Webb family Year in Review: 2010

Dear Family and Friends,
We decided to show you all the blessings of this year, instead of writing about them. Our course, we couldn't include every blessing from the year, but many of the highlights are in this video.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We are so thankful for Emmanuel, God with us, who left his home in heaven to show us how to live with Him now and forever. Happy Birthday, Jesus!

We will celebrate the holiday in San Jose, but we will leave soon after for Nicaragua to work with a team for a couple of weeks. Pray for safety in travel and in work for this team of 27 people.

God bless you all! Until next year...
David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley Webb

Big Events

Hello to All,

Two exciting and big events happened in the last couple of weeks.  The first being the 40th Anniversary/Graduation Celebration at the Seminary.  Shelley worked in planning this event which included an evening chapel service/graduation and a dinner.  One hundred and fifty people attended the dinner!  Wow!  What a night!

This year I have had the blessing of having a student assistant with me in the office.  Mercedez has been a life saver this year, helping with Communications and whatever else I need.  She will finish her master's degree in the Spring and return to Guatemala and I am already sad about that!

The other big event was the arrival of some of the Hill clan from Iowa for the Thanksgiving holiday. David's sister, Tina, and her son, Ryan and his family joined us.  We love to go to the beach at Thanksgiving, basically because no one else is there! 

We had the beach to ourselves and it was wonderful.  But first, before the beach, we had a HUGE Thanksgiving meal with 15 people in attendance.  The Armstrong family (missionaries here with us), Alvaro and Monica (long time Columbian friends of the Webb family who live in San Jose) as well as the 9 Webbs/Hills.  Great food and great fun!

We had wonderful weather the entire time and it only rained when we were driving somewhere.  Amazing!  Here we are on a tour of Manuel Antonio National Park.  Do you like sloths?  They are the ugliest things that God made (that's Shelley's opinion!). 

We also attended church on Sunday in San Pedro de Poas, one of our favorite churches to visit.  It is an outside sanctuary and we were there on the day of the ground breaking for a new building that has been a dream of the church for years now.  Want to bring down a team to work in the construction of the multipurpose building???  We can help you with that!!!  Here is the group, along with Roberto Hodgson, Coordinator of Hispanic Ministries in USA/Canada, all eating ice cream.  Yummy!

Oh, and then we got to visit the World's Largest Oxcart (the national symbol of Costa Rica), which I liken to seeing the largest ball of twine in Kansas.  VERY EXCITING!

 

David is with a team this week near Jaco, Costa Rica, with a group from Texas who are doing evangelism ministry.  We look forward to his return next week when I am sure he will have lots to write about to keep you all updated. 

Oh, I forgot to mention the wonderful tour day I had with Dr. Douglas Hardy (from the Seminary in KC) and Glynda Wesley (from Global Mission Headquarters).  We had the absolutely WORST day for tour, but they made it a blast anyway.  I show you this photo to prove just what a rotten day it was for viewing Volcan Poas....yep, it is right behind them...somewhere!  Thanks guys, for a fun day!


We want to say a special HELLO to our new LINKS district in Kansas City.  We have enjoyed getting to know many of you and look forward to seeing you next year in June. 

God bless you all.  Until next time,

Shelley, David, Joshua and Kayley

Update on the MKs

Hello Everyone!

This week I just want to post a little bit about the kids.  Joshua and Kayley are now a fourth of the way through the school year and are anxiously looking forward to Thanksgiving break.  Yes, the school we attend, since it runs on a USA schedule, does honor the holiday of Thanksgiving.  TDay has become our family vacation time since it is not a holiday here and there is no one but us at the beach.  AWESOME!

They are also very excited since Cousin Ryan and his family (David's nephew), along with Aunt Tina (David's sister) will be visiting for the holiday.  It will be good to have a break, but especially sweet with family to share it with.

Joshua continues to be involved in the praise team at church, playing drums most Sundays.  His skills are improving as he gets more opportunity to play.  Basketball practice starts this week.  ICS is offering BB as a spring sport this year.  Joshua is starting to think more about college since he is in 11th grade this year.  He is seriously considering some different Nazarene Universities throughout the country, including Mount Vernon, Point Loma, MidAmerica and Olivet.  Joshua enjoys the church youth group and you can see below he got surprise with a cold bath the other day!  He is good sport!

Kayley has grown lots this year, and although she is still petite, she has gotten lots taller.  She has had her braces on now for 6 months and just this week the orthodontist added bands.  OUCH!  But she is a trooper with a high pain tolerance - thankfully!  She loves her art and craft class at school and more than anything enjoys spending time with friends.  She is as social as her Daddy and finds it hard to do homework when everyone else is playing!  She enjoys the youth group and her friends at church and just recently joined the dance group that do actions to the worship songs at church.  Here she is having fun with the youth group, being thrown into the air from a blanket. 

Well, that is the update for now.  David has traveled much of November and will have lots to tell about all the yearly assemblies in the districts when he returns.  Also, be praying for this Saturday, as the Seminary celebrates both graduation and their 40th anniversary with a service and evening meal.  We'll share more about that event in the next couple of weeks.

God bless you all,

The Webb Family

October Travels

Hello Dear Friends,

This month has been a little different for the Webbs since Shelley has been traveling more than normal.  First, David and Shelley attended a Discipleship Conference in Miami.  It was a quick trip with only a few minutes of freedom for a WalMart visit.  (Let’s see how many essentials can be thrown in the cart in less than one hour!). 

The Conference was bilingual, but really it was more in Spanish than in English.  We kept wondering if we were really in the USA since we hardly spoke English the whole time.  We took in lots of great information, which we hope to share soon with the leaders in the south part of Latin America. 

Our missionary friends the Sickels helped to take care of the kids while we were away for the 4 days.  Joshua and Kayley always love when Stephen and Anne visit.  Is it possible they are just more fun than their old parents?  Very possible!

Then Shelley took another trip, this time to Guatemala for a Ladies Retreat for leaders from all the countries from Mexico through Panama.  Every country was represented and it was neat to see everyone’s traditional dress.  Each country is so very proud of their traditions and culture. In the photo you can see a Mexican lady in her typical dress...BEAUTIFUL!  And the video shows highlights of many of the countries and their typical dresses. 

Shelley got to see Guatemala again, after leaving there in 2006.  Some things have changed, but Antigua, the town where the language school is located has not changed a bit.  Shelley was pleased to see her former teacher, Ana, and her new baby.  That was a special treat.  It was nice to get away for a few days, but returning home is always the best! 

David has kept busy with the work in Nicaragua, as well as with the church planters in Costa Rica and Panama.  As Shelley types, he is returning from a 4-day trip to Nicaragua to visit the chapel factory and the site for a new church that a team from Lenexa, KS will assist in constructing just after Christmas.  Looking forward to seeing our friends from Central COTN soon.

Shelley is preparing for the 40^th Anniversary of the Seminary and the special celebration service and dinner that will be held on November 20^th.  Shelley is helping to put together an historical video, highlighting the changes through the years from 1969 to present day.  The review of hundreds of photos and lots of research has gone into the making of this video.  We sure hope it turns out great! 

The kids have had a good first quarter of school and Joshua took the ACT exam this morning.  We are blessed that the only place to take it in Costa Rica is located about 15 minutes from our home.  Josh and Kayley are looking forward to Thanksgiving when some relatives are expected for a visit.  Beach, here we come!!!

We recently went out to eat at an outside pizza place with the Slingerland family.  These four (Joshua, Kayley, Hannah and Abby) are great friends and wonderful MKs.  As you can see, a good time is being had by all!

We are thankful for God’s blessings this month. God has really been teaching us the need for more and more prayer.  Shelley lead the chapel service at the Seminary last week and we spent some serious time in prayer at various prayer stations around the building, praying for different countries such as China, Pakistan, Haiti, Mali, among others.  It was a blessed time of learning about other cultures and interceding for needs. 

We want to thank you for your prayers.  We know you are praying because the Lord is blessing us so much in these busy days.  Thanks to all of you!!!

The Webb Family

David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley

September Happenings in Nicaragua

Hi Family and Friends,

Greetings from the great countries of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.  Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts.  Many blessings took place the final two weeks of September for David as he was able to make two trips to Nicaragua and then work with church planters for three days in Costa Rica to finish the month of September.

This is a picture from the youth camp that took place with more than 180 youth from the Nicaragua Central district.  David enjoyed the chance to connect with many of the youth leaders and pastors that attended this event as well as doing an evangelism workshop with the youth. 

At the end of the youth camp, the youth of the district did a compassionate ministry project to clean a local park including repairing a basketball hoop and painting the logo for the youth ministries on one of the backboards.  Here is a photo of some of the group celebrating a job well done. 

After the youth camp, David visited some local churches and reviewed possible sites for a team coming from Central Church in Lenexa, Kansas.  Please pray for this team and this trip as Central will be coming the end of December to help with a construction project for the church in La Paz Centro. 

We now have a chapel factory in Nicaragua and here is a picture of one of the projects David visited in El Timal in this trip.  I will be sharing more about this very new blessing in upcoming blogs.

David then traveled to the southern part of Nicaragua where he visited some of the newer churches and had the opportunity to share at another youth event.  Here is a photo of one of the newest organized churches in the Nicaragua South in the community of Zaragoza.  They currently worship in an unfinished house (one of many projects for the chapel factory:)

After returning from this trip, David took a quick two day trip to San Carlos, Nicaragua.  Here is a picture of the local leaders David met with.  This is a more remote area in the southeast part of Nicaragua.  Many of the restaurants look like this with a small kitchen and outside seating.  The price is very modest as we ate plates of chicken, rice, beans and salad with a fruit drink for about $2 a person.  David then returned to help with trainings at the seminary with church planters from Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. 

We again thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve Him here with leaders with a great love for the Lord.  Thanks for your prayers, please keep praying that we share the gospel in boldness with a sensitivity to God's leadership in all that we do.

Much love in Christ our great King,
David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley