Hey Prayer Partners,
As always, I need to start out by thanking you for your constant faithful prayers for me, and for all the children and Carlos and all that concerns Destino del Reino.
It has been a very busy time right now. I have been able to complete all the school schedules, teacher’s manuals, hiring of new assistants for 3 of our grades, etc. etc. I am so thankful for the wisdom that God gives Wendy and I every year when we sit down and try to make schedules for 4-K through 6th grade and have every one in the right place at the right time and a teacher there to teach them — whew, what a chore but it is really like a big puzzle and I do like puzzles!!
I think I wrote and told you that we finally received our container. We are so grateful for all that was in the container and are looking forward to getting a lot of things set up in the school. We have been provided with new (used) metal desks for 4th, 5th and 6th graders and they are SOOOO nice. We are starting to put together our medical and dental clinic with the things that were sent. We still lack quite a bit of equipment for our dental clinic so please pray that we will be able to collect that from some donating dentists and get it sent on the next container. That is really a big dream for us to start having our dental work provided at Destino. We have over 200 children this year and they all need much attention on their teeth. We have been told about a Honduran dentist who does not want to set up her own practice but would like to use someone else’s clinic and provide dental help to the poor — we will have the clinic soon, Lord willing, and FOR SURE, we have the poor!!! Thanks for praying for all of these things to be worked out and provided soon.
We are getting close to finished on the clinic itself. We are being provided one more donation from Tomball Bible Church in Texas, and that should be able to get us almost completely finished. We did all the basic work on the whole building and now have finished the clinic half of the building with doors, windows, paint, ceramic floor, finished the bathroom, etc. and with the last money provided, we will finish the apartment side with floor, painting, doors and windows and we will be just about finished. Thanks for praying for us as we want to finish this project before moving on to our next project — the school chapel/junior high school classrooms.
The chapel and junior high class rooms is a BIG prayer request because it will take quite a bit of money but is absolutely necessary to have finished before this time next year — we have to have a place to have our junior high classes or we cannot have the provision of the government teachers and materials for the agriculture program. Thanks for praying that people will begin to help us with those much needed funds. I know that when God is ina project though, there is no doubt that He will lay it on hearts to help us.
I have had a diffcult few months, dreading the arrival of Sammy and Emily’s parents from the USA. They left to work in the USA about 4 and 1/2 years ago when Sammy was one and Emiliy was a few months old. I have had the children all their lives and now the parents were returning to live in Honduras. God has again done above and beyond all my thoughts and desires and prayers. They arrived on Monday here and we had a great time together. They are going to rent the little white house behind my house for about 6 or 7 months while they build a house on a piece of land just behind the white house which we are going to sell to them for a great price. They assured me that they will never take Sammy and Emily away from my love and want to keep them in the school at Destino forever. I am excited about getting a chance to disciple the mama — she accepted Christ when she was visiting Sammy when she was about 18 years old. They are really sweet people and I believe they will be great as neighbors and will end up helping in the ministry here. God is really good to me and has saved me from a GREAT heartache in this situation.
We really need to be praying about the beginning of school needs. We still lack quite a few sponsors for our incoming class of 4-K’s — each of these children needs a sponsor to not only provide the finances to feed and education and provide their clothing but also to be prayer support for these precious little ones. We are realizing more and more each year what a very great challenge it is to change the next generation here in Honduras for Christ — they are coming out of not only impoverished situations and attitudes, but also from very immoral home situations in many cases. Thanks for your prayers for us to find the right sponsors for each little one.
Also, we have a whole lot of debts right now to pay as we need to pay the last 2/3rds of the shoes for 200 plus children, pay for the jumpers and skirts for the girls, pay about $1,500 more for the English materials, etc. etc. We also owe a lot to the teachers’ retirement still and we need to get that paid soon or will have some problems with getting our accreditation in the future. I know that God knows all these needs and I keep reminding Him that HE has some debts to pay — they are not mine and I need to continue to give HIM this burden. But please be praying with me for a miracle and provision for all of these things. I feel a lot of pressure right now about this.
But He has never let us down yet and will not start in August 2010!!!
Carlos is really enjoying the new tractor. We haven’t started any planting yet but we have been able to finish up our soccer field with the help of this little powerful tractor that was sent. Thanks for your prayers for Carlos. God has done and is doing mighty things in his life. He has been getting up before 4:00 a.m. every morning for about 3 weeks and spending time in prayer and it is making a tremendous change in Him. Please pray for me to be so diligent in prayer. I find that the kids get me up at 5:00 and i am really soooo tired during the days. I need more discipline in my time alone with the Lord — I need the power that I am seeing in Carlos’ life too and I know exactly where that comes from!!!
Sunday School is such a joy to us. We have over 100 people coming every week and a few new ones each time. Carlos is teaching the teens and adults and they are so obviously hungry for the Word of God. I have the children and we have at least 75 in my class each week. I am amazed how attentive they are — it is such a blessing to teach them each week. Pray for us to be faithful in studying and preparing for them each week. I am amazed at how much the kids really take in too. I was teaching about Aaron and the golden calf. Honestly, I have always thought that was CRAZY that they could have God Almighty clearly leading them in the wilderness with the cloud and fire and providing everything they need and STILL decide to create a golden calf and call it their GOD!!! But as I thought about preparing the lesson and how we put things before God, I started thinking about “why would WE want a different god” — so I wrote down a few thoughts and was starting to teach the class. I explained a little about “other gods” that people want in their lives and asked the kids “why” and picked up a rock in my hand and asked, “Now, why would anyone want this rock as their god instead of the Living God?” Sammy, one of the youngest kids in the whole class, says right away, “Because you don’t have to OBEY the rock.” I just stopped in amazement. I had thought of some other ideas, like because you could see it or touch it, etc. but Sammy hit the nail on the head — it all gets down to rebellion in our hearts, huh? “Out of the mouth of babes. . . . ”
We hired three new precious Honduran women as assistants. One of them, Olivia, accepted Christ in our interview. She was so sincere and when Carlos asked her about her assurance that she would be with Christ if she died tomorrow, she was really wanting to KNOW that she could have eternal life. It was a precious time with her. Please pray for Olivia to grow spiritually. We plan to have teachers’ bible study every week this year and it will be a great time to encourage her growth in the Word of God. Also, she will be memorizing scripture with her class every day and that will help her as well. We have several Americans coming this year so please be praying for them as they plan to come in about the middle of August. Pray for adjustment to a new culture, new ministry and job, and many new and hard things here in Honduras. Sheena is a retired woman from Georgia. A young lady, Emily, is coming in from Indiana, and Mallori and Nathaniel are returning again this year (from Indiana as well) — Nathaniel will begin teaching Bible classes this year as well as continuing as PE teacher. Amanda Bowen is returning from Kentucky, and it looks like maybe my cousin, Ashley, may be coming from Texas. Please pray for Ashley as she wants to do whatever God wants for her and she is praying for confirmation about Destino. We (and she) need to know something right away. Besides all of these people in the school, we have two young men that are getting out of the military in mid-August and will be coming from Tennessee (Ben and Austin). They are in the process of getting permission from their commanding officer, to serve their weekend duty days all together at one time so as to free them up to come and serve at Destino. Please pray for the approval they need to come. Their specialty in the military was networking computers and computer technical stuff and you know how much we need that at Destino, so we are really excited about their coming as well.
There is lots going on and God is so good to provide the energy and encouragement that we need each day. Thanks for praying for each of our needs and for MUCH wisdom from day to day. There is really more going on than I could ever tell you in my emails but I know that you pray for me and God is answering prayers in areas that you don’t even know specifics about. I am so blessed to have all of you even taking time to read such LOOOOONG emails and I thank you for your interest and love for each of us here.
In His grace,
Rhonda
