West Virginia Team

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been a full week of activities for the Webb family. We hosted a Work and Witness team from Pierpont Church of the Nazarene in Morgantown, West Virginia. They were a fun group of 12 who worked very hard. It was a pleasure to spend time with them. This week we’ll give half the news from this week and next week we’ll finish it off. It’s just too much to share in one blog!

Our former Pastor, Casey Shorr and his wife Rhonda were with this team and they moved to pastor Pierpont church in August of last year. It was fun to see old friends and catch up on their lives.

The team of 12 arrived exhausted as they had driven all the night before to be at the airport at 3am for a 6am flight. All went well until Miami where they were delayed for 5 hours. Finally they arrived in San Jose and we spent the evening getting to know them and practicing a bit of the VBS program.

The team worked in a San Jose public school which is located near a local Church of the Nazarene. This local church is reaching out to their community and assisting this school that is in dire need of repairs. The team was here at just the right time to assist in the work. They dressed as clowns, hid behind sheets to share their puppeting skills and sang and did the actions to all the kids songs. They were a hit!

The school so enjoyed the program that the teachers asked for the material to use in the future.

The team also worked on Saturday alongside a few local church members cutting very high grass and picking up trash.

The school would like to use this space as a recreational area and are considering adding a fence. At least they can now use the flat space for a play area. It was long hard work using dull machetes and one weed eater that was not made for the job. Although some “suggestions” were made by team members about obtaining better tools, they used what they had and finished the job given to them.

Before and after! What a difference!

Another group worked on cleaning the school’s very dirty, grimy outside wall and ceiling. This was slowed by lack of ladders, but everyone pitched in and did what they could. I believe I heard some additional comments about the need for a pressure washer, but human scrubbing action worked too, just not so quickly!

The school, the local Church and the team partnered up to purchase and install new gutters for the school.

This was finished just in time for rainy season! Thanks Pierpont!

On Sunday morning we all attended the El Alto Church which is located on the seminary campus. Pastor Casey preached and our friend, Juan Manuel translated. It was a great message that touched the hearts of the people. It was a treat for us to hear a sermon in English.

In other news, this week was a special for the kids since it was the last week of school. Joshua had 5 final exams but did well. They only had half days this week with exams. They are thrilled to be on vacation from school, but we think the “I’m bored” comments may start soon. Thankfully we have a full summer of activities and teams planned to keep everyone more than busy.

Kayley received some school awards and the one she is most proud of is the Math Achievement Award. She is the only one in her class to receive this award. She learned all her times tables by heart this year and worked very hard to understand fractions as well. She deserved that award!

We'll continue the story next week with more highlights from the West Virginia Team.

God bless you!

The Webb Family