Hey Everyone,
I wanted to tell you that we are continually thanking God for each of you that even take time to read these emails and pray for us, and encourage us and support us. I have no idea how many of you are out there praying for us because so many people on my list of over 600 are forwarding these emails on to entire churches — all I can say is that God knows who you are and you are having an impact on this ministry through your faithful prayers and we are so grateful for every one of you.
We are going to start sending out a quarterly newsletter through the US postal service to those that do not have email. If you know of someone that would like to have a newsletter sent to their home, please send me the name and address of those persons. If you do have access to email, please do not request a newsletter as this will be an additional cost to the ministry. The newsletter will be the same information that you are receiving by email but just a shorter version of my very LONG emails, ha.
Thank you for your prayers for Carlos and I in our travel to the United States for the mission conference at Day Spring Baptist in Augusta, Georgia. It was such a long hard week because of the busy schedule but so obviously fruitful for the kingdom of God. The pastor and church had been praying for weeks in advance and their desire was to use us and other missionaries to motivate their people to get involved in reaching the world for Christ — going, giving and/or praying. It was so obvious that God did a mighty work in the people of the church that week and we were grateful that God could use us to help encourage them. We didn’t have time to see many people so we apologize if we came to town and didn’t even call or see you.
Thank you for your constant praying for our school children and the budget etc. More than one-third of the sponsors were able to increase their support to $60 a month and we cannot express our gratitude for their commitment to these children. We need to get an additional sponsor for each of the other 2/3 of the students so please be praying for us in this endeavor. We will be fine financially through the last two and a half months of school but starting in July we need all sponsors in place to start buying the uniforms, curriculum, shoes, etc. and to start hiring the teachers. We are in the process of determining what students need the additional sponsors and we also need to start praying for 30 more sponsors for the incoming pre-school class. This sounds overwhelming, but, as you and we know, God is able to do AMAZING things!! We just need to be praying about this. We plan to send some photos of the students who need a second sponsors of
$30 to various churches who have been involved in Destino. If you know of anyone who is willing to take on a student for $30 a month, please send them to the website www.destinodelreino.org and under “School”, they can sign up with Zac Rosenbaum in Texas. Pray for Zac as he has so much work to do for us in this area, and he does it with such joy — we are so blessed to have him in charge of this very huge part of the ministry.
Pray for Zoe Tolson who just became our new English teacher for kindergarten, preschool and first grade. It is a bit overwhelming, I’m sure, as she has never taught, but she knows God called her to this and she has such joy and the kids already love her. Pray for patience with the kids and mostly with herself as this is a new situation and there is so much to take in.
We were able to get the movie “Fireproof” while we were in the USA and we are planning a couples banquet to show the move on Saturday, March 28th. It was amazing to me that we cannot even think of more than 12 married couples — including teachers, workers in the ministry, church, neighbors. That indicates just how few marriages there are here in Honduras and we want to encourage those that are married to stick with it and let God change them personally and in their marriages. Please be praying for this very special night. If you have seen the movie, the gospel is clearly shared and we will be having several at the banquet who do not yet know Jesus Christ personally. I know God will use this night to really encourage so many.
Also be praying for the 20th of March when we will have all the families of the second graders for church. Many parents received Christ the night we had the third grade class here and we ask you to pray that they will continue to grow in their faith and begin attending an evangelical church. We also will continue meeting one-on-one with the students this next week and ask you to pray that those who have not yet received Jesus Christ as their savior, will pray with us for salvation this next week. I just love meeting with these little ones and knowing them better personally. They are all so very special and it just confirms to me that God is hand-picking those who he sends to be educated and trained at Destino del Reino.
My cousin in Colorado continues to be working on the shipment of farm equipment for us at Destino. Please pray for the tractor that is in the shop, the purchase of any other things he needs to send us, the clearance we need on this end to not have to pay the taxes, the funds for the shipping of the equipment and the safety of the equipment as it comes to us. We are so anxious to get started on this new endeavor for Destino del Reino. The economy is getting rapidly worse here and we will be able to help so many people with the crops we will be able to raise at Destino. Also, we had an extra small pick-up donated to Destino and my neighbor really loves this car. He offered to give us all the land in front of Destino in exchange for the car and we are going to do that. The land in front of us is already free of trees and pretty level to start farming as soon as the equipment arrives. Thanks for your prayers for all of these details.
We FINALLY have a night watchman that we trust. He is a man that was recommended to us by another guard at the bank and when Carlos went to interview him, he found out that it was a man he has known and trusted for years!!! Praise God for that. It is hard to find a trustworthy person to be a watchman here so we are so thankful and are all sleeping in great peace every night. We have not had any incidents since we marched around the school a few weeks back. Even while we were in the US and you were all praying for the safety of Destino del Reino, there was not one incident. Thank you for covering us with your prayers.
My mom’s chemotherapy has been postponed until next Tuesday. Please be praying for her and my dad during this time. Pray specifically that she will not get sick through the treatments. God can do that no matter what most people experience and we are asking that favor of Him for her.
Jackie and Josie, our 3 and 1 year old sisters, were returned to their parents last month. They really should have never been placed with us here but were with us one year. We had an opportunity to love on them and pray for them for one year though and I am grateful for that time. Their parents, I believe, will take good care of them now and not permit them to be taken away again by the government.
Another project that we really feel that God would have us take on at Destino is a cement block-making machine. We would need about $25,000 for the machine that would make the best blocks and that sounds like too big a miracle — but we are praying and waiting on God for this. We would immediately have all the business around this part of Honduras because right now the blocks that are made are too weak and people travel several hours up to San Pedro Sula to get better blocks. This would be a great key in our becoming self-sufficient as a ministry so please be praying for God’s provision for this machine. Thanks.
Thank you for all your prayers for all the projects that need to be finished at Destino as well. It is our hope that we can finish up the medical and dental clinic this next 6 months. Pray for the funds to come for that. We have a couple coming in mid-June to help at Destino and they will live in the teachers’ house in Siguatepeque until mid-August (when the single teachers come back), but we would like to have them live after that in the apartment in the medical clinic — pray we can finish that before mid-August. God has all of these things in His perfect plan and we mention them all to you for prayer but we are waiting on HIM to reveal what is each next step that He has for Destino.
Please start praying right now for the new American teachers we need for the upcoming school year. We provide their housing and they need to raise at least $300 a month in support. Pray that God will call HIS choice of teachers to join us here in the ministry. He is already moving in hearts, I’m sure, and we need to be praying for Him to send these teachers to us soon. Thanks for keeping this in your prayers continually for the next few months. We really need to know who they are around the first of July so we can better prepare them and provide more materials, etc. before their coming in mid-August. Thanks for your prayers.
God is so good to me to let me have such a precious life with these children. Thanks for your prayers for me personally. I would like to ask you to pray personally for me for my weight. Carlos and I both need to lose a lot of weight to feel better and have the energy and strength to keep on so I want to take advantage of over 1,000 prayer warriors and ask for this personal request — for discipline and that God will just make us WANT to eat the right things, drink water, etc. Carlos hasn’t asked for this prayer request but Wendy and I are praying it for him too. He has had a lot of different health problems lately and I think they may be related to his blood pressure. We will have him checked soon but pray for us personally for our health and also for unity among all of us and that we will also be diligent in our time with the Lord each day.
Thank you for all your encouragement and for the faithful prayers. We are blessed.
Love in His grace,
Rhonda
