Back to Life in Costa Rica

Hello Dear Family and Friends,

We arrived back in Costa Rica a few weeks ago and we hit the ground running.  One of our goals for these few weeks was to visit every one of the four churches in the area of Heredia (one of the Provinces (States) of Costa Rica).  We have visited the San Isidro de Heredia Church a few times, but we did not know where the other 3 churches were located.

This may not sound like much of a goal, but when you live in a country where there are no street addresses, finding anything can be very difficult.  One of the addresses we were given was to find the big grocery store in a particular communty and head 200 m west.  Another one was to find the soccer field, take a right, then find the cemetery, then you are close.  The last one was to find another of our churches, take the roundabout, go past the gas station and then take a left on the second little street after the bar.  (We found 3 bars there, so that one was harder, but we found it!).

Church in San Francisco de San Isidro de Heredia

Anyway, we have now successfully visited all 4 Heredia churches.   Each Pastor and church is very special, and we enjoyed so much worshiping with each congregation.  These four Heredia churches have a plan to do evangelistic work together in their communities.  In November, they plan to hold a Maximum Mission event, doing community service and outreach, to help the smallest church in Fatima. The church is alive in Heredia!

The Doctoral Student Group with Dr. Hahn from NTS (left in red).

Another special time was spent with the doctoral students from Central and South America as they were on campus for two weeks studying with  NTS (Nazarene Theological Seminary).  It was great to spend time with all of them.  We enjoyed a tour day to Poas Volcano.

Happy Birthday to Pam Tooley (former CALL student) and Professor Zeidy.

Shelley has been doing lots of future planning in these weeks, both with the CALL language school program as well as with the ESL program.  On top of that, she is working hard to translate into English a book in the School of Leadership series.  Since our Region now includes the Caribbean English field, some of our Seminary resources must be translated into English.  This is interesting work since it involves research.  You see, the quotes are in Spanish, but most were originally in English.  So Shelley has to find the original books (not always easy!) to have the original English in the translation.

Darin and Tonya Kucey, ready for their Spanish lesson with Professor Zeidy.

We have two students arriving for CALL classes this weekend.  We are excited to welcome the Reinharts.  They will study for one full month, learning all they can from Professor Gaby.  The Kucey's continue classes as well.   They are taking about 18 hours per month from Professor Zeidy.  They are advancing well in their Spanish language learning!

David made a special trip to Liberia recently, where we have 16 missions or preaching points.  He and Franlym Pena, Seminary professor and administrator, held meetings to discuss ideas for providing more and better theological and discipelship education for the church planters and cell group leaders.

This week, Shelley and David visited the church in Palmares, located about 1.5 hrs from the Seminary.  A team from Washington will be visiting in January, so we visited the church where our friend Felipe is the Pastor to plan ahead for this team.  We drove about 3 km on a windy, mountainous road to meet a few of the cell groups members in Candelaria.  Plans are taking shape, but a return trip in late October should solidify the plans.  

The Church at Palmares

Beautiful views on the way to Candelaria.

David is excited to travel to the Indigenous area next week (3 days) and then to the Dominican Republic for Evangelism Leadership meetings later in October.  Lots to do!!!

Kayley has been very busy getting caught up at school.  She missed 3 weeks of classes and although she did lots of homework on the road, there was still lots to do upon her return.  Finally, she took her last make up test on Saturday (make up tests can only be taken on Saturdays!) so she is officially caught up!  She has just two weeks of classes and then a week long fall break.  Yeah for Kayley!

We have all enjoyed Stephen and Anne Sickel's new baby, Micah. He is such a good baby and it is fun for us all to have a little one on campus.

Kayley with Baby Micah.

Joshua (OAK t-shirt) and the gang from the Pierpont Church in WV.

Joshua is settled in now at MVNU (Mount Vernon Nazarene University).  He is enjoying college life, complete with the full service dining hall and evening basketball games.  He really enjoys his psychology class and is putting up with biology.  He has a work study job at the IT Help Desk.  He is having to relearn the PC system since he has become accustomed to his Mac.  We are thankful for skype so we can see and hear from Joshua once in a while.

Joshua in the student lounge with Travis is roommate (yellow t-shirt).

A big thanks to you for praying for us.  We are blessed to have so many praying for us each week.  God bless you!

The Webb Family

Three Weeks in the USA!

Hello to Everyone!

Well, we are now back in Costa Rica after a 3 week visit to churches in the States.  Here are some highlights from the past three weeks:

1.  Kayley passed her permit test and learned to drive (kinda).  

2.  Joshua passed his driver’s license exam and driving test.  Yes, he is a good driver.

David and Pastor Doug DiBell in Monticello, IA.

3.  We visited 3 churches in Iowa (Monticello, Centerville and Des Moines Southside) and spoke to two different Bible Study groups.  Then onto Ohio (New Life Church of the Nazarene in Mount Vernon) and finally Naperville, Illinois.  A whirlwind tour!

Ladies Bible Study in Leon, IA (David's Mom is standing in the back).

Preaching at Naperville, IL

4.  Joshua celebrated his 18^th birthday.

5.  We traveled to Mount Vernon, Ohio to leave Joshua off for this freshman year at MVNU.  

Joshua in his new dorm room with his friend Hunter.

Joshua on MVNU campus.

6. David went to an Iowa State football game in Ames and traveled 10 hours by car to do so.

7.  We safely returned to Costa Rica this week.

8.  We were promptly greeted by the 2^nd strongest earthquake Costa Rica has ever experienced:  7.9 located in Nicoya on the Pacific coast. 

Today David has gone with some other missionaries to help one of the local pastors.  A retaining wall fell onto a small house and 3 truckloads of dirt fell on the side of the house.  Lots of digging!  The boys will come home sweaty after their hard day of work.

Shelley is looking forward to a great day of playing tour guide tomorrow for a group of 11 doctoral students and their professor.  We are praying for clear skies in the morning after an all night rain.  

Thanks for all your prayers and support.  God bless you all!

The Webb family

FOCUS Youth Conference, Panama City, July 2012

Hello,

David getting ready to translate for workshops.

I just wanted to share a few photos and some basic info about what David and Joshua have been doing for the last week.  They left last Tuesday for Panama City.  David translated for workshops for the FOCUS event and Joshua helped with the Central Church team from Lenexa, KS. 

The FOCUS conference is the first of its kind since it is first youth conference held for the new Mesoamerica Region.  There are 30 countries on the Region now, and the majority were in attendance (which is an amazing feat when you consider all the visa regulations, border crossings, expenses and long travel days required to arrive.)  More than 600 people attended the conference which lasted for 5 days. Translation was necessary with English, Spanish and even some French speakers on site.

There were many highlights, but one special moment was when the 5 youth from Cuba finally arrived in time for the end of the Thursday night service.  It is a total miracle that at the last moment they were given visas to leave Cuba for this event.  When it was announced that they had arrived, they stood, and the cheering lasted for quite some time!  An amazing moment to be a part of - even if by streaming!

David in one of the many workshops.

Joshua (in blue Tshirt) at La Pesa construction site.

The Central Team, among others, with Joshua in the background, probably helping the team to order from the menu.

Shelley and Kayley stayed at home, but were able to watch much of the event through live streaming.  It was fun to see Joshua and David there in Panama. 

Joshua is working with Stephen Sickel, the W&W Coordinator, to assist in leading the Central Team.  They are working in La Pesa, a community where there is a Church of the Nazarene, a preschool and a Child Development Center.  Shelley has been there since she worked with this Child Development Center in her previous work for Compassionate Ministries.  On the service day for FOCUS, a group from the event went to La Pesa and helped for the day.  Great experiences for all!

The Webb boys will return to Costa Rica on Saturday, after they finish up their work with the Central team at La Pesa.  Stephen Sickel will return home soon to be here in time for the birth of their baby boy!  YEAH!

Joshua leaves on August 3rd for the USA, first for the MK Retreat in Oklahoma City, then a couple of weeks touring on deputation and then to Ohio and MVNU for this move in day on the 31st of August.  What a whirlwind!  
 

Also, a quick update on the Las Marias church construction.  Here is the most recent photo I have from the site, but I know that two local churches are planning a trip in the next week or two to try to complete the work.  The team from Kansas City did a great job and completed the vast majority of the new parsonage for a well-deserving Pastor Franklin and his family.  Thanks!!!

Thanks for keeping up with the blog and for all your prayers and support.  We hope to see you soon!
The Webb Family

Summer Update from Costa Rica

Hello Dear Family and Friends,

What a great summer we have had so far (even though it is winter here!).  We have enjoyed a second W&W team, this one working at SENDAS as well as keeping up with the PLNU (Point Loma Nazarene University) students as they completed their second Spanish course on campus.

Let's start with the W&W team from the CORE Church of the Nazarene in Virginia.  The team had 7 members from Virgina and 3 from Ohio.  They worked all week long on various projects at SENDAS including paining the inside of an entire house, digging trenches and beginning the work on a new restroom and putting up a wall to divide the computer room into two smaller classrooms.  WOW!  What a great help to the Seminary.  Thanks, guys!

I want to make special mention of the two people in this photo (above). They are Ted and Lori Bruce, and they volunteered their time (and funds) to lead this group.  With Shelley's other responsibilities, it would have been impossible to lead the team by herself.  Thanks to the Bruce family, the VA team had a great experience.  

The team also spent one day in Sarapique area, where the Church has a number of new missions.  It is an area filled with pineapple and banana farms and most people work in those two industries.  It is a humble place with many needs, but the people are so kind and warm. (I mean they are nice, but it is really HOT there!)

Since the PLNU students went on the work day too, we had about 30 people all together.  So we split into two groups and one group led children's activities while the rest worked on the new pastoral home behind the Las Marias church.  Lots got done in one day!

This is the current pasonage at Las Marias. 

This is the new home under construction!  A good start!

That is one DIRTY, STINKY team!  Way to go!

The Point Loma students enjoyed their final week in Costa Rica by visiting Volcan Irazu, studying for the final exam and enjoying a final fiesta with their language partners and home stay families.  CALL (the Language program) combined forces with a local church to provide weekend home stays and 4 hours of conversational practice per week.  It was a huge success with the students loving their families and the Ticos loving their students.  What a blessing!

 

The final night for Point Loma was a big celebration with the local families from the Los Angeles Church.  It was a special night to say goodbye to new friends.  Thank God for facebook!

Now, a well-deserved vacation is in order for the Webb family.  We have been going non-stop for a number of months and it is time for a short rest.  To Arenal Volcano we go for a couple night stay and a day of white water rafting! Look out, La Fortuna...here we come.

After the short vacation, the boys have a busy time ahead of them as they prepare to leave for the FOCUS youth event in Panama.  They will be gone for 2 weeks, then Joshua will be home for 4 days and then he is off to the USA to prepare for college.  Wow!  The time is flying by.

Those of you in Iowa and Ohio, we look forward to seeing you in August as we travel for deputation.

God bless you all!  Until next time,
The Webb family

Update from June 2012

Hello!

It has been a few weeks since our last post so we need to catch you up on what's been happening this month in Costa Rica.  First of all, we had wonderful special church service for all the Churches of the Nazarene in Costa Rica at the end of May, and it was very well attended with approximately 650 people in attendance.  It was standing room only! 

 Kayley practiced with her dance team for the entire month prior to the big day.  The dance team even got new outfits.  The girls looked beautiful and did a great job with the actions to the songs. 

The Point Loma study abroad group is continuing their studies in Spanish until July 7th.  They are learning lots, but it is a very intensive course with 8 credit hours earned in 9 weeks. Six new students joined the group on early June for the second session.

The six new chicas (along with Andra from PLNU) enjoying downtown San Jose.

The students have a field trip every week, home stays with local church families and language partner conversational times where the students practice all they have learned.  During week 5, the students travelled to Volcan Arenal for a 3 night mid-term visit.  They enjoyed their time there including activities such as river rafting, zipline, horseback riding and waterfalls.

The teens from Pierpont, along with Josh and Kayley.  

 

On June 7th a W&W team from Pierpont Church in Morgantown, WV arrived to Costa Rica.  They worked in evangelism and construction projects in the area of San Pedro de Poas.  They mainly worked at local schools doing VBSs for kids, painting roofs and fences and doing repair work.  Also, one team member, a electrician (Chuck) worked hard on completing the wiring for a new kitchen facility at the San Pedro Church.  They did workshops for Pastors and showed the Jesus film as well.


It was a full week for all!  Joshua and Kayley helped to lead the team, with both of them helping with translation throughout the week.

David translated the sermon for Pastor Casey Shorr. 

The adults from Pierpont along with David and Shelley

Beautiful view from Vista del Valle hotel where the team spent their last night in Costa Rica.

Just today (Saturday), Joshua graduated from high school at ICS in Heredia, Costa Rica.  It was a nice ceremony this morning with the class of 2012.   Joshua received the award for Basketball MVP, shared with his best buddy, Kevin.

Josh with is BB MVP trophy

 As a graduation gift from his parents, Joshua received a hammock.  You can see he is already enjoying it and he has big plans for its use at Mount Vernon Nazarene University this fall (inside the dorm room and out!).  He enjoyed relaxing and reading his book in his new hammock and likes to get creative about hanging out locations. 

As you can see, it has been a busy June.  We are blessed in so many ways and we say THANKS for keeping up with the blog and our ministry here in Costa Rica.  We are looking forward to a 3 week deputation tour in Iowa and Ohio in August.  Maybe we will see you along the way!

God bless,
The Webb Family