West Virginia Team

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been a full week of activities for the Webb family. We hosted a Work and Witness team from Pierpont Church of the Nazarene in Morgantown, West Virginia. They were a fun group of 12 who worked very hard. It was a pleasure to spend time with them. This week we’ll give half the news from this week and next week we’ll finish it off. It’s just too much to share in one blog!

Our former Pastor, Casey Shorr and his wife Rhonda were with this team and they moved to pastor Pierpont church in August of last year. It was fun to see old friends and catch up on their lives.

The team of 12 arrived exhausted as they had driven all the night before to be at the airport at 3am for a 6am flight. All went well until Miami where they were delayed for 5 hours. Finally they arrived in San Jose and we spent the evening getting to know them and practicing a bit of the VBS program.

The team worked in a San Jose public school which is located near a local Church of the Nazarene. This local church is reaching out to their community and assisting this school that is in dire need of repairs. The team was here at just the right time to assist in the work. They dressed as clowns, hid behind sheets to share their puppeting skills and sang and did the actions to all the kids songs. They were a hit!

The school so enjoyed the program that the teachers asked for the material to use in the future.

The team also worked on Saturday alongside a few local church members cutting very high grass and picking up trash.

The school would like to use this space as a recreational area and are considering adding a fence. At least they can now use the flat space for a play area. It was long hard work using dull machetes and one weed eater that was not made for the job. Although some “suggestions” were made by team members about obtaining better tools, they used what they had and finished the job given to them.

Before and after! What a difference!

Another group worked on cleaning the school’s very dirty, grimy outside wall and ceiling. This was slowed by lack of ladders, but everyone pitched in and did what they could. I believe I heard some additional comments about the need for a pressure washer, but human scrubbing action worked too, just not so quickly!

The school, the local Church and the team partnered up to purchase and install new gutters for the school.

This was finished just in time for rainy season! Thanks Pierpont!

On Sunday morning we all attended the El Alto Church which is located on the seminary campus. Pastor Casey preached and our friend, Juan Manuel translated. It was a great message that touched the hearts of the people. It was a treat for us to hear a sermon in English.

In other news, this week was a special for the kids since it was the last week of school. Joshua had 5 final exams but did well. They only had half days this week with exams. They are thrilled to be on vacation from school, but we think the “I’m bored” comments may start soon. Thankfully we have a full summer of activities and teams planned to keep everyone more than busy.

Kayley received some school awards and the one she is most proud of is the Math Achievement Award. She is the only one in her class to receive this award. She learned all her times tables by heart this year and worked very hard to understand fractions as well. She deserved that award!

We'll continue the story next week with more highlights from the West Virginia Team.

God bless you!

The Webb Family

Trip to Venado

View of the Ocean from the beach near Venado.

Hello Everyone!

It has been another good week here in Costa Rica. The weather has been beautiful with the rainy season just getting underway. It has only rained once every few days and it is refreshing when it does. Here is what has happened this week.

David and Shelley took a long one day trip to visit a site for an upcoming church plant in August. The pueblo that has been chosen by the local leadership is called Venado. It is a small village located only 2km from the Pacific Ocean.

Already the pastor in Liberia has been working in this area to raise up a cell group and some leaders as there is no church of any kind in the area and the people are hungry to hear more about God.

We left at 4:30am, picked up the Costa Rican Central District Superintendent and his wife (Johnny and Mauren) and headed northwest. We arrived at 10:30 and began by visiting the local elementary school which is the only building in the town. After a short visit with the school director we were encouraged that there are some needs at the school and we received permission to return in August with more people to do some construction work and to spend time with the children.

The cell group of around 30 people is now meeting in a “building” of sorts but they have plans to build a more formal building.

The structure the people of Vendado are currently using for their sanctuary.

David is standing and Johnny, the District Superintendent and Alvaro, the Pastor in Liberia are sitting.

Five ladies of the community have already started laying some block for the front of the structure.

Johnny and Mauren Calvo in front of the new construction.

God blessed our trip and we learned a lot about the local community and there needs so we will be better prepared when the team from Carlsbad, CA arrives in early August.

A family home a few yards from the current church.

After a bit of car trouble we finally arrived home at 9pm. It was a long day, but well worth every minute. Our car is now in the shop. We need the radiator fixed (apparently on the rock roads we put a hole in it!) as well are other maintenance. We are thankful for a good sturdy vehicle for our travel needs in all 3 countries.

On Sunday we had a special service for all the churches in the Costa Rica Central District. There were about 400 people there and it was a celebration of what has happened and what will happen in this year.

Shelley sang with the worship team for this event and enjoyed singing once again. She has just started singing in the local church and has found that as long as the words (in Spanish) are in front of her, she can still find a harmonious note.

The school year will end next week and the kids are very excited! But for now, the studying must continue to be prepared for finals exams next week. Joshua’s BB season has also come to an end.

It was fun to watch him play. He was a star of the junior high team with his height and ability.

We are excited that our good friends Pastor Casey and Rhonda will be here tomorrow with their team from West Virginia. It will be a blessing to have them here. We’ll have more news about that next week.

We wanted to share that the phone numbers have changed here. Our number is 506 (country code) 2285-5005. Give us a ring if you have a cheap international rate. Otherwise download SKYPE and we can talk computer to computer for free!

That’s all for now! God bless your week!

David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley

Missionary Retreat - El Salvador

Dear Family and Friends,

Our latest adventure was a trip to El Salvador to attend a missionary retreat.

It was a mixture of work and play and a great time to be with missionary friends from the entire region and also to spend a little quality time with the family.

The retreat was held at a resort on the beach in El Salvador. The views were beautiful, but it wasn’t the kind of beach you would swim at. The waves were held back by a long line of boulders and the sand was a dirty brown. The kids found lots of crabs and other interesting creatures in the water and beach. The pools were great and Kayley enjoyed swimming with her friends and Joshua enjoyed playing water polo until his legs hurt from running in the water.

The mornings and evenings were reserved for meetings and trainings, although the parents of smaller kids took turns watching them on the beach and at the pool. It was incredibly HOT weather and the conference rooms were incredibly COLD so we could never quite decide which was better.

Of course the biggest blessing was seeing all our friends. There were nearly 70 people at our evening services. The missionaries are from all the countries in the MAC region (Mexico to Panama) as well as missionaries from Peru, Puerto Rico, Argentina, England and of course the good ole USA.

All of the missionary kids from the MAC Region.
They had a ball together! Kayley, front right and Joshua, back row in center.

Abby Slingerland, Kayley and Paige Buell in the back.

Kayley celebrated her 10^th Birthday while in El Salvador. It was wonderful to hear 50 people singing just for her and to pray over her that God would bless her in this 10^th year of her life. Everyone watched the kids take turns hitting the piñata and Kayley had the honor of breaking it open. It was great fun. Something that she will remember for years to come.

We returned home on Sunday with one sick child: Joshua. Today is Wednesday and Joshua has finally returned to school just in time to study for final exams in a week and a half. It is hard to believe it is May already. The exciting thing is that we have a team arriving next week to work here in Costa Rica Central. It will be a blessing to see Pastor Casey and Rhonda Shorr who were our pastors in Tennessee. They are bringing a team from their church in West Virginia. It will be a good time to visit and work together.

God bless your week! We’ll blog again soon!

The Webb Family

The Webb Page Newsletter April 2008

The Webb Page

Volume IV, Number 1 April 2008

The months of January – April have been busy ones

for the Webb family.

Read on to learn more…

Teams and More Teams

We always love to have teams visit the field and we had a wonderful time making plans and hosting 3 teams already this year.

In January a team from Coshocton, Ohio visited Costa Rica to help the seminary with the construction of a laundry facility for students as well as many other jobs. They planted trees, installed closet units and refinished doors, just to name a few. They were a pleasure to work with and we are excited to see them again in the summer of 2009 when we return to the USA for home assignment.

In February, David joined a team to work in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. This is the area that was hit by the hurricane (which David happened to experience) in fall of 2007. The team arrived from Grandview, WA to help with Jesus Film and other evangelism tools in order to start some new cell groups in the area. Some people in Puerto speak Spanish, but many more speak Miskitu. Many people heard the story of Jesus through the Jesus Film in their own language for the very first time and many accepted Christ and are now attending local cell groups for discipleship.

David with a prison inmate in Puerto after he received his haircut from the team members. This ministry was very effective and impacted the lives of many.

In March a team arrived to Panama Central from Sutter Creek, CA. This group was comprised of mostly youth who had a hunger and desire to share the gospel and work really hard. This trip was longer than most with 12 days in all and normally groups get tired and begin to complain – just a bit – after so long, but this group never complained once and lived in very rustic conditions. They were troopers and we are already excited for this group to return in spring of 2009 to Panama.

Not only are we excited about the work the team did in Panama but we have heard excellent reports of how the teens are now using the concepts they learned to reach their own community back home by starting a Spanish children’s group in a local apartment complex and by helping a local homeless man get back on his feet. Now that’s what mission is all about!

The Sutter’s Creek Youth mixing cement…hard work!

Child Development Centers – Panama

Finally, in March, Shelley had the opportunity to visit the 4 Child Development Centers located in Central Panama. Each of these centers is helped by Compassionate Ministries through the Child Sponsorship Program. These centers are each unique and different but all serve the children of their community through feeding programs, educational assistance and spiritual growth programs.

Some children in the preschool in La Pesa Child Development Center.

Did you know there are more than 10,000 children sponsored through the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Sponsorship Program. Here in MAC South we have almost 450 children who receive assistance each month to continue their education. If you are interested in sponsoring a child, just go to this web address: www.ncm.org and click on Child Sponsorship.

Praise and Worship time with the children in San Jose/Puerto Caimito.

For Shelley, who sees the children’s names each month on reports, it was quite an experience to meet the children face to face. Equally important was the opportunity to speak with the leaders and know them in a more personal way. They work so hard to help these children and receive nothing in return except the love of the children and the blessing of the Lord. They are sacrificial givers.

Maximum Missions across MAC South

We have been excited to see a stronger emphasis on church growth and planting in the three countries in the last few months. Each district has plans to plant new churches through the implementation of Maximum Mission in the next few weeks and months.

MM can take many forms, but in every MM the purpose is to touch the community by serving in a tangible way so that the people can see the love of Christ. When people see this love and care, they can’t help but wonder why someone is helping them in their community. This starts some great discussions and gives opportunities to minister to adults, young people and children. Many new cell groups are being started and it is our hope that these groups will one day be thriving churches.

I love this picture. I can see the excitement and enthusiasm on each face as they are about to share the good news of Jesus with the community.

The strongest example of the use of MM is being demonstrated this month of April. The district is taking on a HUGE challenge of planting 23 new church cell groups in this one month. They are working hard, especially on the weekends, to reach out to the communities. God has already done great things through their efforts as more than 250 decided to follow Jesus in the first weekend alone. Although some had doubts as to the success of this type of ministry, after seeing the miraculous results, no one doubts what God can do through those who reach out to others in love.

Family News

From the end of March until now, we’ve not had much family time as David has been traveling. But we are excited for May to arrive as we hope to find a more days together as a family. Kayley enjoys making signs for Daddy to welcome him home from trips but she has now asked for permission to just leave the sign hanging on the front door all the time since Daddy has been gone a bit too much for her liking! We are looking forward to a few days together, along with the other missionaries from MAC South, in El Salvador at the end of this month. This retreat is coming at just the right time!

Joshua continues to grow taller and is enjoying playing both basketball and drums. Kayley is excited for school to get out so she has some more free time and less homework. We will be including the children in on all the summer ministry projects so they will stay very busy.

Upcoming Events

First of all, Kayley would like you to know she is turning “double-digits” on May 3^rd as she celebrates her 10^th birthday. She will turn ten while on our trip to El Salvador. Not many kids can say they turned 7 in the USA, 8 in Guatemala, 9 in Costa Rica and 10 in El Salvador! WOW!!!

Kayley on Easter afternoon after receiving some goodies.

Another event in May that will be exciting is the arrival of a team from West Virginia to work here on the large building that is under construction. We are especially excited as Pastor Casey Shorr and Rhonda will be with this team.

We are working hard to have everything prepared for the largest team we will host this year. The 45 member team from Monroe, Michigan will be with us for one week in July. We will be planting two new churches in the San Jose area with the help of all the local leaders and church planters. It will be exciting!!!

OUR THANKS

First we want to thank our LINKS district in Los Angeles for being such a great support system for us since fall of 2005. We have learned we will be switching districts later this year and wanted to say a special thanks to you all! We hope to stay in communication and someday visit LA!

God bless you all and thank you so much for your prayers during these busy months. God is doing great things and we are privileged to be a part of what He is doing here in MAC South.

Until next time,

The Webb Family

David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley

Panama Maximum Mission with CA Team

Hello Everyone,

David returned from a great trip to Panama with a youth team from Sutter Creek, California. It was a great 10 days with this enthusiastic and very flexible group of youth and leaders.

The team joined with the local church leaders to minister in two areas of La Chorrera which is located west of Panama City. The first area is called Portrero Grande and the team assisted this church by adding roof to the new structure. The photo below is the current church where they have been meeting for services and activities. The second photo is the new structure which now has a roof to protect from sun and rain.



Of course, the team managed to find some time for fun too and had a great time playing soccer and football with the local youth. We also had a special time at the river one afternoon.



Concrete work is always everyone's favorite and this team spent their fair share of time and sweat making a floor for a building as well. We had a special celebration service Wednesday night as this was the first service under the new roof.


The team also spent much time working with the children of the community. The team came prepared with the VBS program and skits to music and both were very effective and ministered to the community. This program was held at a near by local school. The team also spent time helping clean at the school that morning.


The team also spent time in the community of La Milagrosa which has no prominent evangelical churches. The big projects there were the painting of the public pre-school and putting up the new water tank. We showed the Jesus Film there that evening. This is a community with many problems including drugs, gangs, and prostitution. However our goal was to come in with community service and evangelism to help launch a new cell group. It is interesting that the name La Milagrosa means The Miraculous...please pray for God's presence to be seen in this community in a special way and for Hermana Flor, the new cell group leader here.


As always, thanks for your prayers as we praise God for His many blessings for our teams and for us in travel and ministry. It is incredible and impossible to describe how strong the testimony of the Holy Spirit is when a US group that doesnt speak a lot of Spanish and a Panamanian group that doesnt speak a lot of English develop such strong bonds in such a short time. However, it makes it easy to remember that our God is not limited by anything, including our language and when we are serving Christ, though language and culture may differ, the Holy Spirit brings a unity that is unlike anything the world knows. Our God is a great God. Thanks Sutter Creek for your love and your friendship, you will be remembered in Panama!

Love in Christ,
David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley Webb