Hola, Faithful Prayer Partners,
Thanks for your faithfulness in praying for us this summer. It has been hectic and sometimes kind of difficult but God has always been so faithful through each difficulty. We are so blessed that He is our Father and He cares for us as his little children, so I don’t know why I would ever be worried about anything.
Many of you are still praying for our water situation. There is still no water but keep on praying. Carlos worked with the guys for an entire month getting broken wire and cable out of the well hole (580 feet) and finally got that out but then could not get the poles out because there is wet sand caked around it and holding it in there — Mike Bennett came with a tool designed by Tom Helbert to get out the pipes but because of the sand it would not work. I told Mike maybe he came just so he could tell Carlos to quit trying to save money and just call the company that could do this well for us. Carlos is very conscientious about the generous gifts that are sent to us and didn’t want to call outside help if he could do this but it was huge burden to him and during this time, he was not being able to do the things that he needed to for preparing the school for the upcoming year. So we called the drilling company that originally did our well and they are working on another well in Comayagua and will be coming here as soon as that project is finished. We have waited now for over a week so please pray they will come SOON!!! We have spent our entire summer vacation without water but it really has not been so bad. We are all accustomed to boiling water and hauling in water from the fire station in town, etc. It will be a wonderful treat though when we can finally flush our toilets again without hauling in the water. ha. Thanks for your prayers. God will do it in His perfect timing. Pray also that it won’t cost too much to fix the well and they will not have to drill an entire new well — that would be about $10,000 —
In the middle of this time without water, of all things, we went through a week of sports camp — we hauled in tons of bottled water and had to make more runs to the fire station, but it was a great week anyway. The group from Tomball Bible Church came and ran an incredible first annual sports camp for the teenagers here in this area. We had between 60-70 youth and the camp was such a great new idea for reaching new teens for the Lord and for building up the teens already in the ministry of Destino del Reino. Although it was a very effective week, the team is planning and praying about how to make it even better next year and reaching more teens and working more on discipleship and how to walk as a believer in this very immoral society. I am so grateful for the impact they had on so many of our kids. It is very hard to hold on to some of these kids at this age — to keep them in school and keep dreaming for bigger and better things for their lives — so I believe God is going to use this sports camp each summer to inject some more truth in them and keep them focused on walking on and believing God wants something great for their lives. Thanks to all of you who were praying for that week.
During the week of sports camp, we also had a team from Augusta that came to paint the school (they do that annually) and they finished it in about 3 days time. They also built our divisions so we can divide the preschool and kindergarten classes up in the church building this year. The law requires that we have a separate building for the kindergarten classes and we also needed the additional space in the school, so we are going to use the church building as kindergarten from now on. A group of men from Augusta are planning a trip here in the next month or so to build a big covered deck on the side of the church for the eating area for the kindergarten classes. It is so amazing how this place is growing.
PRAISE GOD!!! We almost have the walls up in the junior high school. We will be finished with the walls for the first floor early next week and then my cousin is sending the money to do the upper slab immediately after that. We only need the first floor completed to start classes in the junior high in September. God sure didn’t do this early!!! We are at the very last minute getting this done because the money did not come earlier, but it kept us trusting and waiting on Him and His timing is perfect.
Thanks for praying for the funds to come in for all the books, uniforms, etc. We still need some more, of course, but we have been able to pay all the downpayments for the uniforms, shoes, and books so far and I know God will provide in perfect timing as well for these things. I really depend on your prayers for us each summer to get all of these things prepared in time for September.
I finished all the teachers’ manuals yesterday — that is a lot of work through the summer in changing discipline charts, rules, teachers and class schedules, etc. but we are finished!!! So excited for the year ahead. We have some great teachers coming in and we have almost twice as many American teachers this year so we will be able to really have some strong English classes for the students. Our desire, as you know, is to raise up missionaries from Destino and their learning English well is the best way to get them into some countries, as every country wants more English teachers. We still need to hire two junior high teachers for this year and we only have two more weeks to find them so this is a HUGE REQUEST FOR PRAYER!!! I know that God knows who HE wants here and we just pray we find them SOON!!!!
Another very important prayer request for me is that we will have a group of teachers this year that truly are in love with Jesus Christ and not just “Christians”. Many people in this country know how to talk about God and Jesus and religion, etc. but so few are really enjoying intimacy with the Lord Jesus. We are preparing 5 days of bible study and prayer time for the first week of teacher’s training on the areas of our lives that would keep us from that kind of deep intimacy with God, i.e. shame, unforgiveness, pride, wounded hearts, etc. Please pray for these sessions — that all of us will have a renewed openness, transparency and unity in the Spirit and most of all, a deeper intimacy and love for the Lord Jesus. However the teachers are doing spiritually, will reflect in our students — so this is a crucial CRUCIAL time for our teachers and for preparation for a really powerful school year. The second week of teacher training, we will have Glenda West as the bible teacher in the mornings so please be praying for Glenda — that God will speak to her about what he would like her to share with the teachers. Also on that Friday (31st) Glenda will be sharing a message with about 175 to 200 mothers on discipline in the home, etc. I know God will really use Glenda in a powerful way.
I know you have waited for a report on the electricity situation. As of now, it looks like all the people who have needed to approve this have done so and they are waiting now for the final decision from the congress about our receiving electricity FREE of charge in the future. I haven’t sent out this as a praise because we still need to pray about that final decision, but from what everyone has told us, this is a pretty sure thing — I am waiting to celebrate until I hear the final word though, so keep praying. This would be HUGE — they have charged us soooo much money every month and it has been a big burden each month for me to come up with that money. They supposedly should have never been charging us more than 40% of what we have paid at the least and so actually the company owes us lots of money. We would never get it back though and are just praying now that we will never pay anything in the future. Thanks for joining us in praying for this HUGE blessing for Destino.
We are so thankful for the container that will be shipped in another week or so. Thanks to all of you who have collected so many things we need at Destino. I am sure that I do not know half of all the work you have done to get us these needed items, but God knows and I am counting on Him to bless you GREATLY!!! We are excited to finally be getting a van on that container as well because I have not been able to take my kids anywhere together for a very long time. Pray for the container to be able to hold the MANY things you have all provided and also that it will come here and be released to us before school starts. It is always a difficult thing here to get the permission through the ministry to receive a container without lots of taxes, and then to actually get it released — lots of RED TAPE.
I thank you for your prayers too for Carlos and Wendy and I — the battles are always raging but God is teaching us how to be stable and grounded in the waves of adversity. We promised the Lord a few months ago that no matter what happens, we will not let anyone or any situation steal our peace or our joy and will recognize that every difficult situation or attack from the mouth of another, is an opportunity to display the love and power of God in our lives. I have really seen a difference in both myself and in Carlos since we promised that to the Lord — we have to remind ourselves sometimes but it has been a hard summer and we have kept on enjoying each day and had a “peace that passes all understanding”. God is so faithful. Carlos especially struggles with remembering to “cast all his cares” on the Lord. He finds himself losing his joy and peace when the burdens are so great here. Pray for him to give them up — as I always remind him, God does not need our help!!!!
The kids are all doing great. Our baby is now 5 months old and she is so happy. All my toddlers are quickly becoming teenagers and that is a bit scary — I need more wisdom and more one-on-one time for praying with them so pray for my discipline in that area. I am so thankful for each and every child God has brought to live in our home — they are all amazingly smart and happy and just great kids. Thanks for all of your prayers for them through the years. God is producing great fruit in their lives. They are prayer warriors too. My cousin asked us to start praying for the price of corn to rise when it was going down fast in Colorado. The kids started praying several times a day and I called him a couple of weeks later and it had risen a LOT — so much so that he could help us with this junior high building. I hate how much so many other farmers are struggling because of the droughts in the US, but God sure has taken care of my cousin’s farm and he is so generous to share with us. The watchman’s daughter was very ill a few months ago, and the kids started praying and God healed her. They believe with all their heats and God is honoring that faith in their prayers. It blesses me so much — thanks for your love for them and for continuing to pray that they will grow into incredible leaders in the kingdom of God.
In His grace,
Rhonda
