Hey Everyone,
I hope all of you are doing well and holding on to the faithful Father during this crazy time in our world. There are so many theories and opinions and it is confusing at times and I am so comforted by knowing that my Faithful Father is not surprised and certainly things are not out of His control and He holds us tightly in His hands and we can REST in Him.
In Honduras, we have been “locked down” for about 6 weeks now and it has been a lot of adjustment for us in some ways. We are blessed to live on so much property which includes our school playground and fields to play, while others in the villages are confined to their personal homes. Honduras has done a good job of keeping us safe from the virus but people all around are very hungry right now and that is heart-breaking. We have been able to help a few who have come to us but it is hard to get out to deliver food to some of our students’ families because the villages are blocked up and no one is allowed to leave or enter. We have one day a week when we can go out to grocery stores, pharmacies or clinics, according to the last number of our ID. I have Thursdays. I am not complaining because we have had a really great time as a family in many ways and I just have to get better at my meal planning since I cannot do my 3-times a week shopping anymore! We have been filling out a form every day that I made concerning our personal time in the Word. The questions are: what passage did I read today? what did I learn about God? What promises does God make to me in the passage? and what was my favorite verse in the passage I read. I call on three different kids every night at the dinner table to share — it has caused all of us (including ME) to be more accountable in spending time with the Lord. We also started praying as a family together every other night and that has been a sweet sweet time together. We were told yesterday that the same limits are being applied again to this upcoming week and they are not telling us how long it will be before we can get out but God has been good to us and we are at peace. I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying your families as well.
Our biggest hardship was when our workers could no longer leave their villages to come to work about a month ago. I immediately made up a schedule for all my bigger kids and I to have shifts in watching the little kids and baby girl and when we were in charge of cleaning bathrooms, floors, etc. I was amazed at how they all pitched in and even did MORE than I ever asked of them. I have amazing children!
At this point, we do not know when they will allow us to re-open our school. Since we are a private school, we will be able to extend our school year so we plan to have school through June to help the students get caught up a bit. Legally, since they all finished their third quarter, they can receive an average and pass for the year, but that is not good preparation for them going on into the next grade in September. Our American teachers left at the beginning of the “lock down” and will not be returning at this time so we will continue classes and use the extra hours that had been scheduled for English for catching them up in math and language. Thanks for your prayers for us as we need wisdom to work this all out. I really pray that they open up schools in two weeks and we would have 6 weeks to get them ready. They would still have a two-month vacation and we will start up in early September. I need them to be back in school soon because many of the kids have their best meals at Destino each day and I worry about their health. We need to measure all 300 kids for their shoes and uniforms to be made as well so we need to be in classes for a short while.
We need two more Americans to come and teach English for the fall. The teachers are trained and equipped with good curriculum and do not need to be certified teachers nor do they need to be fluent in Spanish. Please pray for God to put this need on the hearts of those he is calling to serve these precious little kids here in Honduras. Let me know if you have any ideas and please pass this need on to your churches and friends — God has always provided HIS choice for our teachers and we are waiting on Him to send us two more missionaries to teach. Our teachers need to be here mid-August and they would need to raise about $550 a month for their living expenses.
We had our kindergarten pre-registration in January (because public school starts in February and parents needed to know if their children would be in Destino in the fall or they would need to take their kids to public schools). We had 30 more kids than we were able to help and these children were desperately poor without any hope of a good future if we turned them away. After praying about it, I believe God wants us to begin two kindergarten classes in the fall. We will have a morning and afternoon kindergarten. I looked at our buildings and realized we can continue to double up on grades in the future with just building a very small annex building for our English classes in two years — that enables us to DOUBLE the amount of children who will come to know Jesus Christ (and their families as well) and will have a chance to have a great future in education. The only difficult thing (for me, not for God) is that I will need 44 new sponsors. I am guessing that most of our sponsors for our 16 high school graduates will continue sponsoring a new students, so we will need 44 more new sponsors. Please be praying about this huge need. If you could share it in your Sunday School classes and with friends and neighbors, that would be a great help. We ask for $60 a month for the student as well as a promise to pray regularly for that student by name. Prayer is the most important thing so if you are unable to give but would be willing to be a prayer supporter for a student, that would be great too. The sponsorship money pays for their books, materials, meals, snacks, medicines, teachers’ salaries, bus fares, uniforms, shoes, etc. Please just write me or sign up on our website under “How Can I Help?” Our website is www.destinodelreino.org. Thanks for your prayers!!
In the midst of all these needs, I have an even greater need. (I’m so thankful that our Father is not short on supplies or pacing heaven wondering where in the world this money is going to come from!). As Pastor Wade says, “God always pays for whatever He orders.” I believe it is His plan that my four oldest children go to Bryan College in August. With the different scholarships they have been offered, as well as a big gift from one church, we still lack $54,000 to send all four of them for their first year of college. Many of you have expressed an interest in helping us with this, and what I need is an approximate amount that you are willing to donate, so that I can assure the college that we are ready to finalize their acceptance. These kids are so worthy — I am so amazed at their hearts for God and to serve Him and I cannot think of a better investment that any of you could make than to get them an education that can equip them to serve the Lord. Please let me know as soon as possible, what God lays on your heart to donate, and I will see where we are at with this need. They are finishing up their English certification course and then they will get their acceptance letters. With those letters, we can get appointments with immigration for their visas to the USA. The sooner we can complete this process, the sooner we can be sure to get their visas. Thanks for praying and giving what God shows you to give. Can’t wait to see Him show off His glory in this one. My desire is to get all of them through the first year of college. Several of them will be able to up their scholarships once they are at college and also will be able to get jobs and they just need to get started and see how God wants to provide for them from that point on. Also, if you have one of them specifically who you would like to donate toward, I would like to teach them to consider you as their personal sponsors and they would communicate with you and report on how they are doing and share their prayer requests. In this way, they will learn how to operate as a missionary in being accountable to those who are sending them. Thanks so much.
One more prayer request for me personally is that I need to leave for my visa trip in about 8 days. There is a fine if I do not leave on time but I believe the immigration offices are closed. I changed my ticket from May 2 to May 15th and my request is that they will not charge me a fine and, most importantly, they will assure me that I can get back into Honduras on the 21st. The airports are locked up but we have a family coming to work with Destino, arriving on the 14th (so far as the airlines have said) so I am assuming the airports will be open. I cannot leave my kids if I think that I will not be able to get back in to them. Thanks for the prayers. God is in charge and I need to rest in Him on this issue. Also, while I am in the US, my plan is to go to Bryan College and meet with the new president about connecting Destino with Bryan — possibilities of more scholarships for Destino graduates, Bryan sending students for their teaching practice to Destino, combining our nursing programs in some way (once our nursing school and theirs are up and running — app. 2 years). Thanks for your prayers for all of this.
I feel like this email is full of needs and I am sorry for that. I know though that if you start praying with us, that God will move heaven and earth to provide all we need and these students and families are the poor that He loves. He also makes some really great promises to those who remember the poor and I know that everyone who is part of this provision will be greatly blessed.
Thanks for your faithful prayers and for loving us so much. I am so blessed to have each one of you on our team and loving and caring for these people as I do.
Remember that you cannot hit “reply” on this message, but you can write me at rhondadestino@yahoo.com or you can reach me on Facebook messenger. Love to all of you.
Because of His grace,
Rhonda
