Hey Everyone,
Thanks for your constant prayers for us here at Destino. God is up to so many wonderful things and at the same time we have a lot of struggles going on right now so we need your faithful prayers for us.
I wanted to tell you about a couple Paula and Mark who live in the village next to us. They came in January to work at a home for 9 boys who have been severely abused and abandoned and were placed in that home by the Child Protective Services of Honduras. They arrived in January to find that the woman in charge was not what she claimed to be, had (against their wishes) accepted 6 more boys older than her little girls and found that the woman was divorcing her Honduran husband the land was in the name of her husband and he was putting a claim on the land and the house. They have struggled through all of this for 8 months and have known that God called them here but it has been so hard. They learned to really love the troubled boys in their home and have been so committed to them. When we first met them, Carlos and Martha and I all three thought immediately (and probably selfishly) that they were meant to be with US at Destino. It was kind of a funny impression to have in a way because they were already committed to another ministry. But as I spent time with them I realized that they are of the same mind and purpose as we are at Destino and have gifts that compliment our gifts. I have actually talked to them about the possibility of joining our ministry but realized how painful that would be to leave their boys behind and join us. So we have just prayed and left it with the Lord. Paula does not have a degree but has been homeschooling for 7 years her 4 children and knows so much about education and is soooo organized. Mark is a very humble quiet guy who left an incredible job in computer program writing and stability in the states to come and teach others to farm and work livestock to make a living for themselves. They are unusual and called by God to Honduras. Well, three days ago, a 10-year old boy, Freddy, who lives with them and who had been locked in a closet for 3 years previously by his mom and was abused tremendously) molested Mark and Paula’s 5 year old little boy, Timothy. It was found out that Freddy had been molesting all of the other little Honduran boys in the house. It was, as you can imagine, horrifying for Paula and Mark and their first reaction was just to flee to the States in a panic. But we prayed together and they went to Comayagua where the board is for the children’s home. I talked to Paula today and they are committed to staying but the board wants to close down the home for boys and send the kids back to the Child Protective Services and place them elsewhere. They need to hear from God as to His will. They believe they may need to be separated from the boys and live elsewhere but want to have a daily part in the boys’ lives if possible. I offered today to have them live in the second house and go help the boys everyday until they know what God is leading them to do. To be honest, I think this may be the first step to being permanent with Destino del Reino and maybe being our houseparents for the third house, but in the meantime they need a lot of wisdom, healing for Timothy and clear direction from the Lord. Please pray for the board as they are RE-ACTING and not ACTING in the Spirit and just want to get rid of all of those precious little boys. They have been wounded and finally found in Mark and Paula a love that they had never known before so it will be so damaging for them to be sent away. Thanks for praying for the whole situation. I know that God is up to something wonderful through all of this and He is the healer and protector for each of those boys but we need to pray. They will let me know today if they want to live at Destino for a few days or weeks until we get some clear direction from the Lord.
Please pray for Sammy. I had written to Julie (my friend who is a pediatric PA) and she wrote very specific instructions on how to get Sammy eating better and sleeping through the night in his own bed. Well, I was planning to start the training and that very night, he fell and bumped his head so hard that his forehead was swollen — I didn’t want to make him suffer more in the night so I didn’t try that training for a few days. Then I realized that I think he has parasites or worms and that is causing his lack of restful sleep and I started the treatment for that. I started again 3 days ago with the plans to train him now and he broke out with the chicken pox. He has them everywhere and we just need to pray for him to get through this and then I can train him to sleep better and eat better. He wants only his bottle most of the time and we have tried all kinds of foods for him. He is now eating a little better and we are encouraged but if he could sleep well at night, he will be so much more healthy. That goes for me too — if he is in his own bed, I think I can have a much better nights’ rest as well. Thanks for praying for us. I know all you mothers out there can understand this petition for prayer!!
Pray for the container as it is being shipped from Houston this week. Pray for us to be able to get the permission to enter it into Hondurans under our non-taxable status as a ministry. We do not have the money for any taxes so this is an urgent request for prayer.
Another situation that needs much prayer is with our neighbors. About 3 or 4 months ago a young man in one of our neighbor’s houses, supposedly tried to kiss (she says rape) a young girl in the second house. (I only have two houses of neighbors next to me). The families, of course, both believe their own children and have quit speaking to one another and they probably live about 10 yards away from one another. The young man is a Christian and I really tend to believe him but he has gone to live in the US anyway and does not plan to ever return. Carla, the 14-year old girl is also a Christian in our church and she had written love note to the young man and he rejected her (being 18 years old and he had a girlfriend in Siguatepeque). Anyway, the details don’t matter that much and the situation is passed and will not occur again because the young man will not be back. But the problem is great here and these people are all part of our church. The one family have quit coming to church and the other family are unforgiving and proud and they continue in our church (which is a bad atmospher for worship for us, as you can imagine). I talked to Carlos about it and we are praying how we are to be involved and seek peace and confrontation in all of this. A sad thing is that there is a granddaughter to both of the couples who are feuding and that is hurting their children and their granddaughter as well. I know that Satan is just using this to cause more division and to stop the spiritual growth of these precious friends and neighbors. Please pray for healing and unity and forgiveness and for wisdom for Carlos to know what to do and when. Thanks so much for your support.
School is going well and please keep praying for God to send American teachers for us this next year. We need to think of some way to get the word out so if any of you can help me announce this somewhere, I would appreciate it so much. The web site has the application and information about what we are looking for. www. destinodelreino.org Thanks. We need a lot of prayer for direction about our director though. There seems to be constant quiet rebellion against our desires for the school on her part and we need to know God’s desire for the leadership of the school for the coming year.
We had our first meeting with a Christian man, Henri, who is interested in helping us with the administration of Destino. He is drawing up all the contracts for us right now and also writing our internal rules to be approved by the government, which is required by law here. After that job, we will consider hiring him to come one day a week and help us with payroll and all other legal matters that we are struggling with here. He is gifted in administration and we think that maybe God sent him to us. Please pray for direction for us in this area.
We also have the new accountant who God has definitely provided for us. In the future, she will cost about $25 a month and keeps our books perfectly so that we will never get in trouble with the government here. She has years of experience and is so organized and is helping us to know how to do things better here. This is so complicated for us to have a set of books with certain guidelines in Honduras and then to have to do all of that through the States too. We praise God for Nancy in Georgia who is doing our books as a ministry with no charge. Please pray for God to greatly bless her for this HUGE service to the ministry of Destino.
Now for our biggest need right now. I need to be honest with you that we are really hurting financially right now and although the kids are still eating, we do not have the money for salaries this week. We have struggled to know if we missed something that God wanted us to do, but God is not a God who punishes or hurts us without explaining what we need to change. He has not shown us anything to do differently or anything to repent of, etc. I believe that this is just another attack from Satan to try to shut us down and we will not accept his attack. We have let our construction workers go for the past 2 weeks and that is hard on us because these men have no other work and we need you to pray for God to miraculously provide food for their families. I always feel guilty about talking about money as if it were for me personally. I don’t even have a salary and Carlos gives his up most of the time so this is not about us — it is about the ministry of future leadership through the church and school and children’s home here in Destino del Reino. I am not sharing this with you to have you feel guilty and pull out your check books. I am writing to you because I believe in the power of prayer and I KNOW that in the past when I have shared requests with you (some 800 people) that you have prayed and immediately we have seen the situation changed and God’s victory. So for that reason, I am asking that all of you that are reading this today will stop and take a few minutes to ask God to pour out his blessings over Destino again and show us if there is something differently we need to do, and if it is Satan, then he will not have his victory to discourage and frustrate the plans of God here. Thank you for letting me be honest. I don’t ever ask for money and really am not doing that now but I do need to share with you when we have prayer needs and this is a big one right now.
Praise God for the growth of our church and AWANA’s — we are constantly amazed at how many people are being impacted by this ministry because God is faithful and people are hungry for him in this country. Please continue to pray for us to be good stewards of every minute of our time. There is much to do here and a million needs that we cannot meet but we need to know what God has for us and do our very best in those areas.
Pray for the evangelical team that is going 4 weeks to help with evangelism with a new church in Siguatepeque. We are happyg that the new converts will be directed immediately into a church to be discipled.
This is a very long email but there is much need for prayer and thank you for your faithfulness in even reading my “books” each week. I KNOW that God uses each and every one of your in this ministry — probably more than you even know — prayer is the key and I count on all of you for that.
In His UNFAILING GRACE,
Rhonda
