Hey Everyone,
As always we are so grateful for your faithfulness in prayer for us at Destino del Reino. There is a lot going on but we are finding more and more faith to meet each new challenge. I can look back over the past year with all its conflicts and struggles, and really see a difference in my faith and I praise God for that. Thank you for praying for me that I will continue to grow in my faith and not waiver with doubts or fears when the hard times come.
We are still looking for two more teachers. One is for the second grade, but Ariel (a young man who is legally a teacher although he is only 18 years old) is covering the class until we find another teacher with a few more years of experience. He is doing an excellent job though and we plan to make him a full-fledged teacher next year but this year he will continue as an assistant. He is so full of love for the kids, organized and very capable. We need a third grade teacher to take Carolina’s place. Please be praying though. The only reason that we cannot continue with her is that we are being obedient to the requirement that the Holy Spirit gave us to have each teacher and employee attend church once a week. We are certain this is from the Lord and we need to be obedient. Carolina’s new husband is afraid at night for her to go out and even afraid to bring her himself. Please pray that God will heal him of this terror at night and that we can continue with Carolina at the school. God can take care of this in a minute!! So pray with us about his stronghold of fear. We have several applications and will be reviewing them in the next few days so pray for wisdom for us in finding who God would have at Destino.
We are going to be having a program for all the parents and students and teachers at our church on Friday night, October 12th. Pray for this time. We are going to have the students do the scripture readings, prayer and sing and dance to a few praise songs, but we are really praying that when Carlos preaches, many of the parents will come to know Jesus Christ as their savior. Carolina believes her husband will bring her that night so please pray that he will come to know the Lord and get over his fears at the same time — that would be so awesome for the Lord to work this out in that way. We plan to do this at the first of each school year to include the church in the school and have them pray over the teachers and commit the new school year to the Lord. We will do one at the end of the year as well and have another chance to evangelize the parents.
Church was absolutely AWESOME last night. Carlos was so EXTRA full of the Sprit in his preaching and so many people’s lives were touched. The church is growing faster every week — we were down to the few and faithful for about 6 months or so and now, all of a sudden, God is building it up to many more people. Pray for us especially as there are so many young people and this is a critical time in their lives. I am so glad they are under the teaching of Carlos, who calls them to the challenge of living for Christ in an ungodly world around them. Thanks for your prayers to protect Carlos and his family at all times from the attacks of Satan. He sure would love to take Carlos down before he does any more “damage” but God is the victor and we are depending on HIM.
Pray for Carlos on Friday. We will be going to the Embassy in Tegucigalpa to try to get his permission to go to Georgia for a missions conference at West Acres Baptist Church. If he gets the permission, we will be arriving in Atlanta on the 6th, be at the conference for 4 days and Carlos would then have oral surgery to have his wisdom teeth pulled on that Monday (12th) and return to Honduras after a few days of recuperation. Please pray for favor with the representatives at the Ambassador’s office. Thanks.
The kids are all doing well. We are probably going to get a little 2 1/2 year old girl named Kinsy in a few weeks. She was dying of starvation in a hospital in Santa Barbara and an elderly American woman took care of her until she was healthy again. They were going to have her put in an orphanage but the judge said if she could find a better place, they would consider something else for Kinsy. Pray for the judge to be favorable to letting us take her. The state orphanages here are AWFUL — there are sooo many kids, no bathrooms and very little food.
Little Abi is standing up strong but still afraid to take many steps alone. She is doing so well and has fattened up and is really healthy now. Her mom moved to Mexico after signing her into Destino, so I doubt we will ever see her again. I am just glad that Abi is with us.
Ana is still the smallest and will probably always be. She still doesn’t say many words but grunts a lot — she is so strong-willed and independent. She is a real doll baby.
Alexander is starting to walk. He is so happy all the time and we all just love him. Emily loves him like he was her own baby and he is only 2 months younger than her. Alexander’s mom still doesn’t know where he is and the judge wants to keep it that way so I can’t take him to town with me ever to shop. She abandoned him and his great aunt rescued him and had the judge give him to us. He is a fun little boy.
Emily is a little mess. She is so full of fun and love and very affectionate with everyone (except strangers, ha). She and Ana are pretending to be learning to walk because of all the attention that Abi and Alexander are getting when we try to get them to walk to us. They are such actresses.
Sammy is growing so fast and is really getting tall right now. He loves the babies and takes care of them when all the other 11 are in school during the week. He is so sweet to all the kids. I am still praying to train him to get more independent of me and the kids are praying that as well. When he doesn’t cry when I have to leave, the kids all praise him and clap for him so that is helping. He needs prayer because of his deep insecurities.
Josue loves school — he looks like a little man in his school uniform.
Jonathan and Jose also love their pre-K class. They are all learning so much already and the school year has just begun.
Cokie is another one that needs a lot of prayer for insecurity. She and Sammy are my most insecure children and I spend a lot of time trying to pray over them about that. Thanks for helping me pray for them. Cokie is trying to quit sucking her thumb and the kids pray for her every night about that as well.
Carlitos is in kindergarten now and really loves it. I held him back one year and it bothered him for a few days that the kids were younger than him but he just was not ready to start kindergarten last year. He is very happy now though and doesn’t seem to mind. He is learning to write his name and is so proud.
Samanta is adjusting so well too and loves school. She has not yet asked Jesus to be her savior so please pray for her about that. I see some deep rebellion in her eyes at times and she just needs to know the lLord Jesus.
Eidy and Cesar absolutely LOVE their new American teachers (Hawk and Stephanie) — they are so excited about school and are learning so much. They told me that my kids were their class genuises. They are sooooo smart. Keep praying for Eidy as she has some real problems still with manipulating others and selfishness. The Holy Spirit lives in her now so there is hope!!
Blanca, as always, is a doll and doing great. She started attending church with me as she is old enough to get something out of the messages. She loves it too. She is such a little mama for the whole house and such a peace maker. I am so grateful for her.
Erick and Eduard are doing great — I am so amazed at their sweetness and helpfulness since they are 14 and 17 years old and you usualy don’t find those kinds of teenagers, even in Honduras. Please keep praying for them. These are tough years for them as they are developing into young men. Carlos spends a lot of time talking with them and working with them so pray for him to have wisdom with the boys. Last night he called them to the front during the time of ministry and altar call. He prayed over them specifically and it was a precious time. He just felt led by tthe Spirit to do that and I was so thankful.
Erick has not done well in the school we had him in this year so we will transfer him to the technical school with Eduard next year. I think he will do much better with learning some skills and not just straight studies.
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to give you a little note on each of the kids to catch you up a little bit on them. We are such a happy family and I am so grateful for the way the kids love one another.
Please be praying for the container that should arrive on Sunday. We need favor of God to avoid extra taxes so please pray pray PRAY!! When it gets here we will be able to finish up some rooms with the doors that are coming and be able to finally have the new tables in the cafeteria and be able to start computer class, etc. etc. We are so excited for all of the great things God provided for us in this container, including a minivan. (Speaking of that, please pray for us about our car situation — we seem to be having more bad days with our cars than good days — lots of time in the shop for lots of different problems. I know they are getting a lot of miles on them but pray that they will last a LOT longer.)
Thanks for all your love for us and prayers continually. We have about 7 groups already signed up for the year ahead so if your church is planning to come to Destino this next year, let me know soon — we hope to see many of you here at Destino this year —
Love in His grace,
Rhonda
