Hey Everyone,
Thank you for all the birthday greetings and love and encouragement that you have sent to me lately. Today I was kind of sad when I started my day realizing my sister would not be writing me to tell me happy birthday. She is in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in all His glory and she has much better things to occupy her time (if there is such a thing there). I ended up being encouraged very much though with all the little flowers picked and brought to me and all the notes the children at the school wrote for me. Carlos brought cake and coca-cola for all the 130 kids and teachers and they surprised me with a party in the cafeteria. It was so sweet of everyone to celebrate this day with me. I am so blessed with the life that God has given me. I don’t know anyone in the whole world with a better life — so much to look forward with what God is doing in this place and all these precious little faces smiling at me all the time. Who could ask for more??
I also wanted to thank those that have been writing their encouragement about the land that is available to us, if God provides the money. One couple wrote within a half hour of my email telling about the land and offered the first $1,000 and said we only need 94 more couples, ha. Nothing is too hard for God though and, although I don’t know if he will do it through a couple of people or through a whole lot of people, I do believe he plans to get that land for us. There would be such a better security for us in this place too as far as being able to gate up the road before anyone could get down to where the school and children’s home are located. The man who owns the land going on the other side up to the highway is right now selling a few acres less than what we are trying to buy and he is asking for about 8 times the price and believes he will get it. That was confirmation to what we already thought was an incredible low offer for us. Please keep praying on this
for us and that God will do it His way and timing. I think we have a few more weeks to give an answer to just keep on praying.
Everything is going well in the church. It is growing every week (in numbers and in spiritual growth). I started teaching the ladies the book, “Lies that Women Believe” while Carlos is teaching the men a study on sexual purity (an unknown concept in Honduras, ha). Pray for both Bible studies as they can make an incredible impact on all our lives. Please pray for my Spanish to flow and that I won’t be frustrated while teaching with my lack of words at times. God has been gracious but I really ask that you pray that I can improve on my Spanish, that God will open my ears to hear clearly when people talk to me and I can learn to speak correctly. It can be a real deterrment in ministry and I know God can do this miracle for me. It would also make Carlos’ life easier too, ha. He is trying to be patient with me but sometimes he really gets frustrated when I don’t understand something. Pray.
We are having another teenage evangelistic rally on March 8 (Saturday) so please be praying. We had tried to do a salvation treasure hunt last time and it didn’t work out because the men that buried the flags went out of town and never told us where they were buried — we are trying the whole thing over and hopefully will have more success. Please pray for all those that will be attending and do not yet know Jesus Christ. We have more and more teens in church every week and they are going to invite many more who are not believers. This is a great opportunity so we really appreciate your prayers for us.
The kids are all doing well. They are over their colds (almost all of them anyway). The two new little girls are doing well adjusting. Josie had to adjust to a bottle and is doing very well with that. She is a very laid back happy baby so has been very easy for us. Jackie is the 3 year old and is having a little bit of a time with jealousy and competition (basically, just insecurity) so please pray for her and for all of us to give all that extra love and attention that she needs while she is adjusting to the whole big family. The new baby that will come in April is a boy so we are thinking about a good name for him. I am anxious to have another baby boy in the house — we have a lot more baby girls right now and it is time for the boys to catch up.
Thanks for praying for our upcoming trip to Texas. Carlos and I leave on Saturday the 23rd and will be in Kingwood, T exas for that night and for Sunday, 24th to speak in a church and also with a group of people in a home. We will be in Tomball on the 25th and in Dallas for the 26th and 27th, speaking in another big church there. We will be in Burton, Texas on that Thursday for an afternoon meeting with another church and then have Saturday with another church meeting in a home, and end our week with Sunday morning church at Tomball Bible Church. The thing that Carlos most looked forward to on this trip was the opportunity to preach in the jail where he was detained 10 years ago for trying to enter the US illegally. I have been told that this may be hard to arrange so PLEASE PRAY FOR A MIRACLE that Carlos will get permission to share with those men. Also pray for the message that the Lord would have Carlos give them.
Speaking of Carlos giving messages, please pray for this Sunday afternoon. Carlos’ whole extended family is going to use the school cafeteria and park and have a reunion and he knows that God wants him to give them a message — some have still not received Jesus Christ and some are just walking in rebellion. Please be praying that they will all come and that their hearts will be open to the truth and that Carlos will know exactly what he is to say. Thanks for all your prayers.
I feel so blessed to have all of you out there praying for our every need. We are hurting financially right now but we go through those times frequently and God always sees us through. Please pray for the blessings to just flow out again over this place. We have so many unfinished projects that we need funds to finish up but have to just wait on God’s timing and for the provision of His people. In the meantime, the main things are being done — the kids are being raised up here at the home in love and nurturing and the 130 children in the school are receiving an excellent Christian education every day — so who could complain? Thanks for praying for our needs though.
Continue to pray for the school official papers. We have to get them to Tegucigalpa on Monday morning and there is a lot of detail to be done yet. We need God’s favor all over those papers. We have applied to become an official bilingual school and it is critical that we get our approval very soon. Along that line, please continue to pray for the American teachers that we need. We need a kindergarten, pre-school and first grade teacher from the United States (or Canada) and we will continue to use Hondurans for the other classes (2nd, 3rd and 4th), but we need to have one more American teacher who will teach intensive English to those upper classes twice a day to get them transitioned into a bilingual education. Thanks for all your prayers. We also need to get the curriculum for pre-K and kindergarten and first grade. I am thinking that a school system in the US that is phasing out some books might donate the old ones to us. There is no particular requirement as
to what curriculum we use so please be praying about that for us as well.
None of you can just write to 500 people and list off all of your prayer requests and get the prayer support that we do and so I know that I am very very blessed — what a gift that is to have all of you out there praying for these requests for us. God is blessing this ministry in incredible ways becuase of your faithful prayers. I cannot thank you enough.
Love to all of you and pray that God is revealing Himself more to you each day. This past year has been my hardest in my life and yet I look back and KNOW that it was all necessary to refine the gold of my faith to teach me to TRULY walk in faith because we have a big climb ahead to accomplish all that God has given us to do with these little children at Destino. Thank you again for your encouragement.
In His grace,
Rhonda
