Merry Christmas Update

Greetings to our dear family and many friends:

Mora (raspberry) sundaes at McDonalds...a Christmas time must have.

It is almost Christmas!  We are so blessed to be together as a family this year.  Joshua arrived this week from college in the USA, so we are pleased just to all be together once again.

So much has happened in the last month that it is hard to know where to start, but let’s begin with Thanksgiving.  David’s sister Tina visited from Iowa and enjoyed the warm weather and the beach with us. 

Tina and David enjoying pipa (coconut milk)

Punta Leona...simply gorgeous.

The two MNU student teachers, Jaymes and Misty, finished their CALL classes and teaching experience on December 12^th.  We had a fun time with these two, who both love soccer and kids. They are both great teachers and wonderful people.  

Jaymes (2nd in photo) and Misty (7th in photo) with the Los Angeles youth group.

A great night of Mexican take out and card games.

Did you know that there are nearly 5,000 Cuban immigrants in Costa Rica? They have made the trek from Cuba to Ecuador (the only country that would receive them without a visa, but that has now changed), through Columbia and Panama, then into Costa Rica.  Unfortunately, Nicaragua and now other countries have closed their borders to the Cubans as they try to reach the USA.  The USA’s policy is to receive the Cubans if they can arrive. So, now Costa Rica is “hosting” the Cubans who are trying to make their way to the USA to start a new life.  

One of Upala Church leaders speaks with one of the Cuban immigrants.

One of the refugee centers is in a gym in Upala where we have a local Nazarene Church. The congregation is visiting the 265 immigrants to see how they can help, and last Sunday seven Cubans came to the church service.  One man named Orlando has decided to follow Christ and is now receiving discipleship classes.  Pray for this situation to find a peaceful solution. 

SENDAS is so grateful to have so many great employees, but as with all organizations, people come and go.  This year, we said goodbye to four wonderful people:  Vicente (my assistant in Public Relations), Kay Lynn (my assistant for CALL) and Franlym and Mara. 

Vicente, a graphic designer and photographer, has a great career ahead of him.

Franlym and Mara, special friends that will do great work in Nicaragua.

Saying goodbye to Kay Lynn.

Thankfully, we will keep in touch with all these special people as they move forward in ministry.  Vicente is focusing on his photography business, Franlym and Mara are moving back to Nicaragua to work with the church there, and Kay Lynn is moving to Cactus, TX to work with the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Center there.   

Kay Lynn completed the entire CALL curriculum while volunteering with SENDAS.

It is always hard to say goodbye, but for our family, it was another blow to say goodbye to Kay Lynn.  Too many goodbyes around here, but it is part of missionary life.  

David took another trip to the Gavilan in Tayni Territory this month.  They held meetings with leaders, planning for 2016, as well as delivered the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child boxes.  

When we lived in the USA, we participated with our kids in preparing the boxes to send out into the world, and now we are blessed to receive the boxes to distribute to needy children.  Thanks to every one of you who sent a box this year.  These children will not receive another gift for Christmas.

David performed the wedding of our good friends Pastor Felipe and Pastora Leyla.  He did a wonderful job (not just Shelley’s opinion, everyone said so!), and we were pleased to have a part in their big day.  It is not too often that we both dress up, so here is the photo of us ready to leave for the wedding. 

Another event that took place on the CR Central district was a one-day conference for those with a call to ministry.  It was a wonderful day of exploring what it means to have a call from God to serve in ministry and how that call can be fulfilled in one’s life.  There were 20+ people at the event, all wanting to learn more about the process of serving as pastors in the Church of the Nazarene.  Events like this one are a big encouragement to the leaders here in Costa Rica.

CALL had a Christmas party with the professors and students early in December.  We are so blessed to work with such great teachers who have become our friends.  

We have a few new students arriving in February and March, but there is room for more!  Come study Spanish with CALL in Costa Rica this spring, especially if where you live it will be cold.  You will enjoy the weather here.  No rain expected until May!

Kayley finished her semester by taking the ACT exam.  We are thankful to have a nearby international school where she can take the exam.  Kayley is looking forward to college life, but will miss her life and friends in Costa Rica.  She is considering a number of Nazarene colleges with MVNU (Mount Vernon, Ohio) and Olivet (Kankakee, IL) at the top of the list.  Pray for Kayley as she makes some big decisions in the spring.

Kayley with some of her classmates from ICS.

A big THANKS to our LINKS churches on the Florida district who have sent cards and letters.  We enjoy receiving your notes of encouragement. We look forward to February when we will visit the Clearwater Church for their Faith Promise Missions weekend.  See you then!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.
Immanuel: He is with us.

David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley

November's Post - We are Thankful

Hello Everyone Everywhere,

It is a wonderful time of the year here in Costa Rica. Although it has been rainy here in the later afternoons (normal for rainy season), the mornings have been sunny and warm (temps in the 80s).  Beautiful weather.  It is almost time for a slight season change.  The rain will stop soon and the drier days of “summer” will begin.  In all honesty, we are looking forward to the change since we all seem to experience less sinus headaches during dry season.  Yeah for less headaches!  We are thankful.

As always, it has been a busy time.  David traveled to the Dominican Republic for a Regional Evangelism training.  The leaders were in the “Tell the Story” training for most of the time, with other moments set aside for meetings.  David has friends wherever he goes, and he always looks forward to seeing his co-workers in Evangelism from around the Region.  Thankful for safe trips.

The CALL language school has two students on campus and two students online currently,  We are sad that Kay Lynn will be leaving us in December, but God is leading her to work once again in the USA, hopefully using her Spanish a lot.  She has been a great help to Shelley and the program, and she will be missed.   Before she leaves though, she will have a busy time with the two MNU student teachers who are arriving at midnight tonight.  We are excited to have Jaymes and Misty on campus with us. More info to come in next month’s blog about their stay. Thankful for helpful volunteer missionaries.

Kay Lynn, being her happy self.

Kay Lynn and Carol with Professors Zeidy and Gaby in downtown San Jose.

At SENDAS, the month of October is always a bit crazy.  We have our annual meetings with leaders arriving to campus from across the Region and from South America.  Everything went really well, and we are excited about new projects to help the Seminary financially for the future.  Shelley will be working more with that in the next year.  Thankful for new opportunities.

SENDAS' Advisory Board

Then, just two weeks after the Assembly meetings, SENDAS has the graduation ceremony.  Shelley and Kay Lynn, along with Vicente worked together to plan the decorations, make the program, and assist with the reception. It was a wonderful gathering of nearly 200 people to celebrate the graduates and the 45th anniversary of the Seminary. Twenty students graduated from degree programs and another 71 from certificate programs.  Thankful for a wonderful event. 

Faculty and Graduates - 2015

Graduates - SENDAS - 2015

We decorated a tent for extra reception seating.

Guess what is inside this glass.  Colored rice! It worked well.

Kayley had a fun time visiting her brother at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Ohio.  She spent a week on campus, and enjoyed seeing a campus with students (we always visit in the summer when no one is there!) and she got to see FALL for the first time that she can remember.  She was 7 years old when we left the USA and have not been back during the fall months in all these years.  She loved it!  Thankful for two great kids.

Kayley enjoying FALL in the USA. 

Upcoming events and Prayer Requests:
-David’s trip to the Indigenous area next week – an important trip for planning for 2016.

-MNU Student Teachers with CALL (arriving tonight)

-Seminary projects – we need a couple of W&W teams for 2016.  So far, no teams are scheduled for SENDAS and we have a building that needs completion. Can you bring a team in 2016?  Also, we are in the preliminary planning stage for a large project or two at SENDAS.  Pray for wisdom as we move forward.

Thanks for your prayers and support of the ministry in Costa Rica and Panama.

The Webbs

October 2015: CALL, Guatemala, Curacao and SENDAS

Hello once again. Here we are in October already. Where did the year go?  It is amazing how fast the time goes by.  We are missing (once again) the fall season with the changing of the leaves in the USA, but we are thankful we live in a temperate climate.  Some days, if there are clouds and rain, it can feel even a bit cool and reminds us of a fall football game day.

Shelley’s work with CALL never ends, and on the last day of September we had a small celebration for Carol’s completion of three months of full time Spanish study.  She is a new missionary with SENDAS and is now taking less hours of Spanish and working in the office more and more. She is already a great asset to SENDAS. 

Carol and Gaby

We finally sold the Toyota, David’s beloved truck that we have owned for nearly 9 years.  David decided to purchase the Sickel family’s pick up, which is much better for the trips to the Indigenous area, so we no longer needed the red Toyota.  She now belongs to a wonderful family in Guapiles, and they called to say how pleased they are to have such a good vehicle.  It was a win-win!

We had a wonderful time in Guatemala for a three day Nazarene Missions International celebration.  It was fun to see so many friends. We also got to meet face to face some our LINKS friends from Barbados who we have been in contact with by email for a couple year.

Here are a few photos from our time in Guatemala.

A view from the back of the event.  Love this photo with our friend Bub in his hat standing near the back.

David was asked to translate for Dr. Saenz for a couple minutes.  Always nerve-racking, but he did a great job!

Seeing these two is always fun!  The wedding for Erika and David will be in March.  Can't wait!

It's always a blessing to see our friends the Sickels who now serve in Mexico.

Receiving a missionary recognition certificate.  We didn't do anything special; we were just there.

Shelley, doing her best to translate for Dr. Ruben Fernandez.

The HILL.  It doesn't look like much in this photo, but it is a workout to trudge up it.

Happy to be missionaries with the Mesoamerica Region!

Holding this boy is a workout: Levi Sickel

Shelley loved holding the babies.  This is Elizabeth.

Getting to meet some of the missions leaders from Barbados was quite an honor. 

A highlight of the trip was getting to meet Jonathan and Lisette Petrus, who live in Curacao and who are working to plant the Church of the Nazarene there.  At the next general assembly in 2017, Curacao will be added to the number of world areas where the Church of the Nazarene is officially recognized, so it may be listed as number 160!  Pray for this couple and their two children as they work to build the church on the Dutch island nation.

Jonathan and his son carrying in the flag for Curacao.  

This is the month for local assemblies and David is keeping busy helping to lead the meetings. Saturday night (tonight) he is leading the assembly and preaching at Montes de Oca church and Sunday (tomorrow) he is preaching at La Finca in Poas.  This week he travels to the Dominican Republic for regional evangelism meetings. 

Kayley’s and Joshua’s senior years (high school and college, respectively) are going well.  Kayley is studying for the ACT exam in December, and Joshua is busy writing papers and finishing up another online master’s business course.  Both kids are doing well, and we praise the Lord that Joshua will come home for Christmas to Costa Rica and we will be the Webb Family 4 once again.  We are all looking forward to that.

These are busy days at SENDAS (the Seminary) with the Assembly meetings this week and graduation in two more weeks.  If we all survive until November 8^th, then life can slow back down to a normal pace. 

Love my team at SENDAS: Shelley, Vicente and Kay Lynn.

Just had to include this cute photo of Kayley (middle) with two missionaries, Carol and Kay Lynn.

Thanks to all our friends and family who keep us encouraged through prayer.  We are so thankful for each one of you.

Blessings,

The Webb family

September Update / Back in the Swing of Things

Hello to Everyone,

Well, life has settled back into a routine of traveling and working, working and traveling.  We have enjoyed being back with the churches here and have visited three since our return.  Our home church, El Alto, where we try to attend at least once per month, has a new pastoral couple, Manuel and Giselle.  They have been friends of ours for quite some time but have moved from associate pastors at the Desamparados Church to being senior pastors at El Alto.  They are doing a great job and it is fun to see the excitement that everyone has for this change.

Have you seen the movie War Room? Another one of the local churches, Los Angeles, has rented out a theater for Monday night’s showing so we are excited to see this movie, even if it is in Spanish.  (We always prefer to see movies in English if they were made in English.  Sometimes the funny lines just don’t come out the same in Spanish).  I am sure it will be fun to fill up the theatre with 275 of our closest friends!

Another recent highlight was the Youth Leader’s Retreat held at Poas where nearly 50 of our leaders attended.  About 30% said they feel a call to serve in ministry, so we are excited to guide these young leaders so they can fulfill whatever God has for them in the future. 

The Central District held a ladies retreat for the first year that I can remember.  It was a well-organized event with an all female band and great speakers.  Shelley’s missionary friend Rhonda was in town, so we got to attend together, which made it extra special.

Our daily work duties continue with David traveling to visit churches, hold workshops and plan for the future.  Shelley has been preparing end of year reports, translating documents and finishing up the bi-monthly newsletter in both English and Spanish for the Seminary.  (If you are not on the list and want to be, just email Shelley).  David’s travels have taken him to Upala (far north of Costa Rica), Valle de Estrella (far southeast) and even to Panama – all within the last two weeks. These photos are from the trip this week to Valle de Estrella.

 We are glad to have Kay Lynn back with us as a volunteer for three more months. She has become part of our family, so when she visited the USA for three weeks, we missed her being around.  So glad she is back with us for at least a while longer.  Carol also is taking classes, but is nearly finishing up her first three months serving as a missionary.  She is doing well with her Spanish and will surpass both David and Shelley sometime soon.

Kayley recently helped with the celebration of the Day of the Child.  She led student games all afternoon and came home soaked.  But she enjoyed the time with the kids.  She goes back and forth between teaching and nursing.  It will be interesting to see which career wins.

Kayley is in an Economics class and a recent project was to start a new business and share the plan with the class.  This was a formal event presented in front of other classes and with four judges. Kayley’s project was an Italian ice store called Tina’s.  Her Italian ice was a bit hit and she tied with another student for the Best Business Plan Award.  Great job, Kayley!

We are super proud of Joshua who completed a very difficult Master’s course online for his graduation requirements – Corporate Finance.  He finished the course with a grade of a B which is just awesome.  Way to go, Joshua! 

Joshua (right) enjoying a meal at the cafeteria with his friends.

Prayer requests:

1.  Health – we have all struggled with sinus issues, which is not abnormal with the wet climate we have here, but we would like to be done with sinus headaches.  They are not much fun.

2.  We are trying to sell our Toyota 4Runner, but no takers yet.  It is a great vehicle and David will be sad to part with it, but now that we have the truck, we do not need it.  Pray for the perfect buyer to come along.

3.  Kayley and Joshua and both busy with their senior years.  Pray for a strong finish to the semester. 

4. Pray for the plans for a future event to encourage those with calls to ministry.  We are really excited about the impact such an event could have on the future of the church here in Costa Rica.

5. We have an upcoming NMI retreat in Guatemala in October.  We are excited to see many friends and coworkers there.

Thanks for your prayers and love.  We appreciate each one of you.  

The Webb family