Hey Everyone,

I am sorry that it has been about 2 weeks since I wrote to update you. It has been so busy here and I am still running around with the final group. They are out at a village today and I stayed back with the kids so I could have a chance to catch up on my emailing.

I am going to include a picture of the pavillion since we are now finished with it, minus ceramic for the floor and one flower bed on the side. It is absolutely beautiful and I can hardly wait to get it wired for lights and buy a bus and start weekly meetings to disciple villagers around us. God wil work every detail out in His perfect timing though, I am certain of that.

Last Tuesday, Mike Bennett and John Qualls showed up at our house. They were with the Tomball Bible Church group in La Ceiba (6 hours north on the coast) and came down for the day to see how the poles were coming along for bringing in the electricity in a few weeks. They said everything looked great and we are ready. The container will not be shipped until the 16th of August now and so will arrive here on the 23rd or 24th and so the linemen are planning to come about the 30th of August to put in the electricity. There is a great advantage though in the container being delayed — the group is here from Tomball now and when they return, they will have another 5 days to put things into the container and they have a whole list of things we are needing — yeah, isn’t God perfect in every way??!!! We have had one miracle after another concerning the electricity. John (who works for the electric company) told me that they have never in their history given a donation of materials. They are giving materials to Destino del Reino in an amount over $18,000 — it is so amazing that it is going to be on the news in Houston. They didn’t even know that they could get a tax receipt for the donation and were just giving it without that in mind — amazing!! Also, Carlos talked to the Forestry Department here and they came to give permission to cut down the trees to clear the lines. They are only allowed to give permission for trees around 15 poles and we have 31. The guy just hesitated a moment after telling Carlos that and then decided that he was the boss and could do whatever he wanted and he wanted to clear it all for us — God gives us such FAVOR with everyone — He truly does turn the hearts of men.

When Mike and John got ready to leave on Tuesday, they suddenly asked me if I wanted to go back with them to the group in La Ceiba. Christine is here helping with the kids and she and Marta said they could cover for me, so I ended up with 5 days up there helping with their mission on the Carribean. It was SOOOO hot!! I about died with the sun beating down on me but we had a wonderful time and saw many people make decisions for Jesus Christ. My most special experience that week though was with one 65-year old woman. She was watching from a distance while we gave the gospel to a group of young boys by a fence. She kept creeping closer and closer. She had a very hardened face but had real interest in what we were sharing. When we invited anyone to pray and invite Jesus to live in their lives, she said, “Si,” right away and prayed the prayer of repentance. Afterwards we wanted to give her a Bible and talk with her. I asked her if there was anything else we could pray for her about and she held up her two hands that were crippled with arthritis and she asked that we pray for the great pain she was in. As I started to pray, the Holy Spirit told me to ask her about resentment and unforgiveness. I told her that some times, but not always, when a person has arthritis, there is a spiritual root causing the arthritis and it is unforgiveness and bitterness. I asked her if there was anyone that she needed to release forgiveness to before we prayed for God to heal her. She right away said, “Yes, the man that killed my two sons.” Whew!! My heart just ached. I went on to cry with her and explain that God still requires us to give up those things and let him take the responsibility for the person that has wounded us. She was ready to give it up and wanted to repeat a prayer after me of forgiveness for the man. As I was praying, I remembered that the Word also tells us to bless our enemies, so I included in the prayer a blessing over the man and prayer that he too would come to know Jesus Christ. She hesitated a moment before repeating after me and then did it. It was the most precious thing. Afterwards I told her that we would now pray for God to heal her. We started praying and after awhile, I asked her, “is it better?” — She said “si” and I said “a little better or a lot better” and she said, “it is gone” and held up both hands and stretched out all her fingers — the arthritis was GONE!! It was a glorious moment. God is big and is doing great things in all the earth — we give Him all the glory and I am so blessed to be His!!

We got back here to Destino on Sunday afternoon and have been busy since then. One group of men is putting in the ceramic tile in the second house. They have two more days and it is over half done already — it is so beautiful. The other group of men are making the bunk beds for the second house and they are well on their way to completing that project as well. The rest of the group are out doing evangelism and VBS in a village called Potrerillos. We have over 400 kids in VBS every day, hearing the gospel for the very first time. It is such an awesome opportunity. The village has been a little harder to reach than many villages in Honduras but we have still seen over 40 come to Christ this week (adults). Many, many children are praying to receive Jesus Christ in their lives this week but we don’t have a number. I went out with them yesterday and we went to a house of a woman that has had continuous severe pain in her stomach and in her head for over a year. She was very miserable. As we prayed, the Holy Spirit told us it was a curse. I asked her if someone had spoken some curses over her about a year ago and she said yes. We broke them off of her in the powerful name of Jesus Christ, and the pain immediately was gone. God is amazing and POWERFUL!! She was such a sweet little Christian lady and had been suffering so long. It is so sad that we are given such authority in the name of Jesus and yet Christians let themselves be beat-up by Satan because they don’t know how to fight.

The kids are all doing well. Jonathan and Cokey had really bad chest infections and coughs and fevers this week but finally today they are both cheerful and playing again. They are such fun babies and it is so hard to see them sick. We still don’t know about the bilingual school for Blanca later this month. They were still looking for a kindergarten teacher last I talked with them and we don’t know yet. If she cannot start kindergarten this year, then she will start with them in first grade next year. We’ll just leave that to the Lord.

There are several people trying to locate a bus for us so please keep praying. We will be so much better off getting a bus from the states and shipping it here. So thanks for your prayers for the exact one that God has for us and that the price will be GREAT!! The shipping and entrance fees will be almost $2,000 so we need a good price on the bus itself. But we know how big our God is, right?!

We need some more land for the last three houses and as they were getting ready to put in the poles for the electricity, we decided we needed to talk to the owner about getting a little more. Ironically he said, “well since there is going to be electricity here now, this land is going to be worth more.” I couldn’t believe he had the nerve to say that to us but he ended up giving us a great price for another manzana (1.7 acres) and we needed it. We bought that and we are putting a fence around all the land we own and clearing it off this month so we can see what we have to work with. It was necessary to have more land going toward the road because we want the houses in a circle and we wanted to have as much space in the middle as possible for a playground, etc.

The guys have started the porch on the second house and it is so exciting to see things coming together so quickly now. Thanks for your prayers. As the funds come in, we will be able to order the doors and cabinets from the carpenter and to buy the windows and after that we will just need to paint it and get the railing on — that sounds like a lot, but I know God will provide it all in the near future. Our desire is to get Carlos’ family in there by November and start working on finishing their house under the big house as soon as we can in the spring. Keep praying for us in all these things. God is so faithful and we know that He will do all things well.

Eidy seems to be behaving better every day so y’all keep up the prayers for her as well. We haven’t heard anymore about getting Fernando’s little sister in but please continue to pray about that situation as well.

Church is going well and it is growing so fast. Once we have a bus, we will probably have to move into the pavillion for our regular church services as well because so many people want to come to church and do not have a way right now. Last week we had to make two trips to town to get the people and return them. Jorge (the younger groom that got married a few weeks ago and believes he is called into ministiry) started a junior high Sunday School class last week and is so excited to work with that age group. This whole ministry is growing so fast, it is unbelievable at times. There are two new houses being built near us and we will reach those people as soon as they move in with the GOOD news of jesus Christ.

I guess I better close today. I have given y’all PLENTY to pray about. Thanks so much for your faithful prayers for this ministry — as you know, that is exactly why God is moving in such HUGE ways. I love all of you and praise God for bringing each one of you uniquely into my life and into partnership with me in this ministry.

In His GLORIOUS grace,

Rhonda

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