God's blessing in Panama

Greetings to family and to friends. 

We continue to praise God for truly His mercies are new every day.  Things have gone pretty fast this summer, but here are some of the updates from the past two months.

From June 23 to June 30, David had the privilege of working with a great group from Olathe Westside Church from Olathe, KS.  They brought down a set of Jesus Film equipment and funds to help with a new mission in Rio Alejandro, Panama.  This is a very depressed area near Colón (unemployment is over 40%) with a great spiritual need as well.  

                                     Church planter Guillermo helping us with the VBS at the school

God opened one door after another.  We were able to do VBS’s in a local public school where the church planter, Brother Guillermo, teaches.  We also did VBS’s in the community, painted and cleaned the park area, and had 2 presentations with the brand new Jesus Film equipment.   

                                               Cleaning, painting and clowning with the kids

Through the presentations, we saw over 60 people come to Christ, praise God!  Through it all, the Olathe Westside team ministered side by side our Panamanian brothers and sisters and were a very bright light in an area oppressed by much darkness.  

                                           The Olathe Westside Team---Thanks for your hard work!

Following this trip, David arrived in Costa Rica to work with a group of 8 church planters that are working in missional zones of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. This time was followed by a two different trips in July to Nicaragua to meet with other missional zone planters, do an evangelism workshop at a youth camp and to meet with our district leaders there.

David then headed back to Panama with another great US team from Marysville, WA.  We worked close to the city of David (gotta love that nameJ) in the community of Algarrobos.  The Marysville team also brought a set of Jesus Film equipment for the new missional zone here.   

Church planter Carlos talking to the students with the Marysville team

We again, praise the Lord, received an open door at the local elementary school where we painted, made new concrete ramps for disabled students, and cleaned.  We also did VBS’s, did crafts and received a warm welcome from teachers and students alike.  This may be the warmest reception yet for a school David has worked with as the teachers decided they wanted to provide lunch for the team on Friday and had a community farewell service for the group Saturday evening where the director of the school spoke.  

 

We give God much praise as we saw over 40 people make decisions for Christ after two Jesus Film presentations.   For some cool videos of this trip, you can check out this link to youtube where the Marysville church put together 3 different videos on this trip.
Check it out at:
www.youtube.com/user/MarysvilleNaz (once on youtube, click See All--they did one video on ministry, one on the work project and one on the tourism activities)

The Marysville Church doing a special song on Sunday


 Kids at the school showing their new bracelets from one of our craft times which teach about salvation with colored beads--black for sin, red for Christ's blood, white for purity, green for growth in Christ, and yellow for the gold in the streets of heaven.



Although every trip with a US team has been special, David had an extra special blessing as Joshua was able to accompany him on both of his Panama trips.

Joshua did a great job and actually translated his first sermon (from English to Spanish--this is a lot of pressure:) on this trip.  This was a great blessing as the Marysville team brought 2 pastors so we divided the team so the pastors could preach simultaneously at two new cell groups that started in July.  Joshua and Kayley are both real blessings and great missionaries.  

Much love in our Lord Jesus Christ--el Rey de Reyes (The King of Kings)

Back to School

Hello Family and Friends,

Well, it is that time of year when notebooks are bought, backpacks are filled and pencils are sharpened!  Yes, school started this week at ICS (International Christian School) in San Jose.  The kids have had such a fun summer that it was a little hard to think about going back, but reluctantly they boarded their taxi ride on Wednesday morning.  (We have changed companies and our friend that has a taxi is now shuttling the kids to and from school each day.)

Kayley is in 7th and Joshua is in 11th grade this year.  Last year was quite a change for Kayley with 6th grade being located in the High School wing, but this year has been a breeze as she already knows where everything is located.  Both kids have some new teachers and are getting accustomed to the new classes, but otherwise all is well.

The Slingerland kids also go to ICS, so the four of them ride together each day.  So far, so good!

David had a big summer with teams and he really enjoyed having Joshua accompany him on two trips to Panama.  David will fill you in on both of those trips sometime very soon, right David?

The other news is that David has accepted a new position with the mission as Coordinator of Ministries in Nicaragua.  So, instead of focusing on 3 countries in one ministry area (Evangelism), he is working with all ministries for Nicaragua.  This change of position started on August 1st.  Pray for David as he serves the leaders in the four districts of Nicaragua.

Thanks for your prayers! We really appreciate each one of you.

God bless you,

The Webb Family

VBS at El Alto Church

Hello Everyone!

Last week was a busy one for Kayley with our local church holding a Vacation Bible School program from Sunday - Sunday. Kayley and her friend Ammi were in charge of the music. The program had songs, but the songs had no actions, so Kayley and Ammi invented their own and led the music class each day. Way to go Kayley!

I tried to load a video but without success. So here are a couple of photos of Kayley leading the music.

Joshua has kept busy with his normal activities - playing BB each Monday night at the school, shooting hoops here on campus, reading the few new books he has, and reluctantly preparing for the ACT exam. There are practice tests online, so he has been reviewing and taking those tests, part by part, to be ready for ACT in October.  There is only one place in Costa Rica to take the ACT, but thankfully it is not too far away from where we live.

The Slingerland family just returned from their home assignment, so those 4 have been inseparable this week.  They are the best of friends.

David and Joshua will work with a team next week in the city of David, Panama so the Webb girls will be left home alone for a week.  It will be quiet but will allow for extra Mom and Daughter time.

School will start in mid-August, so the kids are already dreading the day after enjoying such a long, nice summer. 

David and Shelley have kept very busy with their work schedules, but we did enjoy taking a few days off to have David's Mom and Sister visit us here in San Jose.  It was fun to just relax with family.  We got to see Alvaro and his wife Monica who are from Columbia.  Alvaro was a foreign exchange student in David's home when he was only 5 years old and it has been many years since David's Mom has seen him.  What a blessing!


Enjoy the rest of the Summer!
God bless you all,

Shelley, David, Joshua and Kayley

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