Our Travel Log

Dear Family and Friends,
It has been an adventurous week for our family as we have traveled with the Armstrong’s and the Youth in Mission team in three counties in 6 days. Wow! The Youth in Mission team is comprised of four American girls (one is from Cape Verde) and one Mexican girl. They are a wonderful team and we’ve enjoyed each of them lots these last two weeks. They will be with us for another month yet, so we’re looking forward to many more adventures together.
The Youth In Mission team, David and Shelley, along with three pastors from Mexico.

We started the week in the southern part of Mexico. The purpose of this trip is to visit with the church leaders there to see what areas hold the most potential for a new church plant. There is another team of workers from Central America coming in November, so this was an opportunity to lay the groundwork for that group. The leaders there are exceptional and we had a wonderful time with them all.



Couldn't resist this picture of Scott Armstrong and David driving the ox wagon in Mexico!

After picking up the kids from camp (in Guatemala) on Thursday night, we all left early Friday morning for El Salvador. The team from Central Church in Kansas City had already arrived and had started the work there. It was great fun to see familiar faces and meet a few new folks as well. We helped to clean a park, assisted in the medical clinic with evangelism and played games with kids all day long. Great fun! We were very sad to leave on Saturday night to return to Guatemala, but we know God has other duties for us this coming week and we need to be ready. The Youth in Mission girls along with Joshua and Kayley at the hotel in El Salvador.

A highlight for Kayley was spending a little time with her former Sunday School teacher, Mr. Mike. We did not know he was on the team and he didn’t know we were coming to El Salvador, so it was a happy surprise for everyone.
Kayley and Mike at the work sight in El Salvador.

This week is the start of our Maxima Mision as a team of 40 (30 teens and 10 adults) will arrive on Wednesday. We will be helping to coordinate the team in various projects in two different locations. They will assist in construction, cleaning, evangelism and children’s programs with puppets, music and games. The days will be long, but rewarding and we are excited to watch as two new churches will be started from this work.

We have an important prayer request this week. We are having difficulty renewing the visas for Joshua and Kayley. It appears that we will have to take an extra trip to Mexico by July 2nd to renew their visas. Mom and Dad are fine since we just traveled to Mexico this last week, but the children did not go with us. The laws have recently changed here and it is not possible to renew your visa by going to El Salvador, Honduras, or Nicaragua. So, Mexico is our closest choice. We are praying for other options since we don’t have extra time for this travel. Please pray with us.

We sure appreciate all of you. Thank you for your prayer support in these busy days.

God bless you all,

The Webbs 

Taking the Show on the Road!

Hello Everyone!
We have had a full week of activities once again with an emphasis on Children’s Programs which in turn will lead to two new church plants in Guatemala City. On Monday and Tuesday we (meaning the Youth in Mission team with their 5 girls, along with Scott and Emily Armstrong) were in the first community and we put on four shows for the children. Usually we had around 30 children but one day an entire local school came with their over 60 students and teachers.
The Webb family clowns!

On Thursday we presented the VBS inside a local school. This school has more than 500 students so it was a huge crowd. We maxed out the speakers on the sound system and sang and spoke as loud as we could. It was a great day of ministry with many children anticipating our return in a couple weeks when we’ll have more than 60 volunteers to help lead games and shows for the school. The new church is only a few blocks from this school, so it’s great opportunity. We were glad for the assistance of the “mother church” that brought some workers for the puppet stand that day.
Before the show at the large school, notice Kayley in the foreground...

We’re excited for the next week as we’ll be traveling to the south part of Mexico for 3 days to assist Scott with some training in that area. This works out great since Joshua and Kayley are at camp this week. We’ll pick them up Thursday night just in time to leave early Friday morning for El Salvador for two days to meet up with the Central KC team who is ministering there for two weeks. It will so fun to see some familiar faces in their team of 34 as this is the church we attended in Kansas City. Also, it’s time for our family to renew the visas so we can remain in Guatemala and this trip should take care of that little errand until September.

As you can tell, it’s been a bit crazy here, but in a good way. Pray for us this week as we travel with 8 people in a Suburban, along with all our stuff for 6 hours. Should be interesting! And pray for Joshua and Kayley at camp. It’s important they remain safe and well as we’ll be out of the country to assist them. (Yes, Grandmas, we have a back up plan!)

God bless this week! Until next time…

The Webbs
 

Summer Ministry Begins

Wow! Has is been only one week since we completed our first round of language training? It has been a wonderful, crazy time of ministry ever since!

It started with a weekend workshop called COM (equivalent to a CCO: Cross Cultural Orientation in the U.S.). This workshop is designed to be a first step for people who have a strong interest in mission work through the church. David and I assisted in registration and served as helpers for the weekend while soaking in all the info we could in espanol. It was a large group with nearly 40 participants from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
A workshop presenter reminding the participants (and us!) that anyone can learn another language!

The workshop ended on Sunday afternoon and by late that evening the Youth in Mission team from the U.S. arrived. There are four girls from the US and one from Mexico to form this team of workers for the summer. We spent the week with this team, attending all their trainings including workshops on Creative Evangelism, Church Planting, Bible School programs, Compassionate Ministries and Jesus Film showings. Four of the five team members along with Kayley. Kayley calls them "the girls!"

On Saturday, the summer of ministry began with a Bible School program in an area that has no church. We put on a “show” for the children there with puppets, clowns, singing, lessons and games. Then we showed the World Cup Soccer game on a large screen. It was lots of fun and over 25 children attended the Bible School. Joshua and Kayley were big helps as well. Kayley was a clown and Joshua helped with puppets (if you’ve never done it, it’s really hard work!)
Joshua and David working hard with the puppets during the show.

On Sunday, David and Shelley had their first experience preaching in Spanish for an evening youth service. Of course, we had to write it all out and have some assistance in our grammar here and there, but it went well. We look forward to the day when we have confidence to speak without staring at our notes!

It’s only Tuesday and we’ve already given the Bible School program 4 times! I’ll tell you more about that adventure (involving police!) on the next blog…

God bless you week,

The Webbs Kayley makes a new friend wherever she goes. I couldn't resist this photo of Kayley and Alexa at the church we preached at on Sunday.

 

Final Week of School (Until Fall)

Hello Everyone!
It has been an exciting week as David and Shelley completed their final week of language school. They will return to the school in the fall, probably in late August. For now, the plan is the help in the busy summer ministries happening in Guatemala and the surrounding areas. Here is David with his maestra named Dora and Shelley with her maestra Ana. Both are fantastic teachers. Thanks Dora and Ana!
We received "diplomas" for our five months of language study.Friday was the final day to enjoy some Guatemalan food from the lady who serves us treats each day at the schoool. Tortillas with beans! Yum-Yum!

Now the fun really starts as we begin to use our espanol in our work day in and day out. It is the best way to apply all that we've learned thus far. We know we are advancing as we can many times hear conversations and understand the content, but it's still difficult to get the words in the right order and tense when we speak and our vocabulary is still limited. We try to remember that it took us at least five years to learn to speak English correctly so we are trying to be patient, but it's difficult. Persistence is the key!

This weekend we are busy as we attend a workshop at the seminary grounds. This is a COM workshop and there are more than 35 people from Central America attending in order to learn more about Nazarene Missions. Each of these people has an interest or would like more info about becoming a missionary. It's exciting as Central Americans have many opportunites that North Americans would not have particularly in entering countries that might not allow North Americans. The possibilities are endless!

David is spending most of the weekend at the conference since the meetings go to 10pm each evening, but Shelley is leaving early to spend time with the kids. Tomorrow is Sunday and we'll be spend the day at the seminary while the children go to church with another missionary family, the Edgertons. We'll update you all more on the COM next week.

Can you believe it is June already! The year is flying by. As your weather gets warmer, (assuming you are in the U.S.), our weather remains the same. Temperatures in the 70s and sometimes low 80s. It is beautiful, but I keep wondering when the season will change. I guess the only change we are getting is rain in the afternoons and evenings. The only disadvantage is that we wear the same clothes day in and day out. There is no changing the wardrobe for warmer or colder weather. Being midwesterners, I guess we are missing the change in seasons. Not a complaint, just a difference in life here.

We are looking forward to a great summer of ministry. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to learn more about the language and culture.

God bless you this week!
The Webbs