The WebbPage Newsletter September 08

The Webb Page
Volume IV, Number 2
September 2008

The months of May – August have been busy ones
for the Webb family.
Read on to learn more…


Missionary Retreat

In the end of April the Webb family enjoyed a missionary retreat for all the missionaries of the MAC Region.


We met in El Salvador and had a wonderful time of fellowship with everyone. The adults were in meetings during the morning but we all enjoyed free time by the pools in the afternoon.




Kayley enjoying her 10th birthday in El Salvador.

Teams and More Teams

In May we hosted a team to Costa Rica Central from the state of West Virginia. It was a special treat for us since the Pastor of the Pierpont Church is our former pastor, Casey Shorr. It was a blessing to spend time with both Casey and his wife Rhonda, as well as meet some new friends from their church. They accomplished much ministry while here, including becoming experts at the VBS in Spanish.


The Pierpont Team in front of a volcanic lake near Poas.

In July we hosted the largest team we have ever worked with, the teen group from Monroe, Michigan, a team of 44 people.


They worked very hard both at VBS programs and at physical labor and we had the opportunity to work in two districts – Costa Rica Central and Costa Rica North. This team blessed both districts.



In August, we were especially busy with two teams. The first team hails from Carlsbad, CA and they worked hard to assist in planting a church in Venado, an area in NW Costa Rica close to the beach. Also, the team worked in San Pedro de Poas where the largest church of the Nazarene is located in Costa Rica. The team mixed concrete along with other outside work, that is when it wasn’t raining!



Lastly, this team worked for one long day in San Jose, doing service projects and VBSs in two local schools.


The Carlsbad Team waiting for church to begin in San Pedro.

The second August team calls Yakima, WA home. This team of 17 brought a set of Jesus Film equipment for the Nicaragua South district and assisted in planting a church on the island of Ometepe. This island is located in Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America. The team also worked on the District Education Center and became experts in plumbing (Nicaraguan style) by the end of the week.


The team standing behind, the local leaders in front.

We are still searching for the sound system for the JF equipment. Every other bag arrived, but the sound system did not. We are praying it will be located and sent on down to Managua.

FAMILY TIME
In June, we had a great time with David’s sister Tina, and her son and daughter in law, Ryan and Danielle. We filled the 5 days with views of volcanoes, mountains and waterfalls and thoroughly enjoyed the high-flying zip line. It was a ball and we were sad to see the vacation end.



In July, Shelley and the kids flew to Chicago. They kids enjoyed time with their grandmas in Iowa while Shelley learned a lot at the VIVA Conference for international workers helping marginalized children. The two weeks went by quickly, but we were pleased to see some family this year.



FUTURE EVENTS
September 22nd – 27th Training meetings in all 4 Nicaraguan districts

October 1-8 Team from Oregon works in CR Central District

October 22-28 Team from Eastern KY District works in CR North.

November – All the District Assemblies for MAC South (Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica) will take place.


FAMILY NEWS
The kids are doing well in school and have adjusted nicely to their new teachers and grades: Joshua is in 9th grade and Kayley is in 5th.

Joshua made the High School BB team and is excited to play with the juniors and seniors this year.

OUR THANKS
We want to thank our LINKS district in Tennessee for welcoming us in as LINKS missionaries. We look forward to hearing from more of you in the future and seeing you all in June of 2009.

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

Ometepe Island - Church Planting Team

Hello Everyone!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers through a very busy and blessed month in August. Two days after the Carlsbad, California team left, David flew to Managua, Nicaragua to prepare for another team that would work in the southern part of Nicaragua. This was a very special trip for many reasons.

The team which came from Yakima, WA, was a great group and they brought in a full set of Jesus Film equipment which will stay with the Nicaragua South district to be used in church planting.



This was also special because we worked on the largest freshwater island in the world, Ometepe Island, which is in Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in the Central America.


Yes, there are two volcanoes on Lake Ometepe.

However, the most special opportunity was the chance to work in help planting a new cell group in an area with a very small evangelical presence. We worked in the community of Altagracia (in English this means “high grace”). Altagracia is the largest community on the island and God opened many doors of ministry.

The team from Yakima was a living witness of the love and compassion of Christ during the day as they painted walls around the city park...



and painted the front wall of the local high school and the auditorium...



as well as passing out Jesus Film invitations in the community and the high school. In the evenings we showed the Jesus Film in the city park and saw 39 decisions for Jesus Christ.



Please pray for Pastor Oscar Lopez who is the pastor of the mother church as he and his church continue to follow up with the new believers. Pastor Oscar pastors another church on Ometepe Island and has a great love for the Lord and the people in Altagracia.

The team also spent two days working in the Bible Institute in San Jorge after returning to the mainland as they did plumbing repairs and more painting on existing facilities.



The Bible Institute is a very important part of the history of the Church of the Nazarene in Nicaragua as the first Church of the Nazarene in Nicaragua was built in San Jorge in 1945 and the Bible Institute opened in 1948. The institute is used for many district events including a youth camp where over 300 youth attended in July.



The Nicaragua South district is the biggest of the four districts in Nicaragua with 62 churches as they just organized 5 new churches this year.


The District Superintendent, Gerardo Reyes, painting and cutting down some cocos.

We want to thank Steve, Zach, Erica, Kaitlin, Nick, Samantha, Jessica, Chris, Joel, Dan, Janelle, and Gavi for all their hard work and desire to see God’s kingdom grow in Nicaragua (hope I spelled everyone’s name right!).

After David arrived home on August 28, Shelley, David and Kayley flew to Guatemala on August 29 to be interviewed by the Regional Advisory Council. But we'll tell you more about that next week!

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Cor. 15:58

In Christ,
The Webbs

Prayer requests:
Please pray for our next two teams who will be coming in October. These teams are from Roseburg, OR and from the Eastern Kentucky District.

Please pray for Joshua and Kayley as they start the new school year. Pray for organizational skills and acclamating to a new schedule both for Kayley in 5th grade and Joshua in 9th grade.

Please pray for Shelley as she works with almost 500 children in child sponsorship and all the responsibilities this entails.

Please pray for David as he will travel to all 4 districts in Nicaragua the 21st through the 26th of September with Rev. Mike Dennis. Brother Mike will be giving workshops on preaching and sermon construction with an emphasis on preaching holiness.

Carlsbad Team Update #3

Dear Friends and Family,

This is the 3rd and final update for the Carlsbad, CA team who was with us from August 5-17th. Their final day of hard labor was here in San Jose, Costa Rica. The team split into two groups and headed to two different local schools within walking distance. One was the school called San Blas, an elementary school and the other is called Salvador Umana, which is a high school.

The team performed the VBS 5 times this day at the elementary school to about 800 kids! They were troopers and even the 5th time they had the energy for the songs and actions as if it were the first. Check out this video to see what I mean!





Part of the team helped with to show the Jesus Film in a classroom. This doesn't happen too much in the goverment sponsored schools in Costa Rica, but God opened the door and we went through it! The kids enjoyed the movie and had lots of good questions afterwards. Many of the kids decided to follow Jesus and accept Him as Lord that day.



The other team cleaned and painted at the high school. Some of the national leaders cut some high grass that really needed a trim. These local school don’t receive a lot of assistance from the government to keep up the property, so this was a real blessing to them.



We enjoyed spending time with the Carlsbad team and are excited to visit them in CA in 2009 if everything works out. See you soon, guys!

In other news…we are leaving tomorrow (Friday) for meetings in Guatemala. It will be fun to see old friends and spend some time together. We will be interviewing on Saturday morning with the RAC council (Regional Advisory Council for the MAC Region) so we would appreciate your prayers. Kayley will go with us, but Joshua is enjoying a 3 day camp with his school, so we’ll catch up with him on Sunday evening.

Pray also for Monday when we go to immigration – one last time (we hope) to receive our documents for temporary residency. It has been more than a year to wait, and we’ll be glad that part of the process is over – at least for two years!

That’s it for now! Next week we’ll have some photos and information about David’s trip to Nicaragua and Ometepe Island.

God bless you all!
Shelley Webb

Update #2 - Carlsbad Team

Kayley dressed and ready to help with VBS.

Hello Everyone!

As promised, this week we will share a bit more about the hard work of the Carlsbad, CA Team. If you remember, they spent a few days in Venado (NW Costa Rica near the beach) working with national leaders to assist in planting a new church. After that, the team moved on to San Pedro de Poas (north of San Jose).

The team enjoyed getting to know Johnny Calvo and his family, along with all the other wonderful people at the San Pedro Church. They worshiped on Sunday on the grounds of the “finca” or farm/campgrounds. One of the pastor's from the team, Phil, preached the sermon, while Alex translated.



The afternoon was spent relaxing and enjoying the first ever international soccer game at the finca. What fun! Let’s just say that the California Team placed 2nd but they sure looked good!



The work for the week involved much digging, concrete mixing and hauling, a little painting and even a bit of gardening. You can see the hard workers giving it their all in these photos.









The team had the opportunity to present the VBS at a local school. After much practice in Venado, they were experts in all songs and actions. Great job, Team!




Showing the kids a craft project...no spanish required!

After having no rain in Venado (until we were loading the bus to leave!) the team learned what a Costa Rican rainy season is really like. Of course, any rain at all is a lot to this group from the Southern California desert! When they couldn’t work, they kept up their spirits by playing games and visiting.



In a few days, I’ll finish up the report of this team and conclude with a short summary of their time in San Jose.

In other news, the Webb family is celebrating a BIG event tomorrow. Joshua is celebrating his birthday tomorrow – Monday the 25th. It is hard to believe he is 14 already! He just learned he made the high school basketball team at school as a freshman. He will be challenged this year playing with kids older and more skilled than he, but he is looking forward to the challenge. He loves the sport as much as his father!

Please pray for David who is with another team (from Yakima, WA) working in Nicaragua. They have already had a great time working on the island of Ometepe and are now in Rivas working on an educational center there that is in dire need of repairs. The team brought a set of Jesus Film equipment but the sound system did not arrive with the rest of their luggage. As of yet, its location is unknown. Pray we'll find it so this set of equipment will be complete.

David will return on Thursday and we (all but Joshua) will leave for Guatemala for meetings. We appreciate your prayers as we interview with the Regional Advisory Counsel for the MAC Region. Joshua will enjoy a 3 day camp for the high schoolers while we are gone.

God bless you all! We appreciate your prayers.

The Webb Family

Update #1 - Carlsbad, CA Team

Playa Lagarto, Costa Rica and Playa Junquillal (just before the rain hit began)

Hello Everyone!

We have had an eventful 13 days with a team from Carlsbad, California. Their church sponsored team of 25 included 14 teens/preteens and 11 adults. It was a great blessing to have them here in Costa Rica assisting in Maximum Mission activities. Part of the group was here last year, so it was fun to see old friends and make some new ones. Here’s a summary of our time in Venado, a small community in Northwest Costa Rica about 2 km from the beach.

We finally arrived in the area of Playa Junquillal to our hotel called Tatanka. We were thrilled that the hotel was nice since the reservations were made sight unseen. The team was thrilled to have air conditioning since the temperatures were very warm and it was incredibly humid, something the team from CA was not used to. We even had a pool, but only got to use it for a couple of hours since the work took priority to enjoying the pool.



The “town” of Venado has about 300 occupants whose homes are stretched out all around the elementary school, a soccer field and a bar. That is all there is in this small town. There are no churches, not even a Catholic church, which is almost unheard of in Costa Rica. The church in Liberia (about 45 minutes away) had some contacts in this community and a small cell group is already meeting regularly.

The current church location. Plans are underway for a new structure.

We worked to impact the community by helping in the local school. The school has a decent roof, but does not have drop ceilings, so the heat in the classrooms can be unbearable. So, part of the team worked very hard in the heat framing the ceiling for a drop ceiling.


Before the work began...


The framing is finished!


The drop ceiling is going up!

The rest of the team split their time between painting and VBS presentation/playing with the children. The team had a number of folks who spoke in Spanish so they were able to do the VBS all on their own. What a blessing for us to be relived of some of the translating work.




Prayer time with the children in the local church.



The painting crew straining their necks to reach the highest spots.

We also showed the Jesus Film on Friday night on the soccer field. Everyone listened so attentively and around 30 people responded to the call to receive Jesus as Savior. It was a great night!

Next week we’ll share more about the team and their 4 days of work in San Pedro de Poas…

In other news, school began this week. Kayley started 5th grade on Tuesday and Joshua began 9th grade on Wednesday. It was a short week with a holiday on Friday since it is was Mother’s Day in Costa Rica. The banks and government facilities are shut down this day to honor the Mothers so I guess you can say it is a big deal.



We are thankful that the kids are off to a good start to the school year and that the team had an excellent 10 days of ministry. Please pray for David as he leaves on Tuesday for Managua to host another team. This team will work on the island of Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Another beautiful place!

Until Next Week!

The Webb Family