news. Our criminal records came back clean! And now that we’ve remembered where we received our marriage certificate, we’re off to a good start on all the paperwork. Thanks to Shelley’s mom for handling much of the mailing and receiving.

Looking forward to a good week. Pray you are all healthy and well.

God bless,

The Webbs 

A Visitor from Mexico

Hello Everyone!

This blog is a bit late in posting as we’ve been experiencing problems with the internet. Sorry about that!

It has been a busy and different week for us. We were only in language school for two days last week before taking a break to do some other training. Shelley began her finance/accounting training and David spent the four days at the seminary in a regional conference for Youth Leaders. It was time well spent. The kids were out of school on Friday for Independence Day, so we enjoyed a meal with friends at Pizza Hut, a new restaurant for us here in San Cristobal. And yes, it tastes just like home!

 

Elisa, Abby and Kayley enjoying the playland at Pizza Hut.

We had the opportunity to have a visitor in our home from Thursday until Sunday. We met little Elisa, age 8, in Mexico while working there with One Heart, Many Hands. Her mother is a leader in the church there and they came down to Guatemala for the same training that David is involved with, so we agreed to keep her daughter for a few days so she could focus on her training. Elisa speaks no English, and Kayley speaks little Spanish, so let’s just say Mom had plenty of opportunity to practice translating this weekend.

Now the bad news. Kayley became ill on Saturday night (why these things always seem to happen in the middle of the night is beyond me, but it’s true!) with a high fever, headache and stomachache. We know now it’s just a virus and thankfully Kayley has recovered and will be returning to school tomorrow (Wednesday).

David and Shelley are preparing for another exam in language school sometime this week or the beginning of next. Looking forward to the day when the stress of exams is behind us and we can concentrate on applying even more of what we’ve learned.

The kids are excited to have a short school week since the teachers have in-service on Thursday afternoon and Friday. (Really short for Kayley, only a day and a half!)

Prayer Requests:

Pray for good health. As the weather begins to cool here just a little, many people get colds and it looks like we’re no exception.

Pray for Shelley as she tries to grasp accounting concepts in a foreign language.

Pray for David’s new assignment working with Youth Leaders in Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Pray for the kids as they are learning the importance of keeping organized with their studies.

Thanks for everything! We appreciate you all and God bless your week.
The Webbs 

The Sound of Marching Bands

Dear Family and Friends,

This is Saturday morning, one week before Independence Day for Guatemala and most of the other Central American countries as well, so for this reason, there is a marching band on our street practicing for the upcoming parades. This is a marching band for a private school located about 4 blocks from our house. They sure look spiffy in their uniforms and don't sound too bad either. Joshua enjoys the drums the most. Have you ever seen a marching band that included a marimba/xylophone? Well, they have it here! Not easy to march with!



We've had a good week with the highlight being the open house for Joshua's secondary school. We got to meet all his teachers and see his classrooms and walk through part of his daily schedule. He is in an advanced math class, band, Spanish and drama. All his other classes are your normal stuff, English, science and the like. He really enjoys his classmates and has made good friends here. It will be hard for him to leave this school and these kids, but we keep reminding him he'll make more great friends in Costa Rica.

We were supposed to be in training all this next week, but the schedule has changed a bit. We'll be in language school for Monday and Tuesday, but then we'll attend trainings for the rest of the week. Shelley will begin to learn about the computer program for finaces and David will be attending a 3 day event at the seminary for youth training. The kids will not have school on Friday as it's a national holiday. Yeah!

After missing last Sunday at our church plant in Colinas, we are excited to return in the morning. There were three new people last Sunday and we hope they return this week so we can meet them.

We keep plugging away at Spanish. A friend and former missionary emailed and said that the subjunctive mood does exist in English, but from what I can tell it is only a fraction of what it entails in Spanish. So we continue to learn more about Spanish...and English! (Actually, as I learn more Spanish, I seem to be losing my English...is this normal? I can't spell anymore!)

God bless your week, wherever you are! A special Hi to our missionary friends in the Far East, the Ukraine and in South Africa. Miss you guys!

Oh, and welcome home 101st!!!! We appreciate you! (We missed our July 4th, so to us, this week is our Independence celebration too!)

Love from the Webb Family 

A Comfortable Routine

Dear Everyone,
We've had a "regular" type of week here. Believe it or not, I have not taken one photo this week, so I have nothing visual to share. We were busy though with regular school activites and such.

The kids are getting into their school routine. We will have open house for Joshua on Tuesday and the following week for Kayley. Joshua is in the band and takes drum lessons weekly. Kayley will begin recorder lessons this week and elementary gymnastics will begin soon.

David and Shelley continue with their language training and are now learning the imperfect subjunctive. This is used when one expresses an emotion or hope or thought or one of many other options about another subject. There is nothing like it in English, so it's a bit confusing to learn, but we're beginning to get the idea of it. We find after learning a concept we can begin to apply it to writing and reading, but it takes longer for it to be a part of our speaking. We've learned to be patient with ourselves and allow time to help us.

David and Shelley had the opportunity to meet with their new boss, Tim Brunk, this week. He was in Guatemala for meetings and it was a good opportunity to ask questions and hear more about our future in Costa Rica. We will be living in a duplex located on the seminary grounds in San Jose. It is a beautiful campus as we know from being there 3 years ago when we were part of a team digging the foundation for new buildings. Guess what? These buildings are the location of our new home. We had no idea we were helping to build our future house! (Sure hope David dug those foundations deep enough! I think 6 feet will do!) Our offices will be on the grounds as well, so it's just a short walk down the hill to work. Shelley will work with the finances until 3pm or so each day when the kids get home from school. David will be traveling some, but hopefully no more than one week each month.

We are also beginning the process for requesting residency in Costa Rica and will be mailing off much paperwork this week. You can pray with us that the process will be easy and smooth.

We are already looking forward to traveling home to Iowa for a short visit before heading back "down south." It's only about 15 weeks and we'll arrive in Des Moines where our crates and a moving company will await us. It's the hope that our crates will meet up with us in Costa Rica after the first of the year. That will be like Christmas all over again.

We appreciate your prayers for our family. God bless you. Until next week...
The Webbs

A Busy Week

Dear Family and Friends,
Since it was Joshua's birthday on Friday, he had a fiesta with his amigos that night. There were four boys in all who enjoyed games, Pizza Hut pizza (a new restaurant for us here), soda, cake, ice cream, pinata, chocolate bars, candy and of course, each other. They were well behaved and only stayed up until about 2 am watching The Lord of the Rings. We are all slowly recovering from the short night, but it was worth it for Joshua to have such fun with his friends.

Nick, John, Josh and Zach shortly after swatting at the pinata which is now placed on Joshua's head.

We have been attending a new church plant in an area of the city called Colinas de Minerva. It has been interesting in that the church has a building and a pastor, but we are waiting on the Lord to supply the congregation. Each week David and Pastor Daniel walk the streets visiting with the local families about the new church. For the last two weeks there have been two adults and a few children, but to grow a church is work that requires much patience.

Kayley in the children's church area getting ready to help Mom teach the songs.

A street-side view of the church.

Today we had 3 children, but two had to leave early to help their mother with shopping, so here are Kayley and Vivian enjoying their snack during the children's lesson. Daniel is starting a tutoring class in the church on Friday afternoons for 9th grade students in accounting since this is his speciality. Plus, the pastor is also fluent in Kekchi, a dialect spoken in Guatemala, so he can preach in both languages if need be. We are excited to see what happens with this church plant and our prayer is that it is up and running by mid-December when we leave Guatemala.

The kids completed their first week of school with success. It was a good week for them both as they are enjoying their teachers and their studies. We are thankful for a great school here and are praying for a similiar situation in Costa Rica for the next semester.

David and Shelley also had a full week taking exams at language school. They both passed level E and are beginning to learn more about the imperfect subjunctive tense. They are thankful their are only two more levels to complete, which means there are only two more exams! YEAH! They will be doing more training this week in the office each afternoon for an hour or two learning more about the strategies and programs involved in NYI (youth ministry) in this part of the world in preparation for their work in Costa Rica.

We pray you are healthy and well and that God is blessing your work and ministry wherever you are. Until next week...The Webbs 

Back to School!

Hi Everyone!
It's once again time for school bells, sack lunches, gym clothes and according to Joshua, "teacher's dirty looks!" School started today and the kids were excited. Joshua won't admit that, but it's true! They went to school well-stocked with supplies from the U.S. brought by Grandma just a couple weeks ago. That was a blessing as school supplies are expensive here. A spiral notebook is more than one dollar. A folder with pockets (if you can find it) can be just as much. So we're thankful for all the things a kid needs to start the new year.

Joshua and Kayley in front of the CAG sign.

Joshua is in 7th grade this year. No big changes for him since 6th grade was a part of the middle school as well, so he's used to the routine. He'll play drums in the band this year and hopes to take another elective in woodworking. There are 17 kids in his class this year.

Kayley is in 3rd grade and just excited to be there. She already is saying great things about her teacher and has made friends with a new girl in the class.
Kayley and her best buddy Abby Slingerland (daughter of Bernie and Rhonda, missionaries here as well).

For Mom and Dad the week is a bit stressful as we study, study and study some more to take an exam before the week ends. In addition, we are beginning our training for preparation for our positions in Costa Rica and so Wednesday and Thursday afternoon will be busy with that. Most Friday afternoons David and Pastor Daniel visit folks in the area of Colinas de Minerva. It's hard work starting a new church, but we are enjoying watching God work.

We are also working on the paperwork required for residency for Costa Rica. It is quite a process involving collecting documents, sending them to the state in the US for authentication (not easy when your family was born in 3 different states!) and then on to the Costa Rican consulate for approval. At least David and I now remember where we applied for our marriage license. That fact had completely left our minds after 16 years! Leon, IA....Yeah, that's right...it was in Leon, Iowa. I guess it was an important moment, huh! Glad that Grandma Webb remembered! We'll blame our memory loss on the fact that we are mastering a new language and it's taking important brain space, so something had to go!

Friday is Joshua's 12th birthday, so there will be a crazy group of boys here for a sleepover. Pizza, soda, cake, ice cream, movies, games and loud boy-type behavior are on the agenda. Shoud be a blast. Oh, to be 12 again!

Thanks for your prayers and support. God bless. Until next week...

The Webbs