Hey Family and Friends —
Thanks so much for your faithfulness in praying and supporting Destino del Reino, even when I am lax in sending updates at times. I am sorry for not giving more reports to you prayer warriors, especially since God is doing such amazing things here because of your prayers!!
We got to start school about 3 weeks ago but only half days and only 15 kids in a class so therefore, all the elementary classes (30 in each one) have to come every other day to class. It is not what we would have hoped for but we are just excited to get the kids back to class after two years out with Covid requirements. We still have a lot of restrictions and I am so sick of masks but the kids are happy and things are going well. We have several new teachers and they are wonderful. We have two new teachers in the high school — two men — and they are excellent in math and science as well as being strong in their faith and are helping in our discipleship program as well. I have not been to the school very much yet but plan to start getting over there more often now that other things have settled down in my work here. Thanks for praying for sponsors for our students — we have them all covered now and I am so thankful that each child will be covered in prayer individually.
When we started school, we began our requirement that all our parents have to be at church once each week if they want to keep their children in school at Destino del Reino. It really isn’t much to ask of them because their children receive free education, transportation, food, snacks, materials, uniforms, shoes, etc. The parents are completely cooperative with this requirement and have enjoyed being “encouraged” to be in church. The exciting thing though is that they no longer come to a church service and hear a sermon, but now they get off the buses and go directly into a classroom or area for a small discipleship group. The parents are with their discipleship group twice each month (we can only bring in half of the group each week) and we also will have one night a month where all the fathers are required to come for discipleship without the women. This Wednesday will be the first night of discipleship for the men and there are 106 men on our list that will be required to attend. Please be praying that they will come to know Jesus Christ personally and grow in their faith so they will be able to lead their families spiritually. I can hardly wait to see the fruit that will come from these parents being discipled personally and prayed for individually instead of just coming to hear a sermon once a week!!! Please be praying for all the discipleship leaders especially. This is a big undertaking and I am so thankful for their willingness to lead these parents.
We have finally finished the lodge completely — it has been a long year plus but it is already being used for great things for God!! We have had two pastoral training seminars in the lodge by Pastors Wade and Kevin, teaching the Honduran pastors Christ’s model for discipleship and multiplication for the furtherance of the gospel in the world. The first two seminars (November and February) were for about 30 local pastors and church leaders. The plan is that in May, there will be 20 different pastors bussed in from further away and they will be able to stay in the lodge and have their meals provided for free. The plan is to bring a different group of pastors in from various areas of Honduras and Central America every other month and teach them to disciple and make disciples who will make disciples and multiply as Christ directed us to do. Please be praying for this tremendous ministry that has the possibility of changing all of Central America for the Kingdom of Christ. Pray also for Pastor Wade and Kevin for strength and health and energy to continue this great work.
We also used the lodge this past week to house the entire women’s soccer team and half of the men’s soccer team from Bryan College. It was a wonderful week with these young men and women. I was so impressed with all of them and they worked in the classrooms, sharing the gospel with our students, and they played and prayed with other soccer teams in the city and did some work projects for us. My four college boys were so glad to have all their friends and teammates to come here and see where they grew up and meet the family. The plan is to bring them back yearly and use Destino del Reino to introduce the college students to missions. Many of them expressed at the end of the week that they were more open to missions and wanted to surrender to whatever God would ask them to do and wherever He wanted to send them. It was such a great week and I know God used it to change many lives! I am so grateful that my kids have coaches who have God’s heart to reach these kids and disciple them and prepare them to serve the Lord.
Our next big endeavor is coming up and we would like you to be praying about this. As you may remember, I had felt that we were to open a technical school several years ago. We finished building two big classrooms and an outside work area for this purpose but because of problems with the government and losing some volunteeers at Destino, this just never came to pass. I felt recently that the Lord was prompting me to see if we could go forward with the plan again and I talked to Pastor Cristian and his brother, Beto, a couple of weeks ago. We are praying and planning and would appreciate your prayers. Beto has had it on his heart for years to provide some future careers for the many young men in Honduras who have no work and no training in order to support a family. Beto will go to the government group (INFOB) this week to talk to them about their providing instructors and materials for our tech school. INFOB provides teachers for just about everything (i.e. mechanics, carpentry, welding., etc.) and the government pays for the books and the teachers’ salaries. We would need to provide the tools for whatever crafts we would be teaching here. I will be sending out a list in the near future so that we can have donated tools, etc. sent for supplying the school with what they need. Cristian and Beto want to teach classes also on how to launch a business, integrity and honesty in a business, managing money, etc. as well as a course in discipleship and Bible studies. They feel that God would have us provide the technical training for the young men and then help them launch a business that would provide for their families. Please be praying — this is HUGE and I really believe that God is in this. (I’m just glad I don’t have to be in charge of it!! ha ha — I have enough to do already). God keeps bringing in the people to accomplish His purposes here and Destino is growing by leaps and bounds so I need many hands!!! Thanks for your prayers and I will keep you updated on the progress.
Thanks to all of you who donated all the supplies for school, clothing, sheets, towels, pillows, etc. for the lodge. The students absolutely loved staying in the lodge last week and said they were so comfortable — you all made that possible and I cannot thank you enough.
Pray for the next groups we have coming in this summer. We will not use the lodge for groups but will have many church retreats and one-day prayer times in the lodge. The groups who are coming in the future are: FCA group from Colorado coming in May for three days to do some work with the students in sports; and the last of June we will have our sports camp group coming in from Tomball, Texas again. We have missed them during the two years of Covid. Thanks for praying for these teams and for their ministry to our young people in the school.
Please be praying for the funds for my college students. We are all paid up for this year and there will be six of them returning to Bryan College in August — only God knows how He is accomplishing paying for their tuition but He is faithful and He has sent them there so I know He will pay it somehow. Thanks for your prayers and that I will continue to trust Him in these impossible-looking situations!!
All my kids at home are doing well. We are so excited to have school again (even if it is only half days every other day). My youngest is 4 now and we have wanted a baby to come to live with us but so far we are staying at 24 kids and no more. God knows what He is doing though and this may be the ones He has chosen for His future leaders out of Destino del Reino. They are all such precious kids and I am blessed to be their mama. I need prayer now because my older kids are now young adults and there is a different kind of parenting to be learned with adult children. I need a LOT of wisdom so thanks for your prayers.
Remember you can’t hit “reply” on this email, but I would love to hear from any of you if you write me personally at rhondadestino@yahoo.com
Thanks again for your prayers for all of our needs and for the ongoing ministries here at Destino del Reino. We are so blessed to have your prayer support and also financial support. I am so amazed how we are able to pay the salaries each month. We have doubled our younger age classes now so we have more salaries each month but God continues to provide. Thanks for praying for that. When I start to panic at times about the money needs, I just remember that this is God’s work and not mine. If He quits sending in the money, then it means He is finished here, and I am not going to keep doing it without Him. So until He stops providing, we will continue to trust Him and keep going.
Love to all of you and thanks again for your faithfulness.
In His AMAZING grace,
Rhonda
