Hey Everyone,
Thanks for all the prayers. God is always soooooo good to us and we see His hand in all that is happening — good and bad — at Destino. He uses the hard times to teach us to rely more on Him and to humble us more and more to be more useful to His ministry here. There are daily battles but He is always winning and is merciful to teach us through each one. Please continue to pray for us to seek Him first every morning for the wisdom we need to confront each new situation.
It is amazing how the Lord has gotten us through this school year. We are almost finished (just lack about 7 weeks) and we have been able to pay the teachers every month, all the kids had food every day, we were able to provide uniforms, great curriculum, materials etc. and it is all really a miracle!!! So many children have come to Christ this year, as well as quite a few of their parents. We have had a lot of turnaround with the American teachesr but God has covered every class in English as well and we are ending up the year in better shape than ever as far as the English classes go. A missionary friend, Regina, who also worked hours and hours last year planning our curriculum, has agreed to be at school two days a week and teach the English for 3 grades and also oversee the English Department from now on to make sure they are on track with the curriculum and covering the subjects well. I have such a peace with her there so please be praying
for wisdom for her. She is starting to review all the English classes to determine the curriculum needed for the coming year. Please be praying as well for Zoe as she is the teacher for preparatoria, kinder and first grade. She never planned to be a teacher but she is doing an incredible job — she is diligent, creative, and, as the kids say, “fun”. It is amazing how God brought her here and is helping her daily to be an excellent teacher. Tori Halvorsen is here for 6 weeks and is her assistant, which is a great help and the two of them are living in the second house here at Destino and enjoying it. When Tori leaves, a friend of Zoe’s from Augusta, Ron Hickerson, will join us as the assistant to finish out the year. God is covering all the bases and we are so thankful. Pray for the American teachers we need for the upcoming year and for the training that we are preparing for them and for the whole interview process. We need to know
who God wants here and then prepare them better for the cross-culture changes, etc. once they are here with us. There are a lot of decisions to be made so pray for us and the Board as well. We need to get the whole recruiting program really fine-tuned and learn from our errors in the past.
Be praying for the 30 new sponsors we need for next year’s entering class. We also need probably about 50 half-sponsors for $30 a month so if anyone knows someone that may be interested, please refer them to the web site to sign up. We would like to have the sponsors lined up before July so we can start ordering the uniforms and shoes, and curriculum. That is the time of year when we have the most expenses. Thanks for praying. Speaking of sponsors, I wanted to share with you that God is clearly picking the sponsors for each student. Zac may think he is assigning them randomly, but God is obviously overseeing it and is in control. I prayed with a little second-grader, Amy, when she accepted Christ a few weeks ago. When I wrote her sponsors about her salvation, I shared also about her favorite color, what she wants to do when she grows up and for some reason, I mentioned that Amy has a deformed hand. Well, I got an email this week from
her sponsors and the wife is a physical therapist and she has talked to a doctor with specialty in this area and he wants to help Amy reconstruct her fingers. I took pictures and am sending them today. It just made me cry when the sponsor wrote and said, “it is not an accident that WE are Amy’s sponsors.” God is so amazing!!
Thanks for praying for the needs we have monetarily at Destino. We are still praying for the shipment money for the tractor, truck, trailer and other farming equipment. We are so anxious to get the equipment here so we can start our first crop. Things are tight everywhere and we want to be able to grow our own food as soon as possible and also to employ a few of the many unemployed parents of the children in the school.
We are opening our second hand clothing store on Saturday and expect a good turn-out. The parents in the school will receive a note about that today and we will also go up to the village above us and tell them about the opening. We will only be open on Saturdays so we should have quite a crowd each week. Pray for this to be a good opportunity to become more self-supporting.
A friend of ours in Texas is going to check with a man that makes the block-making machines and please be praying for God’s favor on us and that he will donate one to Destino del Reino.
Keep praying for the $8,500 we need for the bus for next year. We will have over 210 kids next year in school and need the third bus desperately. We think we will be able to sell one of our trucks and be able to apply that towards the money for the bus. This is a GREAT deal and we will get a bus for the $8,500 equivalent to the bus we got a couple of years ago for $22,000. Thanks for praying.
God is teaching me so much through some trials we have been having here. Please pray that I stay in His presence every day to maintain my joy. I am ashamed at how I so easily became depressed over situations that I cannot change but God wants us to walk above our circumstances. Thanks for praying for us to just keep our eyes focused on HIM alone, not trying to be people-pleasers, but seeking Him only.
Thanks for praying too for the upcoming church service for the families of the first graders. Pray that Carlos will preach through the Holy Spirit and that many parents will receive Christ that night. It will be Friday, the 23rd of April. I am also starting to meet with the first graders this next week and sharing the gospel with them one-on-one so pray for that as well.
Tomorrow Carlos and Professor Ovidia are going to Tegucigalpa to submit our final papers for our permanent accreditation for the school. Pray for God’s favor on every step of this process so that we can get our final papers back very SOON!!!
The kids are all doing great. They have had some kind of virus though with a fever and cough that has just continued passing through the whole family. The weather is warm in the day and cool in the nights and I think some of this may be allergies as well. Thanks for praying for them. They are all so precious and growing every day. I can’t believe Sammy starts school in 5 months and Emily and Ana will start the following year — time is flying past us. We need to live each day as if it were our last and really use every opportunity to teach these children of the grace of the Lord Jesus. Pray for us to keep our focus continually on the things that really matter and not get distracted by anything.
Please continue to pray for my parents as my mom just finished her second round of chemotherapy. She has done pretty well b ut is weak sometimes. It is hard on Daddy too to see her suffer. Thanks for praying for them. I hate being so far away and unable to help. Pray also for Barry O’Neill (member of our family) who was in a car accident on Sunday night and is really banged up and has a chipped vertebrae. Pray for quick healing for him.
We thank you for your prayers for us, for your support financially (knowing it is tough in the US right now as well) and for the encouragement it is to know you are out there loving us and seeking the Father on our behalf. We are blessed with all of you on our TEAM!! Let me know how to pray for each of you as well.
In His grace,
Rhonda
