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 

Thanksgiving at the Beach

Dear Family and Friends,

Hope you enjoyed your turkey and all the fixins on Thursday. We enjoyed our short trip to the Pacific coast, staying two nights in a rented house with two other missionary families. It was our first time to enjoy the Pacific beach, so it was a real treat for us. The weather was perfect with temps in the 80s. The sand there is black (or dark gray) in color, so that was a new experience as well. The house we rented had two pools in the back yard that are to be shared with the surrounding homes, but we were the only ones there so the kids had the run of the pools. They made good use of the water. The waves are quite strong at this beach, so only the bigger kids could swim out a bit, but they had a ball dodging waves and body surfing.
Above, Joshua and Hannah enjoying the waves...and Kayley and Abby waiting for the wave to return.

And yes, we had a Thanksgiving dinner. Not quite the same since we did not have a big bird, but we did enjoy the ham, turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing. It was a blessing to have a couple of days off and to be in such a beautiful place as well.
Our first time to watch the sun set over the Pacific...beautiful!

This is our final week of language school. We are finishing up by focusing on writing skills. We are thankful for such a wonderful place to study for the year and pray that we’ll retain much of what we’ve learned to use in our positions in Costa Rica.

We are preparing this week for a VBS at our local church plant. It will be held for three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for two hours each day. It is anyone’s guess how many children may show up, but we are preparing for 50 the first day. We have been running about 20 on a normal Sunday, but expect more from the community. Please pray with us for this event.

After the VBS, we’ll be focusing on selling items that we cannot take to Costa Rica. There are many things we wouldn’t mind taking with us, but space is limited in our suitcases. We especially need to sell our vehicle as we’ll need to buy another once we arrive in Costa Rica. We appreciate your prayers as we list our items with the missionary community and hope to sell them all before we leave in three weeks.

That’s all for now. Thanks for tuning in and God bless your week.

The Webb Family 

Giving Thanks

Hello Everyone,

Well, First things first…We have officially completed the curriculum at Christian Spanish Academy in Antigua, Guatemala! Yeah! It was a relief to complete the final exam with good scores. We are returning to the school for six more days to work on additional writing skills, but no more exams. We thank God for a good year of studying and continue to pray that we’ll continue to learn and be successful in our new assignments.

Last week, after sharing a bit about the bus traffic here, we came upon a great example of buses being loaded to the max. These two were side by side and just couldn’t help myself but take a photo. We really will miss seeing the decorative buses each day. (By the way, they all have great names like Dora or Esmeralda.)



Another facet of transportation here is the motorcycles. They weave in and out of traffic going, in my opinion, waaaaay too fast, but I’ve not seen one wreck yet. Another unique concept here is fast food delivery. Now of course, that in and of itself is not unique, but delivery by motorcycle is a little different. And they don’t just deliver pizzas; McDonalds and Pollo Campero (somewhat like KFC, except don’t tell anyone here I said that…Guatemalans in general are a bit proud of their restaurant, which by the way is now in parts of the US and in Asia!) deliver as well. I would think the fries would be soggy by the time they arrive, but I’ve not yet heard a complaint.



Oh, and I must mention that we’ll miss Domino's Pizza here. It’s hard to describe, but it’s about 10 times better than in the states. Lots of cheese and toppings and just plain delicious.


Lastly, I tried all week to get a good photo of a taxi-van that they use here in the city, but without much success. Do you know it’s hard to get a good photo when you are moving and they are moving too? Lots of blurry images, but no good photos. Here’s the best I’ve got with just one man hanging out the door on the highway. We’ve often seen three or four hanging out since there is no more room to sit. Plus it makes a quick exit when it’s your stop! Many of the vans don’t have windows, just some kind of strong Saran Wrap. This is not a good sample of the van, but it’s all I’ve got for now.


We are excited to be taking a short vacation this week over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Of course the holiday is not celebrated here but we are taking a couple of days off since the kids will be out of school. We’ll leave for the Pacific beach Wednesday afternoon and return on Friday. This beach has black sand so that will be a new experience for us all.

There is much to be thankful for this year. I hope you will take time to count your blessings and tell God thanks for all He has done for you this year. We sure will.

Have a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

The Webb Family

Chicken Buses

Hello Everyone,
We’re very busy this week as we prepare for our final exam in our language school. So, this blog will be a short one as I need to get back to studying before long.

We are beginning to think about all the things we’ll miss (and not miss!) about Guatemala and first on the list is the interesting types of transportation here. Today we’ll highlight the “chicken bus” as we’ve affectionately heard it called. Not sure why it’s called that, but I can take two guesses. Either it’s because the people are packed on like chickens, (there are many times people hanging out the doors) or because they are willing to carry anything aboard or on the top, including chickens.

We will miss these buses because they are always bright and colorful and a natural part of life here. We will not miss them for the extreme way their “chauffeurs” drive. Fast and usually in two lanes is the norm. It’s best to just let them have their way, if you know what I mean. We laugh because almost all of them have a Mercedes symbol on the back… I don’t think Mercedes makes buses, do they?
This is Norma the Bus. I see a lot of her, so I'm guessing there's more than one. As this bus was beginning to slow just a bit, a young man opened the back door and got out to be ready to exit quickly. That's definetely a quick exit! (Notice the yellow sign in the background for The Waffle House or Casa del Waffle in spanish...don't think it's part of the chain though!)

That’s one part of life here that we’ll miss. What kind of buses do they have in Costa Rica? We don’t know, but we’ll find out soon enough.

God bless your week… if you think of us you can pray for our upcoming exams as we attempt to cram as much Spanish in as we can before the end of the week.

The Webbs
David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley