Hey Everyone,
Thanks for all your faithful prayers for me and the ministry here. We just always need MORE prayer!!
I am so tired right now but am thankful for all the grace God gives me to get through each new day. The roosters start crowing and the babies start talking about 5:00 a.m. and by 5:30 a.m. all the 3 and 2 year olds have crawled into bed with me and we cuddle a while before the babies start screaming too loud and then we get up and start changing poo-poo diapers. Sometimes my tiredness is my own fault though because I should go to bed when the kids do (7:30
I am so thankful for their afternoon naps and that they go to bed early. It is exhausting but I always know that I can make it until the next “quiet” time.
They are all so precious and sweet and I just wish I wasn’t so hurried at times and never get to love on them enough.
Today was particularly difficult because 3 of them needed to go to the doctor and I had to leave behind the others who were all crying and wanting to go to town with me. We ended up taking Fernando (ear infections) and Eidy (bit by a fly that caused high fevers and great swelling and puss in her leg) to the doctor near the park and it was Vanessa’s first day to go to the maternity doctor. She was so scared and miserable and I just prayed and prayed for her. Her baby is 15 weeks and she is due on April 6th. I can’t imagine what she is going through — she just wanted to be a normal little girl and now she has to have a baby. We saw the baby on the sonogram and got the pictures. Please continue to pray for Vanessa. I talked to her about the Father’s love for her and that Satan would love to shame her and keep her defeated from now on but He is a liar because God says she is a princess and that he is absolutely pleased with her. God has great things for her life. She is so precious and it is hard to see her go through so much, but after our talk she was so cheerful all night and singing all the time. It really was a wonderful thing to see.
I need some prayer for several things right now:
Samanta is 2 1/2 years old. I am very convinced that she has been abused and it is so hard to know how to deal with her at times. She is so emotional and you can never give her enough love and attention — please pray that God will heal her emotionally and that I will have the wisdom to deal with her in the right way. Marta and I think that she has been hit in the head a lot because she doesn’t seem exactly right at times and ducks all the time when you move towards her. The doctor who examined her for me, told me that she was so jumpy and nervous and he believed her to have been abused as well.
I also need prayer for Eidy and Cloide as they are adjusting to living here. They are so cute and have already come so far but they have had such hard changes in their lives this past 2 months.
Pray for MORE FAITH for me. I have been nervous about the money coming in — I guess it is different when I know that I have to be able to feed all these babies — but I know the Father wants to have that responsibility –NOT ME!! So anyway, just pray that I will walk through one day at a time and know that the funds will be there when we need them. We have groceries this week and that is all we really needed. We let all the workers go for now and will just hire them back when we have the funds to continue on the second house. We have done fine though and just pray that I will not have these lapses of memory when I forget the perfect history of the Father’s faithfulness — He has NEVER ONCE LET US DOWN and He will not start failing us now — so anyway, pray for more faith and that I will trust trust TRUST always.
I also need prayer to just find the peace of God in spite of the lack of peace in the house at times. That is an internal calmness that comes from the Spirit and I want to be in His presence throughout my days and find joy in the daily things and craziness of my schedule. I just want to truly know HIM and to enter into the REST that He has for me in Himself. I have been reading Francis Frangipane’s book, “The Stronghold of God” and it is so good and I want to share a few lines:
“We cannot say we truly know God if we remain ignorant of His ways. To know the ways of God is to become knowledgeable of the motives of His heart and intimate with the secrets of His passions. It is to be amazed at the resolve of His love and compelled to humility by His attraction to the lowly. When God’s presence accompanies our actions, all the energy we once spent worrying and planning is reclaimed and offered back to God in praise and effective service. The outcome of being companioned through life with Christ is in His promise, “I will give you rest.” To enter God’s rest does not imply that we have become inactive but that God has become active. He becomes to us an untiring resource for our weakness; He is unfailing wisdom for our ignorance. At the place of rest, Christ becomes a continual life-spring of grace and virtue. We can cease from our anxious labors . . . God has always been more concerned with the condition of our hearts than the activity of our hands. What we become to Him is far more consequential than all we shall ever do for Him.”
Anyway, the whole book is helping me so much but I shared those lines because that is what I would like you all to be praying for me!! Thanks. I am so thankful for my church in town. I went into church on Sunday night so heavy-burdened (literally with lots of kids and symbolically with all the chaos of raising so many). Immediatley when I entered (about 30 minutes late of course with 30 people in my car), Pastor Cesar immediately found me and started praying and praying over me. He just rubbed my arms and prayed that I would enter into the rest that God wanted for me in every way — it was straight from the Holy Spirit and I am so thankful to have a pastor who HEARS the Spirit!! and can minister to specific needs like that.
Everything else is going well — the new Sunday School class for young people is a real hit — they all love it and Carlos loves training new believers in Truth!! We had to cancel the men’s meeting this week because of lack of money but I know it will come in soon and we will reschedule that too. God’s timing will be perfect as always.
Pray for good health for all of us, for the kids to be able to sleep during the night (so I can as well). It is so hard to be upbeat and on top of things when I haven’t slept much of the night — so thanks for praying for that PEACE to come in our house every night. We need a lot of that right now.
Sorry if this email doesn’t sound so cheerful. I really am thankful and am so enjoying the kids but just struggling at the same time right now. I know I can be honest with all of you and count on your prayers for more strength and LOTS of wisdom.
Love in His Grace that never NEVER fails,
Rhonda
