Last Day of School!

Dear Friends and Family,
Just time for a short blog this week as we need to maximize our study time considering this is our last week of lanugage school for awhile. On the other hand, the kids finished the school year with a half day on Friday, and let's just say that Joshua was a bit excited for the occasion. He spent his Thursday evening making a shirt to commemorate the day! It was a hit at his school on Friday morning. We are excited for all the great opportunites ahead of us this winter in Guatemala. We hope you received the newsletter today outlining our schedule and recent events. If you did not receive, please email and I will add you to the list (or maybe your email has changed as a number of addresses appear to be invalid). Our email is shelwebb@hotmail.com.

God Bless You All,
Dios Les Bendiga,
The Webbs 

Kayley's Baptism

Dear Friends and Family,
Wow! What a great day we had today! Kayley was baptized today at a water park outside of the capital. Although Kayley accepted Christ at the age of 5, she has been fearful of the water and especially the "dunking" involved in baptism. But since we arrived in Guatemala, she has gained new confidence and asked to be baptized. The San Antonio Church of the Nazarene that we visited a few weeks ago held this special service. In general, the churches here do not have baptistries, so they plan special services two or three times each year. Sometimes they travel all the way to the beach, but this service was about 45 minutes from our home. We started with some praise and singing and then Scott Armstrong, a missionary, spoke for a few minutes about the significance of baptism. Then we moved the service pool side.

David assisted with a few baptisms of the people in the congregation and ended with Kayley. What a privilege for David to baptize Kayley. It was a wonderful time of celebration.

After the service, we spent the day at the water park. This park is unique in that it has a rapidly moving stream throughout the park, along with at least 15 pools and many water slides. Joshua and Elijah Armstrong had a great time going down slides together.

And since a few of you have mentioned the lack of adults in the posted pictures, here is Webb family photo taken last week in our yard just before leaving for church.

This week will be busy as it's Josh and Kayley's final week of school. Joshua will have many exams, but many parties as well. Both kids are excited for summer to start. Mom and Dad have two more weeks of school and are looking forward to the upcoming changes. We ask for your prayers that we will be useful in translating this summer. There is much in our brains, but we've found it difficult to make it come out our mouths! With God's help, nothing is impossible! I am sure there will be many frustrating times this summer, but even with that anticipation, we are ready for the challenge and the change. Thanks for praying for us!

God bless you this week. Until next week...The Webbs 

Hello Everyone! Sorry for the lack of pictures last week. We've had to get creative since the old system of posting pictures doesn't seem to work any longer.

It has been a "normal" week here with temperatures in the low 80s or high 70s and lots of sun. The rains should start soon and we've noticed the skies getting dark each late afternoon, but rarely any rain comes of it. That will change soon, we hear, as afternoon storms will be a part of life for a few months. We need the rain. The dust is piling up!

Kayley and her friend at the soccer game....
Kayley taking on a "big" Guatemalan boy...This is the soccer field at the kids' school: CAG.
Joshua's Basketball team having prayer before a game. Josh is in the red shorts and David in the jeans.
Kayley having a great birthday party...
Only two more weeks of school for the kids and three for the adults. Then the summer schedule starts. Shelley will work half days in the office and David the full day. We are all excited for the change of pace. God continues to bless us here and we feel sure we are where we are supposed to be. God bless you and yours this week.

Love, The Webbs 

Happy Birthday Kayley!

Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry for being late on this blog, but we have been experiencing technical difficulties with the internet service here. In addition, at this time the pictures will not post to the blog. We'll try to add them later in the week...Sorry!

It's been a week full of activity. David and Shelley each took their Level D exams, and yes, they passed. It's always good when an exam is behind you and you can breathe again for a few weeks. This next level covers the subjunctive part of the language and is very important since much is communicated using this tense. We would like to complete this level before ending our classes the end of May, but our teachers say it's not likely as it's more material than the other books. We'll see...

Soccer has continued for Kayley and she has played tough. The other schools they played this week had older kids who have played soccer for much longer, so the competition was rough. Needless to say, Kayley's team lost both games, but I was proud of her for playing against such big kids who move so fast and play a physical game. All that practice with Daddy and Joshua in the back yard has made her fearless.

Joshua's BB season has come to a close with a final game on Saturday. They have improved much and we're hoping that BB for Junior High will be in the fall this next year so Joshua can play once again since it's likely we'll be leaving Guatemala in December. The sports seasons can vary here. There is no set time to play any one sport. Most sports at Guatemalan schools run year round, so the student picks one for the year and continues with it throughout. We won't know about the schedule until the fall.

Kayley's 8th birthday was Wednesday, so we had a fiesta for her on Saturday. We celebrated by going to the Children's Museum with the Slingerland girls, Abby and Hannah. We had a great time and closed the place down just before 6pm. It was a very nice museum with many educational and fun displays and activities. Then we had pizza, a pinata, cake and ice cream and gifts! What fun! (Mom and Dad are wiped out and are glad birthdays are only once a year!)

God has blessed us here with such good friends. Just like in the states, people come and go. Tonight we had a farewell meal for the Stevens family. Geoff, Amy and Kylee have been good friends to us and we will miss having them here. They have sacrificially served as volunteers here in Guatemala for 6 months. They are from KC so we hope to see them when we return (hopefully) in December.

God is helping us to learn and hear the language here. In church today, I was able to get the jist of the sermon and understand the scripture. We're making progress and pray for the day when it all makes sense. Thanks for your prayers and God bless you this week.

Until next week,
The Webbs