December Update 2012

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

Jennifer, Len, and Dennis on Thanksgiving

Family: On Thanksgiving, we had a special guest from Luxembourg, our friend, Dennis Nederveen.  He is a very special brother that we have come to know through our relationship with the church in Belgium, and the revival he and Len both attended in February.  This is now the second time he has met with Len in Hungary, while passing through the city en route to a destination abroad.  We had a couple hours of quality time with him, before we had to take him to the train station for his trip to Slovakia, where he was attending a Teen Challenge leadership conference.  Unfortunately he was not able to stay for the Thanksgiving dinner, but our brief time with him was a real treat and a blessing from the Lord.  We'd like to encourage you to read his amazing testimony of salvation online, called "The Joy I've Come to Know" (see here).

We had another round of colds and flu in November that affected most of us to some extent.  Charity had a bad case of the flu and gave a wonderful testimony to tell about what the Lord did through that trial.  We'd like to encourage you to read her testimony and the poems from that experience at "Verses to the King" (see here).

In December, we took an overnight getaway together without the children for the first time since the fall of 2011.  We found a mature babysitter that we could trust, named Amanda, who is here from Chicago as a short-term missionary, teaching at the local school in our village.  We stayed at a hotel in Budapest, and went for dinner at the Kosher restaurant in the Jewish quarter of the city.  We had a wonderful time together, and the children really enjoyed their time with Amanda. Praise the Lord that we were able to take some time away!

Ministry: Looking back over this year, we can see how the Lord has truly blessed us. He enabled Len to travel to Belgium three times (twice with the family), then to Bulgaria and Romania, as well as twice to England. Some of  the highlights were the youth meetings here in Erd, Hungary (see here),  the Belgium revival (see here), the meetings with the churches in Bulgaria (see here), the meetings with the churches in Romania (see here), seeing David begin to multiply disciples here in Hungary (see here), all the opportunities to share the gospel with people here in Hungary, and obtaining a renewal of our residence permits for three more years! What the Lord has done in, through, and for us this year has been unprecedented and remarkable, and we're very grateful to Him for it.

In the course of time, Len has received a few invitations to minister short-term on other continents outside of Eastern Europe and the Americas. We want to be obedient to the Lord, but need wisdom from Him and direction concerning these long-distance opportunities.  Please pray for us about these open doors!

Last month we mentioned that Len began to share Jesus with a Hungarian, medical doctor named Endre ("Andrew"), and that he was invited to this man's home for further discussion.  We have now made plans to visit with him and his family in Szeged (pronounced "SE-ged"), Hungary.  The visit is scheduled occur before we publish our next newsletter, and if you would like the exact date for the purpose of prayer, just email us for it.  Please pray that the Lord would give us the words, wisdom, and anointing to be His witnesses to this family. And please also pray that we will have an opportunity to minister healing to Andrew's friend, who is diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.

Kriszti and Gábor

Last month we mentioned a kidney problem Gábor was having that required some diagnostic imaging.  His doctor did find a mass and sent Gábor for additional computer tomography (CT Scan).  After the CT Scan, Gábor received prayer for healing through laying on of hands, and at that time he felt heat go down his legs.  Since then he has not felt anything in his kidney, in other words, he has not experienced any of the symptoms that led to his visit to the doctor.  Praise the Lord! But he plans to go back for medical follow up, since the doctor ordered him to return after he received the results of the diagnostic imaging.  Since the images of his kidney were produced before the healing occurred, the scans will not reflect his current condition, so he will need to explain what happened and request further testing to document his healing.  So we expect by faith to receive a good report from the doctor.

Gábor's wife, Kriszti ("Christy") is a hairdresser, and she runs her own business out of their home.  But due to the economy, customers who used to come every two weeks now come every two months.  So it has been very difficult for them, and she is very concerned.  Many others like them have found it difficult to survive here in Hungary. That's why Gábor would like to go to Germany or some other country to find work to support his family, which a lot of people in Eastern Europe are doing these days.

But recently Kriszti decided to offer an entire day of her services for free.  Anyone who came for haircuts, styling, or treatments received her services free of charge that day. One lady who came was raised as an orphan and her husband had recently been hospitalized.  He had become so stressed out over their financial troubles that he became ill (perhaps with ulcers). They were able to share the Lord with this lady, and later with her husband, as well, after he was released from the hospital. Please pray for Gábor and Kriszti , who are starting a new church in their home in the town of Tököl, Hungary.  Pray that the Lord would bless them financially, so that they could stay together in their home town and start this new church.

Vilmos

Jennifer continues to build relationship and care for Rita, the poor, gypsy lady we mentioned last time. Len recently met with Vilmos ("William"), one of the elders we have known for four years now at a local church in Budapest.  You may remember we've mentioned him in the past.  He is bi-vocational, so due to his busy work and ministry schedule, he has only been able to meet via Skype.  However, his feedback, especially about the last meeting, was very good.  He has been encouraged by the exchange. He is currently praying about next steps in terms of meeting further with Len. 

Resources:  This month we would also like to encourage you to read "Ark of the Covenant Found -- Part 2" (see here) about perhaps the greatest discovery of all time.  Also see "Did Jesus Nail the Law to the Cross?" (see here), "Should You Fear the Lord?" (see here), and "Verses to the King" (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 the quality time away that we were able to take without the children.
2. For healing Gábor from his kidney problem.
3. For the open doors of ministry on other continents.
4. For restoring our health.
5. 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 anoint us with words and wisdom to witness to Andrew and his family in Szeged.
3. For the Lord to give us an opportunity to minister healing and salvation to Andrew's friend with pancreatic cancer. 
4. For the Lord to give us wisdom and direction concerning open doors of short-term ministry outside of Europe.
5. For the Lord to continue using all of us in our personal evangelism work, including the children.
6. For the Lord to continue using 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.
7. For the Lord to continue to multiply disciples through Dávid V. and the others in his church. 
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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