Thank you to all of you who prayed about my trip to the US and for peace in our moving my parents to a nursing home. God could not have more clearly showed up to prepare every step. My sister, Kathi, had 5 days off at the exact time when I was coming and so we were able to move my parents the very first morning we were in Augusta. My mom (who has always been so particular about her house and belongings) walked out the door and never even took a last look around at her home and furnishings. She was SO ready to go. My dad was taken in an ambulance and we followed. We had a great week with my parents at the nursing home and stayed lots of hours each day. It is such a nice place and the nurses are so very attentive to every little need of my parents. Daddy is eating again and doing better as well. It is closer to so many of our friends and family and I think they will continue to get more visitors — they thrive on people so that is great for them. It seems like my mom started going downhill fast from the moment that she entered the nursing home. She has lost all energy to even stand up and has had pneumonia and now they say her white blood count is lowering and they are having that checked. Daddy seems more content because we arranged his bed so he can look at Mama all day long and that makes him happy. He can see that she is getting cared for well and I think he has peace about everything. Thanks for your continued prayer for us. We packed up the house in a few days and we got all the furniture to be shipped to Destino picked up to put on the container. There are a few more things for my sister to pick up and then a friend is doing an estate sale and closing up the house. It was all done so peacefully and in one week. Only God could orchestrate it to be that easy and I am so grateful for your prayers.
Great news — while I was in Augusta, I met with Pastor Wade and Anne and also Dr. Blevins (one of the dentists who came recently) — they have purchased the mobile unit for dental work and are planning to be here with our first group of dentists (Dr. Stanley Anderson and Dr. Blevins and another) on April 24th and we will FINALLY have our dream of getting dental work for these precious students. They will be filling teeth for the entire week so pray for them — there are a lot of little mouths that need a lot of dental work. I am soooo excited to see this finally happen. We have been praying for this for so VERY long and now it is going to happen next month. In Honduras, there are a lot of opportunities for free medical but none for free dental and so most of our students have never been to a dentist in their lives. God is amazing and I praise Him for sending these generous dentists to complete this dream for Destino. and thanks to Pastor Wade for orchestrating it all.
I got home to Honduras and two days later, a group from San Antonio came for a week. It was a group of precious people led by Stephen Eckert (who was a student in the youth group at Scofield when I was a leader MANY years ago). I loved catching up with Stephen again after a million years and the group was so helpful. They did a two-day VBS in a village above Destino and spent their other days working with our students in the English classes.
Please pray for my Aunt Lareta. Her husband, my Uncle Frank, passed away this week and this is going to be a very hard time for her and she needs to feel the presence of the Lord Jesus so close to her — I can’t imagine being married for almost 50 years and then all of a sudden being left behind. Lareta and Frank were probably our first regular supporters of the ministry and have always encouraged me so much here in this work.
I am SO happy to announce that we finally have our biggest bus working and on the road — it has been a long process — lots of money, cheating mechanics, confused mechanics etc etc. but it is done. I am so thankful. We have 3 that are running and one to be fixed so we can always have one in the shop when we need to. God has provided so faithfully for us each step of the way. I keep praying that they will be like the Israelites shoes and clothes — didn’t wear out for 40 years!!!
We are progressing with the junior high and high school building little by little. They will be putting on the roof next week — the trusses are all up and we just lack the tin roofing. We have ordered it and it will be so great to finally see a roof on that building. We are also working on the bathrooms for the schools as well and it looks like, if God continues to provide the funds, that we have time to have all of this completed before next school year. We are praying always for a gymnasium for our church and for PE classes and big meetings with families, etc. and so after we are finished with this building, I think that next year we can put whatever funds come in into building our gym finally. Please keep praying for funds for all of our needs. I am amazed at your generous giving and how we continue to get through each month and I am able to pay the teachers and workers on a regular basis. Thanks for your faithful prayers that God will continue to do HIS work here and I will not fret when I see the bank statement and look at the needs. God is doing an amazing thing here and He has all the resources of the universe so I can trust Him.
ANNOUNCEMENT: We are sending the container on May 15th. That is just about 8 weeks away and we really really need your help in collecting school supplies. There were not many on the last container and so we would appreciate your helping us if your Sunday School classes or churches in general, etc. could help collect for us. We need 600 folders with brads, we need lots of notebook paper, pencils, pens (blue, black and red), colors, erasers, 3 electric pencil sharpeners, spiral notebooks (LOTS).
We are sending a lot of my parents’ furniture on the container and it is ready to be shipped. We need to immediately get 30 computers for our junior high and high school computer classes. That is probably one of our biggest needs right now so please call John Turner at 706-830-4072 if you have a computer you could donate. Also call John if you have supplies to donate. We can always use peanut butter, used clothing and shoes, medicines — first aid for school, pain reliever medicines, cold medicines, etc. We also would like to put on the container a copy machine for the school and we need a LOT of tools for our work shop. Through the years we have had a lot of tools stolen but we finally have a great night watchman and men in charge of the inventory and we need to replace a lot of tools now. One of the main things that is coming on the container is barrels of liquid insulation for the school. A group of men are coming to spray all the tin roofs in the elementary school and the new building so that we can keep the heat out of the classrooms. I am SO excited about this project. We have tried all kinds of ways to keep the kids cool but this sounds like the real solution and I praise God for the men that are doing this for us. Trinity on the Hill is providing the money to send the container again this year and I thank God for their faithfulness to help us. Thank you in advance for any school supplies, shoes, clothes, medicines, etc. that you can collect to help us. Also, if anyone has any musical instruments to donate, that would be wonderful. The kids are loving band and music classes but we have very few instruments. AGAIN, THANK YOU FOR ANYTHING YOU CAN SEND ON THE CONTAINER. There are just 2 months till it leaves but I think that will be enough time to get everything collected. Thanks.
Things are going great in the school and I praise God for our teachers and staff. We had a great Missions Day again this year and, as you know, our goal is to send out many missionaries into the world one day from Destino del Reino so it is so wonderful to see such enthusiasm for reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Also, our pastors had a one-day retreat for our 9th graders and they really did a great job. The topics were (1) healing our wounded hearts; (2) being chosen by God and called to His purpose and (3) living for Christ in a difficult culture using the life of Daniel. The kids’ hearts were definitely touched and they wrote anonymous positive responses to the pastors about what they learned and wanted to change in their lives as a result of that retreat. I am so thankful for our pastors and their desire to minister to all the children, young people and adults in this ministry.
Keep praying about our teachers for next year. I need to start doing some interviewing in the next month for a new assistant, a new teacher for the 10th grade class with specialities in sciences and computers, and a new teacher for the elementary classes as a floater to cover a few classes in each grade. Also, we need a few more Americans for next year. God knows who these people are and I know that we will see His clear leading in their lives to bring them to Destino. Thanks for your prayers for wisdom as we talk to various applicants.
I thank you for your prayers for my kids. I am still struggling with Josue but seeing a major improvement during the past two weeks. I know it is your prayers that are making a difference. It is possible that we will be getting a new baby boy this week and I need wisdom as to God’s direction for whether he is to come with us or not. Thanks for your prayers.
My prayer request personally is always the same — more time in the Word and more time in His presence — I need wisdom and peace and joy and those come from being with the Father — my life is crazy most of the time — the kids wake up before me and the day time is crazy with so many needs but HE is priority and I need to be disciplined. Thanks for praying for me in this area.
I praise God for all of you — the Destino team, who support us in words, prayer, gifts, etc. All that is happening here is so amazing and directly from the Father’s hand and it is part of YOUR fruit because you are supporting us in these areas. God bless each one of you
Love in His incredible grace,
Rhonda
