Thursday, November 15, 2012

November Update 2012

Greetings from Hungary!  We’re delighted to give you another update on what the Lord is doing here in Eastern Europe.

Hope celebrating her birthday
Family: In November, we celebrated Hope's twelfth birthday with cake and gifts.  In fact, since Len was away on her actual birthday, we had the opportunity to celebrate it a second time when he returned home.  We also went through a round of head colds and sore throats that made their way through the family, from which Len is still recovering.

The children continue with their home schooling.  At the end of October, we finally received one set of curriculum that we ordered from the States in August, which had been detained in the Hungarian customs office. The children continue to participate in a weekly co-op with other local, home school students.  They are studying Latin and art this semester, and doing very well. 

Faith enjoying birthday cake
Len's toe is showing significant improvement!  Thank you to all who have prayed! If any of you is a physical therapist, who might be able to offer some helpful advice, please let us know. 

Ministry: In October, Len attended a conference in England, where he met many Hungarians, including the pastor and elders of the church where David V is serving.  Unfortunately David himself was not able to go, but Len began to build relationship with the men from his church leadership who attended.  When David's pastor met Len and found out that he was the one who had discipled him, he said, "What you taught him is now being practiced in our church in the youth group." Praise the Lord for this wonderful report!

Len with pastor Peter
Len also met other Hungarian pastors that were there, like Peter (pictured left).  He pioneered a church a couple decades ago, and set in a pastor about eighteen months ago.  Afterward the Lord spoke to him through Psalm 82, which says, "Vindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. They do not know nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken." (Psa 82:3-5).  The Lord told him to go and do this among the gypsies here in Hungary.  Since then he has been going into places like Gyöngyöshalász, a little village in the northeastern part of the country.  He has not yet pioneered a church, but visits about sixteen different families in their homes, and has baptized thirteen new converts to Christ.  He does all of this by traveling for three hours by bus from Budapest, since he no longer has a car. By car it would only be about a seventy minute drive.  Whenever he saw Len during the conference, he was so full of joy and love.  They began to develop a good relationship together at the conference.

Len and Andy Tiplady
At the conference, Len also met many Hungarian Christians, who have emigrated to England. The Lord began to knit more relationships together with them as well.  We don't yet know what all this means, but we believe we will know more in the future, as God unfolds His plan in all of it.

In addition to meeting many Hungarians, Len also met some wonderful English Christians there, including the founder and overseer of the church that hosted the conference, Andy Tiplady (pictured above). Andy felt it was so important for Len to return for another conference being held their in November that he offered to financially sponsor the majority of the travel expenses for Len to return for it.  After praying about it back at home, the Lord indicated to us that He did want Len to go, so off he went, back to England.

Pastor Neville Johnson and Len
The speaker was pastor Neville Johnson, founder of Living Word Foundation and the Academy of Light in Australia.  As it turned out, in hindsight we could see that it was a vitally important conference, and what the Lord did there could not be substituted or accomplished otherwise.  There was a definite, tangible impartation from the Holy Spirit at this historic event, the impact of which will be seen in the exciting days ahead. For the testimony of how the Lord made this connection between Len and Neville, please read "The Burning Ones" (see here).

On the return trip home, Len met a Hungarian medical doctor, named Endre ("Andrew"), and began to share Jesus with him.  He is a General Surgery Consultant, who sat with Len on the plane after they met at the airplane boarding gate, and expressed a sincere interest in knowing the truth about Jesus.  At the end of the flight, he invited Len to visit him in southern Hungary with the whole family after the holidays, so that he can sit and hear the gospel message.  We know this is a divine appointment. Please pray for this important visit with Andrew and his wife, who is an endocrinologist, so that the Lord would enable us to go, and open their hearts to hear the gospel. He also mentioned that they have a friend who is dying with stage-four, pancreatic cancer.  Please pray that the Lord would use us to minister healing and salvation to this friend, as well.

Recently the Lord gave Jennifer an opportunity to reach out to a needy gypsy lady, named Rita.  She lives very close to where Jennifer does her grocery shopping.  In answer to prayer, Jennifer was able to help her, and got to see where she lives at a community house with her four children in a single room the size of our boys' bedroom.  She welcomed Jennifer back in the future, so please pray that this would lead to salvation for Rita and her children.

Len's disciple, Gábor, told Len this week that his kidney has been bothering him, so he went for an ultrasound, which revealed something.  Therefore, the doctors are conducting further testing to determine the problem.  Please join us in praying for Gábor to be healed.

Resources:  This month we would also like to encourage you to read "The Burning Ones" (see here), "The Happy Hunters on Fire" (see here), as well as "Deleted Scriptures in the Bible?" (see here).

As always, Len's entire collection of most popular blogs are at "Writing for the Master" (see here).  We welcome your comments on this newsletter, so feel free to leave those below.

In closing, we have much to praise God for, and many opportunities for you to join us in prayer.

Praise the Lord with us for the many answers to prayer:
  1. For making a way for Len to attend these two conferences in England, and how he led Len to meet Neville Johnson in person.
  2. For pastor Peter's ministry among the gypsies in Hungary, and Len's new relationship with him.
  3. For the divine connections with Hungarian leaders through this conference in the UK.
  4. For restoring our health.
  5. For Hope's wonderful birthday celebration.
  6. For the opportunity to share Jesus in Hungary with Andrew the MD and Rita the poor, gypsy lady.
Next steps and prayer needs:
  1. For the Lord to reveal Himself to all the non believers in Hungary, whom we have touched, especially Andrew the MD and Rita the poor, gypsy lady.
  2. For the Lord to continue using all of us in our personal evangelism work, including the children.
  3. For the Lord to continue using Len's disciples Dávid V., Greg and Gábor to reach the lost with the gospel, as well as make disciples.  And for the Lord to enable us to spend some extended time in fellowship and prayer with them in the coming weeks.
  4. For the Lord to continue to multiply disciples through Dávid V. and the others in his church. 
  5. For the Lord to use pastor Péter in his ministry to gypsies in Gyöngyöshalász.
  6. For the Lord to heal Gábor.
  7. For the Lord to give us an opportunity to minister healing and salvation to Andrew's friend with pancreatic cancer. 
  8. For the outpouring of His Holy Spirit here in Diosd to continue to ripple all across Hungary and Eastern Europe.
  9. For the Lord to powerfully anoint and help Len as he meets with pastors, elders, and disciples here in Hungary this fall.
  10. For our financial blessing.  
Thank you so much for your partnership in this ministry.

Love from all of us,

The Lacroixs

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