Hey Everyone,
We thank you always for your faithfulness in praying for us. God has been doing such great things this year at the school and in the ministry and I am so grateful for His protection over us continually and the encouragement He gives daily that He Himself will complete the work that He has started.
We had a great Bible conference with Pastor Wade and we thank him and his wife, Anne, and the Parkers for coming to Honduras and encouraging us all (especially ME). The people here need deeper teaching and I am so thankful for the opportunities twice a year tha we can provide these 2-day Bible conferences with Pastor Wade.
We’re about to wind down our year and we are so grateful how God has provided so faithfully for EVERY need this year — I am always so amazed that we paid our teachers each month and fed almost 300 people every day — it is a miracle day by day. We need prayer for the upcoming school year — we need various teachers (Hondurans and a few more Americans), we need about 35 sponsors for the incoming students (for prayer support and financial help of $60 a month) and we need to get the container received in time during the summer to be able to set up all the contents and be ready for the new school year. I am so grateful to how hard our sweet teachers have worked this year. They all pitch in and work so hard and with such love and dedication – -both American and Hondurans and we are so blessed to have every one of them.
We are working hard on the other two junior high classrooms and hopefully will finish them by June and then need to build the bathrooms for the junior high before school starts in Sept., but of course, i realize that is MY schedule and may not be God’s at all — but at least we can ask Him and pray to that end. Please pray for the finances to finish those things off and that we will be able to have the money in May for all the downpayments for the uniforms, shoes, PE pants, etc. that we need to measure the kids for and start working on before the summer starts. God, as we know, will provide all we need because He is faithful — but we appreciate your prayers for these things.
My dad is still in rehab for a few more weeks and I would appreciate your prayers for him as well as my mom and my sister who is taking care of them and making arrangements for others to come in soon and provide care for them. This is a very hard time for our family and we would appreciate your prayers so much.
I would appreciate prayer personally for me. I mentioned before a few months back (or maybe years, ha) that I struggle with trying to please others. The Sunday School lesson I taught the kids this week was for me too. The verse was “The fear of men is a trap . . . ” Prov. 29:25 — and that is the truth. Pray for me (a “men-pleaser”) to make every decision based on what God wants and thinks of me instead of how I can make everyone happy. I have made some BIG mistakes in the past by keeping people on because I wanted to make people happy and I need to have some people leave in the near future that are not right for Destino and it is going to be hard. Because of my caring so much what others think of me, it only takes a person talking badly about me to derail me and Satan knows that. I have had several situations over the past months where people have misquoted me or misunderstood me and then people talk about me. I want to keep my focus on God, not trying to please others, and at the same time not being tempted to share my hurt feelings with others — please pray for my focus to be on HIM ALONE and HIs purpose for me here. Thanks for your prayers for me to only speak words that are worthy and encouraging to others.
Well, even though we only have one month from our deadline, I am going to write our wish list for our container. It all needs to be collected by the first day of June. John Turner in Augusta is in charge of the container collection and if you have any questions, please feel free to call him at 706/830-4072. He has a lot to put on the container that did not get on last year’s container but we still have a lot of room, and I have a LOT of needs, ha.
50 computers (we have some people working on this but we really need 20 for the elementary school and 30 for the junior high)
12 single mattresses
school supplies: construction paper, crayons, colored pencils, glue, notebooks, notebook paper, play dough, colored markers, markers for white boards for teachers, erasers, pencil sharpeners, 700 folders (with pockets but don’t need brads), 12 staplers and staples, 60 protractors, 120 rulers, pencils, pens (black, blue and red), scissors for teachers, scissors for students, scissors for left-handed kids (just a few), glue guns and glue sticks,10 simple calculators for teachers, permanent markers, waste baskets, fans, English-Spanish dictionaries, sets of 30 simple books or novels that classes could read together, composition notebooks, tempera paints, 3 CD players,
For teachers’ houses: love seat, two refrigerators, two stoves, pots, pans, dishes, silverware, plastic cups, coffee cups, lamps, lamp tables,
Dressers for clothes for kids
Always need lots of children’s clothes and shoes (all sizes)
Our shop needs lots of tools for repairs, mechanic’s tools for working on the cars, etc.
Vaccuum cleaner
Bicycles
Toys
Ford van transmission (John Turner is working on this)
Instruments for dental clinic
Medical supplies — children’s pain relief medicines, antibiotics, parasite medicines, etc. etc. for school and children’s home.
Rugs, curtains, blankets, sheets (Lots of single sheets, esp.)
Towels, wash cloths.
Well, I think that is enough to get started — I’m sure I have forgotten some things we need and God will send them anyway. If your SS classes want to help us collect some of these things, we should would appreciate it. you know we are not looking for brand new things but I put everything we need on the list and if you happen to have something in your garage or an abundance of these things in your house, etc., then you know someone who can use them. Thanks so much for all you do for us in prayer and support and we appreciate all of you so much. Even if you can’t send anything, please pray over this list that God will lay it on the hearts of the people about what we need and HE will provide through the right people at the right time. Thanks so much.
Love in His grace,
Rhonda
