Hey Everyone,

As always, I want to start with thanks to each of you who remember us continually in your prayers.   Without those prayers, I can’t imagine how we would go on from day to day.   There is so much going on and so many lives at risk that we thank God for your encouragement and faithfulness in prayers for us as we bring light into a very dark place.

I have been pretty discouraged lately with several of our former students’ choices.   I know there are so many students with us still and also those who have recently graduated who are following Jesus but I want to rescue each and everyone of these “babies” that God brought to us (most since kindergarten).   They are making some really bad choices at ages 13 to 15 which will forever change their lives with the consequences of their sin.  It breaks my heart.   I continue to remind myself that God doesn’t expect us to rescue every child but to just keep planting seeds of the Truth in them and trust Him to bring about His work in their lives in His timing.   I’m thankful for those of you who sponsor a student and who pray for them by name regularly.   I KNOW that this is making a difference.   We have had the teachers in the grades from 6th to 9th this year vote on those students who they believe should not continue on into junior high and high school next year at Destino del Reino.   The teachers’ vote is based on the lack of any outward sign of interest in spiritual things.   We have 23 students on the lists and each one of them makes me so sad.   It is so hard to wait on God’s working in the lives of those we love but we have to continue on at Destino with those that are ready to follow Christ and will have to trust Him to use the Word that has been implanted in their lives through these past 8 to 10 years and know that they will one day truly surrender to Christ.

Another ongoing battle is our health.   We have had one entire school year of viruses!  Not only in the school but also in my home with my 23 children, we have had several sick continually.   I have never been sick this much either and it is discouraging, to say the least.  Please pray for us.   Someone once said that the difficulty of a trial sometimes is not how serious the type of trial but the duration of the trial.   Even though viruses are not a huge difficulty compared to many other trials, we are worn out with this ongoing struggle.  Thanks for praying for all of us.

Another area where I am really having to learn to wait on the Lord is concerning the university process.   We have been told that the man who is doing our paperwork to get approved is doing a good job and is diligently on target with all the necessary documentation, but it has been a year now and we still do not know when we will be able to start university classes.   I continue to believe that God desires us to open the university but His timing is not clear.   We especially need prayers for several Christian nurses who would be willing to teach in the nursing school.   Since this major has not until recently been offered in any university in Honduras, it is very difficult to find someone who has the level of education to teach the classes we need to offer.  But God is bigger than every obstacle and we just need to pray and wait on His perfect plan and timing.    I prayed for the Lord to encourage me a few weeks ago as I had heard nothing about the progress of the documentation.   The next day, our director spoke to the man in Tegucigalpa in charge of the committee who will approve/disapprove our application for a university at Destino.   He told Wendy that the man who is doing our papers Is right on target and as soon as he gets the documentation to this man, he will “run with the papers” and speed up the process and that I should not be worried at all.   So I continue to wait on God in this area and will appreciate your prayers.

Thanks for continuing to pray also for our finances from week to week.   We are still amazed at how God provides for each day, feeding over 300, and for all the salaries in the school and children’s home and church.    He is faithful and I thank you for your faithful giving and praying for us.

We are entering into our last two months of school and things are hopping.  We have 3 weeks of soccer tournaments among 14 or 15 other schools in Siguatepeque.   Since I have two kids on each team, I will not be able to miss any games — whew!!   We are also going to have my Chinese sister and brother, Sarianne and Peter Trinh here in mid-May for a Missions Day celebration in the junior high and high school.  Please pray for that day to be a great inspiration to our students.   We also will have Dr. Wright and a dental student here the same week, faithfully serving our students and providing dental care for MANY.

Thanks for praying for all of us here.  My personal prayer request is that God will wake me up spiritually — I just feel like I’m in some kind of a “funk” spiritually and seem kind of dry.  I know that true faith is walking through those hard, boring, dry times, but I just want to really sense His presence every day.   I need more discipline in my time in the Word and I know that is the main struggle.  Thanks for your prayers for me.

The kids are doing great and I praise God for the leaders they are becoming for the cause of Christ.  I am so blessed to live with such a great bunch of kids of all ages (1 to 18).  We have a beautiful peace here and we are all so blessed by God to be a family.

Thanks again for your continued prayers.   Love in His grace,

Rhonda

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