Hey Ya’ll
God is really showing off His glory and goodness at Destino del Reino.
First of all, I wanted to thank all of you for praying for us during the Category 5 Hurricane Felix that was heading straight for Siguatepeque. In answer to all our prayers and yours, the Hurricane just completely diffused at the mountain ranges as it entered Honduras from Nicaragua and we barely had bad weather. We had had worse weather in the past weeks, in fact. We got rain but no high winds or anything that could cause the least bit of damage to us at Destino. God is so amazing.
When the Hurricane was heading our way, the group that was here from West Acres in Evans, Georgia, quickly relocated from the hotel in Siguatepeque to stay out at Destino with us. We had just enough beds or mattresses for the 16 people and we ended up having a great time and it was like being at camp with people cooking and eating and fellowshiping together all the time. It was a chance for me to have more fellowship with them because I usually cannot get to the hotel at night to join the groups for prayer and singing. Also, because they stayed out here, they were able to see first-hand all the things that needed to be repaired and so now we have water coming out of EVERY faucet and toilets flushing again, door knobs fixed, etc. etc. I am so grateful for all the work that was done at Destino this week. Also we were able to continue medical brigades in the various villages and about 251 people received Christ and so many were helped medically and encouraged. It was an amazing week of learning to trust God and His faithfulness and watching him use the team as they waited on God to lead them each day. I was especially so proud of Carlitos (Carlos’ oldest boy, age 11). He went as a translator for the evangelism team and almost all of those salvations were with his translation. He is sooooo excited and it sure changed him forever. He is just glowing!! He is going to be an incredibly godly man and used GREATLY of God to the nations one day.
We have been praying and praying for another bus because we cannot haul the 130 students this year on a bus that is supposed to seat 50. We have known we have to have 2 buses to continue. We also need an extra bus for groups that come and for AWANAs (which will begin in two weeks and there are over 150 children attending), and we need to have a bus that runs faithfully to pick up the people for church two nights a week. Anyway, we have prayed every day and night — especially the children have been praying. This week, we not only got a new bus, we got TWO BUSES. We had just heard from Gary (a member of the Destino board) that he was able to buy a bus for us with the inheritance of his mother-in-law who is now with the Lord. We were so excited and made plans to go to San Pedro Sula to look for the exact bus that God wanted us to have. We were able to shop for a really long bus because of the amount of the gift to Destino. During the week as Carlos was making various trips to San Pedro Sula, a man from the next village came to see me. He is a missionary with the Minnonites and he brought a young man who was also coming to work in their ministry. The young man had bought a bus to drive down to Honduras and got here only to find out that he could not own a bus older than 1994 and his bus was a 1992. He had only one option — to donate it to a ministry. My friend told him that we had been praying for a bus and so he wanted to donate it to Destino. I didn’t really know what to think because we were in the process of getting the other bigger bus. Well he wanted $5,000 out of it because that was what he had lost. One of the members of the team whispered that they would like to pay that money for the other new bus. Then on Friday, Gary flew in with the cash and we went and bought an incredibly beautiful bus and Carlos cannot contain his joy — he was just glowing as he started driving that huge thing down the road. As I thought about it, I realized that we really did need two other buses — two to run every day and one for an extra in case one is in the shop. We just cannot cancel school anymore for broken-down buses. The donated (or sort of donated) bus too is in better shape than the one we had before and it runs great. I am overwhelmed at what God did for Destino in ONE WEEK!!! He is always on time and never early. We had prayed and prayed and tried to start school last Monday but the bus (the only one we had at the time) broke down and we changed the starting date to this Monday (tomorrow). Then came the hurricane scare and so things would have been unstable to start school last week anyway, and now we start tomorrow with new buses and we are AMAZED!!! Perfect Timing!!
Thanks for praying for the school . Because the group was here and we canceled school for another week, we were able to get so much better prepared to open the school. The teachers had more time to prepare and the classes are all ready. The new American couple, Hawk and Stephanie, are really excited to get going with their first- graders this year.
Please pray for us to find the right teacher for the 2nd grade. We need to find him or her immediately. We also need a new assistant for kindergarten. The kindergarteners will be in the Independence Day parade and we are so excited for Destino to be participating for the first time. Samantha and Cokie will be pom-pom girls in the parade and they really feel special, — I’ll take some good pictures for everyone.
Pray for the funds for finishing up the school and for finishing paying for shoes and uniforms and that we will find the additional 25 or so sponsors that we need so that every student will be covered in prayer and it will cover the financial expenses for the year. God is soooo good and we are so enthusiastic about what He will do in the students this year at Destino.
I am really exhausted but thanking God for his goodness to us. Pray for us to have the strength to get back on track now after all the confusion and busy week. Carlos and I need to be in the Word every single day and so please pray that we will not let life crowd out the most important thing in our day. We really need to keep our armour on and have the “sword” or we cannot fight in the huge spiritual war we are in daily here.
I cannot thank all of you enough for your prayers and encouragement to us. We are one team with you and we need all of your prayers faithfully for us or we cannot accomplish the things that He has given us to do.
Please let me know how to pray for you specifically as well.
Love in His grace,
Rhonda
