Entering the New Year

Greetings in the great and matchless Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Thank you all for your prayers, encouragement and greetings that we have received from many family and friends over Christmas and beyond.  We thank God for the opportunity to serve Him here in Costa Rica and Panama and are thankful for all that He has already done in 2012. 

On New Years Day we visited one of the missions in Sarapiqui.  This was a work planted by Pastor Franklin.  David preached from Philippians 3 where Paul wrote, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.  What a great God we serve and how He wants to be known by us.  We admire the faith of brother Franklin and his wife Yolanda as they have started 18 new preaching points over the last 2 1/2 years and have a great burden for the people in this humble area.  


David also traveled to Panama to meet a new church planter, Brother Armando, in the Panama West district.  In addition to some training time, David joined Armando and other leaders as they ministered in a women's prison.  Several responded to a gospel invitation and David had an opportunity to share and to pray with the ladies that came forward.  This was also a special trip as our son Joshua was able go with David as he was still on Christmas break.

In November, David, Pastor Johnny, a district superintendent and Stephen Sickel, the Work and Witness coordinator for Costa Rica and Panama did a two day trip to enter communities where we have no church presence and to begin to pray for God's direction in new church plants.  One of these communities is in Miramar. 

David went there for two days with a Jesus Film team and they had two showings.  Please pray for God to continue to open doors in this community.  They were excited that one lady that accepted Christ was visiting from the community of Puntarenas which is another community where we do not have a church presence.  She may be our first member there!

We thank God for growing churches and ask you to pray for the Church of Mozotal that is seeking to buy property in San Jose (which is currently a small coffee farm) as they are outgrowing their current facility.  We praise the Lord for the beauty of Costa Rica however this also causes high property prices.  Pray for Pastor Sirlene and her congregation that our Lord, the owner of the cattle on a 1,000 hills will provide the needed resources.  Here is a picture of Pastor Sirlene and the property they are praying over.  David was able to visit this site for the first time this month. 

In addition to other workshops, pastor visits and travels in Costa Rica, David also had the chance to participate with the youth in Costa Rica.  Leaders met together from both districts to plan on how to promote our regional youth conference that takes place once every four years.  It is exciting to see the leaders from different districts have the chance to know each other and to work together.

Please pray as the Costa Rica Central and the Costa Rica North District assemblies will both take place on Sunday February 5.  Pray that God's will be done in every person in district leadership.

God bless, David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley

The New Year Begins

Hello Everyone,

It has been a great first couple weeks of January with lots of activities here at SENDAS and in the churches of Costa Rica.  Shelley has stayed busy with CALL (new students and advanced planning for 2012) and David with a trip to Panama (Joshua went along) and a work and witness team from the Chicago District working in Liberia. 

Dr. Scott Bennett and Shelley at Cafe Doka

Let's start with CALL (Christian Academy of Language and Learning).  The year started with a visit from Spanish Professor Dr. Scott Bennett from Point Loma Nazarene University.  We had a great time planning and visiting areas of San Jose so he could better promote the 8 credit hours of Spanish that PLNU plans to offer here on SENDAS campus this summer.  We even found some time to visit the Cafe Doka Coffee Plantation where David helped to "rake" the coffee. We are hoping for great student participation in the new partnership program with PLNU.  Pray for this new endeavor. 

Then the students for the January term began to arrive. We have three students this term, in two different levels of Spanish (Basic I and Basic II).  Ted is from Missouri, Don is from Texas and Neal is from Drumheller, Canada.  It has just been one week and already the students are beginning to speak more each day in Spanish. All the students have adjusted well to life in Costa Rica (walking to get groceries, the nice, but windy weather, and widow-maker shower heads).  We are looking forward to spending one month with Don, six weeks with Ted and 3 months with Neal and his family. 

Pastor Don, Gaby Mata (Spanish professor) and Ted in the CALL Classroom.

Professor Zeidy and Neal, getting ready to study some Spanish verbs.

Then we had a wonderful time with our neice, Allie Webb, who attends the U of Missouri and came to Costa Rica on a medical work trip.  She and her friend Megan enjoyed the beaches of Costa Rica and came back to us after two days with much redder bodies.  OUCH!  A little aloe vera does the trick.  Come back soon, Allie.

A week ago we got to visit one of the missional zone areas, located in Sarapiqui.  It was about a two hour drive to the chuch in Las Marias. 

The front of the Las Marias church.

During the service (25 in attendance).

The land in Sarapiqui is all agricultural with pineapples and bananas being the two main crops.  Most of the people in the communities work on the large farms.  This church's Pastor, Franklin, and his family live in the back of the church, in less than ideal conditions. 

We are hoping to change that sometime very soon and get real walls for his house instead of black plastic.  Let us know if you would like to help.  (See the last blog for more information about Franklin, is both the local Pastor and Church planter).

Inside the church at Las Marias.

 The kids are not looking forward to going back to school on Tuesday.  It will be a difficult day for them after having such a nice, long break, but it is necessary.  Joshua will graduate in June, so the countdown has begun.  Be praying for him as he makes important decisions about his future career and college.

Both the kids enjoyed the surprise of the SENDAS pool opening today (Saturday) for the residents of SENDAS for the very first time. The pool will be used for groups that rent the facilities and for a membership program since there are no other bigger pools in our area.  The missionaries had a great time in the sun and water. 

We want to say a special thanks to the LINKS churches in Kansas City who sent Christmas cards, notes and gifts.  You are a blessing to us! 

The Webb Family