Hey Prayer Partners,
I am so thankful for all your faithful prayers for us. This past 6 months has been the hardest of all my years in Honduras but God has been there and been faithful and we are still going on. In the midst of all the trouble though, there has been a lot of spiritual growth in all of us and God has given us an incredible group of teachers and workers at the home. I am learning every day to LEAN more on Him and not on my own understanding!!!
The most important news I need to share with you is that Carlos is no longer at Destino del Reino. We are all fine and he is helping us still but is looking for other employment and he and his family have moved to town. Wendy will continue as director of our school. Carlos is a wonderful man and has such a huge heart for God but his struggles emotionally have been overwhelming and he needs a lot of healing from the Father and I am sure that God is completing that work in Carlos. But for now, we all agree this is the best thing for him and for Destino. Although I am very sad not to have him here every day, I am also a great peace that this is the Father’s plan and He will see us through each new adjustment and problem. Thanks for praying for us especially much during this time. Pray for Carlos to come fully into the Light and receive the forgiveness and mostly BELIEVE that he is forgiven for the past and that God always gives us a NEW DAY — Pray for me — I have learned to depend on Carlos for all the business details and so much more and now I am having to just wait on God but that is a very good thing. Yesterday, the big bus stopped working and I panicked because Carlos always takes care of that, but I told the driver to go out and check it some more and I just prayed that God would fix it, and IT WORKED!!! We will be living on a lot of miracles now because of the lack of my knowledge, but God is able!!!
There is a couple coming here for at least three months by late December or early January. They are from Minnesota and have a family lodge there and it is closed in the really cold months in Minnesota so they are free to help us here. Joe will help us getting things repaired and overseeing our men workers with their projects and also wants to have a chance to disciple some Honduran men and maybe even Carlos. Carol, his wife, will work in the school helping with the English teachers. They have three children and they are in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades and we will put hem in the school and (as Joe says) make them get stretched in learning Spanish. They are waiting on God to provide the finances to come and they will live in the second house since Wendy and Carlos are moving to Siguatepeque. They have enough frequent flyer miles for 3 tickets and need flyer miles for two more tickets so if anyone has any they would like to donate to Joe and Carol, please let me know as soon as possible. They are trying to sell their lodge this year and feel they are called to come to Honduras on a more permanent basis but they are coming fo this three months in the meantime and praying for God’s direction. I am so glad that God is sending in some help especially at this difficult time. By the time they leave to return to Minnesota, hopefully, Travis (farmer) and Julie Hester will be on their way back to work full-time with Destino.
Also, Allan Morel has been teaching our junior high Bible classes and he is willing to help teach on Wednesday nights a few times a month and we are going to continue meeting and studying the Word together and praying. It is a sweet group and is growing each week and I know that God wants us to continue this even without Carlos here. Pray for Allan and his wife Nicol as they are seeking how God wants to use them at Destino as well in the future.
Some of you may not have heard about our miracle this week with the van. For a little background, we had a van donated to us and it came in the container with all the other donated things. But when it arrived we did not have our papers in order and the people kept rejecting our permission to have taxes exempt under our non-profit ministry. We ended up with our container in the port for 7 or 8 weeks and had to get a loan for $6,000 to pay off the costs for taxes and penalties for not getting it out of the port in time. Then they separated the van from the container and said we owed more taxes and more penalties on it. It was last quoted as us needing to pay $12,500 for a $14,000 van — it was so ridiculous but we were at the point of realizing we may just have to give up the van. If it was my van, I could give it up and just accept that because I realize so many people lose everything in fires, floods, etc, and those things happen, but I was so ashamed to face all the generous people that had provided this van for us and we have been praying and praying for a miracle. All of a sudden last week, our agent Roman called and said that an official said, “Get that Gringa to come up here and bring her non-profit papers and the letter donating the van and we’ll talk to her.” So Carlos and I went on Thursday. We got there and ended up talking to a lady in charge. She looked very unfriendly and listened half-heartedly as Roman explained the history of our problems getting the van out. She started telling us how they had policies and had a commission over them, etc. I told her about the children’s home and all of a sudden she says that if we get a certain document from our attorney, she would get the van to us!!!! Then she started smiling and talking a little more to me. We walked out AMAZED and Roman was more amazed than us — he said she only says no, no, no to everyone and he could not believe she said yes to us. Carlos says, “She seems nice,” and Roman says, “NO, she is NOT nice.” ha ha. I love it when God so obviously moves someone’s heart to show favor to us. We are so excited. The attorney will have the paper on Monday and Carlos is going to go get the van for us on Tuesday. PRAISE GOD — pray that nothing else will hinder this — we have only one working car right now and it is not doing very well so we REALLY have to have the van immediately.
On Monday, we need God’s favor again. I have been asked to go to talk to the Secretary of Education for the whole country in Tegucigalpa about our electricity situation. He has the ability to write off the huge bill against us and declare that we should have always and in the future will have free electricity for the school. We will also be asking him to consider that the other electricity bill for the children’s home is at least twice as high because it has the water pump and well on that property and that is actually for the school as well so we want to appeal to him to help us get that bill written off as well. Only God can do this but he is ABLE!!! Thanks for praying for great favor on Monday.
We still owe $2,000 on the well but Carlos believes the man will accept or old broken down Ford pick up for that debt so that is another prayer request. If we can write off the electricity bills, we will only need to pay back the $6,000 loan for the container and we will be on a better level financially. This has been sooooo tough for six months but we are just trusting God to take care of each and every detail.
We are having a great year in the school in spite of having no electricity or water at times and the teachers are so faithful and loving and I am expecting great fruit spiritually in our students this year. Please pray for me to get things in order so that I can spend more time in the school praying individually with the children. They all need one-on-one attention and have such great needs.
Praise God, Amanda Bowen (our American from Kentucky who taught at Destino for 3 years) has agreed to take over our sponsorship program. She is exactly the perfect person for this position — she knows the children and loves the school and she will do a great job. Please pray for her as she gets it all organized again. We have the school pictures for all of you sponsors but I can’t get it back to the US to Amanda until the 2nd week of December, but I promise they are on their way. We had a professional photographer here for a couple of days with a group and he graciously took all of the pictures for us. This is a big job but Amanda is wiling to do this for Destino and I am so grateful. Also, the Christmas pictures and thank-you notes for sponsors are in the US and once Amanda knows who the room mothers are, she will get those in the mail as well.
Our baby, Dariana, came back and she is doing well. She is so happy all the time. The only problem is that she is so loved by all the other 18 kids that she never gets put down so I am afraid she will never learn to crawl. ha ha. All the children are doing well. Pray for Josue right now — he seems to be the only one at this moment with a struggle. He has a huge anger problem and I have prayed and prayed for him and ask now that you join me in praying for him. You may remember that when he came to us, he was just 20 months and had absolutely no emotion. I think he had the “failure to thrive syndrome” and we loved and prayed all over him and little by little he became a very happy little boy. But this anger is so deep and continues to keep him in trouble — thanks for praying with me for him. He is 9 years old now.
Pray for me — in the middle of all this extra responsibility, I believe God is asking me to start a Bible study for our student’s mothers — I need to wait a few weeks until things are settled but then I need to obey the Lord in this and trust Him to give me the time I need to prepare and that I will be faithful each week to this once i get started. It will work out easily because they can get on the midday bus that takes the kindergarten kids home and then they can leave on the 3:00 bus with the elementary kids so the logistics are perfect, I just need to be prayed up and prepared — thanks for your faithful prayers.
Keep praying about the shipping of the tractors and eqiupment my cousin is donating from Colorado. This is a huge gift to Destino and will make a big impact on the future of Destino. The students can start working on agriculture degrees in a couple of years and also this will produce income for Destino as well as work for fathers of the children and food for the hungry. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in the upcoming years with Destino in so many areas of life.
Pray for me personally. I have been very blind to an area of my life and the Lord broke my heart (in a good way) this week. I was confronted about talking negatively about a friend. I had been hurt (unbeknownst to her, I’m sure) and so I cast her in a bad light with my tongue and I was so amazed at how blind I can be to my own sinful heart. It was a hard couple of days of crying and repenting and hopefully when we talk in person, she will forgive me, but I thank God that He lets me “get caught” and does not let me continue on in my sinful blindness — I realized how I wanted to justify myself and then maybe twist it into something less ugly, and finally I just said, NO, I am wrong and I am ugly in heart and oh how the grace of God is sooooo sweet when we see the ugliness of our heart — so pray for me. I think that I justify talking about my hurts to others but there is NEVER an excuse to talk about anyone even if they have hurt me and I will pray as David prayed that God will put a guard on my mouth and measure each of my words. I guess like it says in James, he that does not offend in his tongue is a perfect man.” I am FAR from perfect and I would appreciate your praying for me in this very VERY important area of my life.
Thanks to all of you for all you do for Destino — love, encouragement, gifts, and mostly PRAYERS!!!! I expect huge things from the Father in the next few months because He sees my desperation — He has never failed and He will continue to bless and strengthen the ministry of Destino.
In His INCREDIBLE grace,
Rhonda