Febuary 2023 Newsletter Story: Steven Lachonas

Steven Lachonas is speaking at many of the upcoming AzOSA events for February with his signature “Live” presentations involving real-life animals and their unique makeup designed by God. Lachonas displays a passion for animals that sweetens the heart of anyone who drinks their coffee without sugar and shows a love for teaching that’s remarkably wholesome.

From a young age, Lachonas displayed a fascination with animals: searching the woods for bird’s nests and catching wild lizards; Lachonas was in nature like a kid in a candy store. He grew up with a passion for working with animals, but he decided to get a degree not in biology but in Christian Ministries. What Lachonas really loved was the hands-on experience of working with animals whether it be at zoos, presentations, or events, and he realized that as much as the textbooks talk about how animals behave, nothing teaches you better than actually being with the animal.

Oddly enough, Lachonas didn’t think he would have a career primarily geared toward animal interaction. He found biology and math classes hard to understand in depth (at least from a textbook) and found that while a degree can be useful to his passion for animals, it wasn’t the only way he could do what he loved. He initially thought he would grow up to be a pastor, hence why he graduated with a Bachelor’s in Christian Ministries. Still, he found himself working at zoos and building up experience giving some presentations with animals at said zoos.

There was one instance where he was working at the Phoenix Zoo during a homeschooling event with booths and activities galore. Lachonas took some time to walk around some of the stalls and met Dr. Joseph Kezele at an AzOSA booth. Both of them got to talking about Creation and working with animals, and starting around 2013, Lachonas started giving presentations with the use of live animal showing for AzOSA. He hosted a large number of events at AzOSA for a time, and then took a small break to work with Answers in Genesis; another creation-based organization to teach God’s word to a large audience. After working with them for several years, Lachonas set up shop in Arizona, where he got in touch with Dr. Kezele, and was open and excited about more teaching opportunities.

Lachonas loves animals and God with a fiery passion, but his biggest passion is sharing it with others, showing and teaching people why learning about animals can bring them closer to God. One of the things Lachonas loves to include in his lectures is how if evolution was real, our relationship with animals would actually deteriorate by a large margin. God called Adam to tend to the garden, to name and rule over the animals, in other words, a Christian has an order from God to watch over the creatures He has created, it’s a bond that was woven by the Creator Himself. In evolution, it leaves humans on the same playing ground as animals and paints a much more distant closed-off relationship between man and the creatures he makes a connection with.

Lachonas’ favorite animal to present is the famous tarantula spider. Other than the fact that it looks cool, Lachonas always enjoys bringing it out to see the reaction he gets from the crowd. He particularly likes going through the anatomy of the hairy spider and loves the reactions he gets from the kids. Another intriguing animal he has a soft spot for is the snake. Lachonas likes to teach on the biblical principle and imagery of the snake, and then show how good snakes are for our environment. He wraps it up in this creative and ironic twist about how crushing a serpent’s head is not the best thing to do as a steward of God’s creation.

Lachonas voices strongly that one of the best things about presenting on creation and working with AzOSA is that he is teaching the creation to look back to its Creator. “What we see in God’s world agrees with what we read in God’s word,” Lachonas says. His creative style of teaching combined with the live display of animal life centered around a calling of love God has harked to him creates a splendor of a presentation and experience to see unfold before your eyes. Lachonas looks forward to any participants who will come to his teachings and reminds everybody that a good steward of God is not only loving of His creation but careful of His creation.