Hey Everyone,
I’m sure all of us are in the same boat right now — praying continually and just waiting on God to give us direction. I am so thankful for the time apart though because it has quieted my heart and made me surrender (once again) to whatever God has for me and my children and the ministry at Destino del Reino. He is still in charge and is not pacing the floor of heaven, wondering what will happen — that is a great comfort.
We have been quarantined longer than most any of you. This is our third week where no one can go out except one person in a car and only for groceries and pharmacy and hospitals. This week it got more severe in that only one day is allotted for me to go to the grocery, pharmacy, bank, etc. I can only go out on Friday morning from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. But I am very thankful for the diligence that the Honduran government has shown in protecting the people. The three areas of Honduras where there are a lot of cases (now up to 140) have been completely blocked off and under police authority to keep the people in those areas and in their homes. I am very concerned though for all the many people here that will be hungry — without jobs and even if they had jobs, no way to get to a place to buy them — all bus transportation was cut off several weeks ago. Thanks for your prayers for these precious people. They, for the most part, are seeking the Lord to provide for them and He will be faithful. We have bags of groceries ready to take to some of the poorest of our school families and once we can go out, we will deliver them.
I wanted to take a few minutes to catch you up on what has been happening at Destino in the past few months. I had written awhile ago about my four kids who are preparing to go to Bryan College in Tennessee in August. As far as I know that has not changed — we do need prayer for the funds to send them, for timing as we need to be able to get appointments with immigration to get their visas and everything is closed at this point. God has all of this in his control though and we continue to pray for that. We lack about $54,000 to cover all their costs for the four of them to pay for their first year in college. I am honestly trusting the Lord that once they have entered and completed their first year of college there, that the Lord will show favor on them with jobs, scholarships and gifts so that they will be able to continue their education and prepare for leadership and servanthood in God’s kingdom work. Thanks for praying for every aspect of those plans and needs.
I realized this past week that I had never shared with you what had happened about the tech school. We had been planning to open a technical school for young men for several years but it had been postponed over and over again by the organization who had promised to provide teachers and materials. We had already built several classroom spaces and were ready and waiting. What happened during those two years, though, is that none of our former students from Destino were now on the list waiting to take the training and the organization was planning to send us 20 students we did not know or have any influence over. We also did not have anyone to teach a bible course to the students to make it worthwhile spiritually for these young men. As I prayed, I knew we were not to continue with those plans. I started praying and apologizing to my Father about maybe missing his will and building those classrooms in vain and wasting his money — suddenly I knew what we were to do with those classrooms — we were not off track — God just had other plans all along.
I had met Anthony and Joanna Reece (from Greenville, SC) on the plan returning in July from speaking at Camp Hope. We began to talk and they had both been to Honduras many times and had a real heart to reach the Honduran people for Christ. They came to visit me for a few hours while they were in Honduras that next week and I teased them about coming to live and help us. We began to talk and, more importantly, God began to talk to them about coming full-time to Honduras (although I wasn’t sure they would be coming to Destino at the time). God had clearly told them that their mission here would be to teach classes to poor women showing them how to make things that could be sold in their villages to support their families. I had told them in December that I had the students for them because our moms in the school were the poorest around this area. As I was praying about the cancellation of the tech school, I suddenly KNEW that this was from the Lord and this couple were to have these classrooms for their ministry with our moms. I know they will be discipling these moms as well as teaching them the classes and this will all fit into God’s purposes for Destino del Reino and raising up a new generation to serve Christ and reach the world with the gospel. We have over 400 people in church every Wednesday night, all connected to our school families, and no one has been discipling them. I am so excited for this new opportunity for our moms to be discipled and grow in their faith. Please be praying for their family — they will be moving here in early May (depending on when the airports open up, probably). They have three small children and will be living in Siguatepeque as soon as they can locate a good house there. Lots of prayers for them would be appreciated.
Another exciting thing that has been happening is that we are having a lodge built by our pond. It started out as my suggestion that the group of men who came and built our stable for our cows could do one more project sometime in the future and that was build a little cabin so that our sports campers in the summer might have a place to spend a night or two and, thus, have more personal time with the counselors in the evenings. Mike, our friend from Augusta, jumped on the idea and the next thing I know, he has sent drawings of a HUGE cabin (sleeps 40 with nice bathrooms, meeting room, etc.) and so we have quit calling it the “cabin”. Mike has come and prepared the place for the lodge as well as obtaining prices for all the wood, electricity, plumbing, etc. and has submitted it to the architect and has now informed me that there is a good chance that Georgia Pacific will be paying for the lodge. I was not expecting this or even praying about it but it seems that this might be a new ministry that God is opening up for us at Destino del Reino. Years ago in the beginning of Destino as I was dreaming about what God might want for us to do with some of the land here, I actually thought it would be great to have a camp ground for renting to churches here for their retreats. This is kind of the bible belt of Honduras and there are tons of evangelical churches who would love to have a peaceful place to hold their retreats. This would also provide more employment for some of our parents and future college kids. Thanks for praying for this to go through. Mike says that if it is under $30,000 they are likely to give us the grant. I am so amazed at God’s plans here and try to just keep up with Him in it all! I know he will continue to send people to us to run each aspect of this ministry as He is building it up for use for discipleship and growth in the Spirit. Oh by the way, the soccer coach at Bryan College has already been talking to the administration about sending next year’s soccer team to Destino to train for a week since we are at a high elevation for conditioning them. They will be able to stay in our new lodge — by the way, we are calling it “Dulce Refugio” (“Sweet Refuge”).
Keep praying about our university here. So many former graduates are still waiting for it to begin. We have about two more documents to prepare and get signed and then we can submit the documentation to the Dept. of Education and wait (maybe for a year) on their approval. As everything else, this has been put on hold until the virus situation is over. But thanks for remembering this situation in prayer as well.
All my kids are doing well. We usually have someone in the house with a cold, virus, lice, etc. Because they have not been to school for several weeks, we have not brought any illnesses back to the house — for that, I am very grateful!!! They are keeping busy and we are so blessed to be living on over 100 acres of land with a pool, lake, river, soccer field, basketball court, playgrounds, etc. so they really just feel like it is summer vacation. They were not accustomed to going out other than to school so really have not felt couped up at all. I prepared a little form slip for them to fill out each day about their Bible reading and we share before dinner time what they learned that day from the Word and it has been a good time for us as well as keeping us all accountable.
Thanks for all your prayers for us. Pray also for our needs since many Americans are unemployed, I know that may be a hardship for them to continue with their generosity to Destino del Reino but our Father is not lacking and I know He will provide for us. We are very grateful for our very generous milk cow, ha ha. We actually can’t use all the milk she is producing so we are making some cheeses from some of it, and I learned to make butter (not that it was difficult). Anyway, we are blessed and thanking the Father for all of you and praying for each of you to be safe and full of His peace during this crazy time.
In His grace,
Rhonda
