Thanksgiving at the Beach

Hello Everyone!
We had a great trip to celebrate Thanksgiving – at the beach! Even though the closest beaches on the Pacific side are only 2.5 hours away, we have only managed to travel there one time in the year and a half that we’ve lived here. We promised the kids that another beach trip would happen this year, and we managed to keep that promise just in the nick of time.


We packed up on Thanksgiving morning and ate turkey sandwiches in the car on the way through the mountains. There is a place we like to stop which is located at one of the highest points and from there you can see the ocean and a beautiful view of the mountains.

We stayed at a hotel only a short walk from the beach. The beaches in Costa Rica are known for their strong waves and surf, so we enjoyed doing some body surfing and board surfing.
The kids took they new boards and enjoyed playing in the waves.

After returning from Thanksgiving, life returned to normal. The kids have finished the semester and will not return to school until January 14th. They are excited for a break from studying.

The Slingerland family will arrive tomorrow from Guatemala. They are the first family of the Regional Office to arrive. Kayley and Abby are best friends and we have learned they will be in the same class at school. This is a blessing and they will be a help to each other.

As we near Christmas, remember the reason for celebrating this holiday season. The gifts are fun, the lights are beautiful, but it is really all about Jesus and his birth – Emmanuel – God with us.

Enjoy the Christmas season with friends and family. We’ll be here in Costa Rica if anyone has a last second thought of visiting!



God bless,
Shelley, David, Joshua and Kayley

Nicaragua South Celebration

Hello Friends and Family,
We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones. We spent 2 days on the Costa Rican beach, soaking in the sun! We will share more about that next week.

For this week I am going to post an article about the Centennial celebration the Nicaragua South district held a couple weeks ago. David attended the event and had a ball! Hope you enjoy it too!



Nicaragua South District Celebrates Centennial The Centennial Celebration for the Nicaragua South district, recently held in conjunction with the District Assembly, was a huge success with over 2,000 people participating in the celebration.



On November 22nd, the District sponsored a parade and march from the Central Park in Rivas to the Bible Institute in San Jose, a walk of 3 miles. Nearly every one of the 62 churches participated in this great event.







Old and young alike either walked or rode on floats, pickup trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, three-wheeled taxis or horses to celebrate the 100 years of the Church of the Nazarene worldwide Led by police escort, with horns honking and great enthusiasm, the crowd made its way to the Bible Institute.



A huge banner was hung across the main highway stating: Congratulations Nazarenes! 100 years of Preaching Biblical Holiness. “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News.” Romans 10:15

A semi-truck was decorated in blue with the words “Holiness Unto the Lord” and “100 Years – Church of the Nazarene.” On the center of the float was a 5-foot high globe of the world, representing the work of the Church of the Nazarene worldwide in these 100 years.



Upon arrival at the Bible Institute, the crowd began worshiping the Lord in unison. A wonderful time of prayer was had for the youth of the Church, surrounded by the Pastors who pledge to train and support them in their Christian walk.

The keynote speaker was Rev. Ernesto Bello, the first Nicaraguan District Superintendent in Nicaragua who currently pastors in the state of New Jersey. His message spoke of the great history of the Church of the Nazarene in Nicaragua, the great potential for the message of holiness in this country and the importance of the youth in this movement.

One of the oldest living members of the Church of the Nazarene in Nicaragua was honored. Rev. Ricardo Peralta is now 85 years old and was one of the first Nazarene pastors in Nicaragua.

Not only was the South District celebrating the 100 years of the Church, but also their own great heritage, which began in 1943. The entire Church of the Nazarene in Nicaragua has its roots in the South District since the church grew outward from the area near Rivas called San Jorge. The Bible Institute is located in San Jorge along the banks of Lake Nicaragua and through the years many pastors have been trained in this Institute. Today in Nicaragua, there are more than 170 churches and approximately 15,000 members.



Rev. Gerardo Reyes, current District Superintendent, closed the service with a wonderful prayer dedicating to the Lord the future of the Church of the Nazarene. His leadership was evidenced by the great turn out at this event and the unity shown by all the churches in celebrating the 100th year birthday of the Church of the Nazarene.

A Reminder: Life is Short

Dear Friends and Family,
We apologize for being a bit behind on our blogging. It has been busy with November being the month for the District Assemblies in all three countries (8 districts).


David attended the assembly in Nicaragua Southeast (you have to take a boat to reach the area- you can see Edwin and his son Pablo Martinez to the left) and Costa Rica North
and I (Shelley) went to the assembly in Costa Rica Central.














Last Photo: Dr. Nina Gunter, General Superintendent, Dr. Carlos Saenz, Regional Director, along with Mauren and Johnny Calvo, District Superintendent for Costa Rica North.


David had plans to attend the assembly in Nicaragua South, but after receiving word of a death in the family, all plans changed and he returned early.

We received a Skype message on Sunday afternoon that David’s sister’s (Tina) husband (Alan) died of a heart attack. He was only 54 and this has been quite a shock to everyone in the family.
David left Nicaragua on Monday afternoon and returned to San Jose in the evening. We washed and packed and rested a bit before leaving for the airport early on Tuesday morning.

He arrived in Des Moines at 6pm and traveled the hour south to his hometown in time to be there for some of the evening visitation. The town has only 2,000 people and 600 were there for this visitation.

David assisted in directing the service on Wednesday morning and is now spending time with his mom, sister and her three grown kids and families. Please pray for the Hill and Webb family as they deal with the very painful loss.

David will return on Saturday at 10pm and then leave again Sunday morning for meetings in Nicaragua North. Please pray for his safety and for strength to keep going. He will return once again on Tuesday and have a morning of meetings here in Costa Rica. We are looking forward to a few days of rest at the beach over the Thanksgiving holiday. It will be a blessing to get away as a family.

Thank you for your prayers. We really appreciate each one of you.
With love to all,
The Webb family

The last week of October, we had the privilege of working with a team of pastors from the Eastern Kentucky district. They brought down a set of Jesus Film equipment which will be used in the Costa Rica North district. This is a picture of the team with District Superintendent Johnny Calvo and Pastor Alvaro at the far right.

Both the Eastern Kentucky district and the Costa Rica North District (and the missionary hosts :) had been praying for good weather for this trip. Our “winter” (that is our rainy season) goes from the middle of May to the middle of November. The week before the team arrived there were red alerts for flooding in many parts of northern Costa Rica.

Although it rained liked crazy the day the team arrived, we thank God for His kind mercies as He gave us three consecutive days with little or no rain! We used those days to help replace old metal roofing in a local school in the community of Pueblo Nuevo (some of the families that live in Pueblo Nuevo have constructed make shift homes where the city garbage dump used to be). We also painted in a playground area in the community of Gicaro. Through these acts of compassion and door to door visits to invite people to the Jesus Film presentations, we encountered two very open and receptive communities. Before we left, the school director in Pueblo Nuevo told Pastor Alvaro that the church can come back to do Bible schools and other ministries. We were also blessed in Gicaro as some families have opened their doors to start new cell groups there. Praise the Lord!

And, most importantly, we thank the Lord for how He used the Jesus Film as we saw over 70 decisions for Christ from the three presentations. Pastor Alvaro and the Liberia church will follow up with these new believers. While we thank God for these new believers, we must also remember these local leaders in prayer as they will be doing the real work of meeting with and discipling these new Christians. One special story is for a nine year old named Iris. Many children in the community helped paint, including Iris painting at the top of the slide in the picture below. She was one of the many children that came forward to receive Christ, literally sobbing. It will be special to see what Jesus does through Iris...she is a special young lady.

This set of Jesus Film equipment is a great blessing for this district which covers the entire northern half of Costa Rica. Since this is their second set of equipment they can now have one set available for churches on each side of the district.

As always, it was special to see the relationships develop between our brothers and sisters in Liberia and our brothers from Kentucky. Here is a special picture of the church in Liberia with the US team.

Please pray for the MAC South area (the countries of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama) as their 8 district assemblies will go from Nov. 8-20. Many important decisions for district leadership will be made during this time and we look forward to what God will do in 2009!

Much love in Christ our Lord,
David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley

More about Roseburg, OR Team

Hello Everyone,
Last week we shared a bit about the Roseburg Integrated Ministries Team and the church planting work they helped with in Tres Rios. After spending one day at a local school, the team spent another day in the community of Eulalia. The team and the local leaders split into groups to help with park clean up, trash pick up in the streets and children’s activities. It was a full day of ministry ending with the showing of the Jesus Film under a tent in the rain. It was a great day!


Josh and his best buddy Pablo enjoying the power of machetes. Be careful, boys!















Trash clean up and cutting grass with machetes - the Latin American way!









The Jesus Film in the rain with a great turnout!











The children watching the VBS program. (Kayley and her friend Maria on the left dressed up as clowns.)






The team also worked on the Regional Office Building on the seminary campus. They painted a huge outside wall two times, and painted the entire lower level of the building two times.

























Some folks helped to prepare a missionary home for painting by cutting and filling the cracks in the concrete walls.










We enjoyed a great tour day as well and I (Shelley) saw something I had not yet seen: a sloth! You can’t see his head in this photo, but he’s there!







It was a great time with the Roseburg team. We were impressed by their ability to be flexible and adapt to the Latin American way of life (sometimes it moves as slow as this sloth!) They not only blessed us, but blessed the district as they begin to work in the Tres Rios area. It is our prayer that this cell group will grow and become a healthy, vibrant church very soon.




In other news, David is traveling this week with a Jesus Film team from Eastern Kentucky. They will be planting a new church in the area of Liberia and will show the Jesus Film each night, so pray for no rain in the evenings! David will have a full report for us next week on the activities of the KY Team.

Thanks for your prayers! We love and appreciate you all.

God bless,
The Webb Family