Dear Faithful Prayer Partners —
I thank you, as always, for your faithfulness in remembering all of us at Destino del Reino in your prayers. God is doing amazing things here and we cannot stop praising Him for His works and faithfulness in every aspect of this ministry. It is HIS ministry and not mine, so I guess I should not be surprised at all the great and supernatural things that he continues to do here —
We are having a wonderful school year and I so sense the presence of God in the teachers’ lives and know that their love for Jesus and joy in serving Him are going to pass on to the students they are teaching. We had a readjustment last week when two of our American teachers decided to leave Destino because they want to start dating one another and, as many companies and ministries, we have a no-dating policy. But God had already sent us another volunteer from Kentucky and she jumped right in and took over most of the classes and then we gave a few people one more class to be responsible for and it all worked out so smoothly and really better than ever in so many ways. God always has “our back” and sends help before we know we even need it. We would love to have another young man to come though to live in the apartment where Hayden (now our own male teacher) is living alone. If anyone knows a man that would like to come and serve the Lord here and help us in PE and maybe computers and assisting in English for awhile, please let us know. Be praying for more American teachers for next year as well. They need to raise between $400 and $450 a month but God is able to provide above and beyond all they need, if they are called by Him.
I am amazed at what God is in the process of doing for our farming dreams at Destino del Reino. In a couple of weeks, we will be having farm equipment hauled down to Honduras from my cousin’s farm in Colorado. I am amazed at his generosity and love for the ministry. Please pray for Mike (from Maine) and for Carlos as they will be driving through Central America to get the equipment here. We are aware that it can be dangerous but many people make that trip regularly and we just need to pray for God’s protection and favor as they pass through the borders of each country. Also, if anyone can donate some frequent flyer miles for Carlos to get from San Pedro Sula to Dallas in a couple of weeks, please let me know immediately. Mike is going to help my cousin, Elvin, with the corn harvest for a few days and then they will pack up the truck and Mike will head to Dallas and pick up Carlos to help him make the long haul. Thanks for covering them with prayer. Also, pray for Travis and Julie Hester as they pray about returning to be our full-time agriculture director at Destino. I can’t wait to see what all God is going to do through the farming projects here — feed the poor, earn degrees in agriculture for our kids, give jobs to poor parents, produce cafe and products that will help to support Destino financially, etc. etc. WOW, God has no limits.
My biggest prayer request right now would probably be for our upcoming spiritual life conference with Pastor Wade next week. Wade and Tony Wilkerson are coming in on Friday. Wade will be preaching to the fathers of our students on Saturday evening. On Sunday we are having a huge baptism service here because we have been so lax in baptizing for about 3 years and Carlos and Wade will have that service. On Sunday night Wade will preach at another church in town. and then on Monday and Tuesday all day and also Wednesday night we will have the conference. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to have liberty in all our lives and that we will be open to all He has for us. Pray for Allan as he will be translating and that is a crucial thing in making the teaching flow. We are so hungry for more of God and for his outpouring here at Destino. I explained to Pastor Wade that the majority of the beleivers in Honduras are not living in victory and just seem to keep falling and walking in guilt and not really sure of their salvation. He had a good term for that — said they are just “maintaining their sin” — trying to keep being obedient but never walking in victory in the Spirit and we are praying for a huge change to take place next week in many of our lives. Please pray fervently for this time together. Thanks so much — we count on your prayers and are not ignorant of Satan’s attacks — so cover us in prayer. Thanks.
Well, we are still trying to work on the electricity situation. Although everyone is agreed we should never have been paying electric bills for all these 7 years, we are still in the battle. Just yesterday though, some officials told us that we need to pay at least half of our past due bills (we have not paid for 11 months because of this process) and then we will never pay electricity again. The half would be $8,000 but we are in talks with the ambassador who has the power to make them enforce their laws (that schools and churches do not pay electric) and so we are still praying and believing we will get that debt written off as well. Pray for us to have the connections to talk to the right people. Right now we have lights at the school OR the home but can’t have both — so we switch it back during the days and nights — we are praying we can get it on in both locations at the same time before the conference. Thanks for praying with us on this. Either way, the good news is that we will never pay another light bill — they were truly robbing us and we have not been able to do anything about it until now. God is faithful and we are waiting on HIM.
Thanks to all of you who have been giving so abundantly the past few months. The well and pump was more like $20,000 with all the labor and other expenses, so we still owe $3,000 but they are being patient with us to pay it off as it comes in. Pray for them to keep being patient or for the funds — thanks.
Well, the container has been a real nightmare again this year. It will be one month tomorrow since it arrived at port. We have heard from many other people that they are keeping other ministries’ containers at the port for over a month as well so this must be “normal” now. The problem is they charge us daily for keeping it there and they find reasons why we can’t get it out. We finally though have the final approval and it will be delivered in the next two days. They took our van out of the container and told us it was a luxury car and we have to pay $2,000 taxes on it — they will let us have it but make us owe them that. It is such a racket and there is really no way to get around these situations other than praying for the favor of God. I keep telling Carlos to not get stressed because if this is God’s plan and it is His money and if he wants to waste HIS money on these things, it is God’s problem, not ours. But I can’t tell you how frustrating it is. We did learn from this situation though and know that next year or next container, we will get all of our papers approved at least one month before we ever send the container and they assure us that they will not have the power to hold it back. Thanks for your prayers for us to be able to get out of these debts quickly. Again, they evidently are being patient with us to get the money to them so we will just wait and see. There is wood on the container that is going to be built into a new deck on the church/kindergarten class and the group of menwho are coming to build it has been waiting to get their tickets to fly here until they were sure the container would arrive with their wood — so pray for the timing in all of that as well.
Times are scary in some ways — especially in the US right now — but we need to focus everyday in what we are called to do with that day and trust God for tomorrow — He is faithful and will do all that he has called us to. It is HIM and not us and we can REST fullly in Him. I realize that God tells us several places in the word to not borrow trouble from tomorrow and not to worry about tomorrow — and when I am stressed or worried it is always because I am fearful about tomorrow and not living in His provision and peace in that very day. Pray for me to stay focused on Him and His work here and not be distracted about what may be ahead or what others are doing or not doing around me. Thanks for your continued support for us daily in prayer. I am amazed how many of you there are “out there” remembering us continually — wow, what a blessing that is and such an encouragement. I love everyone of you and one day we will worship at the throne and look behind us at all the Honduran people that are with us there at the throne because we as a team have prayed them there — thanks sooooo much.
In His grace,
Rhonda
