Hey Everyone,
First of all, I just want to thank you for the MANY prayers and MUCH support we received from you this year 2006. Please go on the web site at www.destinodelreino.org and see our greeting to you. Each of the kids’ pictures will fade in and out and they all want to say thank you for feeding them and praying for them this year. God has been faithful and used you in our lives.
We are rejoicing so much this week. At least 20 people came to know Jesus Christ this week. We had 5 more receive Jesus as their savior in our church service last Monday night. Then we had our Christmas program at the school and Carlos gave a devotion and felt that he needed to do more than that and presented the gospel to the parents that morning and at least 6 of the parents prayed to receive the Lord Jesus. Then yesterday we had our first youth rally and had about 35 teenagers here. We had a great time with games and obstacle course and then in the afternoon, Carlos shared the gospel with them and 11 received Jesus as their Savior. Carlos and I stayed back with the 11 after the others went out to play and talk. It was so precious to hear the testimonies of these 11 teenagers. One 16-year old boy just cried and said he had such peace since praying that prayer and that his heart had been full of anger before and God took it away. Another young man about 15 or 16 said he had been in churches before but never asked Jesus to be his savior because he knew it is not an easy thing to follow Christ but today was the right day for him and he had a great peace. A 17 year old girl (daughter of Iris, one of my workers), just cried and told us that she had prayed before but until today she had never really meant it,. It was amazing and I just cried with them. They are all hungry to know God and His word more so we will start a Thursday night discipleship class this week for them.
Please pray for Carlos to know what is absolutely necessary for us to do in the ministry and what other things we have to wait for more assistance on. There is so much ministry here but we had just talked about the need for more discipleship this week and when he told the teenagers we would start on Thursday night, I was really happy but surprised because I don’t know how he can do any more. We need wisdom from God as to what HE wants us to do in HIS priorities. There are several young men in their early 20’s that are so hungry to know more of God too and I think they will be in the discipleship class. I told Carlos that I think if we make training leaders our biggest priorities, we will have a LOT more help in the near future to do all these other areas of ministry. Pray fervently for us and especially Carlos as God is using him greatly and Satan is attacking him for it.
We have sure had a lot of rain and last week we got the bus stuck in the mud sideways on the road when we were returning the people from church. We need to pray for money to repair the road in the near future. Of course, most of our church are young people and they just thought it was a great adventure, ha.
Thanks for praying for Cokie. She has quit twirling her hair now and hopefully her little bald spot will grow out soon. She just seems very insecure right now so please continue to pray for her specifically.
Please be praying continually for our school. There are a lot of decisions to make to really get our foundation sound so we can build on that for the future. We also need to start praying about the American teachers that God would send to us for the next school year (August 2007). Someone told me that February is about the time to start really putting out the word so please help us get that information out as you come across opportunities. Thank you to those who are sponsoring the children. These children have such struggles especially since their families have never lived but in extreme poverty and don’t have any vision or hope that their children can be different — we have to instill purpose and vision in the children through the school with no assistance from their homes many times. We have a little girl, Heidy, that really needs a lot of prayer right now. The teachers had decided to kick her out of the school after several problems and expulsion for stealing. We didn’t let them do that though because we had never had a chance to pray with her and for her. We did that last week and she prayed to receive Jesus as her personal savior. We need to talk to her mom but her mom is so bogged down in her own depression and hopelessness and doesn’t seem to care. Please pray for this situation. While I was praying with Heidy, Carlos was praying with two other little boys, Roberto and Charlie, who had also gotten into some trouble and he said it was a very powerful time of prayer with them. Please just remember to pray for these kids. They will have many battles ahead because this school is not just for education and we have declared its purpose to be that we are raising up leaders for Jesus Christ to change the world — Satan will do his best to trip them up and see that that does not happen — but GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN US THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD!!! — Thanks for your prayers.
We have all been really sick with colds lately and need prayer for our health. I was sooooo sick on Thursday night and asked my workers if they could cover for me and Sammy could sleep in the second house with them, etc. and I took double dose of a PM medicine to make me sleep and got in bed at 5:30 p.m with a high fever. I was just falling asleep when Erick had an accident on his bike. He needed to go to the clinic so I just got up and dressed and got in the car to rush him to the clinic in Siguatepeque. I called Carlos to ask him to keep his phone turned on in town (he wasn’t at home when this happened) because I wasn’t really sure that I would be capable of driving back home after we got out of the clinic. The medicine started really affecting me in the clinic and I did make it home but barely. Carlos kept calling to see if I needed help but I didn’t want to bother him (he was working on someone’s house for them in the city) but poor Erick said that I scared him to death driving so slow and around those curves getting too close to the edge, ha. I don’t think I will ever take a night-time medicine again or not at least until we have more drivers living at Destino. ha. I am better now and the others who had fevers are better too, but we all feel lousy so thanks for praying for us.
There is so much to be praying for and I appreciate all of you who at least pray through these emails that you receive — we depend so much on the power of God working through your prayers. We need so much more wisdom and strength to keep going from one battle to the next and I stand in amazement at the way God has gotten us through many battles that I really didn’t think we would make it through — he has been so faithful this year and we have grown up in His power and authority and learning to walk in more confidence of the victory that is available to us in the NAME OF JESUS CHRIST — please keep praying. It amazes me too that God would have chosen me for such a mission since he knew from the beginning how weak my faith and flesh are and yet he is so greatly glorified when he uses someone like me. I am so honored that he would make me a useable vessel to bring glory to Himself and to bring many to knowlege of Him. Don’t forget EVER to pray for me. Every day is a battle.
Monday night (25th) will be our big Birthday party for Jesus and it will be our fourth year to celebrate his birthday together as a church. Everyone looks forward to it so much. We do not do gifts here and we just have a big celebration for JESUS — the kids love it — everyone comes and we have supper together, a big birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus while we shoot off LOTS of huge firecrackers. It is a really big deal and I love the way we celebrate what Christmas is really about without other distractions.
I will be in the US in about a week. My parents have moved into Augusta and their new phone number is (706) 731-5216 if anyone wants to talk to me there. Also, don’t forget (if you live in the Augusta area) to come to West Acres fellowship hall at 7:00 p.m. on the 28th of December to talk to me in person. I would love to see all of you. You all mean so much to me and I wish I could have personal visits with each one of you but just know that you mean so much to me even if I can’t spend a lot of time with you each individually.
Thank you SO much for this wonderful year of love and support from all of you. I can’t wait to see all that God will do in 2007 because of your faithful prayers for us here in Honduras.
Love in His GRACE,
Rhonda
