Hey Everyone,
Thanks for your prayers while I was in the States. I didn’t see many people and didn’t even get a chance to call many of you as I had planned, but it was a very fruitful time concerning Destino del Reino. We had our first official board meeting of the new board of directors of Destino del Reino. The people that God has chosen to be on that team are amazing and so ready to protect Destino in every way and to be a great board of counselors for me as well. They have such a wide range of expertise in all the areas we need, and I am so thankful that God has given me such a team of servants to help me and love me and hear my heart and the struggles that I have. Please pray for each of them as they prepare to seek the Lord as to how they can best be involved in this ministry.
Things went well while I was away and I am always thankful for that. I don’t like being away at all but it is necessary and so I praise God for his protective care over the children and ministry while I am away. We are finally getting all the necessary papers arranged to start my residency process here in Honduras. Please pray for those papers to be right and that I can get that official status SOON.
We REALLY need a lot of prayer right now concerning the building of the school. I am so absolutely convinced that this is the Lord’s plan and that we are on His timing but I have miscalculated the funds that are needed to finish the work. The group that has generously offered to help us build the school is providing about half of the amount and because of my miscalculations and also because the materials have tripled since that projection, etc., we are short the amount we need to finish the school. Steve Clifton is helping us to figure out the exact amount we will be short (from the slab up) and then we will have a better idea about what is still needed. I am so concerned about this not because of being in a hurry to get the school done (although we sure planned to start the new school year in February in the building), but am more concerned for the 35 workers who are dependent on their salaries here at Destino. They were giving testimonies at their last men’s meeting on Wednesday night about how God has blessed them so much by giving them work so that they are able to feed their families and that they loved working for a ministry and not just a job. Please pray that the funds will continue to pour in at just the right time so that we can keep these men in jobs. (The weekly total payroll is about $1,300). They are precious men and are growing in Christ and I will feel so badly if we have to let them go for a period of time. God is perfect in all His ways though so just pray that I will have perfect peace and more faith in this situation. If you could have your churches pray for us please too. I know God is able and will do it in His perfect timing and way. Usually when there is not much money, we just quit working and don’t think about it, but we do have a time schedule (or hopeful one anyway) for the school beginning in February and so need lots of prayer to see that happen (if God wills). I need prayer personally too since I am the one that feels so responsible for all of this. I wrestle so much between leaving it in the hands of God and then taking it back and worrying over it. Thanks for your prayers.
The kids are doing great. Cokie is just about potty-trained and so we will only have 3 in diapers until the new babies come in December and January. We found out that Sammy’s mom (Sammy just turned 8 months old) is already 6-months pregnant with a baby girl. We will be talking to her this week about giving us custody. We already have custody of Sammy and want him to be able to grow up with a sibling. The mom is 18 years old and has plans to have the baby girl, give her up to someone and then move illegally to the US. She is an orphan herself and I am praying that she will want to let us have the sister so that Sammy will have family of his own. Thanks for your prayers in this situation. We will be getting Blanca, Jonathan and Cesar’s new brother or sister in December as well so we will be very busy with newborns. Sammy is crawling now, has his first tooth and is flying around the house in his walker. He is so funny and we are all so crazy about him. He sleeps in my room now so I am getting less rest than before but enjoying every minute of it. I told Martha that I would let her sleep a couple of months before she takes over responsibility of another newborn. She really loves the new babies and so will have the new born in December sleep in the crib in her room.
Pray for Martha. She has to decide what to do about her future soon. She will graduate from the colegio (junior high) in another month and then needs to decide about nursing school or what else God might have for her. Pray that she will grow spiritually and let God lead her life.
I am getting so excited about the various groups that will be coming in the next few weeks. We have the group that is helping pay for the school coming on October 8th with medical and construction teams. Pray for us to know exactly where we are to send the medical teams and also to know how to best use these skilled construction workers who are coming. I know that we will see God’s perfect hand in all of this. He is so perfect in all His ways and we love to see Him take such tender care of us. He looks out for every detail that we might miss and it is amazing to us. Without telling you too long of a story, yesterday Carlos and I had to go to San Pedro Sula and buy $8,000 of supplies but the bank card would not let us make that big of a purchase. We decided though that we had come out better by not having to pay the percentage for using the card if we waited until Saturday and just got the cash out. The only thing that we would be losing is the 3,000 lempiras that we had to pay the driver of the truck who was already there and waiting to bring the materials back to Destino for us. Carlos talked to the man and he said that he has to come to San Pedro Sula anyway to get the loads of sand that we need for our construction and if we would just pay him the 1,800 lempiras for the sand, he would not charge us for the trip to get materials. I panicked for a moment because we didn’t have any cash with us, and then I remembered that my friends Patti and Tim had just handed me a wad of their left-over lempiras when we took them to the airport that morning. Guess what — it was just what we needed to pay the man — God is so amazing and provides for us and looks out for us when we don’t even know what is ahead. Another day, I was on a road in the van with all my kids and the neighbors too and my brakes quit working. We were on a mountain road with lots of curves and it was dangerous but I didn’t know what to do but try to get home like that. I decided to test the brakes again but had to SLAM on the brakes to get the van to stop. When I slammed on the brakes, a can of brake fluid rolled up from the back of the van and I thought, “Oh, maybe this is what we need?” — I have no idea who put that brake fluid in the car but I know that God made it roll up so that I would know what to do. We poured it in and the brakes worked perfectly — God sure takes care of me when I am so ignorant about so many things.
Please be praying for the husband of our school director. He has some kind of infection in his kidneys and it has gone to his head and is affecting his creatinine (sp?) and he has no muscle control at times. His head is swollen and he did not even recognize his wife, Sandra, this weekend. Sandra is down in Tegucigalpa with him and he is in bad shape. The doctors are not sure of the right treatment for him from what I understand. God is the healer though and the Great Physician and I know that He will give the doctors the wisdom they need and heal up Heber soon.
I am sure there are many other things that I could share with you but I think this is long enough for now. Thanks for being such faithful prayer warriors for this ministry. God is so faithful and even when I am without much faith, He still does His will and shows His power in every circumstance and situation. Thanks for remembering us and I hope to give you another wonderful report of His faithfulness soon concerning the school building.
Love to everyone of you.
In His grace,
Rhonda
