Clearwater, Garnett and Children's Camp - July 2016

It is hard to explain how fruitful and fun the last few weeks have been.  Part of summer on the mission field is TEAMS.  We love working with teams and we enjoyed two great ones in the last few weeks.

 

Music practice in our home, preparing for Sunday morning church service.

First, the Clearwater First Church team arrived on June 24^th.  They worked on the Seminary grounds by filling in a big hole with dirt (glamorous, right?), putting electric in the new Orchid building, painting and putting a drop ceiling in a house on campus, and painting office hallways, fences and the play ground.  

It was a great week of work, but also a wonderful week of time together, hearing missionary testimonies, learning from each other.   We always do compassionate ministry with each team, and this team worked in two homes for children. One home is owned by a Nazarene lady and they have 70 children each day (they do not stay the night as they have extended families caring for them).  Their parents are in very bad situations, some in prison and other in drug rehab centers.  It was a special day of ministry.  The other home is a Christian family that adopts children into their home.  They have adopted more than 40 kids through the years.  The youngest child in the home is 3 and the oldest have gone to college, gotten married and now have families of their own.  It is a wonderful place where the kids not only have care and love, but a family that accepts and keeps them forever.

Clearwater Team doing a craft with the children of the Center.

The second team arrived on July 2^nd from Garnett, Kansas Church of the Nazarene. The focus of this team was evangelism, and we worked in two New Start churches in Heredia (San Pablo and Fatima).   We cleaned up trash in the streets, painted in a public school, evangelized door to door, and held children’s VBS activities each afternoon.  It was a blessing for these two small Costa Rican churches to receive this help as they reach their communities. A highlight was the last work day, Friday, when 30+ youth from the Central District joined in to help.  So much got done that day and we enjoyed working together as one team.

The youth picked up lost of trash!

Painting the outside wall of the public school near the Fatima Church.

First it had to be cleaned.

The puppet show in action.

Enjoying the VBS

Pastor Honri and his clowns walking the streets.

Kayley leading the salvation bracelet craft.

The clown crew!

A huge team working together in San Jose School.

A new student arrived for CALL.  Sara is a teacher in Indiana and she wants to improve her Spanish to help with her ESL students. God always send the right students at the right time.  She has been so easy to take care of and so easy going; she jumped right in with the W&W teams and has been a blessing to all.  She just has one more week with us before she returns to the States as school will begin soon.  We will miss her company.

Kayley has been helping with the two teams while taking her first University course online.  And this week she has been a counselor at Children’s Camp.  She has a servant’s heart!  We are so thankful for her and are not sure what we will do when she leaves for the USA.  She makes a great Cometa – the clown in the VBS we often do with teams.

Kayley as a counselor at Children's Camp

Joshua is interviewing for banking positions in the Columbus, Ohio area.  Pray with us that God will provide just the right job for him.  He is living with friends and really enjoying NOT studying for now. 

Now we are preparing for the youth event Indestructible that will begin on Tuesday in Nicaragua.  This is like the NYC for the Mesoamerica Region and occurs only once every four years. Pray for safe travels and border crossings for all, as well as a GREAT event for the youth.

We are so thankful that we received our residency cards finally.  We had some issues this year, but in then nick of time they were approved.  Now we can travel to Nicaragua to be with the youth of the church. Yeah.

August will be very busy as well.  Two teams in the beginning of August and then lots of planning to be ready to leave for Home Assignment on August 22^nd.  We are looking forward to seeing many of you this fall.

Thanks for reading this long blog.  We appreciate each one of you.

The Webb Family

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