Hey Everyone,
Thanks for your prayers for us faithfully. It seems lately that the blessings are growing at the same time as the trials — I guess that is how the Lord planned it though. I was reading a devotional by Spurgeon the other day and he was reminding us that battles are not going to get easier. All our trials and conflicts are preparing us to be warriors for the Kingdom of God and so, the stronger we become through our trials, the better prepared we are for bigger battles — there is a spiritual war going on and we are soldiers — so expect greater trials as we grow in our faith and continue in the ministry, and don’t expect things to get easier. I remember Pastor Wade saying that one time as well. That there are no vacations, so get over the idea that it will be easier further down the road. The only thing that might get a little easier is if we react in faith and not fear, so the internal battle can get a little easier if we grow in faith. Anyway, I said all that to
say, that even though I don’t like the idea of the continual battles at Destino del Reino, I do know that they are part of the spiritual war here and that it is worth it all for the fruit that is being produced and will be in the future generations through the ministry here in Honduras. Thanks for your prayers though because sometimes it gets a little overwhelming. One of my missionary friends told me this last week that the Lord gave her a word for Carlos and I at Destino. He told her the words “RUTHLESSLY STAND” — she said that even when it is not an outright battle, that we are always in war and we need to stand ruthlessly without wavering no matter what comes our way.
Well, that was a good word for us because yesterday we found out that the begruntled young pastor/.teacher that had working for us for 3 months, has now met up with our begruntled former director (who had lied and disobeyed and resented us continually and we let her go about 2 years ago). They together are trying to talk to all the people in the villages close to us to dissuade them from sending their children to this school. It is amazing that two bitter people can suddenly “find” one another. I sure they had a little help from the Enemy on that one. It hurt to know that no matter how gracious we had been with them and tried to make the right changes at the school and still be kind to them, they have such bitter hatred for us still. We are not too worried though really because no parent in their right mind would deprive their desperately poor children with no future in sight out of a FREE bilingual christian education offered to them at Destino del Reino. If we
lose any children from these lies and rumors, then we will know they were not chosen of the Lord to have this opportunity to be trained lfor eaders and missionaries. Pray for us to be wise and kind in the midst of all of this. There are always enemies when you try to do something in the Spirit for the Lord’s kingdom, and unfortunately, many times the “enemy” is your own brothers and sisters in Christ who are proud and judgmental and speak of the Lord but have hearts far from Him. I am always so amazed at Carlos though when we have these kinds of situations. The Bible says to pray for and bless your enemies, and everytime something comes up like this, he obeys that command and immediately prays for the Lord to bless those that are cursing us. I think the secret to the Christian life is forgiveness and God really moves in our ministry when we CHOOSE to forgive whatever offense. I personally had a few hours of defensive self-righteous anger, and finally chose to
forgive too. Carlos just immediately forgave and said this place is the Lord’s and no man can stop HIS work. Thanks for praying for us in this situation and especially pray for Nestor and Sandra because this resentment is death to their spiritual lives. God does not permit us intimacy with him if we harbor bitterness in our hearts.
The blessings that are flowing here are amazing. At this point we have about $40,000 for the land. It is still coming in from people that I don’t even know well or who have never given to Destino and God has put it on their hearts. I know it sounds like a lot to say we lack $60,000 — but “nothing is too difficult for the Lord” — He is proving this is His will and we will wait on Him to do it COMPLTELY!! There are several people that have talked about giving bigger sums and so maybe they will still contribute soon and we can finish this purchase and get on with the projects that we want to do there. We haven’t heard from the owners of the land yet and so, at this point, we don’t have to make an offer yet. Whatever comes in during the next few weeks, we may try to make an offer with that amount and see if they will take it. I am thinking maybe at about $70,000 we will try to offer that in place of the $100,000 they want at this point. Please be praying on this
— for God to touch hearts of people to give and also move the hearts of the owners to let us have it at a discount. Thanks so much. He does all things in His perfect timing.
We are getting excited about the bilingual school next year. God has put the right people in our path to help plan curriculum and we are starting to get a few applications for teaching positions from Americans as well. Please pray for the right choices — that we will hear clearly from the Spirit as to who is to teach here next year. We have two excellent new Honduran teachers and will need two more Honduran teachers for the year coming up so be praying about those needs as well. We also will need to start finding about 30 more sponsors for the incoming class of kindergarten students. The sponsorship is $40 a month and a promise to pray for the student that is assigned to the sponsor. The sponsorship is to cover a good hot meal for them, uniforms, curriculum, teachers salarly, bus and gasoline, etc. etc. The $40 does not cover it all so we will need to pray for more money to come in general for curriculum and extra needs. Thanks for praying for us in all of
these needs. It can look overwhelming when you think of our monthly expenses and needs, but we have a God who owns it all and to this point, he has NEVER come up short and has poured out all that we need each day and week, month and year. What FAITHFULNESS!! It is beyond our comprehension.
The church is growing every week and we are so thankful for the growth in numbers, but more so for the spiritual growth we are seeing in the new believers here. Yesterday we met another misisonary from San Pedro Sula who (along with his wife) specialize in training Sunday School teachers and they offered to do a seminar here for our prospective teachers for our Sunday School program. They also teach seminars for honduran teachers on more creative ways of teaching in the school system and we are planning to have them here for a seminar when school starts as well. See what I mean??? God sends everyone we need who has the skills and knowledge to take care of every possible need we could have here — isn’t he awesome.
Another example of that is a man named Karl who came in September with a group from West Acres. I didn’t know him or his occupation or anything. As I was giving the tour of the downstairs in the school, I mentioned that we wanted a library on this right side and the computer class would be on the left, etc. I did not know that Karl was a retired librarian and he now has asked the Lord to enable him to build an incredible library for the students of Destino del Reino. He is contacting people to donate books and has planned out the library physically and the group who come in July will build all the shelves, etc. as Karl has planned it. It always amazes me how God does not miss one detail — He gives before we have even had a chance to ask Him — WOW.
We are working hard on the basketball court and it should be finished within a couple of weeks. We have to put the big wire fence around it becuase of the slope of the land — the kids would be chasing balls down the hill more than playing basketball if we didn’t put that up. We have pretty much finished inside the school and it is beautiful. Pray for the tractors to come out from the military. They keep putting us off. Although they are promising a good deal financially — we need them to COME!!! The mayor is giving us 25 loads of material to put on the road once the tractor passes by and finishes their part. So pray for the timing on all of this. I just want that soccer field finished so we can plant the seed before too long and have it ready to use for youth activities and discipleship opportunities.
Thanks for your continued encouragement and I praise God for all he is doing here. We are so blessed to have all of your prayers and backing. Pray daily for Carlos — he is the head here and so suffers the most conflict and trials. But God is making him into an incredible man of God and leader for his people.
Love to all of you,
In His AMAZING GRACE,
Rhonda
