Note: A downloadable PDF version of this update is available here.
Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters:
Summer is one of my favorite times of the year. I guess it always has been.
As a kid, we always looked forward to getting out of school in June and
having about three months of vacation. Since my dad was an elementary
school teacher, he also had a summer break similar to ours. Summer was
always family fun – camping trips, bike rides, and swimming. But it was
also sometimes a bit of work – cutting the lawn, painting, and working in
the garden.
Our Bible School is on summer break right now, but for us, it is the time
we use to record new courses, create new course content, write material, and
update our Learning Management System (it’s best to do this when there
aren’t any students, just in case something breaks in the process). It’s
time to prepare for the next season.
Summer here is always cooler than spring. The days are often cloudy and it
rains most afternoons. The grass and wild plants turn a beautiful deep
green. People often complain about the rain, but rain is just what we need
during these months. It replenishes the aquifers, waters fields and the
forest, helps bring the fall harvest, and makes the trees grow. The summer
rains prepare the land for the winter and spring, which in our area are the
dry seasons.
In much the same way, our lives need the summer rains of the Holy Spirit
and times of refreshing in His presence. These “spiritual rains” prepare us
for times when we don’t feel His presence, dry seasons of trials and
difficulties. But just as the summer rains soak the earth and provide water
for the deepest roots of the trees of the forest, so too, are our lives
watered by the Word and the Spirit. And just as the tall trees have deep
root systems to sustain them during dry spells, so too should our lives
have deep roots in the principles of the Word of God. This is exactly what
makes our lives fruitful and stable!
The Psalmist says it like this:
“He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.” (Psalms 1:3, NKJV)
Bible School
As I mentioned, we use the second half of June and all of July to work on
the development of our Bible School material and the online platform. Anna
has been writing a couple of new courses. One of them is our academic
orientation course, a simple course to help the students get acquainted
with our online system and the way we work. A second course she is
developing is on the topic of worship and praise. It has been wonderful to
watch her write the lessons, often referencing the same books and teachings
that impacted my own life over 35 years ago.
Anna and I started out with a conversation about what should be covered in
the course. And now, as she writes each lesson, I review it and find droves
of Biblical treasures. She is outlining many of the concepts that I would
often teach when we did worship seminars in various churches back in the
1990’s. How the new generations need this same teaching today!
It seems that in many Christian circles (especially here in Mexico), modern
worship has turned into more of a “performance” done by a select few on a
stage, instead of the experience of the entire congregation participating
as a kingdom of priests. How we need to get back to teaching on the
priesthood of all believers, and the fact that all of us (even those who
aren’t very good singers!) need to join together in worship as the body of
Christ. God never intended for worship to be entertainment! Lights, sound
systems, and special effects are NOT the essence of worship. Rather,
worship is the offering of the broken and contrite hearts of the entire
congregation before the person of Jesus.
The third weekend of June we hosted Gabriel and Paloma Ramírez from
Morelia, so they could teach a new course on camera. Titled “Ministering to
the Needs of People”, this course, written by Bill Scheidler, a former
teacher at Portland Bible College, focuses on how to minister and pray for
people during key moments in their lives. It is very practical. Gabriel and
Paloma, who recently graduated from the Advanced School of Ministry degree
program, have been working with us over the last couple of years. They are
both excellent Bible teachers and great course facilitators. We will be
offering this new course in the month of August.
We will probably be recording a couple of more courses over the next
several months, as these will fill in the gaps for our full-time program, which
also opens in August.
On the technical side of things, I have been developing all the
functionality needed to enroll full-time and part-time students. I needed
to make several additions to our home-grown learning management system to
be able to track enrollment applications, set up payment plans, send and
retrieve personal and pastoral references, and auto-enroll students in the
courses they should be taking each semester. I have also been revamping
several other details of the software.
Soon we will be receiving our students again for a new semester. Please
pray especially for those who may be considering studying in our full-time
or part-time certificate programs.
Family
I’d also like to inform you about our family. We now officially have a
doctor in the family. Our son David Jeremiah has finished his doctorate
degree in aerospace engineering and will be graduating on August 8. Sara
was able to attend in-person his doctoral defense in College Station,
Texas, at the beginning of June. Anna and I watched live on Zoom from home.
We are looking forward to being at his graduation in August.
Our son Daniel, with his wife Elisa, will be having a baby boy in September.
This will be their second child. We see Ella, who is 1½ years old, on
FaceTime a few times a week. She is so cute! However, we often need an
interpreter, because she speaks three languages: English, Spanish, and
Japanese. We don’t have a problem with her English or Spanish, but she has been teaching us several words in Japanese. It’s amazing how all of
this is just totally natural for a baby.
Sara continues to teach English at two elementary schools in the community.
She has been enjoying this very much, and has also had the opportunity to
substitute-teach at one of them. She also continues her studies, and is
getting closer and closer to receiving a university degree in Christian
Counseling.
Our Church
In the month of May, I had the privilege of baptizing about a dozen
believers in our church. Among them were many young people, as well as some
who are older, but just recently committed their lives to Christ. It is
wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit works in their lives.
Also, in June we celebrated all those in our church who successfully
completed Bible School courses online. We had a good group that accepted
the challenge and stuck with the weekly course work during the entire
semester. It was especially neat to see one young man, Emiliano, take on
six courses at once (a full-time workload) and complete all of them.
You may also remember that in the last newsletter, we had been asking for
prayers for Karla, who needed a kidney transplant. The transplant was
successfully done in the month of May, and both Karla and her father,
Javier, are recovering. Karla still needs prayer. She has been in and out
of the hospital over the last several weeks, battling a couple of different
infections. In order to receive the transplanted organ, the immune system
must be medically suppressed, and this opens up the body to developing
infections very easily. Please continue to pray for her.
Thanks!
Sara and I would like to thank all of you for your prayers and support. We
are very grateful for each of you who remembers us, gives, and prays for
the ministry we are doing. Mexico needs Jesus! And we aim to be vessels of
honor to carry His name to the nation.
With love,
David and Sara Lont
with Anna
