Hey Everyone,
Thank you so much for your faithfulness in even taking time to read these emails and to pray for us.

We had a GREAT parents’ meeting last week.  We had such a huge percentage of the kids and their parents come and it was wonderful.  The purpose of the meeting was to invite all the families to church and present the teachers and dedicate to the Lord the new school year.  The place was completely filled with people — some standing and over 150 kids sitting behind me at the piano.  The kids sang and the teachers were presented and then Carlos asked some parents to give testimonies of what the school means to their children.  It was sooooo encouraging how these families feel about this opportunity that is being given to their children.  It was good for me to remember what God is doing through Destino del Reino to change entire families.  Some parents cried as they shared about what their children were learning and how their whole families are being changed.  Then Carlos had a few of the teachers share their dreams for the school and their
children.  It was incredible and I came away so encouraged about being a part of all of this.  The teachers we have this year are so determined and motivated to change these children’s lives with the gospel and a great education.  Thanks for your prayers — God is up to HUGE things in their lives.  Please pray fervently for the 25 sponsors we lack still.  It is a hard year so far financially and that is a lot of money we lack each month.  Each sponsors sends $40 a month to cover all the food and some of the salary costs but this still doesn’t cover the buses running every day, the cook in the cafeteria, the extra snacks since the kids stay all day and the cleaning people, etc.  We really need the 25 kids to be sponsorsed soon so thanks for praying for us.  Zac will put on the web site soon the kids that lack sponsors and hopefully people will get on there and pick a child.  Most importantly, though, 25 kids are not being prayed for regularly
and that is our biggest VOID — thanks for praying.  I know God will supply all our needs.

We have almost all new women working at the children’s home now.  It was amazing what has happened in the past 2 weeks.  About 2 weeks ago, when Wendy and I were praying at night, I just started fervently praying that God would expose anything in anyone’s lives at Destino that would not be a good influence over the children, I asked him to put his light on any problem and remove anyone that didn’t belong here.  The next day, one of the ladies who has been here for over 2 years, started arguing with a new lady and then the new lady said she was picking on her because she had reported to Iris (my head over the ladies) that the lady was stealing.  That was my suspicion of her in the past and this was a confirmation.  So I let both ladies go for their constant bickering.  I had such a peace when the lady was gone that had been here for 2 years because I had lacked peace about her for quite a while and God gave me an opportunity to have her leave.
Then a week ago, a lady who had been here for almost 3 years, just got mad at me when I told her that I wanted to change something in our way of dealing with the children about nap time.  I didn’t get on to her or anything but she left mad and for good.  I was in shock but immediately thought of the prayer that I had been praying regularyl about God removing those that didn’t belong here.  Later I found out that she had been treating all the newer ladies badly and I hadn’t known about it.  Then on Friday, just 5 days later, Iris — my supervisor over the other ladies and the one that I had trusted the longest and with most responsibility, caused a huge problem and had told the children not to tell me some things that happened, etc. and I had to let her go.  It is amazing though that I have a huge peace now and I don’t even know what was going on — God is faithful to answer us when we cry out to Him.  We want this place to be holy and right before
God and for the chidren to b e under the right influences.  Only God knows hearts so we are dependent on HIM to put the right people here and remove the wrong ones.  The new group of ladies are so humble and loving and I am very excited about what God is going to do in their own lives spiritually here and what they will do for the chidren.  Thanks for praying for them.  Especially pray for Jenny who stays 5 nights a week to help with supper and getting the kids to bed, etc.  Her husband tried to kill her and one of her children about 12 years ago and has been a prisoner.  He is due to get out in January and she is so scared.  She loves the Lord and we had a great conversation about his ability to care for her and she is walking in more confidence right now but needs constant prayer.  Another one of the new women, Zaira, is still grieving over the death of her 5-year old boy this year.  He was actually registered to begin classes at Destino but
was run over by a car.  She has another little boy and she is so happy to be working here and her other little boy will start in our kindergarten next year.  Thanks for praying for all these women.  They are with the chidren for many hours every day and so it is so important that they are being prayed for and lifted up every day.

The land deal was supposed to happen last week but it is postponed until this week.  It is all set and we have the $100,000 ready in the bank, but they suddenly wanted us to pay the taxes (about $3,000) and we didn’t have that in the bank.  I told Carlos to ask if they could please wait on the taxes and he was ready to ask and then THEY postponed so I am believing that God did that to allow us time to get the taxes.  Pray that the Lord puts that on someone’s heart this week and the money will all come in.  We actually received enough to cover that in the past 6 months but we have been so short on the school needs that we had used some of the extra that was sent.  I felt badlly about that but didn’t have any other choice.  Thanks for praying for this to be provided and then once and for all we will have that land in our name THIS WEEK!!  We are  getting so excited to start working on the projects on the land.  One friend may buy us a cement block
making machine so that we can start making a better quality of blocks and Carlos says we will charge a little more but in a very short while, the word will spread that our blocks are of better quality and we can start making some money to support ourselves.   Another friend has a client that has a bottling company and he suggested we think about bottling Destino water and selling it.  There are a lot of great ideas about how to start earning money to support ourselves here so we need a LOT of wisdom from the Lord.   We still plan to enlarge our little lake and raise fish to sell too.  The great thing about these projects is that we can start training some of these parents in the school to do thing that will get them out of their poverty.  We of course still plan on building the campground to rent out and use for young people and so I know God is going to use this land in great ways.  Thanks for your prayers and gifts that have enabled us to do
these things.

Please keep praying for Carlos and I to spend DAILY time in the Word.  The burdens are great here and we need to be in His presence and give up those burdens EVERY day or we will get loaded down and discouraged.  We are counting on your prayers.

Keep praying about our trip to the US.  We don’t have the money yet but believe we are to do this trip and know He will supply all our needs.  We plan to come from October 24th to November 2nd and we still have several dates open if anyone would like us to share in a home or in a church meeting etc.  We just want to be used how the Lord sees fit and be open to whatever he has for us.  We will be having a board meeting on the 30th of October so be praying for great wisdom as a board and for our meeting that night.

Thank you for all you are doing in your faithful prayers for us.  Things are changing and growing so quickly and I believe we are going to be able to accomplish much for the kingdom before the SOON coming of the Lord Jesus.

Love in His grace,
Rhonda

Share