Note: This update is available as a PDF download with more pictures here.
Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters,
Love and greetings from warm, sunny Mexico. We pray all is well with you and your family.
I recently heard the following phrase, and it really made me think:
“It is your direction, not your intentions, which will lead you to your destination.”
Andy Stanley
Hopefully, we all have good intentions. But we must realize that the direction we are heading is what really leads us to our destination. For example, let’s suppose that you are intending to go to the beach. However, you make a wrong turn and end up going in the opposite direction. Even though you may have the intention of getting to the beach, if you don’t turn around and start heading in the right direction, you are never going to get there!
So it is in life. Many people have great intentions: intentions to follow the Lord, love their families, read their Bible, pray, grow in their walk with God. Others just have the intentions of being good people. However, if they never take the necessary actions and small steps in the right direction, their good intentions will never materialize.
James says it this way: “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20).
We need faith, but we also need to put action and direction into our faith.
One of our tasks as missionaries, pastors, and Bible teachers is to help people unite their intentions with their direction – unite their faith with their actions – to reach the goals the Lord has for them.
The Advanced School of Ministry
During the third week of January, we celebrated the 34th seminar of the Advanced School of Ministry in Cuernavaca, with around 800 pastors and leaders attending. We had a good-sized group there in the auditorium as well as another group of people online.
What a blessing it was for us to see so many pastors from many parts of Mexico, many of whom we have gotten to know through the years. We have ministered in some of their churches and have become good friends with others.
The seminar, called “Fathers of Generations”, was based on God’s promise to Abraham and applied to the pastors and leaders of local churches. We have been called to minister to our generation, but also to become spiritual fathers and mothers to the next generation of leaders.
Our team and guest speakers taught and ministered on subjects such as generational vision, church growth, spiritual orphans, generational leadership, the pastor and his family, and spiritual fathers/mothers.
We had a great seminar, and I know that many of those who attended returned to their local churches and communities blessed, equipped, and encouraged to continue their local ministries.
Online Bible School
On February 14, we began the spring semester in our Online Bible School. This is the second-largest group ever, with over 170 students participating. Many of them are continuing their studies; some are new, and others are working toward completing the Advanced School of Ministry degree program.
We are currently offering a total of 11 different courses simultaneously. Our course facilitators are busy grading assignments, answering students’ questions, and helping them progress through the courses.
We are offering a new course, Family Matters (by Bill Scheidler), with Stacey Brown as the teacher. Stacey is doing an incredible job in her video presentations, bringing the classes to life with many creative illustrations. She is recording at the same time we are presenting the material, so our team is working hard to have the presentations, assignments, and videos ready each week before the material is to be released to students. We have two full groups taking this particular course the current semester, and it will be offered again probably yearly.
Anna and Sara are both working with our online team once again. Anna has two full groups – the students of New Testament Survey and a second group of 22 students of the degree program working on the assignments from this past seminar. Sara has a large group studying The Life of Christ.
Local Church
Desert Streams Church in Tulancingo is doing well and advancing the Kingdom of God. We continue to meet under the tent in our church’s garden property. The Spirit of God is moving, restoring and saving people. We have had several testimonies of people who have been healed from cancer – with medical evidence to prove it. These testimonies may not necessarily be considered “miraculous” by everyone, but through prayer and medical treatment, they are now cancer-free! We give credit and glory to God for what He has done in their lives. Also, this past Sunday, six or seven people gave their lives to Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God is advancing. Lives and families are being restored and changed by the power of the Gospel.
I have been teaching on Jesus in Genesis over the past couple of months. The series is designed to highlight how we can find illustrations, types, and shadows of the redemptive work of Christ throughout the Old Testament, especially in the book of Genesis. It is amazing how many stories and events perfectly foreshadow the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross.
Anna and Sara have been participating on Sundays, but also in our other church events. Anna is our youth leader and is doing a great job. Sara has been working with the women of the church, doing monthly meetings the first Friday of each month. It is such a blessing to work together as a family in ministry. It is also a privilege to have a team that helps us in ministry each week.
Family
It was great having David, Daniel with Elisa, and Anna (of course!) here this past Christmas. Now we still see David, Daniel, and Elisa quite often, but on FaceTime instead of in person. We miss them, but they are all doing well.
We are especially thankful that Anna is here with us. After studying in BSSM the last couple of years, she is now working full time with me, in the online Bible School, the Advanced School of Ministry degree program, and our local church. She is also studying and practicing her fiction writing skills, as part of the Young Writer’s Workshop.
Thanks To Everyone!
We would like to express our most sincere thanks to all of you who pray for us, support us, send cards (thanks for those Christmas cards!), or simply know and care for us. May the Lord richly bless you!
With Love,
David, Sara, and Anna Lont