Hey Everyone,

Thanks for your continued prayers for us and PLEASE don’t stop!!! We have so much going on and so many decisions to make and plans to prepare for the new school year.

The teachers started last week and are busy decorating their classes and writing lesson plans, etc. We had a great group of 6 guys from Michigan last week who worked soooo hard to get our desks made for the new third graders and to paint the cafeteria and classrooms and lots of other odd jobs at the school. We are so grateful for God’s timing in bringing them to us at this critical time. We still lack a lot but will have to let some things just wait until we have more money to finish the school. Please pray for that. There are so many things to pay for at the beginning of the school year and we still lack sponsors for many of the kids. I KNOW that God is the same faithful God and He will provide exactly what we need, but it is hard for me at times not to panic a little. I need to really trust Him more from day to day no matter what it looks like around me. Just pray that God will put it on hearts to help us finish up with the school, finish buying the uniforms and shoes for the students, and be able to buy a new school bus. It looks TOO big but as someone once said, “Instead of telling God how big your problem is, tell your problem how big your GOD is!! I am trying to keep my focus on Him and be assured of His faithfulness in every detail at Destino. I sure need prayer not just for the needs but mostly for my faith to grow.

We have another little girl. I have mentioned her through the months because we had expected to get her about 3 months ago. She is a cousin of Blanca, Jonathan and Cesar (although they had never met her before). She is 11 months old and her mom had given her first baby away to strangers and now she was neglecting this baby girl as well and so Blanca’s mom talked her into letting us raise her at Destino permanently. We named her Abi Marina and she is really a sweet little thing. She will be one year old on September 4th. She is very thin and has lost a lot of hair from malnutrition but we will get her healthy soon with lots of vitamins and good food. She has adjusted so quickly and we just ask that you pray for her to regain her health. All the kids love her so much already. She and Alex adjusted so quicly when they moved in. Alexander has been here now for 8 weeks and is such a happy little guy. We now have 4 one-year olds and they all play great together. Abi and Alexander need to learn to walk and are working on that. Sammy is praying fervently for them. The other day, I said, “Look, Sammy, Alexander took two steps” and he just said, “Yeah, I know, I prayed for him to walk.”

Pray for the team coming in on September 1st. They will be here for medical clinics and evangelism in several villages. Pray for many to come to Christ that week and we will know exactly which villages that we should help at this time.

Pray for the container that is being shipped in the next week or so. It got delayed, possibly because of the Hurricane Dean, but we know God has His perfect timing in all things so we will just wait. pray for the lawyer here to finish up the papers so that we can be sure and not have to pay the taxes this time. We are so grateful for all the things the sweet friends in Texas have collected for us. We are so blessed with all of you that help us in every way.

I was so convicted by Carlos’ sermon last night. He was talking about being cowards and not willing to suffer — and I know that I have been so down for many months under so many struggles and God doesn’t want me to live that way. As Pastor Wade used to say, “when someone says, . . ‘.well, under the circumstances,’ . . . , he always says, what are you doing under there????!! I am determined to live and suffer whatever God brings in my life and in this ministry and be faithful to quit my complaining (even to God) — it has been rough but all of this has been necessary to grow us up in our faith or we will never be strong enough to see this ministry to the ultimate goal that God has given us — training up and sending out missionaries into all the world with the gospel.

I am so excited about what God is showing me lately in how to make a new different generation with these children in the school and in the children’s home. Satan is full of lies — he is the Father of lies — and it is his lies that defeat us so often. Instead of believing what God says about us, we believe the lies because we have been listening to them longer than we have heard the truth — “you’re a failure” you can’t do anything right,” etc. etc. We have been using Neil Anderson’s list of “Who I am in Christ which is just straight scripture about what God says about us. All the workers and the big boys and I read it on the front porch out loud every morning in front of the kids and it is going to change what we believe about ourselves. We are adapting it for the school to be a little simpler for the little kids that can’t read to just repeat after their teachers each morning — the sooner we get the TRUTH into them, the less power Satan will have with his lies later on in their lives. If they truly believe what God says about them and their calling, they will be able to go into the whole world with NO LIMITS!!! We are also scheduling into the school day 15 minutes a day of straight scripture memory work. We are no longer going to learn a verse a week — that is not enough for these special kids. We are also going to have missionary stories in chapel continually so they start getting a world vision early in their lives. Please pray for us in all these plans. We can’t just dream about making a new generation without specific plans as to HOW we can reach that goal. We need prayer for discipline and consistency and to keep our focus always. Thanks for your prayers.

We love all of you and praise you for your help in every way. God is up to great things here and we are so blessed to be part of HIS awesome work. G. Campbell Morgan said “God has foreordained the work to which he has called you. He has been ahead of you preparing the place to which you are coming and manipulating all the resources of the universe in order that the work you do may be a part of His whole Great and gracious work.”

In His grace,
Rhonda

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