Dear friends, supporters and family,

Greetings from Mexico. We pray all is well with you and that you’re enjoying this spring season. It is a joy for us to be in contact once again via our newsletter to let you know what we have been doing during the last couple of months.

Ministry in Veracruz

At the beginning of the month of March we took a trip to the city of Veracruz and also Huatusco where we ministered to a group of leaders of the Centro Cristiano Church there. We spent the first day with the pastors, Gama and Paty, at the hotel where the leadership conference would be held during the next couple of days. There we enjoyed spending some time with them during the afternoon and evening Thursday. On Friday morning, the leaders began arriving around breakfast time. I opened the meetings with the first conference, and both Sara and I shared several times during the Friday-Saturday meetings.

It was very interesting to get to know some of the leaders and see how Pastor Gama and Paty work with them. The weekend was filled with different activities such as meals together, teaching sessions, workshops and games designed to teach people how to work together. We also had prayer, worship, and ministry times.

The following Sunday I preached to the church in the morning. They have a large and solid congregation, and I enjoyed ministering to them once again. We had been there before, in 2016, and on that occasion I had ministered in a men’s conference, and then Sara, in a women’s conference. It was very nice for both of us to minister together this time to leaders. We believe God is building up a solid leadership team for this church.

Online Bible School

We started our online Bible School classes in the month of February, and this semester we have around 125 students from three countries. We are building a team of facilitators and course developers to continue to build the school. I have hired a couple of people (including our son, David) to help develop visual presentations that run alongside of the video and audio. We are also making decisions about new courses, developing the software, building/developing more courses, among other things.

Sara has surgery

Sara had a complete hysterectomy on April 10. This has put her pretty much “out of service” for the last several weeks, as she is recovering. Her recovery is going well but she has been advised by the doctor to slow down and recover completely before picking up the normal pace of life, so as to avoid future complications.

Radical – Anna Starts Our Church’s Preteen Group

Anna started a youth group of preteen girls who meet each week on Friday evenings. She is teaching these young girls who are in the transition phase between children and teenagers. We have found throughout the years that many of the children who grow out of our children’s ministry have had a hard time adjusting to the regular youth ministry, which has focused on older teens. God has gifted Anna to minister to this younger age group and we are seeing very good results. We hope to soon open a second group for the boys as well.

We are also excited to see Anna grow and develop in the area of teaching and ministry. She is a gifted teacher and a great speaker. She even took charge of our church’s women’s meeting while her mother was in the hospital!

Local Church

Our local church is going through several transitions in different areas at the moment. I (David) have found the need to become directly involved in the worship ministry again. After sowing part of our worship team last August in the new church plant, our music ministry began to feel the loss. I stepped in during the month of February, then more directly beginning in April.

During the last year I had worked with some of the “younger generation” that had previously been involved in our children’s worship team. I have invited them to be a part of the main worship group, and we are seeing progress! Our daughter, Anna, is now part of the team, and it’s really fun to work with everyone again. I felt impressed by the Lord to train up a new generation in leading worship, and the opportunity has come.

Please pray that the team will continue to consolidate and that soon we’ll be able to get them to a level where I’m not quite as “needed” as I currently am. I would love to continue to be involved, but we also need to get the team working by themselves for the times when I need to be out ministering in other churches on Sundays. This isn’t all that often, but we really need things to run smoothly even if we are away.

Prayer requests

You can always help us by praying for us! Here are a few areas of need:

• Please pray for our leadership team, that God would give us more strong leaders with a heart and vision for the Lord and His church.
• Please pray for our preteen and youth ministries, that the Lord would allow us to restructure these key areas. We believe that a strong ministry to children and youth is vital for the long-term success of the church.
• Please pray for the online Bible School, as we plan to expand this project during the next few years. Please pray for our students, that they would learn and grow in God’s Word.
• Please pray for us as we prepare for a trip to Africa to minister in a large pastor’s conference. Sara will be doing women’s ministry, and Anna has also been invited to do children’s ministry during the conference.

Dear family, friends and supporters,

After a great Christmas with our whole family, we took David Jeremiah to the airport, since he was only able to spend about 10 days with us. Daniel stayed a bit longer, until January 11. We had a very nice Christmas and New Years, and we hope you did, also.

Getting ready for the seminar

Throughout the Christmas season and into January, we worked on getting some details ready for the Advanced School of ministry conference. I finished this year’s student notebook just before Christmas, and Anna also finished translating Pastor Dick Iverson’s book Maintaining Balance When Winds of Doctrine Blow.  This is her second translation, and our team has already asked her to translate another book for next year’s seminar.

We also took care of online registration for the conference as well as signing people up for lodging accommodations in homes of the families of the local church in Cuernavaca.

Appreciation dinner

Our church had our annual Christmas dinner with many families attending. But this year, we also did an appreciation dinner in January to show our gratitude to all those who so faithfully serve in many areas of our church.

Advanced School of Ministry Seminar

The Advanced School of Ministry seminar was again a huge blessing to many pastors and leaders. Nearly 1,000 people from all over Mexico and even some from the U.S. gathered in Cuernavaca for four days of teaching, worship and times of prayer. Our theme this year was “The Wind Blows Again”, and throughout the 17 sessions, we studied Scriptures that relate to the four winds mentioned in the Bible. There are winds which bring refreshing, winds of change and challenge, winds that cleanse, winds that reverse the curse of sin, and winds of the sovereignty of God. The Bible mentions the north, south, east and west winds, and each direction points to certain theological truths that we, as Christians, experience throughout our lives.

The seminar ended with a graduation for some of the students who have completed the Bachelor’s Degree in Theology program offered through the Advanced School of Ministry and Christian International College.

Sara did a wonderful job sharing about the west wind, which comes to “reverse the curse” caused by sin. I taught on the north wind, which is often a cold wind of trials, but the Lord uses it to purify our lives and allows us to see His hand upon our lives more clearly. Also, this year I was asked to be the speaker on graduation night, which was truly an honor.

Online Bible School

The online Bible School program is continuing to progress and grow. For our first semester of 2018, we have around 125 students enrolled. We are currently offering Old Testament Survey, New Testament Survey and Systematic Theology courses via our online certificate program. Each student who successfully concludes the program receives a certificate of completion.

Our plan is to move the school to the “next level” by integrating all the necessary courses to offer a complete two-year Bible School training program. For this to happen, we will need to accelerate the production of our courses and form a team to do the work involved. Please pray with us that the Lord would help us to gather together a talented like-minded team and organize all the details.

Thanks!

Thank you so much for praying for us and giving to our ministry. We really appreciate each of you who is praying daily for us. We also thank those who sacrificially give. You are investing in the Kingdom of God and will receive your reward!

In Christ,

David and Sara Lont
and family

 

Dear family, friends and supporters,

What a wonderful privilege it is to send our greetings to you and your families during this Christmas season. Joy to the world! We pray you will be having a blessed Christmas and New Year.

Advanced School of Ministry in Tijuana

In the month of October, we had the joy of ministering together with Pastor Homero from Monterrey and Pastor Marjorie from Cuernavaca at the Advanced School of Ministry in Tijuana. Our theme in this school was “Covenant Families”, and we taught on many themes that have to do with the family. God loves families, and He established the family as the social foundation of the Church, the ministry, and society.

A group of about 70 students from the general area as well as a small group from Mexico City attended this school. We enjoyed four days of teaching, worship, prayer, and fellowship in the building of a local Bible School. This school was built by a group of Korean missionaries, and the couple in charge are Isaac and Rebeca. Groups from Korean churches came daily to donate their time and money to cook and feed the group, so we also had the experience of trying some Korean meals during the conference.

Marriage Seminar in Mérida

A few weeks ago, we spent several days in Mérida at the Centro Cristiano Church, doing a marriage seminar together with the local pastors. We have know this couple for many years, but had never visited their church. Pastor Oscar and his wife, Paula, have worked very hard on the Yucatan Peninsula evangelizing and raising up churches during the past 20 years. We only ministered at the Mérida church, but they also have churches in several other cities across the state and the neighboring state of Quintana Roo.

A group of about 35 couples dedicated two full days to strengthening their marriages through teaching, workshops and other group activities. Sara and I shared during several sessions, and Pastor Oscar and Paula also ministered. Sara and I enjoyed doing some “team teaching”, where both of us shared our distinct perspectives on areas of marriage, family, and Biblical principles for a healthy home.

At the end of the second day, we celebrated a collective wedding for seven of the couples who had been living together but never taken the step of formalizing a marriage covenant in the presence of the Lord. Most of them had come to know Christ recently and desired to received God’s blessing upon their relationship by putting their marriages in order. It was a joy to participate in the ceremony.

Getting Ready for the Advance School of Ministry Seminar

These last few weeks have been a busy time of the year for us as we have been working on the notes for the seminar. Containing almost complete notes for 17 hours of teaching, the book that we produce each year is usually around 150 pages in length. It is my job to take all the notes, edit them and then do the layout and formatting for the final book.

Anna has also been helping us with the translation of Pastor Dick Iverson’s book called Maintaining Balance. She sends me her translation, and I continue to work on it from there, editing as needed to make the phrases flow as best as possible in Spanish. We hope to have this book ready by New Year’s Day and have it printed the first couple of weeks of January so it will be ready for the students at the seminar.

Christmas Plans

We are excited that both of our boys will be coming home from college to spend Christmas with us. David will be with us during two weeks, and Daniel will spend almost a month with us before going back to school. It will be great to have Christmas with the whole family!

Thanks!

We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to each of you who have been praying for us and supporting us financially. It is so much easier to do ministry with a solid financial and prayer backing. May the Lord richly bless you and your family this Christmas and New Year.

With love,

David and Sara Lont
and family

Dear friends, family and supporters,

We would like to share with you some of our most recent activities. The end of our summer has been very busy but quite productive. Here is an update on what has been happening.

Church plant

We shared with you in our last newsletter about the church plant we were about to make. The team sent out to the new location was officially commissioned and released during a special service on August 13, 2017. Pastor Homero Ríos, from Monterrey, was our guest speaker that Sunday morning, and together we prayed for and ministered to the new pastors with the core seed group.

The following Sunday morning, August 20, I preached in the first service at the new location in Jaltepec. Actually, I preached in both churches – Jaltepec in person, and in Tulancingo, through FaceTime. We haven’t been back to minister there since the first service, but the report from Pastor Gabriel is that the new work in going well.

Recording for Bible School

Pastor Homero Ríos came in August to record systematic theology for our Online Bible School. After ministering in church on Sunday, we spent the following week recording a total of video and audio sessions. He did a wonderful job teaching his subjects. As a Hebrew language scholar and very capable teacher, Pastor Homero’s participation has been a great asset to our theology course.

I also taught and recorded many sessions myself in order to complete the first part of the course. By the time we were finished recording, we already had 24 students signed up to start taking it! Since then, I have also been working on editing the online notes and course work.

Online Bible School

The week on which we recorded was also the enrollment week for our fall semester. We began the semester on August 23 with 122 students, which is the largest group we have had so far. We have students from many states across Mexico, a few hispanic students from the U.S. and a pastor in Argentina. Many of the students know us from the Advanced School of Ministry conferences in Cuernavaca which we do each year.

With the help of six course facilitators, we have been working hard to check homework assignments, help students, and maintain communication with each of them. It has been much work, but at the same time it is very rewarding. It is a tremendous blessing to see many young people as well as older pastors and leaders from many cities and smaller towns enter into a more complete understanding of the Word of God.

Earthquake

I’m sure you probably know about the earthquake we recently experienced here in central Mexico. The earthquake hit on the anniversary of the large earthquake in 1985 which left thousands dead. On Tuesday, September 19, 2017, at about 1:14 PM, there was a magnitude 7.1 earthquake right between Puebla and Morelos, only a few hour’s drive from here. We felt it, although it didn’t do much damage around our area. However, in Puebla, Morelos, and especially in Mexico City there was much damage. In many areas whole houses and large building collapsed.

Just a few days before, there was another very large earthquake in the southern part of the country, that one being of 8.1 magnitude. It destroyed many rural homes and communities in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. Then on Saturday, September 23, a 6.1 magnitude rocked the country for a third time.

Many of the churches in the affected areas are now involved in relief and rebuilding efforts. Our church has also been active in donating food, tarps and other supplies to be used in the villages that don’t get much media attention or state funding, but have been devastated by this series of earthquakes.

I personally believe that God is using these events as a “wake-up call” to the country. It is time to seek the Lord, repent, and pray. The Bible says in Hebrews 12:26-27, “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken–that is, created things–so that what cannot be shaken may remain.” (NIV) It is time for the church in Mexico to arise and proclaim that which is eternal and will remain, even when everything is shaken. We must invest in eternity, in peace with God, in repentance, forgiveness, love, and worship. Man made structures easily fall, materialism will fail, but the Word of God and those who follow it will remain for all eternity.

Xalapa

In September, we had the opportunity to minister in Xalapa, Puebla. Sara shared in a breakfast meeting for women, then I ministered to a group of leaders and to the general congregation on Sunday morning. Sara did a great job speaking to about 200 women present for the breakfast. Pastor Alejandro and his wife were very gracious hosts and we definitely enjoyed being with them. The church is very open and receptive to the Word of God, and I believe our weekend with them was productive.

On our way back home, the car suddenly started making a strange noise. It had rained extremely hard, and we had hit some puddles with enough force that the inside of one of the front wheel wells started to come loose. A piece of plastic was rubbing against the tire. We tried to break it off, but the plastic was too hard to rip by hand. “If only we had a knife”, we said. Just then, Sara looked down, and there at the side of the road, exactly where we stopped in the middle of absolutely nowhere was an old knife! Within a few seconds Sara was able to reach in next to the tire (my hands didn’t fit into the small space) and cut the piece of plastic with the knife. We praised God for His supernatural provision of the exact tool we needed right there on side of the highway, and the we continued our trip back home.

Thanks!

We want to thank each of you who prays for us or gives. Thanks for being partners with us in this great ministry adventure!

In Christ,

David and Sara Lont

Summer Greetings

We send summer greetings to all our friends, family and supporters.

Our summer has been a bit busy and full of changes. Our family is suddenly smaller! Both of our boys are now living in the U.S. and we only have Anna with us now. Please have a look at what has been going on in our family and ministry since June.

Daniel Graduates From High School

All of our children have been home schooled, but they have also been enrolled in Lighthouse Christian Academy. Through Lighthouse, they have official records and supervision of their work. This has been a tremendous blessing for us. However, all good things do come to an end! Both Sara and I participated in our children’s education for many years (since kindergarten), but the end of high school has arrived. David graduated last year, and now it was time for Daniel.

On June 11, we left on a short trip to Nashville, Tennessee, for Daniel’s high school graduation. Since we had gone also last year for David’s graduation, we pretty much knew what to expect. In the morning on graduation day, we headed to the church for the registration process and pictures. The school provided a very nice breakfast with fruit, cake, croissants, and many other “goodies”. Afterwards, we drove to the offices for a tour of A.C.E and the school. What a beautiful facility the Lord has provided for this ministry! In the afternoon, we dropped Daniel off at the church for practice and then arrived 1/2 hour early to be seated for the ceremony. Around 100 student were present for the ceremony, although many others from around the world also graduated but were not present in Nashville.

We thank God for the wonderful blessing of a Christian education in a homeschool setting. I believe it has been the perfect fit for our lifestyle and work as missionaries and pastors in Mexico.

Our cabin (where we do school) will now be much more empty. Anna and I (David) will be beginning high school together in a couple of weeks.

Daniel leaves for Portland Bible College

We came back from the graduation Thursday, spent the weekend on church activities here, and then took Daniel to the airport the following Monday morning because he needed to get to Portland Bible College.

Although he worked here for about a month after finishing school, there was no way that he could earn enough money working here in Mexico to pay for U.S. tuition rates. However, Carlos Marin, from Portland Bible College, offered to help him get into the dorms and start working on campus right away so that he could begin earning money to pay for his schooling.

Daniel has been working very hard all summer in maintenance at the school. Our other son, David has been working all summer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for his tuition, also. Both of them will be starting school in a couple of weeks.

We believe God is calling Daniel into ministry, so this is an important step in his preparation.

Preparing To Plant a Church

As I mentioned in my last update, we have been feeling that the time to plant a new church has been coming. After speaking about this to one of our leaders and his wife, the Lord has confirmed our vision and opened the doors to make it happen. Gabriel and Silvana, who have been a part of our church and leadership team almost from the beginning, will soon be sent out with a “seed group” to establish the church in Jaltepec, a small town on the outskirts of Tulancingo.

Although the town of Jaltepec itself is quite small, many new residential neighborhoods have been sprouting up over the last several years. There are currently no other churches in the immediate area. We believe that this growing community needs a good church and that we have been called to establish the kingdom of God in this region.

This next Sunday, August 13, we will have a special commissioning service to send Gabriel and his family to raise up and pastor the new church, beginning with the “seed group” consisting of several families of our church who will be sent along with them. We ask that you pray for growth and good fruit during these next several months as the church becomes established.

The Lord has already supplied a rented building for the new church just a couple of blocks from the center plaza. The owner of a party hall offered his building for a good price. We went to see the building and were very surprised how well it will meet the needs of the new church.

The inauguration service will be held on August 20, and I will be preaching at the first service. We are excited about what God is going to do in Jaltepec!

Prayer requests

1. Please pray for our sons, David and Daniel, as both begin college. Please pray that the Lord will help them to keep their eyes and hearts steadfast in Him and for the financial provision they need.
2. Please pray for Anna as she continues her education here at home.
3. Please pray for the new church in Jaltepec.
4. Please pray for safety for us in our travels in the coming months.
5. Please pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit as we go forward with the church in Tulancingo. We will be needing new leaders, as several are leaving with the seed group to Jaltepec.