Dear Prayer Partners,
Thanks again for your continued prayer support and encouragement to us at Destino del Reino. I can’t believe it has been almost two months since my last update. Time is flying by and I am sorry to be so slow in reporting news to you all who are faithfully praying for us.
Thanks to Jenna, we have updated the website once again so take a look when you get a chance. Some have asked information on the book “Just Because I Said Yes” and that info is on the website as well.
We have had a very VERY busy fall. In October our friends Johnny and DeDe Forbes were here for a week and we just love having them with us. They were my friends before they were even dating and they have now been married for about 45 years — I’m so blessed to have them in my life and sharing my ministry here in Honduras now. Pray as they have contacted a man who is interested in doing a “sustain a village” project here at Destino. It involved building a duck or chicken habitation over our pond, which will be stocked with tilapia, and running the water off into gardens, etc. (As you can see, I don’t quite understand it yet either). Pray that the details will be worked out and God will provide through them this wonderful project for Destino, not only for provision for food but also for instruction for our older students who are going to be majoring in agriculture next year. It is amazing how God brings people to cover each area of His plans for this ministry. I am RELIEVED that I don’t have to think of or do all that is happening here.
In November, my sister came after about 6 years since her last visit to Destino. She was amazed at all the changes. She was a great encouragement to the ministry as she held a short conference for all our parents on discipline — Discipline is lacking GREATLY in Honduras and we are coming up against this battle in our school as we see more and more children that are not being lovingly disciplined in their homes and then the parents expect us to be able to work with their children and only discipline them here at school. Pastor Pablo will be sharing with the parents more on discipline and guiding children in the way of the Lord in about 6 weeks. While my sister was here, my Uncle Don and Aunt Terry Frazee flew in as well. That was a huge dream of mine to have them here. I worked under them for years in the children’s home in Texas and they have been a huge encouragement to my life — we had a wonderful time visiting here and they are all full of wisdom and encouraged me greatly!
Four days after my sister and aunt and uncle returned to the USA, Pastor Wade returned to Destino and brought back Dr. Wright and Jackie Tucker to do a dental clinic for our students. We are soooo blessed. It is fairly easy to find some free medical help in Honduras for the poor but it is impossible to get dental work at a price the poor can afford so most people just pull out their teeth as they rot and have to live with that. Dr. Wright also brought another tool that enables him to put sealants on the permanent teeth of the students. It takes quite a long time to do this so only about 20 kids received the sealant so far but he will return, Lord-willing, in the spring and continue the process. Pray for us to be able to get another dental machine so he can bring along another dentist each trip and will enable them to help many more students and staff members and parents as well in the future.
We had a great Thanksgiving break. On Thanksgiving we had to wait 6 hours for the electricity to come back on so we had a dinner instead of lunch to celebrate but enjoyed the company of our American teachers and our neighbors. I still get kind of heart-sick without my parents on those very special holidays but know that they are rejoicing in front of the throne of God and we will be there to join in very soon — just have a little more work to do here on the earth! Although we don’t teach the Honduran students the American meaning of Thanksgiving Day, we did adopt a Thanksgiving week at Destino and all the children write letters of gratitude to God and to someone else in their lives who has helped them. I got the most incredible letter (2-full pages) from my 10 year old, Sammy. It was so amazing to hear him express his heart of love for me. I cried and haven’t re-read it because I don’t have time to cry again. The end was my favorite line — “You are the second most important person in my life. Jesus is first because he gave me life.” I am so blessed to be able to live with 22 wonderful children, who love Jesus most.
My biggest prayer request right now is for clarity on the university plans for next year. I really don’t have any doubts that we are to continue the education for these students. There is nothing out there for them — no jobs with just a 11th grade diploma and really not many jobs period. We are praying and seeking God’s wisdom but at this point we believe we are to pursue 4 areas of study: education (with a specialty in English), Agriculture, electricity and nursing. The nursing kind of freaks me out because in my mind, I can’t imagine doing something in the field of medicine and I have a million questions in my mind. But God has confirmed over and over that he wants me to do this so we are heading in that direction. There are several nursing schools in Honduras but not one of them is a university-level nursing degree. It is a 3-year practice and if a person wants to have the true nursing degree they have to go outside of Honduras to study in another country. All four of the areas of study that we believe God wants us to offer at Destino’s university will not only open doors of opportunity in employment here in Honduras but will be great tools on the mission fields in other countries, if God calls them to do that. Please pray that our attorney will find the right answers for us in her appointments this week in Tegucigalpa concerning the accreditation for these areas and more information on exactly what is required of us. We need clarity and LOTS of wisdom, as well as of course, more funds, for next year. If this is truly God’s will, then HE will do it, and if it is not His will, we don’t want to and will not do it. Thanks for your prayers.
The discipleships are going incredibly well this year. So many of our students have re-committed their lives to the Lord this fall and several of accepted Christ and surrendered to Him completely. It is amazing to watch young students teaching others what they have learned and joining hands out on the grass and praying for one another. They had received 8 to 10 years of Bible classes, prayer, devotions, etc. and now that they have an outlet to share this knowledge with others, it has become deeply imbedded into their hearts. They need prayer though because the Enemy has been attacking them fiercely Many of them have expressed thoughts of despair and depression and even suicide and they know it is Satan lying to them but they feel the attacks strongly. Thanks for your help in praying for these kids — God future leaders for His Kingdom!!
The students have prepared their thank-you letters and drawings for Christmas for their sponsors. I will be putting them in the mail in Texas next week so if you do not receive your sponsored student’s letter within the next two or three weeks, PLEASE CONTACT ME!! We are trying to make sure we have all the correct mailing addresses for the sponsors and need your help to know if the letters are arriving or not. Also, I want to remind sponsors that we do not do gifts at Destino — it would be so unfair to the majority if a few received gifts from their sponsors and they did not. But you can write to your student(s) at any time and encourage them and even ask them for prayer as well. They pray for their sponsors each day and would love to know more details about how to pray for you specifically. Thanks for all of your generosity and prayer and encouragement, Sponsors. You are certainly making a huge investment into the Kingdom of Christ through supporting these students!
Thanks again for all your prayers. Please NEVER STOP!!! Everything depends on our dependence and faith in Jesus Christ in this ministry and we need consistent prayer warriors to seek guidance, to fight Satan’s attacks, to provide the funds, to continue the Spirit’s dealings in the hearts of all of us here. Thank you for your part.
In His grace,
Rhonda
