GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2009

Dear Friends and Family,
It has been a whirlwind of activity with a cyclone of services and camps in TN. But that is behind us now and we are now enjoying the HOT Orlando temperatures! With a heat index of 108 degrees on Monday, we are pleased to be in air conditioning most of the time.

On the way to Orlando we stopped in Atlanta to visit with David’s brother and wife, Larry and Cathy. It was fun to reconnect after much time. Our visit was short but we hope to make a stop there once again after the Conventions.

Our first stop in Orlando was just north of the city in Longwood with the Kersten family. Daron and Zoe are old friends from our days in Hinesville, GA. Their Dad, Myron Kersten, was our Pastor while we lived there and since we did not have family to spend holidays with in the local area, we often spent time with their family (8 children). Although we had been out of touch with Daron and Zoe for a number of years, we are thrilled to be connected again and know the friendship will last a lifetime.

We enjoyed Sunday morning at both services (English and Spanish) and then enjoyed a delicious lunch with the Kerson’s, Vivian (the NMI President at the church), and the Eurasia Regional Director and his family, Dr. Gustavo Crocker, his wife Rachel and their two beautiful girls, Beth and Raquel. To spend time with one of the six Regional Directors is a privilege and we were excited to hear what God is doing in Europe and parts of Asia. The "kids" had a great time too!


The Orange County Convention Center is the location for the Nazarene General Assembly. Shelley is working at the SENDAS booth and David is at the MAC Region talking to people about what God is doing in the Seminary and in the MAC Region. The days have been going by quickly as we see many new friends and make many new ones.

David presented a 3 minute summary of MAC South activities in the NMI Convention. He did a great job and from all I heard, the entire presentation was a hit!



You can’t be in Florida and not take in some pool time. We look forward to more rest and fun this weekend as our shifts are over with working the booths and now we can enjoy the Convention and play a bit. Disney is on the calendar for Monday and Tuesday.

We have enjoyed having David’s Mom and sister (Virginia and Tina) here with us in Orlando. They have been a blessing to help us with the kids. Another blessing is our friends Jim Barnett, who has been so kind to share his condo with us which has been a huge blessing with the expenses for this trip along with helping Kayley with her crawl stroke and breathing for swimming. Thanks, Brother Jim.

Thanks for your prayers as we minister and play here in Orlando. May God bless you this week!

The Webb Family

Hello Everyone!

It has been a whirlwind of activity since arriving in Tennessee! It has been so wonderful to see our old Woodlawn gang but also great to meet new friends too! Here is a quick rundown of the week….
Last Sunday – Great morning at our home church of Woodlawn, TN! Sorry, no pics from that day since we left the camera behind by accident. But here are few of the teens (they were just kids when we left TN in 2005 – all grown up now!).

Other services this week included Ashland City Faith Community,
Griffin’s Chapel (outside of Erin, TN), a service at the TN Campmeeting at Camp Garner Creek in Dickson, Cross Roads Community in Munford (just north of Memphis), and a kids Jamboree event at the campgrounds.

All the services were filled with wonderful people. It was so nice to meet them early in the week and then see them again at the campgrounds later in the week too!
Joshua and a large group of teens (including one older teen named David) enjoyed the rock concert by the Christian band Building 429. We think it is great that the camp had a special event just for teens!

Yesterday (Sunday) we returned to the church where we had our very first deputation service in August of 2005! It was fun to see some familiar faces after four years and to update the congregation on the happenings in MAC South.
Thanks to all the TN Churches for their support and prayers. This week has been a blessing to us spiritually as well as we have enjoyed hearing great preaching and teaching in our heart language.

This week looks busy with services Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (Goodlettsville, Dover and Waverly) along with a middler (3rd and 4th grade) camp on Wednesday before traveling on to Atlanta on Thursday!

God is blessing us with great times of fellowship and fun. Pray for us as we continue the trek!

God bless you all,
The Webb Family

Hello!

Today the Webb family is headed southeast from Southern Iowa to Kansas City to St. Louis landing somewhere in Southern Illinois for the evening. Then onto Paducah and finally the Clarksville, TN area. So far, so good! Here are the kids with their QuikTrip .49cent drinks. QuikTrip may be our stop of choice for this summer!




We had a great time in Tabor, Iowa
and Leon, Iowa holding services in both places over the weekend. It was fun to see our friends from our old Sunday School Class at Central Church in Lenexa – Jeff and Dana Jewett and their two children. – who since January of 2006 have pastured in Tabor.














It was a blessing to share about our ministries and our lives in MAC South. Being the first services, we realize we need to tweak a few things, but all in all, the presentation was well received.

Returning to the Trinity Church in Leon, Iowa is always a blessing for us. We get to see people that David has known his entire life and who knew him “when.” And of course, seeing family is always a good thing. A special thanks to David’s mom (Virginia) and sister (Tina) who fed us great food and included Joshua and Kayley in their weekly schedule while we worked and ran errands (new glasses, doctor appointments, etc…).

We are excited to see our friends in Woodlawn and the TN District. We will be speaking at 10 churches/events in the next 10 days so keep us in your prayers as we travel, speak and meet new friends.

See you next time as we begin our travels even further south to Atlanta and then Orlando! We will update the blog as often as the wireless allows!

God bless you all,
The Webb Family

USA once again!

Dear Family and Friends,
We have been in the USA for almost one week now. We are missing our home and friends in Costa Rica, but it has been good to see family in Chicago and in Iowa. We did not realize how much we missed the Iowa landscape. You can see for forever! We had forgotten. And the kids love having sun until 9pm but it has been hard to get them to bed.

On Memorial Day we spent time with Shelley’s brothers and families. Lots of good food, a little 500 football and plenty of play time for the kids.


Although this is called vacation, we have been working on various projects in preparation for General Assembly. The final brochures and projects are going to the printer this weekend, so the final edits have now been made.

On our way to Iowa we realized the air conditioning was not working in the van. Thankfully the weather has stayed cool and the air was not necessary, and the wind did its work on the way to Manchester. Then God blessed us with this good news: the original warranty still had 200 miles left on it, so there was no cost to our pockets! We are thankful, especially after hearing that the parts alone would cost $1500!

So off we go again, this time to Leon, IA to spend a day with David’s Mom before our services in Tabor, IA and Leon, IA on Sunday. Keep us in your prayers as we travel.

God bless,
David and Shelley
Joshua and Kayley

Maxima Mission in El Rama Nicaragua

Working in a Vacation Bible School, a group picture with the TAG Team (Trevecca Around the Globe), David with District Superintendent Orlando of the Nicaragua Southeast district with Pastor Carlos

Hi Friends and Family,

David returned this past Wednesday from a Maxima Mission project (i.e. planting of a new mission) from the Nicaragua Southeast district. Sorry this is a late write-up but David flew to Panama Friday and just returned back today.
Sofia, thecell group leader, helping with trench for the school
First, thanks for all the prayers that were given for this trip. David travelled with volunteer Nikki Bodenstab and 12 brave souls from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. They left at 6 am May 5 to drive to the Costa Rica border. They then travelled by boat to Nicaragua and, following this journey, took a 6 hour bus ride. Because the road was so rough for part of the bus trip, it took 3 hours just to cover 36 miles. However, as everything does when God is in it, the journey was well worthwhile.
Kids showing their new bracelets that explain salvation.








The team worked in the city of El Rama. Although the closest Church of the Nazarene is about a 4-5 hour bus ride away, the district sought to plant a church here because a family with Nazarene roots that moved to El Rama wanted to see a Church of the Nazarene come to this community. Maxima Mission is a special ministry that combines compassion with evangelism (a plan that is very evident in the witness of Christ in the gospels).

The team along with 9 youth from the mother church as well as its pastor, Pastor Carlos, and the district superintendent, Pastor Orlando worked to dig a 90 meter trench so pipes could be run to the school for water . The other project was to replace deteriorated wood that covered the preschool building. The Trevecca team also bought three new dry erase boards for the school. The school was so thrilled with the attention that they gave us the final 3 hours of Friday afternoon to work with the children…Praise God!
Proud teachers with a new dry erase board


Through this display of compassion, God opened hearts and doors for ministry. We praise God as 114 people made decisions to accept Christ through 2 presentations of the Jesus Film and our time with the children in Bible Schools and a presentation of the Gospel through the Evangecube.

Thanks Trevecca team for great hearts for ministry and for a genuine love for the Lord and for our brothers and sisters in Nicaragua. Job well done! I know the Nicaraguan leaders will be praying for you all.
Showing the Jesus Film on the back of the preschool building.

With David’s trip over the weekend to Panama, he was able to review a site for another church plant that, Lord willing, will take place in October

with a team from the US and did a Maxima Mission training for pastors and churches in the David, Panama area. We are working to take advantage of every opportunity to travel this month as we leave very soon (May 23) for our 3 months of home assignment.

Please pray for God’s help for us to remember all we need to do before leaving Costa Rica this Saturday. Shelley has been working not stop helping the kids prepare for exams while David has been gone besides doing her regular ministries and work at home (Thanks baby, I love you!). Also pray for Joshua and Kayley as they take their final exams this week. They are counting the days!

If our moms are reading this, we are looking forward to seeing you soon.

Que Dios los bendiga (May God bless you)
David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley Webb