Hey Everyone,
I wanted to give you an update on some of the things that I asked you to pray for last 10 days ago.
First of all, the couple that work at the other children’s home, Mark and Paula, decided to return to the USA for a few months to have some counseling and pray for more direction and return after Christmas.  They are sure of their calling to Honduras and are seeking his direction on how to continue here.  They do not plan to live in the house with the boys anymore and are looking for a couple to live there now.  If that works out and they find a couple for that home, then they will live outside and still help with the boys in studies and spiritual growth etc.  They are seeking God’s direction but are really letting God get the victory through the whole situation and are trusting Him completely to heal their own son too.  One great thing that came from the whole mess is that they sought a Christian counselor in Comayagua who ended up being excellent and she is going to counsel all the boys in the home and have 6 months of group sessions to teach them about what it means to be a godly young man and about how to handle their bodies, etc.  It is something that needed to be done and yet only through the conflict were they aware of this counselor and the help she could be for their house of boys.  They believe now that all the boys were abused by the older boys of the last American lady that started the home for children.  Thanks for continuing to pray for them and for clear direction for them as they return to Honduras.  We still kind of think they will end up with us and just help with their boys down the road, but God will reveal his perfect will to them (and to us too for our needs).  I am so grateful that God brought Paula to me though and she has several friends here she has introduced to me and they are such encouragements to me spiritually. I have never had American friends here like that and it is a real comfort to be able to talk to them about things and have their prayer support.

Thanks so much for praying for the finances for Destino.  In hindsight, I think maybe I know what God was doing for us here.  He does everything in love and for our benefit and again, in spite of the difficult time of strugling financially, I can see His hand.   Carlos has such a compassion for the workers in the construction.  They have no other work and they have families to support, etc. but there has been so little money and we have just barely made it from week to week to pay them.   The cafeteria is really not an absolute necessity in that the kids are eating in their classes and we just serve them outside.  It is not ideal but we are fine with this system until God sends enough funds to finish the cafeteria.  Because we couldn’t get the courage to let them go, we really were suffering financially.  When the funds got SO low that we had no other choice, we let the men go.  Carlos was sad for a couple of days but we started getting so much peace and could quickly see that God was releasing us for the time being of a huge pressure that we needed toget out from under.  We have had a year and a half of pressure and time limits to build the school, and now we need to work on some of the infrastructure of Destino del Reino.  Carlos is meeting with people and getting help with the contracts, and checking on everything to make sure we are absolutely above reproach and legal in every phase of this ministry.  We have been so much more relaxed and had time to really pray for and evaluate God’s plans for Destino.  It is now so clear that GOD allowed us to be without so that we could re-group and be without this pressure.   We will continue to pray for the men to find other work but for now this is the best thing for Destino.  God is always working for our best and He is faithful.  We never went without food or gas.  We had to just buy a few things each day as another small check would come in but He was faithful in all of this and still re-directed us where He wanted us to go.  He is good ALL THE TIME!!   Thanks for some of the extra gifts that were sent in to help us.  We are able to pay the teachers’ a bonus that they were due a few months back because of a governmental law and pay off the electric bills etc.  We love this time of peace and will wait until God provides about $20,000 to finish the cafeteria before we will move ahead on that project.  He will do it in His time.  Right now we have so much else to work on here and to build into lives of many and there is no rush for any project.  God’s timing has been faster than I wanted it in the past and now it may be slower but it is HIS work and not ours.

We are praying right now for the container that is coming in this next week.  We need about $1500 if we do not get our tax exemption on the container.  This is always a very difficult process because the officials make up new laws and rules to make sure they get some money out of the shipment.  So no matter how hard we try to get our tax exemption that we should have for a non-profit ministry, we always seem to have to pay something. Please pray for the funds to come or for the exemption – -either one will be fine — God is in control and we will rest in His plan.

Our BIG PRAYER REQUEST immediately is this:   Tomorrow we will meet with our director, Sandra, and we need to confront (again) all the disobedience and unwillingness to follow our orders to her.   The school is completely relaxed and under her direction we realize that the children have learned very little the past two months and are behind the public school system, when we are desiring that they be more advanced with the best education.  I have been so discouraged but God is showing us clearly that we have to give her the final ultimatum tomorrow and write it up for her signature.  We are required to give her 3 verbal warnings (which we have) and two written ones and we can fire her without her claiming any rights with the government.  We KNOW this is God’s will for the school but it could be a very hard time — her family was already resentful of us because I had to fire her brother-in-law 4 years ago and so this will be more complicated and emotional than usual.   We can see the possibility that God has worked out the perfect timing though as the public schools will dismiss in two weeks and if we are looking for a director and possibly other teachers (if one of our teachers quits in her defense), There are Christians working in the public system who would love to begin teaching in a Christian school.  Thanks for your prayers for clarity and wisdom and speaking the truth in love as we deal with Sandra tomorrow and that we will act out of obedience to what God has shown us and not out of emotion.   I think I would like you to pray that Sandra will resign.  It would make things legally a lot easier for Destino if she quit and we did not have to go through the legal steps to fire her.  Thanks for your prayers.  We are counting on them!

Sammy is better but still covered with little scabs from the chicken pox.  The last 4 nights I have not slept much because the itching has started since he started healing.  He is so cute though that I don’t ever really mind getting up in the night to help him.  He is a real joy to all of us.

BIG NEWS — Emily started walking this week.  We were all so excited.  Actually she started running and not walking.  She didn’t just take a step or two and fall.  She walked clear across the living room from one of us to the other.  Sammy was jealous of the attention and so he started walking really slowly from one person to the other like Emily was doing.  It was so funny.   Ana is only 7 months old but she is very quickly learning to walk too.  It looks so funny because she is such a tiny little thing and is trying to walk.  We think she may be part of the Indian tribe called Linkas because they are very small people and live in the area where she was abandoned.

I am so excited about church next week.  I found 4 young people that can actually carry a tune to help me with the praise and worship and we will start practicing after AWANAs on Saturdays.  There are so many songs that I want to teach the congregation but need to have people do echos, etc. and it will be great to have this extra leadership in the worship time.  Please pray for them — this is new to them but they are willing and able.  It will add so much to our worship service.

Please write and tell me your prayer requests too so that I can feel that I contribute to your lives as well.  I always ask for so much prayer and I really don’t believe my calling is any more important than any of your callings so please let me pray for you in your “mission” too.

Love to every one of you and praise God for giving me such a strong support in prayer and love.  We feel your prayers immediately after I send one of these updates out so I KNOW you are praying and seeking God’s throne on our behalf.  Thank you more than I can say.

Love in His FAITHFUL grace,
Rhonda

Share