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