Hey Everyone,
Thanks soooo much for all your prayers for me in the last two weeks. I have had a group here and haven’t had a chance to write as often as usual but I know that you are continuing to pray for us and I appreciate that sooo very much.
I have had a VERY hard two weeks and struggled so much over Eidy and Cokie being in Jocon. I have lost children in the past whom I was caring for but NEVER even once had to fear that they may not be eating or may not be being cared for, as I have with this situation. It has been so painful but I have had to remember that God is in control and that He loves them more than I do and had to rest in the fact that he would hear my prayers and protect them. It was two weeks that were good for me though because I think it is always good in our lives at times when we have to get back to surrendering EVERYTHING to God’s will even when it hurts us. I would pray continually for the Lord to do what I desired about the girls and then would always have to stop and say, But I do want your Will, Lord, even if it hurts me.” God is so good and faithful and has answered my prayers according to “my will” (and evidently it was His too) — Cokie will be returning to us on Sunday!!! YEAH — I cried and cried when I got the telephone call today and just could not believe it. The father wants Marta to come and bring her back instead of sending her back with someone else so Marta wil go on Saturday and come back on Sunday early afternoon with Cokie. He will not let Eidy return but I am at peace that that is also the will of the Father. Through the years as I was raising other children, God knew my heart and that I would never have it in me to “give up” on one of the kids so He always worked out situations so that I would not have to make a decision to let a child return to their family. It would just be too painful for me to ever think that I might not have tried long enough or hard enough. I believe that God knew that Eidy was so disruptive to the rest of these children and knew that I would never have the heart to quit trying with her and I believe that He has removed her from our home for the best of the other children. It is hard to know that but at the same time I am relieved that I can pay more attention to the others because I won’t have to be so focused on her every moment of every day. She never would let me completely attach to her either so it is not nearly as painful as it was letting Cokie go. Eidy doesn’t want to return and her family wants her there but they don’t have the same love for Cokie and I am just praising God that she can come “home” to us!! So pray for things to go smoothly and that Cokie won’t feel torn between the two. Also please continue to pray for Eidy — she will need it desperately if she is to be raised in such a horrible atmosphere. Thanks so much.
We have a really sweet group of 5 people here (besides my parents and Jim) this week. They are working on various projects — making window seats to store clothes in for the second house, painting the second house, putting up molding, working on wiring, etc. I am so thankful for the various people that come to help is in so many ways. It is also great to make such precious new friends who have a heart to serve the Lord Jesus in such sacrificial ways.
Last Saturday we told Eleazar that we no longer had a job for him here at Destino right now. For those of you who have been here, he is the very short little man with a moustache who worked on construction for us here since the beginning of the first house. There were several problems with his drinking and having hang-overs on Mondays and could never work well but the main reason was that we just didn’t need another mason when Wilmer and Trino (neighbors who are working with us) are both trained masons now themselves. So we couldn’t pay that many salaries and we knew it was time for Eleazar to go. He immediately placed all the blame on Carlos and started calling Carlos horrible names. Then we found out that he is telling people that Carlos will not be alive in two months’ time. He is threatening to kill Carlos and in Honduras that is something to take VERY seriously. So please be praying with us for protection over Carlos and his family and our ministry and me, etc. Gloria (our maid) is friends with Eleazar and she went on Sunday to explain that it was my decision and that we had planned to hire him back when we had some more projects and more money coming in for salaries but he refused to believe it was not Carlos’ doing — so thanks for your prayers in this situation. I am very concerned about it and we again are cast on God — who is the only one that can take care of us and is in sovereign control.
Emilia and Efrain (our elderly newlyweds who lived up in the mud house in the village) have had to get out of their little hut. The people that were loaning it to them, sold their land and they are without a place to sleep. We talked to our neighbor and he is letting them have two little rooms in a house on his property where he stores the corn for the cows. It is so little but at least they have a place to live for now. They are so happy there (but then, they are always happy since they received Jesus as their Savior) — but we need to do something more permanent for them SOON!! They have absolutely nothing!! They brought down bags and bags of rags they call their clothes and have collected all the trash you can imagine through the years in bags. They don’t want to give up anything because they have NOTHING. Anyway, it was an adventure getting them moved to this little temporary house. Carlos made a bed for them out of some extra wood we had here because the bed they had slanted down and to the side and I don’t know how they could stay in it while they slept at night. We have supplied some food for them today and been feeding them some meals, but we really need a place for them. We found a piece of land in their village for about $300.00 and we think we need to buy it this next week and start buildling a room for them immediately. The don’t need a big place but just something that is their own. So pray for us for all of these needs. We love these new members of our “family” and know that taking care of them is what Jesus would do and is a part of God’s plan for this ministry right now.
On a lighter note — I did one of my “Rhonda” things today. I was coming out of a store today and tripped over a curb and it caused my shoe to go flying off — it landed under a big truck and I had to clumb all the way under someone’s truck in my nice clothes to get my shoe back. — I’m sure those around watching were wondering about this crazy Gringo running around loose in Honduras — ha.
The kids are all doing so well. As soon as Cokie left two weeks ago, Jonathan decided he was one of the “big kids” and follows them around everywhere and wants to eat at their table instead of in his high chair. It is so cute. The older kids will be out of school for the year on November 16th and then will not be returning until the middle of February. Pray for me for wisdom as to their education for the year to come. We are still waiting to see what will become of the Christian bilingual school down in the next village. There are some real problems in the administration and it is yet to be seen what will happen in the next few months. Thanks for praying for this. I still haven’t heard from the ministry that builds schools but God will work it out and we just need to agree in prayer for the wisdom for the next step. Thanks.
I am still trying to get used to the blessing of electricity. Two days ago, I got up at 5:30 with the kids and was groping around the kitchen trying to get their breakfast cereal ready and looked out the window, thinking, “oh well, the sun will be up in a few minutes and I will be able to see,” and then it hit me — I COULD TURN ON THE LIGHT SWITCH???!! – – it is so crazy to forget but we lived so long without electricity!! I hope I NEVER quit remembering to thank the Father for such an unbelievable gift!!
All the money for the bus is now in the account and we are just waiting for God to lead us to the right bus to buy. Please pray with us for our friends in Houston to be able to locate the bus that God would want us to have. It needs to be newer than 6 years old and diesel and less than $17,000 — so those are the specifics and I sure will appreciate your all praying for this. As soon as we can buy it, my friends there will load it with more supplies for the ministry and ship it to us and we are really wanting to get it before January. Thanks for your faithful prayers for this.
We have been blessed to find a wonderful new worker for Destino del Reino. Her name is Angelica (Angie) and she started to work with us on Monday. She loves to organize things and she has started on all the Sunday School materials and will work regularly on keeping up the pharmacy, the storehouse of clothes and donated items and the materials for Sunday School, evangelism ,etc. and she is also helping with the kids every day. She loves to teach and is working on their alphabet with them. She speaks English well and can help them with that as well and she will also (most likely) take over our children’s Sunday School class when Loani moves to Mexico at the end of the month. We will have her here on staff when we need an extra translator for teams that come down and I am so amazed at how God has provided such a precious person for us. She is so committed to working in a ministry and not just a “job” so I will be surprised if she is not with us here on staff for the next 20 years. She worked at the bilingual school and needed to leave there because of the conflicts and she is so happy to be a part of our ministry now. Please pray for her as she adjusts to all the different expectations of her here. She likes to be kept busy and sometimes it can be boring for a person like her to just “watch” the kids for me. I still want to be their main mama but I have to be called away for other things often and it will be great to have her here to fill in the gap.
We are so thankful that my parents brought down some extra space heaters for us this week. I forget how cold it can feel in November and December without central heat and with cold cement house and floors — we are really excited to have a few rooms where we can get warm in. Thanks to all of you that sent along supplies with my parents. I appreciate so much the help from all of you in every way.
All the kids (30) that ride to school with us every morning have been memorizing scripture and are working on the 91st Psalm. We have gotten to the 6th verse there and won’t be able to finish before school is out. Those verses are so significant to me right now and I shared with the kids this week about my friends who are missionaries here in Siguatepeque. They were traveling through Guatemala on their way to the States in July and suddenly were surrounded by three pick-ups and the men in the pick-ups starting shooting at them. By the time the shooting was over, there was no glass in the car in any window and there were bullet holes in every part (inside and out). They have 6 kids and not one person was killed. The wife came to my house last week and shared all the miracles in this whole situation. The men who were shooting were actually cursing and saying “why won’t you die?” — Regina said she put up her hand at one point and said, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, stop” and immediately at 45 bullet that had been shot, was in her thumb area and did not explode and did not pass through, it just stopped there in her hand and did very little damage. She had one of her little boys who had a dark bruise on his back the size of a grapefruit but no skin was broken. Her husband was in his seat at the wheel the whole time and there is a bullet hole in the lower part of his seat cushion but he was untouched — it was so wonderful to see what God can do NO MATTER WHAT man tries to do to us. Those verses in Psalm 91 about the protection of the Lord were so precious to me as I thought of their miracle and also now as I pray for the protection of Carlos. God is so amazing and can do ANYTHING — we are so privileged to be His children.
I guess this is long enough for this week and I have given you plenty to pray for us about. Thanks so much that you are out there praying and I can count on that support from you all. I am so blessed to have such a support system in all of you. God is blessing and amazing me more every day. He provides just what we need when we need it and that never ceases to amaze me. He is doing that through so many of you who just hear Him tell you when to send us a gift and how much and it is so perfectly timed on every occasion. WOW!!
Love to all of you and again THANKS! Love in His SUFFICIENT SOVEREIGN GRACE,
Rhonda
