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