Thank you so much for your faithfulness in praying for us at Destino del Reino.  There is never a dull day here (although I could use one once in a while).  As most of you know on FB, we have had wildfires all around Destino since Sunday evening.   We saw clearly the hand of God over us on Wednesday night when the fires had been coming toward us for 2 days and were very near our house and property — we left to take shelter in a hotel in town and when we returned the next morning there was horrible smoke all the way to the highway and I could not imagine what condition our school and house would be in.  BUT GOD had protected us completely and when we approached the school as we returned from town, the air was clear and there was no damage to our property whatsoever.  Our watchman said that after two or days of coming towards Destino, suddenly the fires changed direction and went around the back way.  We still have fires going though and need some rain soon for protection for others in the area.   God is so amazing and He takes such tender perfect care of His children.  We are so blessed to be HIS!!

I am so grateful for the way God has taken care of us as well since Carlos left Destino.   It is amazing how he has sent people to help me with so much wisdom and integrity and I am so grateful.   Oscar (Sammy’s dad) is supervising the men and all the things going on here as far as construction and maintenance, etc.  Everything gets fixed almost the very day we ask him about it.  The men are all working so hard under his leadership.  He turns in every receipt and perfect change to me every day and it is just great to have someone to whom I can turn over so much responsibility.   Also, when Carlos left, the one thing that I could not figure out was what God wanted me to do about church.  I knew that we couldn’t just stop having church because many in this area would not go to another church because of the lack of transportation to get to a church in the city, etc.  God put Efrain in my mind (whom I had not seen for several years) and I saw him the same week in the grocery store.  He told me he would help us cover the Wednesday night church services when he was in town (he has another international ministry that takes him out of town at times).   Pastor Efrain is an amazing teacher and keeps everyone’s attention (even the children) and teaches more deeply from the Word than many churches around the area.  Since he started, it seems that he has grown in his desire to help Destino and now is starting our Sunday morning services this Sunday morning.  Please pray that many will come.   I was a little resistent at first because I love teaching Sunday School, but I think later on we will do SS at the same time as the Sunday morning service and I can continue to teach the children.   Pastor Efrain also started bringing a very precious man and his family to church (Pablo).  Pablo is so gifted in leading worship and praise and he is going to be our worship leader at Destino.  I praise God for this HUGE help.   For years, I have been in charge of the music and finding someone to preach or teach or lead the church service and now I can just go to church and worship and hear God’s Word and get encouraged without ANY responsibility — that is HUGE to me.   Thanks for your prayers for the growth of our church and for continued leading for Pastor Efrain as to how God wants the church at Destino to be.   I believe we will have a lot more adults coming because we live in a dangerous area and many were too afraid to attend night church and I believe with a morning service, there will be more that are willing to come.  Thanks for the prayers.

REMINDER — Just two more weeks before we need all the things for the container collected.  There is still time to help us if you want your SS class or other groups to collect used clothing and shoes and school supplies.   Thanks for all your help.  We really need a LOT of things, I realize but I am hoping you have those things in your garage and God will just move them to Honduras, ha ha.   I wanted to give you the sizes of my children so you may be able to collect for them more easily.

BOYS:

Erick – small men’s shirts and size 18 pants for boys;

Franklin – size 12

Carlos – size 14

Cesar – size 14

Josue – size 14

Jonathan – size 12

Sammy – size 8 or 10 (slim)

Santos  – size 7

David – size 5

GIRLS:

Blanca – size 3 teens

Eidy – size 14 girls or 2 teens

Karina – size 12 or 14 girls (but VERY petite)

Coki – size 12

Nicole – size 10

Emily – size 10

Abi – size 8

Sofia – size 7

Estella – size 6

Marisol – size 4

Dariana – size 2

If you don’t have the other items on the container list, just go back on the website www.destinodelreino.org and look at my last update.  Thanks.

Thanks for praying that God will put what HE wants to in the container and that we can receive it without difficulty.  Now that we are friends with the top people in the country (because of God’s favor), I think we will have no problem in the future getting these things through.   But we always want to be praying for God’s protection and favor.

Thanks for praying for the American teachers that we need for this upcoming year.  We have 6 for sures and have room for one more and I just got an email about one young woman who is interested, so it might be her!!!  Please be praying for each of them as they are making big sacrifices and changes in their lives.  They need to raise $500 a month and need a lot of prayer support.   I praise God for the way He just puts Destino on the hearts of those that He has chosen and we never have to recruit.  It is truly amazing!!!

Also be praying for school sponsors.   We never got 15 sponsors for this year so 15 children were not prayed for by name this year — that bothers me so much more than the fact that we did not get their $60 sponsorship money.  God provides for all the children — they all eat a hot meal every day, have wonderful teachers and materials, uniforms, everything — but they REALLY need someone praying for them by name.   We need 35 more this upcoming year so that means we lack 50 for September.  Please be praying and ask people to consider at least doing a half sponsorship and praying faithfully for these students.  They can get on line at www.destinodelreino.org and sign up for sponsorship.    If you cannot give through a sponsorship but really would like to be faithful to pray for one child by name, please let me know.   That will be a great blessing.   These children are all at risk for dropping out at any minute (especially those in junior high) — their families never were educated and so they do not really dream very big for their children and it is easy to just encourage your kids to stay home and help out or to go out and collect cans for a little bit of money to buy food each day, instead of dreaming for a real career for their children.  Thanks for praying.

Please be praying for two of my kids specifically right now.  Josue has been with me since 20 months and he is now 10 years old.  He still has a deep-seated anger that is becoming explosive at times and it is causing a lot of problems here in the house and in school at times.   I have prayed for him, over him, with him, — please help me in prayer.    Also Eidy is still going through rebellion, lying, deceit, etc.  I have had her now for 10 years and feel like a failure but know that God will do something with her life — it is just such a battle continually.  She needs a LOT of prayer (and so do I).   Thanks for always being willing to pray for these needs.

We really need to pray for the finances right now.  Praise God we are almost done with the two junior high classrooms that we need in August (we just lack the flooring for one and the lights for the two and windows – probably $2,000 in all).   Then we need to build the bathrooms during the summer, if possible so we can finally separate the junior high from the elementary school.   The biggest pressure right now though is the downpayments for shoes, pants, jumpers, skirts, athletic pants, etc. for all the 270 kids for next year.   Thanks for your faithful prayers — God will provide in His perfect timing but He does honor our prayers and  ask you to join me in praying for those things.  Thanks so much.

My dad is in a rehab center still for several more weeks.  Our family needs wisdom and direction right now.  We cannot put my parents in assisted living until my dad can maneuver himself in a wheelchair or walk with a walker.   He is improving a little every day.  Thanks for your prayers for my parents and my sister Kathi who is helping them make the decisions.  I will be going to Augusta on May 29th for a week and helping out and visiting my parents.   Also, thank you, Brad Bertram, for providing for cataract surgery for me during that week as well.   I really am having a hard time seeing these days so it is getting desperate.   God provides everything and is so gracious to me through so many of His children.   Thanks for all your prayers.   (If anyone has a car that I could use that week, please let me know — thanks).

Thanks for all your encouragement and prayers.  I am so blessed with such a huge team of warriors in prayer that fight with me for the needs and battles at Destino del Reino.   I really have no idea how many of you are “out there” praying — I hear from people I don’t know that are praying daily for us through emails they have had forwarded to them, etc.  It will be amazing in heaven when I get to see how very huge was the Destino team.  Thanks to everyone of you.   Please remember that you can’t hit “reply” to this email — you have to write to me directly at rhondadestino@yahoo.com if you want to respond.  Please let me know how to be praying for you as well.  I want to be on YOUR “team” as well.

Love in His grace,

Rhonda

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We thank you always for your faithfulness in praying for us.  God has been doing such great things this year at the school and in the ministry and I am so grateful for His protection over us continually and the encouragement He gives daily that He Himself will complete the work that He has started.

We had a great Bible conference with Pastor Wade and we thank him and his wife, Anne, and the Parkers for coming to Honduras and encouraging us all (especially ME).   The people here need deeper teaching and I am so thankful for the opportunities twice a year tha we can provide these 2-day Bible conferences with Pastor Wade.

We’re about to wind down our year and we are so grateful how God has provided so faithfully for EVERY need this year — I am always so amazed that we paid our teachers each month and fed almost 300 people every day  — it is a miracle day by day.   We need prayer for the upcoming school year — we need various teachers (Hondurans and a few more Americans), we need about 35 sponsors for the incoming students (for prayer support and financial help of $60 a month) and we need to get the container received in time during the summer to be able to set up all the contents and be ready for the new school year.  I am so grateful to how hard our sweet teachers have worked this year.  They all pitch in and work so hard and with such love and dedication – -both American and Hondurans and we are so blessed to have every one of them.

We are working hard on the other two junior high classrooms and hopefully will finish them by June and then need to build the bathrooms for the junior high before school starts in Sept., but of course, i realize that is MY schedule and may not be God’s at all — but at least we can ask Him and pray to that end.  Please pray for the finances to finish those things off and that we will be able to have the money in May for all the downpayments for the uniforms, shoes, PE pants, etc. that we need to measure the kids for and start working on before the summer starts.  God, as we know, will provide all we need because He is faithful — but we appreciate your prayers for these things.

My dad is still in rehab for a few more weeks and I would appreciate your prayers for him as well as my mom and my sister who is taking care of them and making arrangements for others to come in soon and provide care for them.  This is a very hard time for our family and we would appreciate your prayers so much.

I would appreciate prayer personally for me.  I mentioned before a few months back (or maybe years, ha) that I struggle with trying to please others.  The Sunday School lesson I taught the kids this week was for me too.  The verse was “The fear of men is a trap . . . ” Prov. 29:25 — and that is the truth.  Pray for me (a “men-pleaser”) to make every decision based on what God wants and thinks of me instead of how I can make everyone happy.  I have made some BIG mistakes in the past by keeping people on because I wanted to make people happy and I need to have some people leave in the near future that are not right for Destino and it is going to be hard.   Because of my caring so much what others think of me, it only takes a person talking badly about me to derail me and Satan knows that.  I have had several situations over the past months where people have misquoted me or misunderstood me and then people talk about me.   I want to keep my focus on God, not trying to please others, and at the same time not being tempted to share my hurt feelings with others — please pray for my focus to be on HIM ALONE and HIs purpose for me here.  Thanks for your prayers for me to only speak words that are worthy and encouraging to others.

Well, even though we only have one month from our deadline, I am going to write our wish list for our container.   It all needs to be collected by the first day of June.  John Turner in Augusta is in charge of the container collection and if you have any questions, please feel free to call him at 706/830-4072.  He has a lot to put on the container that did not get on last year’s container but we still have a lot of room, and I have a LOT of needs, ha.

50 computers  (we have some people working on this but we really need 20 for the elementary school and 30 for the junior high)

12 single mattresses

school supplies:  construction paper, crayons, colored pencils, glue, notebooks, notebook paper, play dough, colored markers, markers for white boards for teachers, erasers, pencil sharpeners, 700 folders (with pockets but don’t need brads), 12 staplers and staples, 60 protractors, 120 rulers, pencils, pens (black, blue and red), scissors for teachers, scissors for students, scissors for left-handed kids (just a few), glue guns and glue sticks,10 simple calculators for teachers, permanent markers, waste baskets, fans, English-Spanish dictionaries, sets of 30 simple books or novels that classes could read together, composition notebooks, tempera paints, 3 CD players,

For teachers’ houses:  love seat, two refrigerators, two stoves, pots, pans, dishes, silverware, plastic cups, coffee cups, lamps, lamp tables,

Dressers for clothes for kids

Always need lots of children’s clothes and shoes (all sizes)

Our shop needs lots of tools for repairs, mechanic’s tools for working on the cars, etc.

Vaccuum cleaner

Bicycles

Toys

Ford van transmission (John Turner is working on this)

Instruments for dental clinic

Medical supplies — children’s pain relief medicines, antibiotics, parasite medicines, etc. etc. for school and children’s home.

Rugs, curtains, blankets, sheets (Lots of single sheets, esp.)

Towels, wash cloths.

Well, I think that is enough to get started — I’m sure I have forgotten some things we need and God will send them anyway.  If your SS classes want to help us collect some of these things, we should would appreciate it.  you know we are not looking for brand new things but I put everything we need on the list and if you happen to have something in your garage or an abundance of these things in your house, etc., then you know someone who can use them.  Thanks so much for all you do for us in prayer and support and we appreciate all of you so much.   Even if you can’t send anything, please pray over this list that God will lay it on the hearts of the people about what we need and HE will provide through the right people at the right time.  Thanks so much.

Love in His grace,

Rhonda

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So sorry I have been so long in updating you about things at Destino.  I tend to write a lot of daily short statuses on Facebook but then many of you do not have FB or are not one of my FB “friends” so I need to be better about sending out these posts.   I have been waiting for a good time when I am relaxed and can get my thoughts together and write in a quiet atmosphere, but that has not happened so I will just write today in the middle of all my confusion and stress. ha.

I praise God for the way He faithfully sustains and comforts us through all trials if we lean completely on Him.  We have been through a lot with my daddy lately.  As many of you know he had an accident a few months ago that we believe was connected to his having a small stroke while driving.   He was completely healthy all his life, full of energy and soooo strong and industrious and such a servant before that accident.   My family’s life has completely changed in the past few months and we are all trying to make adjustments, both literal and mental, to adapt to such a drastic change of lifestyle for my parents.  He was released to go home this Thursday (as of last week) but on Friday morning he had another very serious massive stroke and is now in the hospital and unable to speak or walk and he is discouraged.   Please be praying for him.  I know that he would prefer to give it up and go home to Jesus right now but evidently that is not God’s plan right now and he needs to be motivated to work with the PT and other personnel to regain some use of his right arm and to eat well, etc.   We told him that he has a ministry of praying for all of us no matter if he is able to speak or not and he is always of use to God in that powerful ministry.   Please pray for him during this very hard time and for my mama as she is seemingly weaker because of the stress and worry over my dad.   My sister, Kathi, is the caretaker right now and this has been a hard time for her because she lives in Atlanta and this is the last semester of her youngest child and a time she wanted to be with him every minute.  She is willing to obey whatever God puts into her life, even if she has to be apart from her husband and son right now — We can see God’s perfect timing though in all of this because she was between jobs at the time.   There is so much to pray about in this whole situation and i won’t go into more detail but we appreciate your prayers for all of us — me, being so far away is hard, and all of my family there dealing with all the decisions and care.  Thanks for your faithful prayers.

Things at Destino are always “interesting”.   There is never a dull moment here or a “normal” day (whatever that is?).   Right now we have a broken motor on the well and are having that sent to us from the US, so the firement bring the big tank of water out here in the country to us every day ($50 a day) and we are having to have a new transformer sent to us to enable the motor to handle all the voltage of the water pump which has to reach a long distance to the electric meter near the school.   Anyway, it is complicated but we are praying and trying to be very patient with God’s timing in this newest “adventure”.    But school is going on and the kids continue to be happy here at home and life is good no matter what obstacle we face each day.

I would appreciate your prayers for our upcoming events this month.  On Friday is our annual Missions Day and it is really the most important day of the year for the students — they move from classroom to classroom throughout the day learning and exxperiencing the culture of different countries in the world, all of which are under persecution right now.   The children will taste food from the countries, see the native dress (the teachers wear the customary dress of the country they represent) and learn other games, languages, history, etc. and especially how we can best be praying for that particular country each day.  The purpose is that the children will begin to have a passion to reach the rest of the world with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and hopefully will desire to be a missionary to go and take the gospel to these countries themselves one day.  It is an incredible opportunity and in the past 5 years, it has been during Missions Day that many of our students have begun to believe they are being called by God to be missionaries — thanks for your prayers for this big event.  The teachers are so wonderful to work so hard in their preparations each year and I am so grateful for each one of them.

Also, next week (18th and 19th) Pastor Wade Trimmer will be here for a Spiritual Life Conference for two days.   We have had a lot of testimonies of how his teaching has impacted so many lives in this area in the past 2 cconferences.   Pray for Pastor Wade to know exactly what the Lord wants him to teach us during this two-day conference and for the people who attend to come with open and hungry hearts for the truth.   Many of our junior high students, all of our teachers, members of our church, some of our school parents, and people from various other churches will be attending.  Thanks for your prayers for this very special time.   Pastor Wade will also be teaching the fathers of our students in a dinner on Saturday night and we need prayer for many of the fathers to come out for that event as well.  Thanks for remembering all of these requests in prayer for this next week.

I really need a lot of prayer for wisdom.   As we get bigger and bigger every year, we also get bigger and bigger students, ha.  That means we have a lot of junior high school kids with attitudes and struggles and the confusion that goes with that age.   I pray that we can deal with each student individually and recognize the many battles they have just to even come to school each day — few of them have supportive families and they come from extreme poverty where it would be such a temptation to just stay home and not even try to make anything of their lives.  We need so much prayer for these teens to be motivated and to keep on keeping on when there is no home support, when all the other teens in their villages around them are doing nothing and trying to get them to quit, etc.  Pray for our upcoming Sports Camp in July — that it will be a time for our junior high kids to get a new injection of  motivation and desire to let God do whatever He wants to do through their lives without any limit.  They need to learn to DREAM and that is a hard thing when you have never had anyone in your family even go past the 6th grade or to have any type of career — thanks for your prayers.

We need to start praying for 35 new sponsors for our incoming kids.  In May I have to start ordering all the books, uniforms, equipment, supplies, etc. for all the students for next year and we need the sponsorship to help us get these things purchased.  Please ask your churches or Sunday School classes to consider sponsoring a student — we need the sponsorship not only for the finances to buy the necessary supplies for the students each month, but mostly we want each student to be prayed for individually by name regularly.  That is sooo important if these children are to continue on to become the leaders that God is calling them to be.  We truly are building a new generation and sometimes it is a very difficult uphill climb — out of poverty, deception, immorality, defeatedness, godlessness.  Thanks for your prayers.

We now have 20 kids – Estella who lived with us 2 years ago for a few months has come back for good.  She will be 4 this month and we really love her.  Her mom finally decided she could come permanently and she REALLY needs to live with us so I praise God for bringing her back to us.  She is the younger sister of the other kids I took from near Siguatepeque whose family are desperately poor and they literally do not have food many days.  Estella has been sickly most of her life and we are trying to get her healthy again and she is happy here and we are so happy to have her.  Thanks for praying for her adjustment in our home.

Another little boy, Gabriel, came to stay with us last weekend.  He has been in the kindergarten class all year and has learned very little so we are repeating him next year.  It appears that there has been some abuse in the home and he is afraid of women.  He was here all weekend and talked to all my kids constantly and never spoke one word to me or even made eye contact with me.   We are praying for him and praying for wisdom as to what we can do for him.  My prayer is that if he asks to come back to live with us (his mom would permit that if he wants to), that will be my indication that God truly wants him here with us.  Thanks for praying for God to reveal His plan for Gabriel.

I thank God for giving me strength each day.  Right now I feel overwhelmed but need to just take one day at a time and be thankful and joyful in the middle of the chaos and trust that each new day will find God in charge and clearly leading us in the right direction.  I am so amazed at all the people he has brought to us and how he is sustaining us in so many ways and pouring out his blessings.

We are finishing the last two classrooms on the bottom floor of the junior high this next 4 or 5 weeks and then will need to build the bathrooms during the summer.   Our prayer after that would be for a gymnasium to be built.  We have no place to meet with such a huge student body and also with the parents.   God will provide the funds in His perfect timing and I would appreciate your prayers for that.

I am preparing aneeds  list this week to send out in a separate email for the container that will be sent in June.   I hope to have it to you by this weekend or early next weekend.   We need to have everything ready to ship by the first week of June so that it can be here by the first of July.  One of our biggest needs is for computers (50) for both the elementary and junior high school and we need them here in early July so they can be installed and a computer lab can be set up before mid August.   I know that is a huge request but God can do it.   Please pray for the needs to be able to be donated and the container to be able to be shipped in a time to receive it early this summer.   Thanks to all of you who are so willing to help me gather the needed items for the next school year.

Keep praying for our American teachers for the upcoming year.  We have several confirmations and are needing a few more but again, we are trusting God to send those that HE has chosen.   Thanks for your prayers for wisdom in these decisions.

I cannot thank all of you for all your prayers.  This is truly the secret to the great impact that this ministry is having on so many children’s lives.  Many times we say in a particular situation, “all we can do now is just pray,” but prayer is the BEST thing we can do and I think one day we will see just how powerful our prayers were and wish we had spent more time praying instead of doing.   So anyway, thank you for your faithful prayers for Destino — I know you are making a huge difference in the world with those prayers.

God bless you greatly for all your encouragement and help and donations and support.  We are blessed.

In His grace,

Rhonda

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Just wanted to give an update on my dad.  He has been moved to an acute care center.  He has developed body convulsions that just come on at any time and so he cannot walk.  His bladder has quit functioning as well.  They are re-evaluating him because these symptoms were not present when he was in the hospital, although he said his doctor told him these can be brought on by a stroke as well.   We don’t know but he has a good neurologist now so keep on praying.  Praise God, I got some frequent flyer miles given to me and I will be in Augusta from Tuesday (19th) to Wednesday (27th) so we can make some decisions and I can visit my parents.   If anyone in the Augusta area could loan me a car for that week, I would GREATLY appreciate it.   My dad totaled his car when he had the stroke and I need one to use during my visit.  Also my parents would like to have another Prius.  They really loved that car.  If anyone knows anyone who is selling a used Prius in good condition, please let me know about when I am in Augusta.  Also, my dad loves people and he has not had many visitors so if anyone has some time to go by and see him, please call my mom at 706-731-5216 for more information as to where he is — somewhere on  S tevens Creek.  Thanks everyone.   Please call me at my parents’ house when I am in Augusta and come by and see me.   Everyone else outside of the Augusta areaa, thank you for continuing to pray for all of us during this hard time — we need a lot of wisdom and God’s healing for both of my parents.   Thanks.

In His grace,

Rhonda

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I really REALLY need to go help my parents.  My dad is not doing well and my mom cannot live alone and we are making some hard decisions right now.  Does anyone know anyone with any frequent flyer miles they would donate to me with Delta Airlines?  Thanks for praying for someone to be able to help me with this.  I haven’t had a salary in 14 years but God has always provided more than I could ever ask for or need so I know He has a plan and will provide.  thanks for praying.

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I just can’t thank all of you enough for all your faithful prayers for me and for Destino and the staff and children here.  God is clearly pouring out His blessings over us in so many ways.   As you know, Carlos left the ministry a few months ago and I was certain that it was the right time and the right decision BUT I was terrified of having ALL the responsibility for such a huge ministry.   I was so distressed for several weeks and tried to think how I could just run away and complained a lot to the Lord about His ridiculous calling of a person like me who is so unequipped for such a huge task.   He lovingly woke me up in the night one night and asked me one thing, “Rhonda, can you just carry Me around tomorrow and let ME do the work?”   Since then I have been trying to really let the Spirit have control of everything and have not worried about my own inabilities — He has been so clearly leading me to the right people and the right decisions and I cannot PRAISE HIM enough!!!    We found two new pastors who have started teaching the junior high kids and the students are learning and really enjoying these two older men who are doing a great job.  God also sent us a new pastor (Efrain Rodriguez) who I have known for 13 years (since coming to Honduras) and he and his family are involved in another drama ministry internationally but live near us and are available most of the time to teach on Wednesday nights.  He is committed to helping us in not only the teaching but any other area  of the ministry (i.e. construction, electricity, etc.) where we need help.  They are an amazing family and I am so relieved to see the church growing again.   I have seen God answer my prayers in putting initiative and motivation in our workers here and see the men taking on responsibility without my constant supervision.   We are hiring a mechanic to work at Destino full-time who can not only repair the buses and cars but also be a driver and help in other areas.   God has provided the second bus for us and it seems to be running great.   We have hired a few new teachers in the past month that are wonderful additions to our staff.   Daily I just sense the Lord’s presence here and His clear leading in each decision.  He wakes me in the night and reminds me of things that I have forgotten.  He has given me new ideas for better administration and control.   There are too many things to really share in this message but it is CLEAR that God has been faithful to do the work if I will just give it completely over to Him and “carry Him around”   — He is so faithful and present and He is doing HIS work at Destino.  Thank you for your faithful prayer.

I wanted to report to you that the Purity Conference was above and beyond all we asked and prayed for from the Lord.   The Mellon family came from Tennessee and our American teachers participated as well and it is clear that Holy Spirit orchestrated it exactly as He wanted it, in the response, in the schedule, in the teaching, in every aspect.   Purity is an absolutely foreign concept here in this country and I am excited to see God’s promises of building up a new generation from Destino taking root in this area.  I haven’t spoken to all the junior high students but the ones that live with me and near me have shared a lot about how much the teaching has impacted their thinking and plans for their lives.  Praise God!

As I said earlier, we were able to purchase our second bus for $12,000 — thanks to all of you who sent in gifts to help with that — and we recovered the seats for another $1,000 (they were practically destroyed) and it looks wonderful now.   We are praying for $5,000 more to buy the new motor for the biggest bus that we already own and then we will have 3 good working buses.  This is really a need because in August we will register 35 more students and will be transporting almost 300 people each day with students and teachers.   We also need an extra bus so that when one is broken down, we will not have to change our schedule to continue school as usual.  Please pray for this $5,000 to come in as soon as possible.

We FINALLY have our permanent accreditation in the elementary school.  We had the temporary one for a LOOOONGG time but it is a long process in Honduras and we had a lot of undependable attorneys involved through the years.  Anyway, we praise God that we now have that paperwork finalized and we are now working on the accreditation for the junior high — it should be done in the next few months.  Please pray for no more problems so we can get this finalized as soon as possible.  We had to go ahead and pick the 4 career areas for high school when we sent in our paperwork for the junior/high schools — we have selected agriculture, computer science, electricity and the basic education to continue to university.   We can add other career studies with special applications later on.   We believe these are the areas that most of our students will be interested in and also in areas where there will be available employment and good training as well for mission work in other countries one day.  One of our biggest needs right now is that we have to have 50 computers by August.   I believe we will have another container coming from Georgia in July so we need to really pray about someone or a company or somehow getting those computers sent on the next container.  Again, I’ll just rest in the Lord’s knowledge of this need and his ability to provide because many of the things that we need and upcoming plans are WAY over my head or ability.  Thanks for praying with me for these needs.

Well, we have been praying about the electricity situation for several years now and it looks like it is almost settled.   The great news is that the Education Minister for Honduras has agreed to take on all the future electricity bills for the schools at Destino.   We are in the process this week of putting in one new meter for all the buildings from the water pumps, kindergarten (church), elementary school and new junior high building and they took over payments for the month of February 2013.   We had a huge debt of about $15,000 on the two meters from the past 14 months while this whole decision was being made and they are deciding how we can pay that off in payments.  They recognize that the bills we were receiving during those 14 months were not fair and way too much so the electric company in Tegucigalpa has agreed to put in new meters and watch them for 3 months and then after that 3 months they will find out the right average a month that we use and will re-adjust the debt that we owe from the previous 14 months.   In the meantime, they realized (in Tegucigalpa) that the local people from the company did not do the right thing when the Houston power company put in our poles and wires and did all the labor for our electricity.   It is a private project still and the electric company never took it over to use our poles and wires and yet they have several villages attached to our private poles and wires — so they are investigating that maybe the electric company owes us more money for the project than we owe them for the past 14 months — please pray that this investigation will result in our not having to pay any back payments to the company.  God can do this and it looks like a very good possibility — the only small danger in this is that they have angered the local boss here and he can be very revengeful with us so we need God to change his heart in this matter as well.   (I hope this all made sense — it is kind of complicated — but anyway, just keep praying for God to work out our electricity situation).  We praise Him that for now, at least, we have free electricity from here on out in the schools.  YAY!!!  What a huge blesssing this is.

My kids are all doing very well.  Thanks for praying for Eidy — I requested prayer for her a few weeks ago on Facebook but realize many of you do not see my posts on FB.   She is only 12 but has always had such a heart of rebellion and it has been a battle since she came to me at 3 years old.   Things have been more difficult recently and she has been angry and deceptive, etc.   I have prayed and prayed for her and I am seeing God start to work in her heart.  I taught a lesson in sunday School this week on rebellion and how it does not do anything but hurt the person that is rebelling against God — He is God and if he has called us as believers, He WILL have His way in our lives but we can prolong that process and can have a lot of consequences from our rebellion but in the end He always wins.   Two nights ago she came into my room and was crying about something she had done in secret and was confessing to me and sobbing.   I finally just said, “Honey, do you want to stop fighting against God and just surrender to Him?  He loves you the most, has the best plans for your life and I promise you if you stay with Him, He will fulfill His purposes in you and there is no limit what he can do with your life.” etc.    She just cried and said yes and bowed down and prayed and surrendered all her life and her plans and her desires and her heart to HIM.   I really believe it was sincere and I ask you to continue to pray for her.  She is a STRONG leader in the house and in the school and God can really use her life to help so many others turn to the Truth as well.   She has been in a battle because I believe Satan has seen her potential and has tried to destroy her for years — thanks for praying for Eidy.

We have a group coming in next Saturday from Texas.  It is Jordan Mims’ church.   Please pray for a profitable time with this group working in our school as well as a VBS up in a village nearby.   They are a precious group of people who came last year as well and we are looking forward to their week of service at Destino.

BIG PRAYER REQUEST:   My daddy had a wreck (hit a parked car so no one else was injured) last week.   He had no serious injuries but is still recovering from a lot of pain in his chest — but, after a day at home, they discovered that he had had a small stroke and he has been in the hospital this week and now in rehabilitation in a center in Augusta.  He is doing pretty well but needs a quick recovery from weakness on his right side.   We are so grateful that the Lord spared him in the wreck and that because of that they discovered what is wrong in his arteries and are able to help him for preventing future strokes or heart attacks.  My sister from Atlanta has been down to Augusta for this week and will return next week to help my mom while Daddy is in the the rehabilitation.   We are praying for wisdom for what to do next  — my sister, Kathi, has to start a new job because they definitely need her salary to meet their financial needs but we don’t know how soon my dad will be able to take care of my mom again.  Mama is just weak and has no other serious problems physically but she cannot cook much or clean and Daddy has been doing all the errands and shopping and taking care of her.  Thanks for your prayers for God to work out each detail of how to provide for my parents with me so far away and Kathi in a different city.   My parents have so many loving friends and I am praying about maybe getting a list of people who would take a day every other week and call them and see if they need anything that day and go check on them — I think we could easily find 14 people willing to do this but we are waiting to see what my daddy’s situation by next week.  Let me know if you are someone who could help out once every other week and we’ll start thinking about a plan.   Thanks for your prayers  — it is so hard to be so far away and unable to help.

PRAISE GOD — we are finished with the first two classrooms for the junior high and the students are so excited to get into those classes this week.   We will immediately start on finishing up the other two bottom flloor classes once we get them settled in next week –  we just need to pray for the money to continue to come in and we can work on that project day by day.  During the summer we will need to build their bathrooms and if we are finished with that bottom floor of classrooms and the bathrooms in August, we won’t need to finish the top floor for another year after that.  Thanks for all your prayers and your giving to build this school for the kids.   Pray for our junior highers — for the most part, they are wonderful dedicated students but we have a few girls in the 7th grade that are pushing us to the limits in their attitudes and disobedience and we are not sure we will continue with them next year.  It is always such a hard decision whether to keep a student when we know they will not have any other opportunities if not for Destino, but if they are causing so much problem as to affect all the other students around them — again, we need a LOT of wisdom daily.

Please start praying for God to send us more American teachers for the upcoming school year.  We have a couple of our teachers returning and a few that have committed but we need at least 3 more and are waiting on God to show us who those people are.  If you know anyone with an interest in teaching English at Destino next year, please let me know.   Our teachers do not have to have a teaching degree or be fluent in Spanish.  We have wonderful curriculum and the teachers only speak English in the classes and we know that God equips those whom He calls so please pray for God’s calling on 3 or 4 more Americans for August 2013.  Thanks.  He is faithful and He will do it.

I praise God for all of you and for your constant support in prayer and in giving and in every way.   Thank you so much.   I need prayer for discipline to stay in the Word and also to let the Spirit have control of me every moment so that I do not make the wrong decisions or do anything (or TRY to do anything) in my own strength.   Thank you so much for your love for me and all of us at Destino.

In His grace we continue,

Rhonda

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