CALL Summer Intensives

Hello!

This summer has really flown by for the Webbs.  The kids have enjoyed their time away from classes but have managed to keep busy with various activities.  Kayley has been babysitting regularly as well as helping with VBS at church.  Joshua had an exciting trip to Panama with David and a team from Kansas.  Watch the next blog for an update about that! 

 

Shelley has spent the last month with the CALL students.  CALL stands for Christian Academy of Language and Learning, and its mission is to provide and safe and fun environment for learning Spanish.  We have two great professors from Costa Rica who teach the students for three hours each day.  This time we had six students studying for the summer session.   Here are a few photo highlights...

There were four students in the Beginners class with Professor Gaby.  She does a great job of connecting with the students.

This is Professor Zeidy and her two students James and Chad.  They seem to having fun!

Everyone enjoyed the Butterfly Farm.  It is a neat place to visit just outside of San Jose.  Costa Rica exports coccoons to all parts of the world for butterfly exhibitions at parks like Cypress Gardens.

Kayley was pleased to spend time with two new friends his summer - Kady and Thomas were lots of fun.  They are loving their iced coffee drinks at Cafe Britt.  Yum Yum!

One week the Evangelism leaders/Church planters were at the seminary for classes, so each mealtime was spent practicing Spanish (English for the church planters) and learning more about each other.

The group took a number of field trip and tours.  They went to the National Musesum, Inbio Park and San Pedro de Poas for an outside church service.  Others were adventurous and went to the beach or Arenal volcano.  This photo is from a trip to Cartago and the famous Basicila there.  We also visited the Lankester Gardens which is known for orchids.  Beautiful!

Each week a missionary speaker shared their testimony and a little about their missionary assignment.  It was great to hear from Ruben Fernandez, the Seminary president (see the photo above) about his heritage and the work of the SENDAS.

It has been a great month for the CALL students.  They have learned so much and come so far in such a short time.  It is wonderful to watch them gain confidence and to begin to hear the words - in Spanish - come out of their mouths.  They are such a wonderful group of people who will use their new words in ministry in the USA.  

If you would like to study with CALL, just let Shelley know (swebb@nazmac.org) and we will make it happen!  The next intensive session is in January 2011.  

Be praying for David as he is on a week long trip to Nicaragua.  He is visiting two districts making plans for upcoming teams and meeting with leaders.  

We are thankful for good health during this last month and for success in ministry projects.  We are excited for what is coming ahead with the new school year beginning in August and lots of projects for the fall.  

God bless you all,

THE WEBB FAMILY

TAG Team Returns

Hi Family and Friends,

Many blessings in Christ, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.  We rejoice in God's goodness in so many places in the ministry here.  One great blessing is the teams with great servant hearts that we continue to receive here.  Our latest team came from Trevecca Nazarene University in the great state of Tennessee.

This team is known also as the TAG (Trevecca Around the Globe) team.  This is the second time for us to serve with TAG teams as a team came in May 09 as well.  The team last year and this year both served in south east Nicaragua.  This time we went with the hope of planting a new mission in the community of El Almendro (which means Almond Tree).

Our compassionate ministry project centered at the local elementary school.  We helped them with some different projects including providing new sheet metal for part of their buildings and digging ditches to place pipe so the classrooms could have much easier access to water.



The kids were very excited to get water:)

                  Santiago showing the new water supply

We had actually planned on working more on the construction projects but the school surprised us with a very open door of ministry.  The school director said that this was the first time a US group had visited the school and they asked us to work directly with the children all that we could (praise the Lord for a great open door of ministry!).

We rejoice as we were able to work with over 600 children for two full days of Bible Schools and craft times.  One of crafts involved salvation bracelets which explained the plan of salvation with colors.  We were delighted as many of the teachers left wearing the bracelets as well:) This obviously took some serious energy (in the midst of working with the kids one of the Trevecca students shared, "Wow, and I thought digging a ditch was hard")

    The TAG team with the School Director Sandra and her son

In the final evening, we showed the Jesus Film and we praise the Lord as we saw over 60 decisions made for Christ that night.  Please pray for Santiago who is the leader of this new cell group and for Orlando who is the district superintendent for this district (and a great friend).  Santiago is a public accountant but has already told the Lord that he is willing to leave his job when it will be time for him to move to El Almendro with his family. 

We thank the TAG team for their great attitudes and their great witness for the Lord as they embraced and loved the community of El Almendro.  This community has a very limited evangelical presence and we pray that the gospel message will be preached in power and in clarity and that many other people will be reached through this new mission.  To God be the glory for the great things that He has done!

In Christ,
David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley

Birthday, Science Fair, Summer begins!

Hello to All,

Doesn't is always seem that May is the busiest month with school activities?  In our family, we also get to add Kayley's birthday to the list, so with the required party with a dozen girls, there is even more commotion!  But we all had a great time celebrating Kayley's 12th birthday.  We even got creative and played "Minute to Win It" games.  Here are few photos from Kayley's special day.

The science fair was also this month.  Kayley finally got to show off her butterfly display with her friend Becca.  Joshua's science project was about the effect of light on plants, but after taking photos of Kayley, Joshua had already cleaned up his area and was ready to go...so no photos of his science project this year.

Lots has been happening at the Seminary as well.  The first online course for SENDAS and the first video-conference course both happened within a week of each other. 

We are very excited to finally be reaching out to students around the world by way of technology.  It will really make theological education a reality for some who could not attend the classes any other way.

David has been working with a team from Trevecca.  I am sure he will have lots to share about that next time!

Kayley finished her final exams on Monday and Joshua has only two more half days.  Everyone is in a celebratory mood, as you can see by the water balloon photo!

We appreciate your continued prayers for safe travel for David, a great summer for the kids, and wonderful CALL (Language School) Summer term in June and July.

God bless you all,
The Webbs

The Church of the Green Roof

 The Center Point team on a Hammock Bridge close to the new church.

Hi to Friends and Family,

We have been excited to see all that God has done over the past month.  David is glad to be at home for awhile as well after a busy month.  After a three day trip to Nicaragua, David was with a US team from the Center Point Church of the Nazarene in Nashville, Tennessee.  They traveled to the very north part of Costa Rica to work in the community of Cartagos de San Jose de Upala.  

Photo:  Before we started working

This trip involved a very unique church plant.  The Costa Rica North district had recently acquired a church building and the land for only about $4,000.  This took place as a mission from a different denomination had abandoned this church building two years prior to our arrival.  The owners of the land approached the Church of the Nazarene to see if they would be interested in receiving this church building if they would pay the purchase price of the land.   Through the approval of alabaster funds, the Costa Rica North just completed this purchase in March.

Team leader Ciara multi-tasking                                                                           

The Center Point church combined forces with the Costa Rica North district to give the church building a lot of TLC that was badly needed.  In this project, we repainted the roof, painted the church, repaired windows, painted the metal window grates and worked on plumbing and electrical needs.   After three days, the community could see that there was a new church in the community (and the workers rejoiced that there were two working bathrooms!).  

                   Vacation Bible School

During this time, we also visited homes in the community (one of the local leaders started visiting at 6 am:) and ministered through a Vacation Bible school.  On Friday evening we had a concluding service and then showed the Jesus Film.  We were thrilled to have an attendance of over 70 people and to see 10 children and 5 adults accept Jesus as their Savior.  It was a great joy to see this abandoned structure being used as a church once again. 

                                                  Special Friday night service with District Supt Johnny Calvo

We jokingly talked about naming the church "The Church of the Green Roof" after applying green paint to the metal roof.  However, this has real meaning as green signifies Hope (here in Costa Rica).  We look forward to seeing how God will use this new group to bring His hope to this community of many needs.  Please pray for this new group.  We rejoice as the local leaders met with 10 people on Sunday April 18 in their first service.  The group is growing and on Sunday April 25, the local leaders reported that 30 people came for the second service.  Praise God for His faithfulness and His help in starting a new work in this community.

Thanks again Center Point Church of the Nazarene for your hard work, your love for the people here in Costa Rica and your friendship.   We believe that God is definitely beginning a very special work in Cartagos.

April Update

Hello All,
It has been another busy month with lots of activities to keep us all busy.  First, David and Shelley traveled to New Jersey to speak at a Faith Promise Missions Convention.  It was fun to see our friends from Denville, NJ after they had just worked in Costa Rica in January.

Saturday night the church had their annual Missions Dinner with food from all over the world!  Then on Sunday morning, we enjoyed a wonderful morning service and then in the afternoon spent time with some of the team members.  And of course, we managed to make a trip or two to WalMart.  We came home with one extra suitcase filled with goodies for all!

Pastor Ken Morrison and David enjoying international cuisine.

David has been traveling in preparation for two upcoming teams.  One is here now - the Center Point Church from Nashville, TN.  They are working in Costa Rica North - close to the Nicaragua border.  More on that next week!

The other upcoming team is from Trevecca University in Nashville, TN.  They will arrive in May and travel to Nicaragua Southeast district to help plant a new church.  David has made two trips there recently (car - 5 long hours, cross border, boat - 1.5 hours, then bus for 2.5 more hours).  But all is now ready and the team will be well taken care of.

 Mercedez is in the middle - studying with Jenni and Dhariana.

Shelley stays busy with her work at the Seminary, and is so pleased to have a new assistant.  Mercedez arrived in February to begin studying in the Masters program and she will be here until next May.  She has been a huge blessing to me, assisting with lots of projects. 

The kids have lots of projects, papers and tests as we near the end of the school year.  Science projects are due next week, so Kayley is putting the finishing touches on her board.  She studied butterflies and we bought two cocoons (one Morpho and one Owl) to study.  She learned lots and had fun doing it.

Thanks for all your prayers.  We appreciate it as David continues to travel in Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica.  God bless you all!
Love from us,
The Webb Family