“God sees everything you do,” said the little plaque hanging over my father’s bed growing up in Cuba. Dad said he would read those glow-in-the-dark paraphrased words from Proverbs 5:21 and hide under his covers.
While the words on the plaque terrified him, they also inspired him to do his very best in all things he set out to do. It would be impossible for me to count how many times I heard him say “Let’s do this right. We’re serving the King of Kings.”
We’ve tried to figure out the numbers regarding LOGOI’s ministry impact — which is really the wrong thing to do. We know God looks at hearts and not numbers. Even so, we’ve summarized LOGOI’s 56 years of ministry by saying:
God has used the ministry of LOGOI to help, equip, and encourage tens of thousands of pastors and church leaders throughout the world. Thousands of churches have been planted, hundreds of churches and ministries have been revitalized, and countless lives have been brought to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
Perhaps that is why my father, LOGOI founder Les Thompson, was compelled way back in the 1960s to be one of the first (if not the very first) to publish Christian Spanish books with splashy, full-color covers. He was criticized for “wasting God’s money” but when the books quickly sold out, other publishers followed suit.
When Dad felt God was leading him to start an on-the-job Bible school for national pastors, he searched for the finest Bible scholars and writers available. After all, “God sees everything you do,” so it had to be excellent. What a thrill to say that even today, the Bible courses prepared all those years ago are still considered some of the best available to the Spanish-speaking world.
LOGOI looks a lot different today with our ministry having moved online. My father saw it coming and was more excited about it than anyone. My job has been to simply repackage our Bible resources and courses and make them available via the internet.
When Dad left us to move into his new heavenly home 13 years ago this month, we were serving some 6,000 pastors. It was a big and expensive number. Today, we’re serving over 32,000 for a quarter of the cost, and the excellent content has not changed – only the delivery system.
One of our important projects happening right now is offering a master’s degree in Bible Teaching in Cuba. We’re working with Nuevas Eclesiologías y Misionologías Latinoamericanas (NEML - New Latin American Ecclesiologies and Missiologies, in English) and a group of 25 Bible Seminary teachers throughout Cuba (who are also pastors). Upon graduation, they will become our master’s professors, teaching the exact courses to hundreds more who also want to earn their master's degrees.
Our master’s degree in Cuba is designed as an 18 to 20-month study and costs a total of $1,000. Understanding the average wage in Cuba is less than $20 per month, a degree, even at $500 per year, is completely out of reach. Each student, however, is required to pay what they are able. The balance is paid via scholarships provided by ministry partners from both NEML and LOGOI.
Would you help provide a scholarship to one of our 25 initial students? It works out to be a remarkable $56 per credit hour. What joy it would be for us to tell these initial 25 students, “Your brother or sister in Christ has just given you a scholarship! Study well. God sees everything you do!”
In addition to establishing LOGOI’s ministry and teaching Bible courses throughout Central and South America, my father authored 13 books, including Letters to Carlos, The Ten Commandments — Godly Living in and Ungodly World and Faith That Moves Mountains (La fe que mueve montañas, available only in Spanish). He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Wales, Bangor (at the tender age of 70).
What I remember most, however, is that Les Thompson is remembered throughout Latin America as the “Pastor to Pastors” for his biblical teaching and love for his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. What a legacy. Thank you for keeping that legacy alive and well.
Forever!
Ed Thompson
P.S. Click here to keep Les Thompson’s legacy alive and provide a scholarship for one or more Cuban students of the master’s degree in Bible Teaching.
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