Home Assignment - First Few Weeks

Kayley at the display table at the Osawatamie Church.

Hello Everyone!

We have really enjoyed our first month of home assignment in the United States.  We arrive to Chicago on May 29^th and began the adventure in Chicago.  David’s brother, Steve, lives there, so we had great accommodations and way too much great food for the first few days.   Our first deputation service was at the Lombard Church, and we really enjoyed meeting new friends there.

The Farm in Iowa

After a few days in Chicago, we headed to Iowa where we stayed with Shelley’s Mom in Manchester.  While in the area, we visited the Cedar Rapids Oakland Church of the Nazarene, then the Iowa City Hispanic Church and later in the week we had a blast with the Grinnell youth group and the Ottumwa Hispanic congregation. 

We also enjoyed seeing Shelley’s two brothers and their families, as well as her stepmom, Donna, whom they had not seen for a number of years.  It was a little sad to say goodbye to the farm where Shelley spent much time in year’s past, but she is glad it is being sold to a farm family who love the land and the house. 

Virginia Webb (David's Mom) playing the organ at church.

Then we headed to Leon, Iowa, where David’s Mom lives in Southern Iowa.  She turned 80 this year and stays very active with her 25 piano students, two Bible studies and organ playing at church.  We spoke in the Des Moines Eastside Nazarene church and the Leon Bible Church before heading to the Kansas City district.

David and Kayley at the Des Moines Eastside church service.

Visiting Kansas City is a little like going home for us since we lived there and attended the Lenexa Central Church for two years.  We enjoyed seeing our friends from Central (some of them were in Nicaragua with us for New Years Day) and Shelley loved hanging out with the children’s group.  Then we visited Tongonaxie, Osawatamie, College Church Sunday School Classes (3 of those!), Olathe Christ Community and Olathe Westside Nazarene Church.  What a joy to see so many of our LINKS churches! 

David speaking to the Sojourners Sunday School Class.

One thing you remember when visiting churches is that people really do pray for missionaries.   That is such a blessing to know, and we realize that it has kept us safe on the field many times when dangers were lurking and we didn’t even know it.  One couple, whom we don’t really know all that well, but who pray faithfully for us, are Larry and Dorothy from College Church.   We first met them in 2005 when we visited their Sunday School class before leaving for Guatemala.  They announced in class that they have faithfully prayed for us, by name, everyday since our meeting in 2005.  What a great blessing for us!  Thank you, prayer warriors!

Larry and Dorothy, our prayer warriors.

While in KC, we spent on evening out at Theatre in the Park.  Kayley has been asking for awhile now to go to a theatre (play), but we hadn’t found anything in San Jose that we thought she would enjoy.  We were thrilled that the community theatre (the largest theatre in the park in the nation!) was performing The Sound of Music.  Kayley adored every minute of the performance and we sat right up front on our blanket to not miss a thing. 

Kayley had a bird's eye view of Maria in the play.

I am writing this blog while on the plane to Denver, en route to San Diego.  We are delighted to spend some time with our friends at Las Flores Church in Carlsbad, California.  They have brought teams to Costa Rica in the past and we are excited to see them all once again – including the new babies born in the last two years! 

We are looking forward to a family wedding in Ames, Iowa on July 2^nd and a visit to the Ames Church in July 3^rd, and shortly after a awesome week at NYC (National Youth Congress) which is a once every four year event that Joshua and Shelley will attend this year.  Pray that Shelley will have the energy to keep up with the group of 30 mission kids (Let’s not even think about the 7000 total youth in attendance!). 

We hope to see you this summer!  God bless you!

The Webb Family

Recent happenings

Hi Everyone,

Clowning around with the WV team

We are now in the US and starting the bi annual deputation journey which will take us from San Diego to West Virginia.  We look forward to seeing friends, family and making new friends at each church that we have the privilege of sharing with.   We are now in the great city of Manchester, Iowa after having 2 services in Cedar Rapids yesterday am and an afternoon service in the Iowa City Hispanic Church of the Nazarene (and yes, they were very kind to their Cyclone brethren:). 

This is a little embarrassing (ok maybe a lot embarrassing) but I realize that I have not done a very good job helping Shelley with the blog over the last couple of months--especially as I reflect all that God has been doing where we serve. Here are some highlights over the past 2 1/2 months.

On March 17, another great team arrived from the US.  They were from Pierpont Church of the Nazarene in Morgantown, WV.  Our former pastor, Casey Shorr and his wife Rhonda, were on this team.  This team worked in 4 different communities where we are planting new works and received invitations to minister in 3 public schools thru VBSs and crafts. 

All in all over 1,000 primary age children heard the gospel---praise God.  One of the crafts that is always big is the salvation bracelets.  This craft allows us to present the plan of salvation using different colored beads.  This team blessed us in many ways including the donation of many clown outfits which we are distributing to other church planters in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

Our son Joshua and daughter Kayley have been a blessing in many ways.  One Saturday in April, Josh decided that he would accompany me to the city of Liberia in northern Costa Rica for evangelism trainings.  This was a labor of love as it was a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive each way from San Jose.  The pastor of the church is Pastor Alvaro.  He is serving as a church planter and has been involved with the opening of 16 new cell groups in the Guanacaste area since the end of 2009.  These new groups almost total 300 people in attendance--praise the Lord.  Here is a picture of Pastor Alvaro and a map that shows some of these new works.  There is a possibility that 2 or 3 of these new missions will be organized churches soon. The blue thumbtacks represent some of the 16 new missions that have started. 

I took a 10 day trip to Nicaragua which covered the last week of April and part of the first week of May.  I met with leaders in 3 of the 4 districts and Nicaragua.  Through this time, I participated in evangelism workshops, translated for Pastor Greg McNichols who did special workshops for the pastors in the Nicaragua North district, worked with local leaders on the development of 3 new missional zones (these are areas where we are having a special focus in church planting thru the use of the Jesus Film and local church planters), and made a special trip to Puerto Cabezas on the northeast coast of Nicaragua.  Puerto Cabezas is the home of an indigenous people called the Miskitu (and yes, praise God, we have the Jesus Film in the Miskitu language).  Here are a few pictures from there.

Getting water from the well for morning bucket shower--very refreshing

Enjoying a snack while waiting to cross a bridge in NE Nicaragua

May was a blur as we tried to finish up several ministry tasks in preparation for our time in deputation for the US.  During this time we had special regional evangelism meetings, had evangelism trainings for church planters in Costa Rica, visited missional zone church planters in Costa Rica and visited a missional zone church planter in Panama.  We praise God as we have seen over 90 new cell groups planted in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama over the last 17 months in 9 missional zone projects in the 3 countries.  To God be the glory, great things He has done.

Missionary Life

Hello Friends and Family,

The Slingerlands at church being bid farewell.

Everyone's life has changes, but perhaps the missionary life has even a few more than the normal Joe.  This week, another missionary family, the Slingerlands, moved on, first to home assignment and soon after to Panama.  This is becoming the norm with the MAR Regional Office being relocated to Panama. 

We enjoyed a special time of goodbyes with them at our local church and of course we had sending off prayer and much waving as the van pulled out the green porton one last time.  We are grateful that we will see these friends in the fall at meetings and work related activities.

We are excited about some of the changes coming our way though, with new missionaries arriving to Costa Rica to serve.  The Tooley family arrived in March, the Honeas in April and the Sickels renewed their contract and arrived in Costa Rica in late March.  Also, Allison (she is from Iowa so she's got to be alright!) arrived to help with the Tooley children and is taking Spanish classes as well.


Right now, the CALL language program has more classes than ever before with 4 groups taking classes each week.  In celebration of the great group of students here studying currently, we all enjoyed a fun-filled, beautiful tour day to Poas and La Paz.  Here are some of the photos from Poas volcano and La Paz.

Allison with her toucan friend.

The coolest photo of a frog I have ever taken.

CALL students enjoying the spray of the waterfall.

The Tooley family (lacking Paulina who they are adopting soon).

Shelley and Kayley at the Volcanic Lake.

The Tooley's with their teacher Gaby, receiving completion certificates for Level Intermediate I.  Way to go!

Bub Honea with his new friend at La Paz.

Allison Rohloff, Kayley and Allison Tooley.

It was a beautiful day at the Volcano and for the first time, I (Shelley) heard the volcano erupting and then extra puffs of white sulfury smelling smoke came out of the volcano.  There was no eruption of lava, but it was still cool nonetheless. 

In less exciting news (well, it depends who you ask), WalMart has officially arrived to Costa Rica.  Actually, WalMart already owned a number of chain stores here, but now the one previously called Hipermas has traded in its whale sign for the WalMart look.  Yes, it really does look more like a WalMart inside, but the prices remain Costa Rican.  Bummer!

In family news, we are all packing our bags for 10 weeks of travel in the USA.  Kayley is sad to be missing her dance team each week at church.  Last week they did actions to the songs in their new outfits and were as cute as could be. (Kayley is in the front on the far right). 

 Also, for her birthday Kayley took two friends roller skating.  They were all learning, but did a great job and by the end of the time were circling like pros. 

Kayley and Abby Slingerland

Kayley, Abby and Allison

School ended today, the finals are over and summer is just beginning.  Pray for us as we travel from church to church this summer to share what God is doing here in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.  We have a full schedule for the summer and look forward to seeing you very soon.  Hasta luego...

The Webb family

BIrthday Girl, Science Fair and Friends Coming and Going

Hello Friends and Family,

This week was Kayley's 13th birthday!  Yes, we now have TWO teens in the house.  Thankfully, they are two great teens who generally do not cause too much trouble! 

Kayley started her bday morning with a special treat of Toaster Strudels.  She loves those and does not get them often here in Costa Rica.  She also got individual pudding treats for her school lunches this week.  This may not sound exciting to you, but let me tell you, she was excited!

That evening we had a cake and ice cream party for Kayley.  An unplanned balloon fight ensued, which I think Joshua started!  Great fun for all. 

Kayley also had her science fair this week.  She has been working for months on this project and it turned out really good!  Nice work, Kayley!

Last week some new missionary volunteers arrived to the Seminary.  Please meet Bub and Rickie Honea, who will be helping with work and witness teams as they learn Spanish. 

Here they are in their first week of classes with Professor Zeidy.  Hang in there, guys!  You'll get it!

Lastly, we had to say goodbye to our good friend, Eliezel Soto.  He has worked with W&W teams for about 4 years and now is returning to his home country of the Dominican Republic.  We'll miss sharing pizza dinners with him!

David just got back from a long trip to Nicaragua.  I am sure he will post something later this week, but he will not have any photos...the camera disappeared on day 2 of this trip.  Bummer!  

It won't be long now (3 weeks) and we'll be heading for the USA for home assignment.  We have a busy summer planned with services in Chicago, Iowa, California, Kansas City, Louisville, KY, Tennessee, Ohio and West Virginia.  It will go by quickly!  We hope to see you along the way.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we have new emails.  Many of you may already know, but with the combining of the Caribbean and MAC Regions, we are now called the Mesoamerica Region.  So, the emails are swebb@mesoamericaregion.org and dwebb@mesoamericaregion.org.  Send a message or connect on facebook if you would like to catch up with us.  

Have a blessed day,
The Webb family

Work and Witness - WV

Hello Dear Friends and Family,

 This is Holy Week!  For those in the USA, this means a normal workweek, with perhaps a break from work on Thursday and Friday.   But in much of Central America, Holy Week (Semana Santa) means a week of no classes and many businesses (especially government offices) are closed.  The majority of the Costa Rican population heads to the beach and the Webb family took advantage of the early part of the week to enjoy the beach as well.  So, here I am (Shelley) sitting beside the pool (it’s high tide and it’s super high today) writing this update for you.

This week we want to share about the Work and Witness team from the West Virginia North District who came in March to complete the construction project on the Cenizaro (Ash) Dining Hall.  

The building is original to the Seminary (1969 or so) and needed a new roof since the wood tresses had rotted, new electric; you can imagine the old wires, and a new drop ceiling, among other things. 

The team accomplished much in their short time here, not only working on the Cenizaro building, but also helping with a long list of other projects that you can see below in the photos.

The team cleaned and painted the inside of two apartments on campus.

These great ladies painted the new playground with sun protector.  Two times!

Pastor Casey preached at El Alto on Sunday morning and at Rosister Carballo in the afteroon.

We are looking forward to seeing some of the folks from these churches again this summer when we visit West Virginia.  Thanks to the team for their hearts for ministry and service. 

Check out the new paint job and new door on the Round House!  Excellent work, team!

David is preparing for a long trip to Nicaragua to visit three of the four districts there.  He has not had to travel as much as normal these last few weeks and it has been nice to have him around a little more to see the kids play BB.  The school year will end soon, for which both kids are extremely thankful.  Five weeks to go!

Joshua showing you the huge beach at low tide.  AWESOME!

Diving in to ride the waves. Got the beach to ourselves once again!

 God bless your Holy Week.  It's a geat time to remember what Jesus has done for each one of us. We will attend a special Easter service in the north district of Costa Rica in an outside chapel.  Looking forward to a special Sunday.

Blessings from the Webb family