Travel, Routine and Rainbows

Hello All,

It was nice to have David back home once again after his 10 days in Nicaragua. He was home only a few days before heading off to Nicaragua once again for a one day training session in

The group of church planters in Managua. Each person is preparing paperwork to explain their plan for starting a new church in their area.

Managua and now he is having meetings and leading some trainings in the west part of Panama. He called last night and is well and the trainings have been great. We hope he will return on Sunday night. (We miss him, but we miss the car too!)


David working hard to review all the new church planter forms.

This week has been a normal routine for us with school and work. Shelley keeps busy with Sponsorship translation and administration as well as coordinating the schedules and plans for the teams that will arriving yet this year. The next team is scheduled to arrive in Panama City on March 20th and David will be leading that team in two areas west of Panama City to plant a new church and help with an existing one. Much planning has gone into this team's arrival and we're sure God will use them to make a difference.

The kids are doing well. Joshua continues with basketball practice at his school two nights each week as well as drum lessons one night. Kayley has a new friend here at the seminary. Her name is Valeria and she is the daughter of two new students from Mexico who will be here studying for one year. They are both medical doctors and have given up their professions for this year to study theology. Kayley has enjoyed having a girl her age to play with.

We have mentioned before that often we see the most beautiful rainbows. God gave us another a few days ago as we were waiting for the school van to pick up the kids.



On that note, we'll say goodbye for this week. And remember if you are in the north part of the USA and are growing weary of snow, cold and ice...we're only a flight away!

God bless you,
The Webb Family

Hi everybody,

David just returned from a trip to Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua and surrounding areas with a Jesus Film team from Grandview, Washington. The picture at the top shows David with Angel and Feliciano. Feliciano, who is in the middle, is from Masaya which is in the central part of Nicaragua and has been recently assigned as a missionary within the district to work in the Puerto Cabezas area. His goal is to raise up pastors and 4 new churches in this area this year.

Thanks for everyone’s prayers as God continues to move in truly amazing ways in Nicaragua. We received many answers to prayer through out this trip.

After the team from Grandview, WA arrived in Managua on Tuesday February 5, we flew out February 6 to Puerto Cabezas which is an area on the northeastern part of Nicaragua. In this part of Nicaragua, the indigenous people are Miskito and they also speak the language called Miskito. The Miskito live in areas of southern Honduras and Northern Nicaragua. Although many people speak Spanish, Miskito is their heart language and, praise the Lord, Miskito is one of the 1,031 languages that the Jesus Film is now shown in. Although it is a beautiful language, I am only able to speak a few phrases.

The team from Grandview was outstanding to work with and I want to give a special thank you to Benno, Teresa, Woodie, Sherrie, Leroy, Susan, Ruth, Ron, Ruben, Abner, Courtnee and Vanessa for a job well done. We are also so thankful for the local leaders in Nicaragua who are working so hard with limited resources in the work in Puerto Cabezas.

The team by the Caribbean Coast


Many beautiful smiles and beautiful children

We had a wonderful time as we received a warm reception through out our trip. Although this area suffered much devastation from Hurricane Felix in September, people met us with smiles wherever we went. Many people suffer greatly as many crops were severely damaged and there are many basic medical needs that are unmet. After a day of getting everything in place, we traveled to the village of Santa Marta last Thursday where some of the team gave medical care to 76 people while others played soccer with kids and shared the gospel through the evangecubes.



There are still many reminders of Hurricane Felix

On Friday, we traveled to Sisin where we painted the city park and again had a chance to share the gospel in many ways. The team had trouble staying busy as people in the community kept volunteering to take the wire brushes to clean and the paint brushes to paint. One of my favorite moments is when a six year old girl scolded one of the members on the team for his sweeping style and promptly took the broom away from him! We also were able to sample the delicacy of turtle eggs while we were there, yum!

Turtle eggs and help from all ages

On Saturday, some of the team worked with kids in the neighborhood of Loma Verde while others went to the prison. Members of the team cut over 20 heads of hair (one of our team members with clippers chased one fellow with a pony tail, but the prisoner wasn’t about to give it up) and those in the team with medical specialties treated over 40 prisoners. We praise God as 10 prisoners accepted Christ after presentations of the evangecubes during this time.

Evangecube presentation during a haircut

Of course the presentations of the Jesus Film were especially impacting. Many of us agreed that the scene of Jesus calming the storm created some conversation in the crowds as they had so recently experienced a Category 5 hurricane. Yet, no matter how great our needs I am reminded constantly that our God meets the greatest needs of all—forgiveness and new life in Christ. After four days of ministry and presentations of the Jesus Film we saw over 650 people attend the Jesus Film presentations and 148 decisions to follow Jesus Christ. It was very impacting to see how much the people responded to hearing this film in their language.


Decisions for Christ on Friday evening

Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in Puerto Cabezas as there is great need and great opportunity to minister to the body, soul and spirit there. Also please pray for our local leader Feliciano Perez as the real work is just beginning as he and other leaders continue to disciple and to train the new believers.


We rejoice in the fact that in the face of hardships of many kinds we serve a God that can meet all needs. It can be overwhelming at times but we remember that Christ fulfills the Scripture, The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Luke 4:18-19. Praise the Lord, whatever our past, we have a Savior and Lord who desires to have a relationship with each one of us and to fill our lives with His presence. And He truly does set us free.

We can say with our brothers and sisters in Puerto Cabezas, Dawan pain sa (God is good).

Dawan yamni mai munbia ("God bless you" in Miskito)
The Webb family

Hello Everyone,

This week we were blessed to see old friends and meet some new ones. A communications team arrived in MAC South to do some filming of the seminary and some other locations in the area. It was fun to spend some time with them. David met Rod last year on a work and witness trip to Panama while Rod was still pastoring in the states. On the W&W trip, Rod felt the Lord leading him to serve with the MAC region. Before he even got him, his wife, by telephone, told him the same thing. So, long story short, Rod and Deb now live in Guatemala and serve with the church in Communications. They also brought along a team, including two from Guatemala and two from the states.


Rod and Deb to the left, then Nixon from Guatemala, then Lee Rudeen and Bryan Rich (missionary kids who now work in Communications in KC, and finally one more from Guatemala.

We also were blessed by the visit of Sherri Adams, our missionary friend who we spent much time with in Guatemala. She was here to do some training, but we managed to get in a full day of touring at La Paz Waterfall Gardens. It is a beautiful place and if you come visit, we'll take you there


The kids are working hard at school and for the most part it is going well. Joshua is on the middle school basketball team, one of the tallest ones, and Kayley is enjoying learning more Spanish and spending time with her best buddy, Jasmine.

We see many rainbows here since there is often precipitation in the mountains surrounding us, but sunshine where we are. The other day we saw one so big, we couldn't get it all in the camera at one time. Just beautiful! (This photo doesn't really do it justice).
That is our house at the bottom left. We live in the right half of the two story building.

David is off once again with a Jesus Film team in Puerto Cabezas. He is excited about this team since they will be showing the JF and ministering in areas where only Miskito is spoken. Two people on this team can speak this language and that is a huge blessing. Please pray for this team as they work this week on the NE coast of Nicaragua.

There will be more visitors on the way as we begin 2 days of meetings on Thursday. The leaders are coming from Guatemala, Panama and Nicaragua, so you can also pray for their safe travel.

Thanks for all your prayers and support,
Love you all,
Shelley and family

Coshocton, OH Work and Witness Team

Hello All,
We have had a great two weeks since we last had time to post a blog. This week we'll talk all about the Work and Witness team from Ohio who came to the Seminary to build a laundry facility for the students, among various other projects.

The 15 member team arrived last Friday and began work right away on Saturday. The laundry facility needed tile, concrete sidewalk, window frames, electric and various other needs to make it ready for student use. The first picture shows the building as they began and you can see all the progress in the next couple photos.





Since the area for the laundry facility was small, the ladies of the team accomplished various other projects including planting trees, installing closets in the student rooms, refinishing desks, chairs and doors and last but not least, painting the outside of three buildings.



The seminary is so thankful for the great work this team accomplished in only one week. Way to Go, Team Coshocton!

Four members of the team spent their time teaching classes. Dale taught a pastoral counseling class and Sharon translated, while Frank and Jeanette taught discipling courses each day. This was a great service to the seminary and to the Costa Rica Central district. In addition, two team members gave "lessons." Shelley received a lesson in Excel to help with her Child Sponsorship reports and Kayley received a sewing lesson from one of the team leaders, Cindy.



Of course, there was time for fun as well. The team enjoyed shopping in Moravia, visiting Cafe Britt and especially enjoyed their travel day which included a visit to the volcano, a jungle boat ride and great views of scenery before eating out that evening. It was a great day for all, including Shelley and Kayley who accompanied the team on this excursion.





It is always hard to say goodbye to teams, but after their week of hard work, they were ready to head to the airport early this morning. We built great new friendships with this wonderful group of people and can't wait to visit their church in Coshocton, Ohio in 2009! That will be a fun reunion.

Today (Saturday), after seeing the team off early, we are very busy RESTING! I think we'll take in a movie this afternoon and just enjoy some time together as a family. We are looking forward to a fun week ahead as we'll have visitors from Guatemala. Early in the week, Rodrigo and Deb Rivera, the Communications Directors will be here doing some filming and then on Friday our friend Sherri will arrive and we hope to spend some time with her on Saturday. After that it is time for another team, this time in Nicaragua.

We hope and pray you are all well. Miss you all,
Shelley, David, Joshua and Kayley

Christmas Vacation

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy New Year! Sorry that we’re a little late in announcing that news, but it has been a whirlwind since returning to Costa Rica. We had a wonderful visit in the USA with family and friends and will share a bit about the fun-filled two weeks in this blog.

Probably the biggest praise is that even through hazardous travel conditions, we never had any serious problems and were able to see everyone we had planned on seeing. It all started in Chicago where David’s brother met us at the airport. The next morning after a quick shopping trip to WalMart, (YEAH!) we got to visit with Amy Wallace and her daughter. Amy has been a special friend since our Tennessee days and we try to get together whenever the Lord allows.

Then it was on to Iowa and Shelley’s family. Yes, there was snow and lots of it. And yes, it was COLD! With wind chills near or below freezing, it was a shock to our systems, but we fully enjoyed it.

The kids outside in blizzard conditions.

After four days with Shelley’s family, it was onto David’s family in South Central Iowa. We stayed at Grandma Webb’s house and enjoyed the extended family (David has 4 siblings who all have kids and many of those have kids).

We also took a quick road trip to West Des Moines to spend a couple of hours with our former Pastor from TN (now in West Virginia), Casey Shorr and his family. It was a treat to see old friends.

After 13 days of festivities, it was time to hit the road once again for Chicago. We enjoyed a last meal of steak and twice-baked potatoes (and the kids went to the movies!) before heading for the airport once again on New Year’s Eve. We were delayed in Chicago and thought sure we would end up sleeping on the airport floor in Miami, but God delayed that plane too, so we had lots of extra time. We finally landed in San Jose just before midnight and enjoyed viewing the fireworks out the airport window at the strike of 12.

It is always tough to say goodbye, but by the end of two weeks, we were already thinking of what needed to be done here in Costa Rica. The kids missed their dog, Tawny, and their own beds. No matter where you call home, it’s always nice to get there.

Thanks to all in our family who took care of us while “home.” We encourage you all to visit us here in San Jose, since we’ll not likely return for a visit to Iowa until summer of 2009.

God bless your 2008!

Shelley, David, Joshua and Kayley

P.S. Joshua would like you to know that at the age of 13, he is now officially taller than his father!