Home Assignment - First Few Weeks

Kayley at the display table at the Osawatamie Church.

Hello Everyone!

We have really enjoyed our first month of home assignment in the United States.  We arrive to Chicago on May 29^th and began the adventure in Chicago.  David’s brother, Steve, lives there, so we had great accommodations and way too much great food for the first few days.   Our first deputation service was at the Lombard Church, and we really enjoyed meeting new friends there.

The Farm in Iowa

After a few days in Chicago, we headed to Iowa where we stayed with Shelley’s Mom in Manchester.  While in the area, we visited the Cedar Rapids Oakland Church of the Nazarene, then the Iowa City Hispanic Church and later in the week we had a blast with the Grinnell youth group and the Ottumwa Hispanic congregation. 

We also enjoyed seeing Shelley’s two brothers and their families, as well as her stepmom, Donna, whom they had not seen for a number of years.  It was a little sad to say goodbye to the farm where Shelley spent much time in year’s past, but she is glad it is being sold to a farm family who love the land and the house. 

Virginia Webb (David's Mom) playing the organ at church.

Then we headed to Leon, Iowa, where David’s Mom lives in Southern Iowa.  She turned 80 this year and stays very active with her 25 piano students, two Bible studies and organ playing at church.  We spoke in the Des Moines Eastside Nazarene church and the Leon Bible Church before heading to the Kansas City district.

David and Kayley at the Des Moines Eastside church service.

Visiting Kansas City is a little like going home for us since we lived there and attended the Lenexa Central Church for two years.  We enjoyed seeing our friends from Central (some of them were in Nicaragua with us for New Years Day) and Shelley loved hanging out with the children’s group.  Then we visited Tongonaxie, Osawatamie, College Church Sunday School Classes (3 of those!), Olathe Christ Community and Olathe Westside Nazarene Church.  What a joy to see so many of our LINKS churches! 

David speaking to the Sojourners Sunday School Class.

One thing you remember when visiting churches is that people really do pray for missionaries.   That is such a blessing to know, and we realize that it has kept us safe on the field many times when dangers were lurking and we didn’t even know it.  One couple, whom we don’t really know all that well, but who pray faithfully for us, are Larry and Dorothy from College Church.   We first met them in 2005 when we visited their Sunday School class before leaving for Guatemala.  They announced in class that they have faithfully prayed for us, by name, everyday since our meeting in 2005.  What a great blessing for us!  Thank you, prayer warriors!

Larry and Dorothy, our prayer warriors.

While in KC, we spent on evening out at Theatre in the Park.  Kayley has been asking for awhile now to go to a theatre (play), but we hadn’t found anything in San Jose that we thought she would enjoy.  We were thrilled that the community theatre (the largest theatre in the park in the nation!) was performing The Sound of Music.  Kayley adored every minute of the performance and we sat right up front on our blanket to not miss a thing. 

Kayley had a bird's eye view of Maria in the play.

I am writing this blog while on the plane to Denver, en route to San Diego.  We are delighted to spend some time with our friends at Las Flores Church in Carlsbad, California.  They have brought teams to Costa Rica in the past and we are excited to see them all once again – including the new babies born in the last two years! 

We are looking forward to a family wedding in Ames, Iowa on July 2^nd and a visit to the Ames Church in July 3^rd, and shortly after a awesome week at NYC (National Youth Congress) which is a once every four year event that Joshua and Shelley will attend this year.  Pray that Shelley will have the energy to keep up with the group of 30 mission kids (Let’s not even think about the 7000 total youth in attendance!). 

We hope to see you this summer!  God bless you!

The Webb Family

Recent happenings

Hi Everyone,

Clowning around with the WV team

We are now in the US and starting the bi annual deputation journey which will take us from San Diego to West Virginia.  We look forward to seeing friends, family and making new friends at each church that we have the privilege of sharing with.   We are now in the great city of Manchester, Iowa after having 2 services in Cedar Rapids yesterday am and an afternoon service in the Iowa City Hispanic Church of the Nazarene (and yes, they were very kind to their Cyclone brethren:). 

This is a little embarrassing (ok maybe a lot embarrassing) but I realize that I have not done a very good job helping Shelley with the blog over the last couple of months--especially as I reflect all that God has been doing where we serve. Here are some highlights over the past 2 1/2 months.

On March 17, another great team arrived from the US.  They were from Pierpont Church of the Nazarene in Morgantown, WV.  Our former pastor, Casey Shorr and his wife Rhonda, were on this team.  This team worked in 4 different communities where we are planting new works and received invitations to minister in 3 public schools thru VBSs and crafts. 

All in all over 1,000 primary age children heard the gospel---praise God.  One of the crafts that is always big is the salvation bracelets.  This craft allows us to present the plan of salvation using different colored beads.  This team blessed us in many ways including the donation of many clown outfits which we are distributing to other church planters in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

Our son Joshua and daughter Kayley have been a blessing in many ways.  One Saturday in April, Josh decided that he would accompany me to the city of Liberia in northern Costa Rica for evangelism trainings.  This was a labor of love as it was a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive each way from San Jose.  The pastor of the church is Pastor Alvaro.  He is serving as a church planter and has been involved with the opening of 16 new cell groups in the Guanacaste area since the end of 2009.  These new groups almost total 300 people in attendance--praise the Lord.  Here is a picture of Pastor Alvaro and a map that shows some of these new works.  There is a possibility that 2 or 3 of these new missions will be organized churches soon. The blue thumbtacks represent some of the 16 new missions that have started. 

I took a 10 day trip to Nicaragua which covered the last week of April and part of the first week of May.  I met with leaders in 3 of the 4 districts and Nicaragua.  Through this time, I participated in evangelism workshops, translated for Pastor Greg McNichols who did special workshops for the pastors in the Nicaragua North district, worked with local leaders on the development of 3 new missional zones (these are areas where we are having a special focus in church planting thru the use of the Jesus Film and local church planters), and made a special trip to Puerto Cabezas on the northeast coast of Nicaragua.  Puerto Cabezas is the home of an indigenous people called the Miskitu (and yes, praise God, we have the Jesus Film in the Miskitu language).  Here are a few pictures from there.

Getting water from the well for morning bucket shower--very refreshing

Enjoying a snack while waiting to cross a bridge in NE Nicaragua

May was a blur as we tried to finish up several ministry tasks in preparation for our time in deputation for the US.  During this time we had special regional evangelism meetings, had evangelism trainings for church planters in Costa Rica, visited missional zone church planters in Costa Rica and visited a missional zone church planter in Panama.  We praise God as we have seen over 90 new cell groups planted in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama over the last 17 months in 9 missional zone projects in the 3 countries.  To God be the glory, great things He has done.