Hey Everyone,

As always, I first want to thank you for your love and prayers for us at Destino del Reino.   God is answering your prayers and it is amazing to watch Him at work here in this place.

For the last year and a half, I have felt like we were kind of at a standstill at Destino.   Most of this is because we have been waiting for the completion of the documentation to be prepared in order to present to the Commission of Education for approval of our university.   I have felt a huge burden because we now have two classes who have graduated and the graduates have been sitting out for the past year and a half without any chance of furthering their education until we provide an opportunity for them.   They are too poor to go to other universities and there are very few jobs available for them.   I have also been aware that we need a trade school as well for kids who are not necessarily interested in university or able to do that level of study.

My cousin, Ryan, came a few months ago and I had never realized that he had been working in Hawaii for the last 9 years with Job Corp for very poor island kids who did not speak English and had come to Hawaii from the Marshall Islands to get preparation and training to work in the job force.   After only a few days here, Ryan and I began to plan our trade school.   I know this is from the Lord and He is opening all the right doors and providing wisdom for the plans.  We will begin trade school in late August this year and will have four areas of study for the guys:  mechanics, electricity, welding and carpentry.   We have the teachers lined up and our plan is to have all the students do several weeks in each of the four areas and then after those weeks, make a final determination of what trade they would like to pursue for the two years.   We are seeking certification for them in those areas through an organization which will be helping us find the right curriculum as well.   Besides the four trades mentioned above, they will have time every morning to work with our construction men to build a house from the start to finish so they will have this additional skill for whatever need in the future.   We are right now beginning to collect all the tools that will be needed for these areas and if you have any used tools that you believe we could use, please let me know and we can arrange to have them shipped to us.   We especially will need a lot of carpentry saws, etc. if anyone has any to donate.   We are building an additional classroom onto the mechanic garage we have now and are also planning to build a covered cement slab outside for outside carpentry work and welding classes.    Please be praying for all the needs for completing these plans and equipping our classrooms with tools so we can begin classes on time in late August.  The boys will also be completing Bible courses during their classroom time and we pray they will be prepared to be not only skilled craftsmen but men of God and possibly missionaries with their trades and Biblical education.

Also, it appears that our university documentation is in its last stages of preparation and should be presented to the Commission in the next month or so.  Please continue to pray for this.  We are beginning with nursing and agriculture careers and will add in computer science next year with a possible specialty in coding.   The people who are doing the surveying in preparation for our certification have suggested that we build a big greenhouse and begin a business in plants and flowers.   There are no big companies around and most of the flowers and unique plants are coming in from Guatemala.  This would be part of the agriculture degree, and would also provide a huge profit for supporting the university.   We are also going to include the development of our small lake and do a big fish project which will be not only for teaching but for providing more financial support to Destino.   All of our students will be provided free education but will be required to work for a couple of hours each day.   We are beginning to work more with animals, gardens, fish project, greenhouse plants, and the coffee projects so there will be plenty of work for all of these student volunteers.   It is SO exciting to see God bringing all these pieces together with the purpose of training of leaders and missionaries for the world!!!

We plan to get the clinic finished this year (for the nursing school) and start on the university building after the first class gets started in mid September (Lord-willing).   Thanks for your prayers for the finances to complete all of these buildings.   God has unlimited resources and He will provide for all HE wants us to have and WHEN he wants us to have them.   Thanks for your prayers for patience to wait on His perfect timing in all of these plans and also for God’s people to give as He leads them to provide for the rest of the education and training needed for these young leaders.

Another thing that I am very excited about is that God has been emphasizing to me the need to pray more individually with the students and teachers.   Ryan is meeting and praying individually with the 10 oldest boys in the high school and we have a few hours on Pastor Kenneth’s schedule for individual prayer but that is just not enough.  So we have put a book in the office that has names of students who need prayer (based on teachers’ observations or knowledge of home situations, etc.)   But we want all the kids prayed for.   Each of our teachers has at least one and half hours a day free and they are being encouraged to pick a student every other day or so and get them out of class for just 15 minutes and pray individually with them.  Please pray for us to be able to cover all of these precious kids.  They are in such need of someone to walk with them through life and the hardships they face every day.   Many of them only receive love and attention at school each day so we need to be there for them.    We will be sending some of the sponsors the most urgent prayer requests of their sponsored students when we know of them so that they can join us in supporting these students.

Also, this week I started praying individually with the teachers.   My daddy told me that “however your teachers are doing spiritually will determine how your school and its students will do”.   So, I am starting in this week to make sure our teachers are receiving the attention and prayer they need individually as well.   The past two days have been amazing.  I have only prayed with 10 of them so far but they have been wonderful times of prayer, tears and even some deliverance from demonic strongholds.   I am very encouraged about all God is doing in their lives and we have WONDERFUL Christian teachers here and are so blessed at Destino.

We are beginning our coffee production in the very near future.   We need prayer as we make plans and look for open doors as to how to have it shipped to the US and to where.   We will be buying a big industrial coffee machine that will shell the coffee beans and also buy a big roaster.  We will not only be able to produce our own coffee, but will be able to help the poor coffee farmers near us to have a way to produce their coffee and make a living.    All of this will also be providing more jobs for our students and more financial support for Destino.   There are so many projects in the works right now but I can see where one day Destino will be able to provide for all of its needs through the products coming out of these projects.   We are praying for creativity so that furniture we make will be so unique that many will come to buy it, that our flowers will be unique, that our coffee will taste better than others (a little Holy Spirit mixed in the roast, ha) and that God will provide abundantly so that more and more students will be trained and provided for and will further the gospel in Honduras and to the ends of the earth!!!

Thanks for your prayers — lots going on but He is not stressed nor fretting so neither will I be stressed or fret!   Thanks for prayers for finances and clear leading of the Lord in each and every plan and project.

Pray also for our group coming from Bridgepoint Church in Woodstock, GA in February.   We plan to do a Vacation Bible School up in the village of Santa Rosita where many came to know the Lord a year and ahalf ago but they need much more teaching of the Word.    We will also be working on some clean-up and painting projects as well as the group will spend time helping in the English classes and getting to know and encourage our students.

Thank you so much for all your generosity during the Christmas holidays and for faithfully holding us up in prayer.   I am so privileged to get to do this with my life — God is so good to use someone like me who knows NOTHING to accomplish so much for His glory.   It is all about Him and we just need to follow Him and He leads us into amazing places!!!    If you haven’t read our book about the miracles of Destino and how God uses unlikely people like me, you can order it online at our website  www.destinodelreino.org        God wants to use all of you in the same way and when we just say yes to Him, He will take over and do it through us no matter how impossible the circumstances.

My kids are all doing great.  I have 24 kids now — four 2-year olds, 1 four -year old and 19 others all the way to 19 years old.  They are delightful and there is never a dull moment.   I love watching them loving Jesus the way they do.   They memorize chapters of the Bible by just 15 minutes each day.   The older ones know over 40 chapters of the Bible by heart now.   What is more important is that they know how to use it.    Tuesday night at prayer meeting in the gym, I was in a prayer circle with my 9-year old.   Another boy (age 11) expressed a need for prayer for his fears.  All of a sudden my 9-year old (David) says, “we don’t ever need to be afraid of anything or anybody.   The Bible says in Romans 8 that if God is for us, who can be against us?” so how can we be afraid when God is on our side.”    I was amazed that he not only has Romans 8 by memory but he knows how to apply it to his life.    I am so blessed to have these little future leaders in my home!!!

Thanks again for your faithfulness in prayer and I really want you to know how much we count on those prayers.

(Remember you cannot hit “reply” to this message, but I would love to hear from you at rhondadestino@yahoo.com whenever you have a chance to write me).

Love to all of you,

In His amazing never-ending grace,

Rhonda

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