Desert Streams Ministries

Note: There is a PDF version of this update here.

Happy New Year!

It’s once again a new year, and, although many things are just a continuation of what was happening at the end of last year, this is the time in which many people make new purposes and begin new projects. Most of what we’re doing this January is part of the plan that we’ve been developing over years and decades, but there are a couple of things that are new, or at least different.

Podcast

As many of you know, during the pandemic we did many online services and other ministry. Now that most things are getting back to normal, we have decided to use what we’ve learned about video and audio recording to start a podcast. This podcast is being hosted by Anna, and I’ll also be involved regularly.

In many ways the podcast will fill in the gap for those who have been following us online over the last several years. Now that we’re back to weekly church meetings, we are no longer doing weekly video online services, but our podcast will continue to reach some of the same people with Bible teaching in more of a conversational-style format. We published our first episode on January 1 and plan to release a new episode weekly. Our intention is to reach people with the Gospel and Biblical principals by having conversations and hosting interviews.

Our Local Church Family

We shared in our last update that we were about ready to move to our church property to start meetings there. We are happy to inform you that the first Sunday of December we had our first meeting there and have been hosting our regular weekly church meetings at our own facilities since then.

God has blessed us with 1,600m2 of land for our church. About half of that has been developed into a walled garden. Over the last year and a half we were able to build the wall around the perimeter, bathrooms, a couple of office spaces and a storage room. We are currently meeting under temporary tents, but work is being done on a more permanent large tent structure which will become our meeting place. We are especially thankful for those who have given toward this project!

Eventually, we hope to build an auditorium on part of the property. Right now, that area is fenced off, as it has been set apart for a future building.

Our people were excited about our new church home! We had a great turnout for our opening service and many positive comments about how nice the property looked. It was really quite a change from how the property was just a few months before, when everything was just dirt and construction materials. God has been so good to us!

Advanced School of Ministry

Most of my time during the last couple of months has been dedicated to the Advanced School of Ministry. We are currently working on putting together all the details for the conference in Cuernavaca, which will be held at the end of this month (January 23-26, 2023). This year we will be doing the conference both in-person and online, so there are some new challenges and details to take care of. I’ve been in contact with our team, the guest speakers and many others who will be involved. We’re currently training a small team to do personal online ministry for those who will be attending remotely and also working to make sure the online audience will feel just as welcome and well cared for as those who attend in person.

Recording For the Online Bible School

In November, we were privileged to have Pastor Enrique Borja here to record a course consisting of 24 lessons on the book of Genesis. Pastor Enrique was extremely efficient recording, and we were able to go through all the lessons in three days. That was a new record! He did a wonderful job and I feel he connected very well with the students through the recordings. His teaching was deep yet very applicable and he spoke to the students on a level that they will easily identify with. This new course will be released in February, with part two of the course to be recorded soon.

Thanks!

Sara and I are so thankful for each one of you. Thanks for praying for us and supporting us in all we’re doing. It is such a joy to be able to count on you.

With love,

David and Sara Lont
with Anna

Note: You can download a PDF version of this update here.

Dear friends, family and supporters,

I’d like to share with you a little family and ministry update. I last wrote in August, and now it’s already November! Over the last few months many things have been happening.

Church Building Project

Our church building project is finally nearing the end of the first phase. It has been an incredible journey with many hurdles. However, we are about one month away from the end of the first phase of this project.

We started out the project in July of 2021, with an architect who was in charge of the entire process. However, after finding several problems with the way the project was going, we decided to suspend building until we could correct these issues. We then hired another team of builders last March, and I asked Sara to be the supervisor of the project. She gladly took on this project, but soon we ran into problems with permits (as I mentioned in our last newsletter). This caused another delay of a couple of months. In August, the permit processes were finalized and we began construction once again.

The first phase of this project involves building the wall around the perimeter of the property, creating a parking lot, entrances, bathrooms, offices, a patio, an outdoor kitchen and a large garden. Within this garden we will be hosting our meetings under a tent on the patio especially designed for this purpose. We also already have the foundations in place for the general purpose building (auditorium), but we are leaving the rest of the construction of this building for a second phase.

Sara has been at the construction site almost every day, and has been in charge of buying materials and the general supervision of the project. She has done such a great job! She has been given a divine grace to negotiate prices and deal with the providers of the different materials needed. She has also done so well dealing with the masons and making sure everything is being built correctly.

Last week we finally had sod planted in the garden, and now we’re finishing some details, such as putting in doors and windows, flooring in the offices, etc.

In the next few weeks we’ll be having the tent made and then moving in for our dedication service on the first Sunday in December. We are excited and full of anticipation to see what God is going to do in the lives of the people of Tulancingo as we take this next step. We are believing the Lord for radical encounters with Jesus and life transformation!

If you would like to help us pray for this project, we’d appreciate it. We need the Lord’s provision, especially for the tent. Please also continue to pray for the safety of the workers and that we can soon finish all the details.

Bible School and the Advanced School of Ministry

A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to the U.S. to meet with the people at Christian International, in Florida, to talk with them about our degree program which is offered through their school of ministry. For over 30 years now, our Mexican Advanced School of Ministry has been able to offer a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology, thanks to our connection with their school. I am now taking on the responsibility of the program here in Mexico, and needed to meet with them. I had a very profitable visit and enjoyed getting to know some of the staff at Christian International. They are happy with our plan to move the Advanced School of Ministry forward in the next several years and will continue to back our degree program.

We’re now preparing for the big conference which will be held at the end of January. I’m receiving material from our conference speakers from Mexico, translating material from our speakers from the U.K. and Canada, and preparing conference registration.

This year we’ll be doing the conference both online and in person. We plan to provide exclusive features to our online audience, including interviews with conference speakers, and personal online ministry. We’re excited about what God is going to do during this conference called “Generational Transformation”.

Family

Our family is doing well. As many of you may know, Daniel and Elisa live in Vancouver, WA, where they both work in ministry. Elisa is the head of the music department at Portland Bible College and Daniel is the music pastor of Mannahouse Church in Vancouver, Washington. David graduated in 2021 from Western Michigan University and is now doing a doctorate degree at Texas A&M.

Anna is here with us. She is studying online at BSSM and works almost full-time in ministry with the online Bible School doing curriculum development, social media, teaching and also doing youth and general ministry. It is an incredible honor and blessing to have her helping us with our church and online Bible School.

Thanks!

Once again I want to thank all of you who so faithfully pray for us and support us. We appreciate each one of you so much!

With love,

David, Sara and Anna

Note: A printable PDF version is available here.

Greetings from Tulancingo! It’s great to be in touch with you once again. God is so good and we’d love to take a few minutes to share with you some of the ways we’ve seen Him working in and through our lives during the last few weeks.

Celebrating 30 Years of Marriage

On June 12, we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. What a privilege to be able to say that I married my first and only girlfriend, and that we have been honoring God and each other, loving and building a life together with the help of the Lord during the past 31 years (1 year of dating plus 30 years of marriage). I am so thankful for all the ways in which the Lord has blessed us and helped us throughout these years. What started out as a dream of sharing our lives together has become a reality, little by little. I am thankful for a wonderful wife and a loving family!

Our Church Construction Project

In our last newsletter, I mentioned that we had to take a short break from the construction project because of some issues with permits. We’re happy to report that everything is now in order again, and we are continuing with the construction.

In May, the state environmental inspectors came by and halted the work, supposedly because we needed an environmental impact permit, which we didn’t have. However, after much investigation and the help of several people, another arm of the state environmental agency determined that the permits are not applicable in our case. We are currently building walls around the property, a garden and an area of bathrooms/offices, and the permit is not required for this. We praise God that He helped us to get through all the “red tape” of bureaucracy so the work can continue.

We were making really good progress until May, and we are praying that we will still have time to finish the project during the next few months, before the rainy season is over.

In the mean time, we continue to have our church meetings in different locations including both weekly and monthly gatherings here at our home.

A Breakfast for the Ladies

Sara organized a wonderful breakfast and ministry time for some of the ladies of our church. After some delicious fruit, coffee and chilaquiles, Sara, Anna and some of the other young girls ministered to the group of women. Anna led worship and a personal ministry time, and Sara shared from the Bible.

The tables were decorated so beautifully! Sara has become skilled at setting up the room, making her own floral arrangements and making everything look so nice. A few of the young men came to help me as waiters.

God really touched several of the women, especially through the time of personal ministry. I believe that many of them could perceive how God is so good and has His eyes on each one individually. No matter what they may have gone through, He loves them and wants to reveal Himself to them through Jesus Christ!

Building the Online Bible School

The last couple of months I’ve been working full time on the Bible School. We finished another good semester in June with around 150 students concluding successfully.

Even before the spring semester ended, we started working on material for the fall semester. We are currently putting together two new courses. I’ve been updating the online platform with software and programming upgrades. And Anna and Stacey Brown have been recording new courses. Anna has also been translating and editing almost 400 pages of teaching manuals over the last few months. It’s amazing how much work it is to create these courses well. However, we’ve discovered throughout the years that it is a very worthwhile investment!

So many students use our material, not just to learn the Bible and ministry principles for themselves, but also to train others. Our students include many pastors, youth leaders, cell group leaders and others. When we train leaders, entire churches receive the impact.

We’ve been designing a couple of the most recent courses to be useful especially for young people, those who work with young people (youth leaders) and to help disciple some of the young people. In June, Anna recorded a course consisting of 24 lessons on some of the most important topics in the Bible. Stacey Brown is currently in the process of recording 24 lessons on Bible principles for relationships, and I know these two courses will have an impact on the future generations.

It’s been a good couple of months, and we’re believing God for greater things in the next few months – more of His presence, more of His power, deeper growth and more impact and Kingdom influence!

Thanks for reading!

There is so much to share, but these are some of the main things I wanted to share with you today.

Thanks so much for all you do for us. We’re so blessed to count on you as partners and friends.

We pray you’ll have a wonderful week!

With love,

David and Sara Lont with Anna

Note: You can download a printable PDF version of this update here.

Hello, Friends, Family and Supporters!

Here’s the latest update for the Lonts in Mexico.

Children’s Day Celebration

Each year in Mexico we celebrate Children’s Day on April 30. This time, since it fell on a Saturday, we did our celebration together with our church service the following Sunday. We did special worship songs for the children with a choreography prepared by Anna and some of the other teenage girls, and then I had the opportunity to share a message especially for the children. It had been a while since I had taught young children, but, wow, did they enjoy hearing about David and Goliath from my perspective. I showed them how Goliath was a bully and David was the only one who stood up to him. It was so neat to see how they all got involved in the story.

After the service, we all had hotdogs, games, candy, and a special picture booth where the kids could dress up like detectives. It was a very fun day!

Youth Camp

This past weekend we hosted a camp for our young people. Titled “The Match”, the purpose of this camp was to ignite the fire of God in the hearts and lives of our young people. Because of Covid-19, we hadn’t done a camp in several years, so it was the first youth camp for most of the kids.

Running from Friday to Sunday, we enjoyed some excellent times of worship, Bible studies, ministry time, games, practical workshops, fun, and of course, food!

We hosted the camp here by our house. The girls stayed upstairs in the loft of the recently-completed “lodge” and the boys stayed in tents. We did meals in tents outdoors, and our volunteers cooked in our outdoor kitchen. The teaching and worship sessions were held inside the lodge.

Our daughter Anna was in charge of the entire camp. She organized everything, led worship, taught a session, led a devotional time and also organized the workshop. We had several other volunteers who led sessions, cooked, organized games and helped out in other capacities. What a blessing to count on a wonderful team to make the load lighter! We were so impressed with the spirit of unity, the willingness to serve, and the servants’ hearts of our team of volunteers. We had one guy who served all day, went to rest for a few hours in the cabin during the afternoon, continued to serve all evening, then left for work at 2:00 AM (he works the night shift) and came back the next morning to continue to serve at the camp.

Here are some of the highlights of camp:

• The most wonderful presence of the Lord we have ever experienced during a youth camp, right from the start on Friday evening.
  
• An incredible sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to meet the needs of the kids. We saw several of the kids ministering to and praying for other kids, being led by the Spirit in what to say to them and how to pray for them.
  
• Great times of worship. I was especially blessed to see how well Anna can lead the kids right into the presence of the Lord, and also how the young people responded with lifted hands, sometimes with tears, as they began to seek God.
  
• The Lord changed hearts, attitudes and minds! We could literally see a difference in the faces as the Holy Spirit began to transform their hearts. A few of them came with apathy, perhaps not even wanting to be there, but by the following day they didn’t want to leave. It wasn’t just because they were having fun but because the way God had touched them!
  
• Great times of teaching. Anna, Luis, Sara and I all shared short messages and Bible study times during the three days of the camp. The themes flowed together so well.

Church building project

During the months of April and May we have made some good progress on our church’s building project. However, due to some government interference, we’ve had to take a short pause again on the project. We’ve been trying to do everything correctly in terms of permits, but the state environmental agency came to inspect and temporarily stopped the project (due mostly to corruption and bureaucracy between competing government agencies). Sara has had to go almost weekly (some weeks daily) to different government offices to try to get things straightened out. She’s doing a wonderful job making contact with different public authorities and using these contacts to get favor and the approval to continue with the project. We are believing the Lord for His help to get things moving forward soon again.

In the mean time, we continue to meet in micro-churches, online and in-person here by our house outside the city. Many people enjoy coming to the outdoor meetings, some returning each week to meet with us in our own little micro-church, in which we all participate in the same online service together in several homes.

Online Bible School

We’re happy to report that our spring semester is almost finished. Our students have done well so far, most of them completing the courses that they are enrolled in. This week they’ll be having their partial and final exams, and then the semester will be over.

We constantly hear the good reports of our students and how the Lord has used the online school to help them prepare for ministry in their local churches. Many of the students are pastors, others are leaders, and still others serve in different areas of their churches. The online school is fulfilling its purpose of preparing servant-leaders for local churches.

As you may have heard, we’re in the process of expanding the course offerings and developing a full-time school and degree program. Although this is a lot of work, the Lord has provided a wonderful team of leaders and volunteers to help us in this process.

Thanks for all you do!

Sara and I would like to thank you for all you do to help us in ministry. We are so blessed to be able to count on you for your prayers, financial support, friendship and wise counsel. We especially thank those of you who reach out to us and respond via email to our newsletters. It really helps us to know that you are there for us, that you read these newsletters and are praying for us and our church.

We appreciate you very much!

With love,

David and Sara Lont

Note: You can download a printable PDF version of this update here.

Dear Friends and Family,

So much has happened since I last wrote to you in January. I’d like to take a few minutes to share some of the highlights of what we’ve been up to during the last couple of months.

Advanced School of Ministry

This year’s Advanced School of Ministry conference was different, but very good. Because of COVID restrictions, we did a live online conference, broadcast through both Zoom and YouTube. With the help of Carlos Marín and through Portland Bible College, we were able to access a Zoom account allowing several hundred people to connect at once. We also had over a hundred additional people and groups connect on YouTube.

Many pastors and leaders registered for the conference, and some groups of churches gathered in a single location to participate in the seminar using projectors in their auditoriums. Most people connected right from their homes, but it was especially fun to see church buildings full of leaders participating together.

On this occasion I didn’t teach personally, but we handled all the registrations, helped the general public, and took care of all the technical aspects of doing an online conference. Anna was especially helpful as the person in charge of the camera switching and bringing the correct speakers into focus at the right time. I spent many hours helping people without technical expertise getting registered and then, during the conference, taking care of the live broadcast and making sure everything went as planned.

Our theme, “Transforma-T” (Be Transformed), was excellent, as we are living through times of great transformation. Our team was able to cover six different sessions during the two-day online event. One of the sessions even included a small group application of the concepts that were taught, using Zoom breakout rooms.

The majority of those who attended were pastors and leaders. One advantage of doing the seminar online was the fact that several pastors joined us online who had never been able to attend one of our conferences in person because of their jobs or distance to the conference. We had people across several time zones and even from different countries.

This conference was a huge blessing for many. We plan on continuing offering both in-person and online conferences in the future.

Worship Recording and Local Church

In February, we did another live worship recording in video and audio here in our living room. We’ve found these live session recordings to be very useful and effective to use during our microchurch meetings on Sundays.

Our church building project continues forward, but while our property is under construction, we have adopted a microchurch model. Small groups gather in homes for ministry on Sunday mornings using our online service, supplemented with personal ministry and prayer in each home. Of course, food and celebration are also on the agenda, so the microchurch setting allows for people to gather, eat and enjoy being together. Once each month we are gathering everyone together here outside our home for our celebration service.

Our Experience With COVID

Last month, after avoiding it for almost two years, we suddenly came down with COVID-19. It was very unexpected, as we had taken so many precautions throughout the pandemic. And now that there is so much optimism that the worst of things has passed, we somehow caught it!

Thankfully, none of us had any life-threatening symptoms, but all three of us got pretty sick. Anna fared better than Sara and me, but it took all of us about three weeks to recover. It’s only been a couple of weeks since we’ve been getting our energy back.

It was so beautiful to see how several people from our church cared for us and brought us meals. They would come by and drop hot meals off on our porch, and we’d say, “Hello!” quickly through the window, and then they’d leave. We are also so thankful to those who were praying for us during that time!

Online Bible School

In February we started our spring semester with the online Bible School. We were blessed to have Mark Simpson share live with our group as we began the semester. We’re offering nine different courses and have just under 180 students enrolled. This semester, we’re doing another new course, this time on the life of Moses.

We continue to develop new material as we’re working toward creating an entire online degree program. We’re very thankful for the positive impact we’ve been able to make on many pastors, leaders and churches through this Bible school.

Thanks for joining with us!

We are so thankful to you for partnering with us in ministry. We appreciate each one of you who takes interest in what we’re doing, prays for us, or helps us economically. We appreciate you so very much!

With love,

David and Sara with Anna