Hey Everyone,
I just can’t thank all of you enough for all your faithful prayers for me and for Destino and the staff and children here. God is clearly pouring out His blessings over us in so many ways. As you know, Carlos left the ministry a few months ago and I was certain that it was the right time and the right decision BUT I was terrified of having ALL the responsibility for such a huge ministry. I was so distressed for several weeks and tried to think how I could just run away and complained a lot to the Lord about His ridiculous calling of a person like me who is so unequipped for such a huge task. He lovingly woke me up in the night one night and asked me one thing, “Rhonda, can you just carry Me around tomorrow and let ME do the work?” Since then I have been trying to really let the Spirit have control of everything and have not worried about my own inabilities — He has been so clearly leading me to the right people and the right decisions and I cannot PRAISE HIM enough!!! We found two new pastors who have started teaching the junior high kids and the students are learning and really enjoying these two older men who are doing a great job. God also sent us a new pastor (Efrain Rodriguez) who I have known for 13 years (since coming to Honduras) and he and his family are involved in another drama ministry internationally but live near us and are available most of the time to teach on Wednesday nights. He is committed to helping us in not only the teaching but any other area of the ministry (i.e. construction, electricity, etc.) where we need help. They are an amazing family and I am so relieved to see the church growing again. I have seen God answer my prayers in putting initiative and motivation in our workers here and see the men taking on responsibility without my constant supervision. We are hiring a mechanic to work at Destino full-time who can not only repair the buses and cars but also be a driver and help in other areas. God has provided the second bus for us and it seems to be running great. We have hired a few new teachers in the past month that are wonderful additions to our staff. Daily I just sense the Lord’s presence here and His clear leading in each decision. He wakes me in the night and reminds me of things that I have forgotten. He has given me new ideas for better administration and control. There are too many things to really share in this message but it is CLEAR that God has been faithful to do the work if I will just give it completely over to Him and “carry Him around” — He is so faithful and present and He is doing HIS work at Destino. Thank you for your faithful prayer.
I wanted to report to you that the Purity Conference was above and beyond all we asked and prayed for from the Lord. The Mellon family came from Tennessee and our American teachers participated as well and it is clear that Holy Spirit orchestrated it exactly as He wanted it, in the response, in the schedule, in the teaching, in every aspect. Purity is an absolutely foreign concept here in this country and I am excited to see God’s promises of building up a new generation from Destino taking root in this area. I haven’t spoken to all the junior high students but the ones that live with me and near me have shared a lot about how much the teaching has impacted their thinking and plans for their lives. Praise God!
As I said earlier, we were able to purchase our second bus for $12,000 — thanks to all of you who sent in gifts to help with that — and we recovered the seats for another $1,000 (they were practically destroyed) and it looks wonderful now. We are praying for $5,000 more to buy the new motor for the biggest bus that we already own and then we will have 3 good working buses. This is really a need because in August we will register 35 more students and will be transporting almost 300 people each day with students and teachers. We also need an extra bus so that when one is broken down, we will not have to change our schedule to continue school as usual. Please pray for this $5,000 to come in as soon as possible.
We FINALLY have our permanent accreditation in the elementary school. We had the temporary one for a LOOOONGG time but it is a long process in Honduras and we had a lot of undependable attorneys involved through the years. Anyway, we praise God that we now have that paperwork finalized and we are now working on the accreditation for the junior high — it should be done in the next few months. Please pray for no more problems so we can get this finalized as soon as possible. We had to go ahead and pick the 4 career areas for high school when we sent in our paperwork for the junior/high schools — we have selected agriculture, computer science, electricity and the basic education to continue to university. We can add other career studies with special applications later on. We believe these are the areas that most of our students will be interested in and also in areas where there will be available employment and good training as well for mission work in other countries one day. One of our biggest needs right now is that we have to have 50 computers by August. I believe we will have another container coming from Georgia in July so we need to really pray about someone or a company or somehow getting those computers sent on the next container. Again, I’ll just rest in the Lord’s knowledge of this need and his ability to provide because many of the things that we need and upcoming plans are WAY over my head or ability. Thanks for praying with me for these needs.
Well, we have been praying about the electricity situation for several years now and it looks like it is almost settled. The great news is that the Education Minister for Honduras has agreed to take on all the future electricity bills for the schools at Destino. We are in the process this week of putting in one new meter for all the buildings from the water pumps, kindergarten (church), elementary school and new junior high building and they took over payments for the month of February 2013. We had a huge debt of about $15,000 on the two meters from the past 14 months while this whole decision was being made and they are deciding how we can pay that off in payments. They recognize that the bills we were receiving during those 14 months were not fair and way too much so the electric company in Tegucigalpa has agreed to put in new meters and watch them for 3 months and then after that 3 months they will find out the right average a month that we use and will re-adjust the debt that we owe from the previous 14 months. In the meantime, they realized (in Tegucigalpa) that the local people from the company did not do the right thing when the Houston power company put in our poles and wires and did all the labor for our electricity. It is a private project still and the electric company never took it over to use our poles and wires and yet they have several villages attached to our private poles and wires — so they are investigating that maybe the electric company owes us more money for the project than we owe them for the past 14 months — please pray that this investigation will result in our not having to pay any back payments to the company. God can do this and it looks like a very good possibility — the only small danger in this is that they have angered the local boss here and he can be very revengeful with us so we need God to change his heart in this matter as well. (I hope this all made sense — it is kind of complicated — but anyway, just keep praying for God to work out our electricity situation). We praise Him that for now, at least, we have free electricity from here on out in the schools. YAY!!! What a huge blesssing this is.
My kids are all doing very well. Thanks for praying for Eidy — I requested prayer for her a few weeks ago on Facebook but realize many of you do not see my posts on FB. She is only 12 but has always had such a heart of rebellion and it has been a battle since she came to me at 3 years old. Things have been more difficult recently and she has been angry and deceptive, etc. I have prayed and prayed for her and I am seeing God start to work in her heart. I taught a lesson in sunday School this week on rebellion and how it does not do anything but hurt the person that is rebelling against God — He is God and if he has called us as believers, He WILL have His way in our lives but we can prolong that process and can have a lot of consequences from our rebellion but in the end He always wins. Two nights ago she came into my room and was crying about something she had done in secret and was confessing to me and sobbing. I finally just said, “Honey, do you want to stop fighting against God and just surrender to Him? He loves you the most, has the best plans for your life and I promise you if you stay with Him, He will fulfill His purposes in you and there is no limit what he can do with your life.” etc. She just cried and said yes and bowed down and prayed and surrendered all her life and her plans and her desires and her heart to HIM. I really believe it was sincere and I ask you to continue to pray for her. She is a STRONG leader in the house and in the school and God can really use her life to help so many others turn to the Truth as well. She has been in a battle because I believe Satan has seen her potential and has tried to destroy her for years — thanks for praying for Eidy.
We have a group coming in next Saturday from Texas. It is Jordan Mims’ church. Please pray for a profitable time with this group working in our school as well as a VBS up in a village nearby. They are a precious group of people who came last year as well and we are looking forward to their week of service at Destino.
BIG PRAYER REQUEST: My daddy had a wreck (hit a parked car so no one else was injured) last week. He had no serious injuries but is still recovering from a lot of pain in his chest — but, after a day at home, they discovered that he had had a small stroke and he has been in the hospital this week and now in rehabilitation in a center in Augusta. He is doing pretty well but needs a quick recovery from weakness on his right side. We are so grateful that the Lord spared him in the wreck and that because of that they discovered what is wrong in his arteries and are able to help him for preventing future strokes or heart attacks. My sister from Atlanta has been down to Augusta for this week and will return next week to help my mom while Daddy is in the the rehabilitation. We are praying for wisdom for what to do next — my sister, Kathi, has to start a new job because they definitely need her salary to meet their financial needs but we don’t know how soon my dad will be able to take care of my mom again. Mama is just weak and has no other serious problems physically but she cannot cook much or clean and Daddy has been doing all the errands and shopping and taking care of her. Thanks for your prayers for God to work out each detail of how to provide for my parents with me so far away and Kathi in a different city. My parents have so many loving friends and I am praying about maybe getting a list of people who would take a day every other week and call them and see if they need anything that day and go check on them — I think we could easily find 14 people willing to do this but we are waiting to see what my daddy’s situation by next week. Let me know if you are someone who could help out once every other week and we’ll start thinking about a plan. Thanks for your prayers — it is so hard to be so far away and unable to help.
PRAISE GOD — we are finished with the first two classrooms for the junior high and the students are so excited to get into those classes this week. We will immediately start on finishing up the other two bottom flloor classes once we get them settled in next week — we just need to pray for the money to continue to come in and we can work on that project day by day. During the summer we will need to build their bathrooms and if we are finished with that bottom floor of classrooms and the bathrooms in August, we won’t need to finish the top floor for another year after that. Thanks for all your prayers and your giving to build this school for the kids. Pray for our junior highers — for the most part, they are wonderful dedicated students but we have a few girls in the 7th grade that are pushing us to the limits in their attitudes and disobedience and we are not sure we will continue with them next year. It is always such a hard decision whether to keep a student when we know they will not have any other opportunities if not for Destino, but if they are causing so much problem as to affect all the other students around them — again, we need a LOT of wisdom daily.
Please start praying for God to send us more American teachers for the upcoming school year. We have a couple of our teachers returning and a few that have committed but we need at least 3 more and are waiting on God to show us who those people are. If you know anyone with an interest in teaching English at Destino next year, please let me know. Our teachers do not have to have a teaching degree or be fluent in Spanish. We have wonderful curriculum and the teachers only speak English in the classes and we know that God equips those whom He calls so please pray for God’s calling on 3 or 4 more Americans for August 2013. Thanks. He is faithful and He will do it.
I praise God for all of you and for your constant support in prayer and in giving and in every way. Thank you so much. I need prayer for discipline to stay in the Word and also to let the Spirit have control of me every moment so that I do not make the wrong decisions or do anything (or TRY to do anything) in my own strength. Thank you so much for your love for me and all of us at Destino.
In His grace we continue,
Rhonda
