Hey Everyone,

I’m sorry you haven’t heard from me in a while.  It has been absolutely CRAZY around here but God has blessed us ABUNDANTLY during this time.  Just about 3 weeks ago, I had no idea how we would pay off the books, uniforms, shoes, athletic pants, teachers’ bonuses, monthly pay for teachers, and many other materials needed to start the year.  Then instead of receiving the money we needed, we had a broken down bus and two cars broken down at one time.   BUT GOD (love those words) has provided enough money in the past two weeks to pay for all the books, shoes, uniforms, materiales, broken cars and bus, and we are AMAZED once again at His faithfulness to Destino del Reino.   The only thing I owe soon is about 5 more teachers’ bonuses from last year ($2,500) but I have NO doubt that God will send that soon as well.   I always feel pressure about owing anything to the teachers because they are such loving and wonderful people, but one of them told me the other day (when I expressed my concern about being late for their bonuses) that the teachers in Honduran public schools go months and months without their pay most of the time and sometimes even a whole year without receiving anything.  I still want to be timely but that sure did make me feel better.  The teacher told me that all the Honduran teachers at Destino are so grateful to God for their jobs and for their monthly pay (which we have never missed, thanks to GOD).

We are ready for a wonderful new school year — amazing American teachers (returning Sheena for 4th year; Jenna for 3rd year and for the first time Kathy Buurma from Augusta, GA — retired after teaching 40 years; Tori Halvorsen — just graduated from Liberty and also granddaughter of Dr. Spoede for all of you Bryan people; Bethany Dunn and Nicole Barnes — member of Jordan Mims church for you West Acres people — both from Texas.    We are so happy to have these wonderful ladies and know God will use them in a tremendous way.   All but one of our Honduran teachers have returned and we replaced that junior high teacher with a wonderful woman named Nora who has the education to not only teach junior high but also high school since we will be starting high school next year.  She is married and a strong believer who works with the youth at her church and loves junior high age (that is a gift!!!).   Thanks for your prayers for your teachers and for students as they enter this year.   We still need about 40 sponsorships for the students this year so please be praying that God will put that on the hearts of His people.  These kids need someone praying for them regularly by name.   To sign up to be a sponsor, go to our website www.destinodelreino.org and look under “how to help”    Thanks.

I have seen such huge growth in our church lately and expect that it will be growing much more in the coming months.   So many are coming to know Jesus Christ personally and as school opens and our pastors begin visiting and ministering in the homes of our students, I believe we will increase to many more in our services.   We really do need to start praying seriously about building the gym we need here.   We cannot house in our little church all the parents when we need to have a meeting and we are soon going to need a bigger building just for church services.  God knows that need and I know that he will provide in His perfect timing, but please put this on your prayer list for Destino.

Our household is also increasing tremendously — we let Sofia return to her parents recently  (that is kind of complicated to explain but basically there has not been a change in her conduct or attitude for 3 years and her father was insisting she return) so we were back to only 19 in the house.  Then we got a call that one of our 9th grade girls was in the hospital in Comayagua in a public hospital.   The public hospitals do not feed the people nor care for them very well.   She called crying saying she has a horrible wound with infection and they were going to send her to Tegucigalpa to the public hospital there and it was possible that they would cut off her leg.   I didn’t trust their care and sent Oscar (our new supervisor of Destino) to get her and bring her back to us to take to a doctor here.   God is so incredible in how he plans and orders things perfectly for us.  While I was planning to send Oscar, I had to go to the bank — for some crazy reason they needed me to wait to fill out a form that the IRS in the USA suddenly needed on all their customers.   I was frustrated because I had too much to do and was waiting for almost an hour.  I was not in the mood to talk to anyone but this lady beside me started talking to me — she was a Honduran Christian and she was so friendly and kept drawing me out to talk — when I was frustrated about waiting I started telling her all I had to do and one of the things was pick up our 9th grader from the hospital in Comayagua.  When I told her what was going on with her, she said very specifically “take her to Mercedes Clinic and ask for Dr. Grose.   The same thing happened to my uncle and Dr. Grose can help her.”   It was a divine appointment.   We found him and he is caring for her and she is getting well.   She is living with us now because she lives in a very hard to reach poor house and I don’t believe she would have been taken care of in her home.   In two months, she will need a skin graft surgery, but that is only if God does not heal her first and that is what we are asking of Him.  Plaese pray with us for her Irma Rosibel.   Irma had been with us about 2 days when we got a call that two more children needed to live with us from Jocon, Yoro.   They arrived on Saturday.  One is a little 6-week old newborn named Karen, and the other is a 3-year old boy named Esteben.   They are precious and have not caused us a bit of problem or taken any energy from us — they are amazingly easy to care for.   When the mom was leaving, she asked Esteben one more time, “are you sure you want to live here?”   He said “yes, it looks like they have food all the time here.”    We are so blessed to be able to rescue so many children and watch God turn them into His future leaders for His kingdom work.   So now we have 22 but amazingly it is peaceful, loving and there is still room for all of us at the table every day!!!   and there of course is always enough food, thanks to GOD!!!

I can’t thank all of you enough who have helped us financially through this very difficult time.   We are so overwhelmed with the giving of so many friends and people I haven’t seen for over 30 years (or more).

Please be praying for us for energy this next few days.  TODAY the container is arriving from the US and is filled with even more blessings for all of you (and God of course).   My kids have practically been wearing rags because I keep saying every month, “just wait a little longer and the container will be here.”  Well, that day has finally come.  I praise God for Oscar and the way he investigates everything in order to get things done here in Honduras in a timely and less expensive way.  He is amazing.  Pray for God’s blessing on him.   He runs this place so beautifully and economically.   He insists that I look at every receipt he brings me and count every penny — he does not want me to trust anyone, including him.  I am so grateful for God’s provision of this man.    Now, the work begins to start going through all the “blessings” you all sent to us and get them sorted and to the right places.   We have desks coming that have to get to the 7th grade immediately before we start school on Monday.   I will be sorting clothes until my back breaks but am so excited for the kids to finally have some clothes again.

Also pray for a huge blessing that God is in the process of bringing to Destino.   Our first dentists are coming in tomorrow.  Dr. Stanley Anderson and Dr. Keith Blevins are coming with Pastor Wade and another man to be our first “scouts” to see what all is lacking to get our dental clinic up and running.  This is HUGE to us.  Our desire is that starting as soon as possible, we can have a group of 2 or 3 dentists come in each month and see our students.  We will start with the 9th graders because they have permanent teeth and have never been to a dentist and then move down through the grades.   Please pray for wisdom for these men to help us know what to do next and how to set this clinic up best and where to get materials, etc. and start praying for more dentists to get the desire to help us on their hearts.   Also pray for Pastor Wade as he will be preaching in our church on Sunday morning.   I am so grateful for these men sacrificing their time and money to come and help us like this.   Not sure how excited our junior highers will be to start school on Monday and have to go to the dentist without any warning, ha ha.  What a blessing that they do not know about!!

Thanks to all of you for your continued prayers for my parents.  Daddy just is not doing well and has agreed that he probably needs to go to the VA home to get the care he needs.  The ladies working in the home just cannot lift him and he is suffering in so many ways.   My mom will be living alone but she can hire someone to stay at nights with her a few nights a week and also to drive her to see Daddy.  Pray for him to get admitted there as soon as possible.  Thanks for praying for all of us.  It is so hard to go through this time in our lives where we watch our parents growing older, failing, hurting, and just waiting to get to heaven where we all will be forever praising God before His throne.  This earth is hard and I think this is one of the hardest times ever for elderly people, suffering and waiting and also for us that love them and have to watch it all and feel so helpless.  BUT GOD is faithful and He will do His good and His will and we will continue to pray and trust Him alone for each step of this difficult way.

Thanks for being on the Destino team and loving and praying for us faithfully.   I know you all have difficult lives and financial and emotional struggles etc. so I don’t take it lightly that you even remember to pray for us and give to us and encourage us.   I praise God for every one of you that plays a part, however great or small, in bringing up children to be leaders and change the next generation for Christ.

In His amazing grace and mercy, I keep standing

Rhonda

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