Desert Streams Ministries

Note: You can download a PDF copy of this newsletter here.

Hello everyone! We hope you are having a great summer. What a beautiful world God has given us to enjoy, with the changing seasons. Despite global warming concerns, we remember the faithful promises God has given us in Genesis:

While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease.

Genesis 8:22, NASB

In our last newsletter, we shared about how many parts of Mexico, and our area in particular, had been suffering a drought. It was the hottest and driest spring we’ve ever experienced. We had been praying for rain for several months, and it finally came a couple of weeks ago. Boy, did it rain! In the last few weeks we had more rain than we had all last year – almost a foot and a half. We are so thankful for the wet season, as everything very suddenly turned green again.

This abundance of rain reminds me of how faithful God is. Even in the midst of our most desperate situations, when it seems like everything in our lives is drying up and dying, God is faithful to once again send the rain of His presence and blessings upon us. He will never leave us nor forsake us!

Guest Speakers

We were very privileged to have Pastor Gamaliel and his wife Patty with us in May. They pastor a large church in the port city of Veracruz and have been our friends for many years. However, they had never been to our church to minister before.

Sara organized an annual ladies breakfast we have done for many years and invited Patty to come and minister to the ladies. This breakfast is usually held in the month of May around the time of Mother’s Day. It was a beautiful event and several women attended our church for the first time.

Pastor Gama and Patty stayed with us over the weekend and ministered to our congregation on Sunday as well. It is a blessing to receive from a diverse array of pastoral gifts, including those from friends in other cities.

Bible School

In mid-June we finished our spring semester of Bible School and are now preparing for our fall semester, which begins in August. It has been a time of getting new courses ready, updating our computer servers and several other technical jobs I do.

Next week we will be recording our evangelism course with Mireya Parral, from Veracruz. She started out with us as a student several years ago and then, in 2018, became a course facilitator. We see the hand of God on her life in the area of Bible teaching, and she will be the teacher of this new course.

I’d like to share a few testimonials of our online students:

I greatly appreciate the effort you put into updating courses and helping those of us who are far from a physical Bible school. As soon as the next semester starts, I will enroll again. I really enjoy this online format.

Edgar Ivan G. from Hidalgo

All the courses I have taken have been very thorough. Every time I finish a course, I am already thinking about the next one I will take. I appreciate the commitment, time, and research that each person puts in to make this platform possible, allowing us to continue learning and discovering the beautiful teachings that God’s Word has for us.

Miryam P. from Veracruz

I would like to express my gratitude for all your hard work, dedication, and commitment. Thank you to each one of you for making my dream of studying at a Bible school a reality. Without a doubt, we will continue to learn and grow together.

Anonymous

Many of our students serve as pastors across various regions of the country. Our school has become a fountain of the Living Water of the Spirit and the Word of God, providing teaching, training, and refreshment for their vital work in cities and villages.

We finished our semester with a live Zoom session, during which Bill Brown ministered to the students from Aurora, Canada. It was very good to see many of our students from all across Mexico and a few from the U.S. as we thanked God together for the learning and growing He gave to all of us during the semester.

A Note From Anna

The past few months have been filled with different opportunities to bless and encourage people. It’s incredible how God can use us through the small, seemingly inconsequential things to impact someone’s life.

Once a month we’ve been having women’s meetings at our church, and I’ve gotten to share alongside some friends. We have seen God awaken a hunger for Him in many of the women, and it has been a joy getting to teach about some fundamentals, such as Bible study and learning how to hear God’s voice. Last week, I created an activity where the women got to pray a Bible verse over each other. We paired everyone in teams and gave them a piece of paper with a verse written on it. Once they were all done praying for each other, I asked if they wanted to share what the Lord spoke to them. One woman came up and shared how she’d been seeking the Lord for direction in her life and career. The verse that was prayed over her was exactly what she needed at that moment! A small activity turned into a time of encouragement and reassurance for many of them. We are excited as a team for what God is beginning to do, and we know we have just scratched the surface of all He has for us.

While it has been exciting to see God move in our church, I’ve also had the privilege to see Him work in the lives of many people through our online Bible school. From February to June, I had the opportunity to facilitate over twenty students, grading homework assignments, essays, and answering questions. Even though a facilitator’s job is to help a student learn, and in a way “teach” them, I ended up learning more from facilitating than being a student. Reading the same assignment over twenty times will do that for you!

I had the honor of having a group that consisted of people in their sixties and seventies. Their lives and testimonies truly inspired me! Some had known the Lord for a long time and been involved in ministry, and others were new both to the Gospel and an online Bible school. One student, in particular, encountered the Lord in his late fifties and had a radical transformation in his life. He and his wife were my students, and it was inspiring to see their eagerness to learn and the changes that God has brought about in their personal lives and marriage. Another student of mine, also in her sixties, was so eager to learn that she took two courses at a time while pastoring her local church. These students quickly turned into my heroes. It’s truly never too late to learn and go after all that God has for you.

As I’ve served in many different areas, from working on my own developing courses to working with people in our church and online, I’ve been trying to remember what Paul said: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters…” (Col 3:23). Working for people, an organization, or even ourselves will never feel as rewarding or fulfilling. In the end, it might even feel exhausting. But working with all our heart for the Lord, in everything we do, will carry with it a joyful reward. He is our inheritance and He is our reward. Whether we eat, drink, sweep the floors, facilitate students, or pray for people, for Him it is all worth it!

Back To Work!

Thanks, Anna! (It’s me, David again. I’ve come back to wrap up this letter.)

There is so much more I could write, but for now I must get back to work on the Bible School. The summer is one of my main times to work “behind the scenes” with the online Bible School platform, since there are no students, and soon the Advanced School of Ministry will be requiring more of my attention.

We want to thank each of you who prays for us and supports us financially. We really appreciate what you do. May the Lord bless you richly.

Finally, if you’ve ever considered becoming a partner in our ministry, please pray about it. Although the students pay a small tuition fee, it only covers part of our operating expenses, and not the development of our programs. The school is being built and developed entirely on donations of people like you. Your giving allows us to purchase equipment, develop curriculum, bring in good Bible teachers and develop our programs. Please send me a note if you are not currently a supporter and would like to become one, or if you would be interested in helping with a one-time gift.

May the Lord bless each of you abundantly!

David and Sara Lont
with Anna

Dear Friends, Family and Supporters,

Note: This update is available as a PDF download with more pictures here.

Greetings from the state of Hidalgo, Mexico, where we are experiencing one of the hottest and driest years on record. We would like to share with you a little about what has been happening with us and our ministry.

A Time of Drought

The past several years have been very dry around our area. This has caused many problems, as the crops have been failing, the water reservoirs are drying up and even the wells are failing. Our home water supply, which had been completely dependable for almost 20 years, is no longer available. Our entire municipality has been without running water for about two months, and our local community has been without water for over four months. The price to have water brought in on trucks has increased by 400%. There is a severe water crisis. Thankfully, within the city of Tulancingo, there are still wells with water, but in the surrounding area, including the area of Mexico City, the water is almost gone. We desperately need rain!

The lack of physical rain and water is a reflection of the spiritual state of things in our country and many other places in the world. Crime and bloodshed are constantly increasing, unjust laws are being passed by the ungodly and the righteous are persecuted for doing good, while those with evil thoughts and intentions are praised.

It is time for the church of Jesus Christ to rise and shine. Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it!”

We believe that we have been called by God to provide “streams of living water to a dry and weary land.” Our land has never been so dry and weary as it is today. Thanks be to God who allows his living water to flow through us by the Holy Spirit. The living water -the Holy Spirit and the Word of God- will be poured out and flow with power throughout our land! We will be his vessels of honor, his instruments, to bring this living water to the people in need of his glorious truth.

Advanced School of Ministry

Much of our time during the last couple of months has been invested in the Advanced School of Ministry degree program. We are working to help a large group of pastors/leaders finish the degree program by January, 2026. Many of them have been involved in the Advanced School of Ministry in one way or another for several years, but never completed the program. Our goal is to give them practical steps, assignments and other tools to graduate.

During the months of March and April, we have been in constant contact with many of them, reaching out to guide them, answering their questions, and working with them as they do their assignments. Two of our facilitators, Anna and Milca, have been working with over 40 of these students weekly as they complete the course work assigned for last January’s conference.

Online Bible School

The Online Bible School continues to go well. With about 170 students enrolled this semester, there are always assignments to grade, messages to answer and course work to continue to develop. I have been working with the group studying biblical hermeneutics and enjoy supervising their progress. Anna is facilitating a large group of students studying the degree program, plus another group working on New Testament Survey. Sara is in charge of the group studying the course on the Life of Christ, and other facilitators are in charge of the other courses we are offering.

At the same time, we’ve been working on developing new courses which will be offered in August.

Local Church

As always, we continue to work with our local church in preaching, discipleship, worship and prayer. God is moving in Tulancingo. Many Sundays we have visitors, and some of them receive Christ as their Lord and Savior during our services and activities.

We continue to meet under the tent which we erected on the property a year ago. What a blessing it has been to meet on our own property and no longer have to pay rent! Most Sundays have been warm (sometimes too warm) and sunny, but under shade of the tent the spring breeze makes the air very comfortable. Once each month, we invite the entire congregation to bring food to share with others, and we stay after church for a meal together.

We have a nice group of faithful volunteers who help us to set up chairs on Sunday mornings, and many others participate, storing everything after the services.

Above all, our times of worship, prayer and the preaching of the Word of God have been powerful. Our children and youth are growing in their relationship with God and learning his word. Several of the young girls who have been discipled by Anna participate very effectively in personal ministry and prayer. We are expecting our church to continue to develop, grow, raise up new leaders, and cause a true impact in our community.

Thanks!

Once again, Sara, Anna and I would like to take a moment to thank each of you for your love, encouragement, prayers and offerings. Thanks for being a part of what we do here.

May the Lord richly bless each of you.

With love,

David and Sara Lont