Fall Break in Costa Rica

The view from the hills surrounding Flamingo Beach in Guanacaste.

Hello Dear Family and Friends,

This is the first year that the kids have had a fall break!  It came at the cost of starting school one week early, which we all thought was not such a good idea at the time, but now we are quite pleased with the new schedule!  It started with Shelley's birthday and a fun lunch with the CALL students and teachers. It was a great way to spend a bday and to start a short vacation! 

Anne Sickel, Rickie Honea, Profesor Gaby, Profesor Zeidy and Bub Honea.

A day later, we packed up the truck for a few days at the beach.  Now, you must remember something important about Costa Rica in October.  It rains.  It rains a lot!  And although the beach was not as bad as other places for the amount of rainfall, the cloud cover was continual. Thankfully, it was a pleasant 80 degrees with some gorgeous views.  Take a look...

The view from our home away from home.

 

David and Kayley finding some shells.

The boys walking on the beach, probably talking about football.

Enjoying seafood at the Golden Shrimp restaurant.

A view from the hilltop of Flamingo Beach.

This is about the most sun we saw, driving home near Puntarenas.

Now it is time to get back to work!  We have enjoyed these few days away, but we are ready to tackle our work and studies once again.  We arrived to San Jose to a far-reaching fog that seems to have turned our back yard into a scene from The Lord of the Rings.  Very different from the beach, but beautiful nonetheless.

The kids go back to school on Tuesday but the parents are back to the office tomorrow.  David travels next week to Guatemala for the Regional Conference while Shelley stays home to take care of parent/teacher conferences, orthodontist appointments and the all-important ACT exam on Saturday.  It will be a busy week for all.

God bless you this week.  We hope you are enjoying the fall leaves.  (We miss that!!!)

The Webb Family

Ministry Update

Hello Dear Family and Friends,

Life has settled into a routine here in Costa Rica with the kids busy with their studies and Mom and Dad busy with ministry in Costa Rica.  

Joshua has been enjoying his basketball team even more than in the past since more players are on the team this year.   Here is a moment from a game last week when Joshua had an assist to another player, who unfortanately missed the shot, but it was a good assist anyway.  They are truly an international team with kids from Costa Rica, USA, Korea, Japan and China.  The team is 3-1 so far, but they are playing a really good team from the Brittanica School this week, so we are hoping for another win, but it will take all the team has to make that happen. 

 

Another exciting event was the parrot who decided to enter our office space last week.  Bub Honea is a volunteer with the Work and Witness ministry and since he has experience with birds, he managed to catch it.  Now, the parrot lives the life of luxury as their pet.

  

Joshua and Kayley are back into the routine of their minstries as church.  Kayley enjoys the dance team and Joshua plays drums with the worship team.  

David and Shelley have been trying to visit ALL the different Nazarene churches in Costa Rica.  So far we have visited 3 (other than our local church El Alto) and we have had a wonderful time at each one.  Usually the most adventurous part of our Sunday mornings is finding the churches!  Remember there are no street signs or numbers here, so it is all by point of interest.  This makes for interesting drives!

Today (Sunday) we visited Tejarcillos where Pastor Harry is in charge.  The church looks very different than when we visited one year ago since they have built an entirely new building on their corner property with the help of two Work and Witness teams.  They have hopes to purchase property behind them to expand the sanctuary and teaching spaces even more.  Here are a few photos of the church and the view from this side of the city (south side, overlooking the downtown of San Jose).  

The next few weeks will be busy with Shelley preparing for the Seminary Board meetings at the end of the month as well as for the upcoming semester of CALL in January 2012.  David will continue his work with the church planters and with all other ministries in Costa Rica (youth, compassion, discipleship, missions, etc...).  The kids have a week off from school in mid October, so we plan to spend a few days of family time, resting up and preparing for the rest of the year.  Then the Regional Meetings will be held the 19-23 of October in Guatemala.  David will be attending while Shelley holds down the fort and helps Joshua as he prepares to take the ACT that Saturday.  Lots to do!!!

We pray you have a wonderful October.  Thanks for your continued prayers for us.  God bless you!

The Webb Family