First Day of School in Costa Rica

Joshua (7th grade) and Kayley (3rd grade) in front of our new home on the grounds of the seminary in Costa Rica. The vehicle behind is the one we are considering buying.

Hello Everyone!

It was a great week for us here in Costa Rica. The kids had their first week of school at International Christian Academy. It is located about 15 minutes from the seminary where we live. Joshua and Kayley take a small bus each day to and from school. The school is larger than they are used to with about 60 kids in the 3^rd grade and about 50 in the 7^th grade. (Their school in Guatemala had less than 20 in each class!). They have adjusted beautifully even to the idea of wearing uniforms with tucked in shirts! Mom loves the uniforms since there are no more last minute discussions about what to wear each morning.

David and Shelley spent much of the week in the car learning their way around the east side of the city. San Jose has over 2 million people and they use a series of rotundas (traffic circles) around the perimeter of the city. We are beginning to become more accustomed to the rotundas and the fact that the car on the inside land has the right of way.

We are still waiting on our shipment of crates. They should be delivered early this week. We are hoping sooner than later since David will be leaving on Friday with Eric Buell to meet up with a work and witness team in Panama. He will be gone for one week.

We will have some additional training in early February and then we’ll be off and running with our new positions in Evangelism and Youth Ministry. There are many leaders to meet in the area of Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua so we see lots of traveling in our futures.

We do have a new post office address here and have learned that the mail actually arrives here in Costa Rica, as opposed to Guatemala where we rarely received any of our mail!

Please address mail to David Webb, Seminario del Nazareno, Apartado 3977-1000, San Jose, Costa Rica. It is best to send by first class mail through the US Postal Service.

One of the VBS classes at the Tibas church. Notice Kayley and Paige on the right side as they memorize a verse in spanish. The lady teaching is actually Joshua's English teacher at his school.

The church in Tibas where we have attended the last few weeks held a VBS this week. (Costa Rican schools do not start up again for a few more weeks.) It was wonderful to watch as the teachers had standing room only in their classrooms! This is the first time for the church to hold this type of activity in a number of years, so it is a great start. They also had a medical clinic, youth evangelism, and a concert for youth in a local park after repainting and cleaning the area. What a great outreach to the community.

We do have a few prayer requests this week as we continue our adjustments here:

1. Pray for our crates to arrive soon and with all our dishes unbroken!
2. Pray for the kids as they continue to adjust to their new school and for Joshua’s school schedule since we’ve requested a change in his French class.
3. Pray for our continued growth in the language. We cannot be fully effective in ministry without more fluency.
4. Pray for David and Eric as they leave for Panama this coming weekend.
5. Pray for our many necessary purchases in the coming weeks: vehicle, household goods and some furniture.

Thanks to you all for your faithfulness in prayer! You are the best!

The Webb Family

Together Again

Hello All,
We are excited to be all together once again as David has now joined us in Costa Rica. We have been here a little over a week and are beginning to feel adjusted to our home and surroundings. We have much to learn to be acclamated to the city and our new jobs, but we're excited to get started.

Which leads to the most recent change in our lives: our new positions as missionaries. David has been appointed as Coordinator for Youth and for Evangelism and Shelley will be assisting him in these two positions. We are excited to work together and Shelley is especially grateful for the change as the position in finances was completely new with much to learn and in addition not in an area of past experience. And so, we are thankful for God's leading in a new direction. God is good!

The kids are adjusting well and will begin school on Monday. They will ride a van to school along with the Buell girls, who by the way, have been great playmates for Kayley since our arrival. Above you can see the back of our new home with the girls posed while playing "spy games" with the 2 way radios.

The campus is as beautiful as we remember with trees, flowers and greenery. The temperatures here are a bit cooler than Guatemala, at least for now. It has been in the low 70s during the day. At night it is a bit cool but with an extra blanket it is fine. (Remember, there's no heat or air conditioning here). We remember well the chapel building (which you can see with the steeple in the photo above) as we helped to paint the chapel in 2003 when we visited here on a Work and Witness trip. It still looks good!

We are anticipating the arrival of our six crates which should arrive by the end of next week. We are praying for no problems in retrieving them from customs. We have been without "our" things for a year and it will be fun to remember what's inside those crates. Our house has 3 bedrooms upstairs and a guest bedroom downstairs so there is ample space for us all. Shelley especially is wanting to make this house a home by having our things dispersed throughout.

We appreciate greatly your continued prayers as we adjust to life here. God has been good in it all and has made a way for us, from fitting things into suitcases, to providing the nicest airport personnel ever, to planes being on time, to problemless immigration and customs ventures, to a beautiful home, to great new friends...the list is long to all our blessings these days. Count yours, I bet your list is long too!

God bless your week...See you next week with another update.

La Familia Webb

Yes, We've Arrived

Dear Friends and Family,

So sorry to be so long in updating the blog. Shelley's laptop is not linking to the internet here for some reason, so computer time has been very short. I am now borrowing a computer from another missionary family here, the Buell's. They have been a real blessing to me (Shelley) and the kids since we arrived here (San Jose, Costa Rica) last Thursday afternoon.

We are settling into our house and are all enjoying it a lot. We are excited that our shipment of crates has arrived in Costa Rica, but we'll have to wait another week or so before receiving as it must go through the customs process. We are anxious to see our belongings that we've been without for an entire year.

The kids are adjusting well. Kayley has played non-stop with the Buell girls and Joshua has enjoyed roaming the campus and playing BB. They will start school on Monday. David will arrive this Friday after a 10 day trip to South Africa and we are anxious for his arrival. We have emailed a few times and he is enjoying his meetings and trainings there.

Sorry for no picture this time, but when my computer is working, I'll upload a bunch. Thanks for your prayers. The kids and I have really felt God's help during this time of transition. Keep praying for our spanish. It's hard to get going again after a two week break.

God bless you all!
The Webb Family

The Webb Page Newsletter - December 2006

The Webb Page
Volume II, Number 7 December 2006
www.thewebbspage.blogspot.com

¡FELIZ NAVIDAD! MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

First, we’d like to say a big THANKS to you all for your prayers and support this year. It has been a wonderful year and we are excited about our upcoming move to Costa Rica. This fall brought some special opportunities in ministry and in our personal lives.

Maximum Mission – October
We were privileged to help with another work and witness team, this time from Michigan. We worked in the area of Lake Amatitlan doing community service, VBS in the park and giving a jump start to a new church in the area. This picture to the left shows the final touches of paint being added to the sanctuary in Villa Nueva. It was a very productive week of ministry.


VBS at Colinas - December
Our local church plant held a VBS for three days in December. It’s a great time to hold a VBS here in Guatemala since the kids are on school vacation from mid October until mid January – yes, it’s their summer break. We used the theme of Navidad and the kids had fun learning about the angels’ message to the shepherds, the birth of Jesus and the three wise men. We had around 25 kids each day so it was a good turnout and a successful VBS. We are excited to hear how this church grows in the coming months.

Thanksgiving at the Beach
A highlight for our family was spending time with two other missionary families at a house very near the black sand beaches of the Pacific Guatemalan coast. It was a time to relax and have fun and be thankful for all our many blessings.
The photo includes Joshua and Kayley as well as Hannah and Abby Slingerland enjoying the beach. And yes, we enjoyed turkey!





Language School
We completed our final lessons at our language school in the first week of December. It was a good feeling to have completed the curriculum, but we realize we have much to learn. Studying does not end now, nor will it in the near future. There is always more to learn when it’s a second language. But we are truly thankful for such a wonderful place to study and learn.

A Little Wreck
We had a car wreck just two days from completing our daily trips to Antigua and the same day that we listed the car for sale on the internet with the missionary community here. How ironic! But God was with us and saved us from all the problems that could have come from this accident. We walked away without a scratch to the amazement of those who witnessed the event. You can read more on our blog at www.thewebbspage.blotspot.com.
Here’s our poor little Pathfinder after the incident. It held up pretty well except for the front chassis. We’ll miss this vehicle!



What’s Happening Now
Well, Mom and Dad are sorting, selling, organizing and packing things for the move to Costa Rica as well as spending some time in the office learning more about their future positions in Costa Rica. The kids are busy finishing up this semester at CAG. Since we are leaving the school a few days early, Joshua needs to take his exams early. This is a bit stressful for him, but he’ll be glad to be done with his studies for awhile. They will both miss their school and their friends here. This will not be an easy move for them as they have adjusted rapidly and this is truly home for them.

Future Plans
We will leave here on December 17th to visit family and friends in Iowa and Illinois. The first order of business is to arrange for our crates to be moved to Costa Rica. We are all excited to see what’s in them as we can hardly remember after a year.

We will fly out of Chicago on January 2nd, but not all of us together. David has meetings in South Africa, so he will be leaving that morning for his long flight to Johannesburg while Shelley and the kids will leave a few hours later for Guatemala. Shelley and the kids will have one day in Guatemala to make final arrangements and then arrive in Costa Rica on the 4th, and David will arrive about a week later. The kids’ new school does not start until January 15th, so they will enjoy a nice long holiday with lots of time to explore their new surroundings on the seminary campus in San Jose.

Merry Christmas!
This newsy letter will have to substitute for the beautiful Christmas card with a stunning photo of the Webb family, at least for this year. We are excited to celebrate the birth of Jesus with our family and friends and pray your holiday will be a special reminder of God’s amazing love for you.

God’s Blessings to You,
David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley Webb 

A Crazy Week!

Dear Friends and Family,

Yes, it was a crazy week! Two days before ending our time in language school, we were in a car wreck on the road from Antigua to the city. We are thankful to be unharmed, although we can’t say that for the Pathfinder.


It all took place when a man on his bicycle decided to cross in front of us on a highway. There was no way to avoid hitting him, but by turning hard to the right, we were able to avoid a head on collision. We then ran into a concrete culvert thing, kind of like a ditch and from the impact our vehicle turned on its side with the driver door on the side of the road. Apparently, the man is OK because by the time we were able to get out of our vehicle (after being pushed back onto our wheels by 10 or 12 bystanders) he was gone. Other people said that he realized it was his error and did not want to be responsible for the damage to our car or our bodies. So, that’s the big news of this week, but in all of it we felt protected by God. It is truly miraculous we were not hurt and that we did not seriously harm the man in the street.


The Pathfinder held up very well, except that the front chassis is broken in two. We have yet to hear from the insurance company, but probably it will be totaled. We are sad as it has been a great vehicle and really held up well in spite of the wreck. We are now believers in larger vehicles!

Otherwise, the week progressed as normal with the completion of our time in language school on Wednesday, a day in the office on Thursday and a Christmas party on Friday. Probably the best part of the week for us was the VBS we helped with at our church on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was a lot of work as we only have 4 or 5 adults to help, but the kids were well-behaved. We had around 26 kids each day, with a few less on Sunday. Lots of music, crafts and Bible lessons about the meaning of Navidad. They enjoyed it tremendously and received prizes for learning the memory verses. We are sad to have only one more Sunday at Colinas, but trust that God will continue to build the church through the labor of Pastor Daniel and the others.

We have two more weeks here before traveling to Iowa and Illinois for Thanksgiving and New Years. We’re busy sorting and packing to try to fit our clothes and things into our suitcases. We were allowed two 70 lb bags each when we moved here and now we can take only 70 lbs each to Costa Rica. That is the challenge for this week as well as continuing to prepare for our assignments in Costa Rica.

God bless you this week! And thanks for your continued prayers for our family during this time of transition.

The Webb Family