Another Graduation - June 2016

Hello from Costa Rica.

Two graduations in 7 weeks!  Wow.  It is a record for our family. Joshua graduated on April 30^th and Kayley on June 18^th.  You can see in the previous blog the photos of the MVNU graduation, and here we share a few photos from Kayley’s graduation. 

Joshua is job seeking in Columbus, Ohio.  He is hoping to work in banking and finance, and we are sure God will supply the perfect job for him in His perfect time. 

Kayley is already taking her first college class called Narrative of Scripture, a required Bible survey class.  We will take her to college at the end of August. She will attend MVNU, just as her brother did.  We are blessed!

Kayley has lots of exciting upcoming events.  She will be working with a couple of teams this summer, helping with recreation at the district children’s camp, and attending a huge youth event in Nicaragua.  Also, she just started singing with the worship team at church. She is really enjoying it and does a great job. It will be a very busy summer.

Playing the games the kids will play at camp.

Kayley singing with the worship team.

A parachute game!

David and Shelley are constantly busy with their work. David has travelled to the Indigenous area and the Panama recently, not to mention a few day trips to visit pastors and leaders throughout Costa Rica.  We spend a weekend at La Finca, helping to translate for workshops and visiting with the team from Naperville.  Kayley got to see her friend Lexie once again who came with her church a few years ago. 

The youth from Naperville (and Kayley).

David with Adolfo, a Nazarene pastor in Gavilon.

Shelley is preparing for a Work and Witness team that arrives later this week from Clearwater First in Florida.  We will work at the Seminary in a building project, a painting project, a new drop ceiling in a house and painting roofs (yes, we paint our roofs red here!).  A recent highlight was meeting up with all the CALL professors for a time of catch up and encouragement.  It was a great time hearing about recent adventures in all our lives.  

The CALL profs and administrators.

A new CALL student, Sara, arrives this weekend.  It will be fun to have a CALL student on campus once again.

Then one day after Clearwater leaves, a team arrives from Kansas.  This team will be working with two new starts in Heredia.  They will be cleaning up trash in the streets, leading VBS for kids, and painting in a local school.  It will be great! 

We will be working with 3 teams in the next six weeks, attending the Regional Youth Event (Indestructible) in Nicaragua and soon after leaving for the USA for a short home assignment. It will be a crazy few months, but we are looking forward to every minute. 

Finally, a big HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to David.  We celebrated at church with special songs and a gift.  Love this photo.

Also, we want to send greetings to our new LINKS district, Chicago Central.  We look forward to getting to know you all.  Thanks for your prayers.

The Webb Family

Trips, Teams and Celebrations

Greetings from Costa Rica.  This month has been so busy that we have lots to share with you all.  What a great month of trips, teams and celebrations.

Costa Rica has many active volcanoes, and Turrialba, which is not far from the city, has been quite active recently.  No lava yet to report, but lots of spewing ash.  It rains ash over the city when the wind is right, which is most of the time.  The biggest issues are allergies and headaches, and occasional airport delays and closures.  If you would like to view a time lapse, see this site. http://www.crhoy.com/espectacular-fotografo-capto-caida-de-ceniza-del-turrialba/nacionales/

This sign is posted at the mall - "Be careful, floor is slippery because of the ash."

We have loved being LINK missionaries with our friends in the Florida District, but now we say adiós to the south as we have been newly LINKED with the Chicago Central district.  What a blessing to have this program in the Church of the Nazarene.  We are waiting to hear who we will be LINKED with around the world.  The last country was Barbados, and we have so enjoyed our new friendships with them as well.  So, hello Chicago Central district!  Can’t wait to visit your churches in the fall of 2017.

Chicago Central District Assembly announces new LINKS missionaries. Yep, that is our family!

We are so proud of Joshua for working so hard for four years to graduate with his degree in Business Management while working part time at Fastenal and as an RA at MVNU.  Honestly, we could not be prouder!

We loved being together as a family. Shelley’s parents drove from Iowa to be with us.  

What a blessing to all be together for this special occasion.

Josh and his good friend Zack.

Joshua's group of friends.  This was before the tears started.

Back in Costa Rica, we said goodbye to our three MNU student teachers.  We loved having them with us and say a big CONGRATS to Jared, Tyler and Jordan as they graduate and begin their careers in teaching. 

Kayley always enjoys having the students on campus.

David travelled to Haiti this month for Evangelism meetings.  It was a great experience for him to learn more about a different culture and way of life. He loved every minute of his experience with the leaders there.  Next time, Shelley hopes to go along too!

The Mesoamerica Region Evangelism Team

Haiti will have a chapel factory soon.  This is the building under construction.

The group of 55 Haitian Evangelism leaders.

David hosted a Work and Witness Evangelism team from Tennessee this month.  The Gateway Community Church of the Nazarene in Franklin/Brentwood sent four of their best!  They group worked with children, showed the Jesus Film and did some repair work on the church. We are hoping that more from this church will return to continue the work in Limon, an important and strategic location for church planting in Costa Rica.

Every four years, we enjoy the privilege of attending the Regional Missionary Retreat.  This time it was in Panama.  

All the missionaries in attendance at the Regional Retreat 2016.

We loved seeing all our missionary friends, including the Sickel family who live in Chiapas, Mexico.

We are so pleased to work with such wonderful missionaries.   We loved seeing them all and catching up on their lives, families and ministries.  Can’t wait to do it again in four years.

Here are a few prayer requests as we enter the summer season:     

• Pray for Joshua as he searches for a job in the Columbus, Ohio area.  He is relocating there in June.
• Pray for Kayley as she finishes her last few weeks of high school.  Graduation is June 18^th.  Also, Kayley begins her first college course online with MVNU on June 6^th. 
• Pray for the Clearwater First (Florida) team who will arrive to SENDAS late June for a week of Work and Witness. 
• Pray for the Chicago Central district as they send more teams this summer to work with the North Costa Rica District projects.

Thanks for your prayers and support.  You are a blessing to us as we minister on the Mesoamerica Region.

The Webbs

Celebrations: A Wedding, Two Reunions, Three New CALL Students, Six Baptisms, and Eighteen participants in a Conference

There is much to tell since the last Webb Page Update. 

Let’s start with a wedding, but not just any wedding: a wedding between two of our long time missionary friends.  David Campos from El Salvador who serves in Haiti married Erika Chavez from the Poas Church here in Costa Rica who served until just recently in the Dominican Republic.  Anytime a missionary marries, it is a big deal, but when two marry each other, it is a BIG party!  We have known David since our days in Guatemala (10 years ago) and Erika not much less time as she has attended the La Finca Poas Church all her life.  We cannot remember our first encounter with Erika, but we imagine it was in 2008.  These two will return to the mission field in Haiti in a couple months.  They are what we refer to as a Power Couple!  Cannot wait to see how God uses them TOGETHER in Haiti. 

Congrats to Erika and David

Two former CALL students returned for short visits and had time to visit with their teachers.  Pam Tooley and Dr. Fairbanks enjoyed their talks with Profesora Gaby.  We love when our students return, and we are never surprised when they ask to see their teachers once again!  We are blessed with awesome and wonderful profs.

Nothing is more exciting in ministry than helping someone to learn and grow and then send them out to serve.  We get to do that a lot and it is always a blessing.  This month, after many hours of Spanish study, Abby Anderson completed the course and is ready to serve as a Genesis missionary in the DR.  She is training now and will be deployed shortly.  Keep her and the other new Genesis missionaries in your prayers.  (Read more about it at www.mesoamericagenesis.org).

Abby had the experience of aquanaut.  She is at the bottom of the ocean walking around. Amazing!

Three new students arrived for CALL with the MNU Student Teaching program.  We are so pleased to have Jared, Tyler and Jordan with us on campus.  They are doing well at student teaching in this new and different culture.  They have many adventures planned during their one month stay, including waterfalls, the beach and a volcano!

David traveled to Sarapiqui recently to visit the Las Marias Church. It is located northeast of the city in the middle of acres and acres of banana trees.  Hot and beautiful!  David and Pastor William went last Sunday to visit and baptize six of the congregation who have completed a Basic Discipleship class.  It took much longer than expected because the area had not had much rain this month and the rivers are a bit dry.  They drove an hour and half to find a river with enough water to baptize!  They wanted the full effect, no sprinking of water for these people! 

As a thank you, the church gave David a few bananas!

Kayley has been busy with school projects.  This is her senior year, so graduation is right around the corner in June.  In her Physics class, they used the idea of the zipline (canopy), which is very popular in Costa Rica, to study the physics of how to design the tour.  Kayley and her friend went all our using paper mache to build the mountains and the course.  Great work, Kayley! 

Kayley has made the El Alto Church her home church and is now beginning to teach Sunday School.  Here she is with her own class of teens.

Kayley made a big decision this month to attend Mount Vernon Nazarene University (MVNU) in Ohio, just as her brother did.  She is planning on majoring in Nursing.   Lots of changes ahead for her (and for her parents!).

David also has made a couple of visits to the Limon church, located on the Caribbean coast.  This port city has many issues with drugs and crime, but the Church is flourishing there.  A team from Tennessee will be arriving next week and David will be working with them to support this New Start church. 

Shelley has been translating and working with two different retreats/conferences in these days.  The Seminary Presidents from the Mesoamerica Region were on campus for one week, and then the Global Consortium (Presidents and leaders from Post-Graduate Institutions) from around the world was in Costa Rica.  We hosted both groups and it was a great time, but a busy time.  Shelley translated until she could translate no more!  We are blessed to work with such great leaders from around the world: Australia, United Kingdom, Korea, Philippines, USA and Costa Rica.

Some of the Seminary Presidents from the Mesoamerica Region

Leaders of Post-Graduate Institutions around the world

Joshua is finishing his college experience and has just two more weeks until graduation. He plans on staying in Mount Vernon for one month, and then make the move to Columbus, Ohio. Pray with us that God will provide just the right job at the right moment for him.

Coming up soon:

Evangelism Team to Limon – next week

MVNU graduation, April 30^th

Missionary Retreat in Panama –May

Kayley’s graduation – June 18

Thanks for your prayers and support.  And thanks for reading this long post!

We appreciate you.

The Webb family