Hey Y’all,

Thanks for all your prayers. I am so happy and excited tonight. We have had so many wonderful things happen in just two days.

Yesterday was our first Sunday School class at Destino del Reino. We had 16 children come and they ranged from ages 6 to 18. I was so amazed that even the 18 year old girl and several 15-year old boys enjoyed the coloring of the pages at the end of the lesson. These peopl are so unspoiled and appreciative of anything to do and it is so refreshing to teach them because they are just captivated by the stories and songs and Bible verses. Eight of the children accepted Jesus as their Savior at the end of the lesson and the most of the others had accepted Jesus two weeks before when we had visited their homes. It was so wonderful to see the desire to learn on their faces and we had such a great time. I know of several others that will be joining us next week and we will most likely double in size in just one week.

Today we started our discipleship classes to teach all the new Christians about the Word of God. Our first lesson was on salvation and it was just a review of our need for Christ and took them to different Scriptures. I was one of the teachers at the class for my neighbors at Destino. There were two other classes in the nearby village and we will start another one next Monday. We had 8 people come to our class and one young man came and he had not received Jesus as his savior and at the end of the class, HE DID!!! It was so wonderful. There are very few people next door to me now at Destino that have not received Jesus and they are so anxious to grow in Christ. At the end of the lesson, I told them we would see them next Monday afternoon and two of the ladies said, “we thought this was every day.” They were so disappointed to have to wait another week. I have never seen so much hunger for God — I can’t even express it and it still is making me cry to think about it. They are so precious and have found the treasure of their lives and KNOW IT!! It was a little hard though trying to run from person to person and help them look up every verse. Most of them had never held a Bible in their hands before — I found myself almost glad we only had New Testaments so it would be easier for them at first. I do want to try to buy some Spanish Bibles that include the whole Bible and not just New Testament, but for now this is sufficient. We have 3 months of lessons and I know they will not be wanting to stop at that point.

I wish everyone of my American friends and family could come here for a few weeks and see what I’m getting to see. These people are so precious and humble and hungry after God and it is such a joy to teach them — I feel so sad that in America the children have had so much that they don’t even know what is really precious anymore — like learning about GOD!! Thanks for all your prayers for these new believers and please continue as we train them to be disciples that will go out themselves and teach others. The other two classes had 15 in one and 8 in the other and we expect to see many more next week when word gets around that we started today. We were not able to get the word out before this class to everyone because so many live over mountains and on hilltops, etc.

When we went to tell some people last week about the upcoming discipleship classes, we met a young woman visiting in one of the mud huts. She received Jesus that day and joined one of our classes today to learn more. Her little boy, Olber, needs a lot of prayer. He is 6 years old and very small for his age but he has really bad asthma and can hardly breathe much of the time. He was one of the little ones that hung around the Vacation Bible School every day but wasn’t actually sitting at a table and participating like the older kids. I really thought he was about 4 years old. We saw him on Thursday and his mom said he had memorized everyone one of the 5 memory versees that week in VBS. We were so amazed when he quoted them to us. He is so cute and so sick. Bety went to take an inhaler to him today and saw the little house they live in. She said the whole house is the size of her bathroom and there are big wide cracks in the wooden walls and the children are so cold at night. We are taking some blankets and warmer clothes to Olber and the others tomorrow. Please pray that God will heal his asthma —

We are supposed to have the drill show up at Destino del Reino on Wednesday or Thursday, so keep praying and we excpect to write next week announcing the arrival of the ABUNDANT WATERS. I am so excited to share water with these precious neighbors and to enrich their lives too — what a treat to just go outside to a spigot and not have to make a long hike to the creek everytime you want to wash a few dishes or some clothes. THey are going to get to experience the love of God for them in a very practical way!!

There is still a possibility the bus may get to come into the country. The shipping company is working with the Honduran consulate in New Orleans and think that because the bus was booked in May, they may be able to get special permission to get the bus in. I need a bus soooo badly and we could help so many children get to Sunday School for the first time if we had some transportation, but we’ll see what God has in mind for us. Thanks for all your prayers on this too.

My parents are here and Jim Bargeron too. Jim and my dad will start wiring the second house for electricity this week and my mom and I may paint the bathrooms in the first house — My parents continue to make good contacts with people here at the military base. They met someone today that said he can fly big crates on an airplane to the base here for us for $100 — that was better than any price we have ever dreamed of so pray that we can work through whatever process is involved. Thanks.

I had asked some of you to pray for me especially lately as I was feeling discouraged personally and needed some more fellowship with other Christians. Sometimes it is just hard in a foreign language to pray together in the way I had been accustomed. Well, yesterday we went out to lunch at a restaurant for Moncho’s birthday. There was a whole table full of America-looking people. It ended up they were missionaries here in Siguatepeque and I had never met them. They are with CAM missions and we started talking. The one missionary wife invited me to a small retreat they are having where 10 of them are going to Tegucigalpa for a weekend and to just hear from a long-time missionary here to be encouraged. They also want me to come to a once-a-month Bible study they have together — I was SO excited for this opportunity. The wife of the other missionary came up to me as they were leaving the restaurant and asked me what part of Georgia I was from. She ended up being from Augusta too and her family live right off of Fury’s Ferry Road. We couldn’t believe it and we are looking forward to talking at the retreat to see who we know in common. They were so precious and I am so excited and know that God is answering yours and my prayers about the need for encouragement here — so thanks for those prayers too.

My heart is so overwhelmed with thanksgiving tonight for being privileged to live among these precious poor people and to get to see the amazement of a WONDERFUL SAVIOR light up their eyes. I praise God for all of you that are at home praying for the ministry here and for me. This is all part of your fruit that you are reaping for those faithful prayers.

Love in His WONDERFUL GRACE (I don’t ever want to forget how WONDERFUL it is!!!)

Rhonda

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