June Update 2014

Greetings from warm and sunny North Carolina!  We're pleased to share with you what the Lord has been doing in our lives and ministry.

Family: In home school, the children are finished with their studies for the current academic year, with only a few minor things left to do during the third week of June.  They are looking forward to summer fun outdoors in the sun, getting plenty of fresh air, playing with their friends in our community.

We had mentioned last month that Faith was bitten by a tick, which she pulled out of her ankle. This was a cause for concern, since she had a similar situation in Hungary that resulted in long-term symptoms, but nothing has come of it and she has had absolutely no adverse effects.  Praise the Lord! Thanks for joining us in prayer about that.

We also mentioned previously that Christopher had an injury inside his mouth that formed a fibrous lump.  In June a pedodontist surgically removed the lump successfully.  Please pray that everything will heal up and that the lump will not return.

More photos.     

We also mentioned last month that at the end of July we must move out of the temporary housing community for missionaries, where we live in North Carolina.  The Lord has opened a door for us to stay for seven months at a Guest House owned by King's Park International Church (KPIC), which is about one hour from where we now live.  After praying about it as a family, we all felt a peace about that opportunity, and have officially accepted the offer from KPIC.  This will be our second move since we left Hungary on furlough twelve months ago, not counting the three other times we relocated temporarily, and we will need to move once again only seven months after this one. But we are here to serve at not to settle down,  so we are grateful just to have a place to live. We would appreciate your prayers for the Lord's help with the upcoming move from here in six weeks.

Meanwhile, Len is coordinating a move of our property in Hungary from one home to another, as the landlord we were renting from has found another tenant and needs us to remove our property.  Three of Len's disciples will be handling this important project in early July, including Gabor and Greg, with David taking the lead.  Gabor will borrow a truck and they will put our things into storage at his father's home in Tokol.  Pray that this move goes smoothly.

Ministry:   As you know, our goal in being back here on furlough is to develop new sponsorship to continue with our mission in Eastern Europe to help complete the Great Commission.  However, we have not had any open doors, which resulted in speaking about our ministry at churches, since we moved to North Carolina last July.  Therefore, we are not any closer to being able to return to the mission field now than we were when we first began our furlough last June.  Our desire would be to come to your church or Bible Study group to preach and minister to you, while we are in the States.  If you would like us to do so, we can also make a presentation of our work in Eastern Europe.  Please pray about this.  It's a chance for us to encourage people to greater evangelism and commitment to completing the Great Commission globally, and we would be honored to come speak.  So give us a call if you would like us to come to speak to your group.

Len has been corresponding for a year now with a pastor, named [redacted for security], in Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia.  The population is 80% Buddhist and only 5% evangelical Christian.  Pastor [name redacted for security] lives in Yangon, a former capital city of Myanmar (also known as Burma), which has now become a commercial city with a population of 8 million people. There he rents a simple house with only one single room for five people.  He continues to invite Len to that country to help him, which is similar to invitations we receive from other countries. In his first email a year ago in June 2013, he stated:

"I am Pastor [name redacted for security] from Myanmar New Life Evangelical Ministries (MNLEM). I am also a Lecturer at Bible schools and translator of Christian books and also a Church Planter in remote area. When I saw your ministry and vision, I am so much touched and moved to be with you here in my country, Myanmar.

You are kindly invited to help Myanmar and share the Love of Christ to my people in Jesus Name!!

Myanmar needs you and your supports!!

Any plan in Asia, especially in Myanmar?

If you have no partner yet, I want you to join and help Myanmar people with me for the extension of the Kingdom of God in my country.

You please bring DMI for Myanmar!!

You are so special and precious to us and Myanmar!!

Hope to hearing from you soon,

In His Service,
Pastor [name redacted for security]"

In his most recent email he stated:

"Dear Len, It is good to get your mail and thanks for your letter. We are fine by his grace. We are also praying for you and Doulos missions International to set up in Myanmar in the days to come. We love you to come and bless us..Amen!!"

We have also invited him to come and visit us here in the States for some training.  Together we are praying about these opportunities for ministry.  If it is the Lord's will for us to fulfill such requests, we need the Lord's financial provision to do so. 

This invitation is not unlike others we receive from around the world.  For example, Len declined an invitation to Nigeria in April.  And in March, he once again declined an offer that he has received three years in a row from Pastor James Odeke in Northern Uganda with Bridge of Hope Ministries.  Pastor Odeke has requested help from Len for mentoring, leadership development, conferences, evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.  James has explicitly requested apostolic ministry from Len in Uganda, just as Timothy received from Paul.

Please pray that the Lord would raise up additional DMI faith partners, who love God, and will stand strongly with us to support us financially, as each of our current faith partners are continuing to do.  Together we must all combine our faith, praying and believing that the Lord will provide all we need to accomplish His purposes through our lives.

We reported that David would be going on an 8-day journey to Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo with a Hungarian organization, called Eastern Europe Mission.  However, the mission trip was cancelled and they set another date for it which was not good for David. So he had to cancel his plans to go, but in August he plans to go to Romania on a mission trip. It seems it was God's will.  Please lift that up in prayer for a great harvest of souls and encouragement for the churches.

Len has also been in touch with Gábor, his disciple from Hungary that has moved to Germany. He is sharing Jesus with some people there where he lives in Bavaria. As we reported, he had hoped to move his wife and youngest son there with him, so they could be together.  But unfortunately those plans have been cancelled.  Please pray for the Lord to give grace, peace and strength to his wife Kriszti to handle all the issues back home in Hungary and raising her son Bende alone.

The church in Tokol, Hungary that was planted in Gábor's home and then moved to a public building later is growing.  He and his son, David are involved in the prison ministry of the Tokol church.  Gabor recently preached to a group of mostly gypsy men there in June, and had the chance to pray for ten of them.

Greg (file photo)

Len spoke with Greg recently (pictured left), and he is still leading the inter-church house group, which is growing.  They now have about seventeen people, who come from at least three different, diverse churches.  The main purpose of the group is to be a community where believers can worship, pray, and fellowship together.  It's a community where they share their struggles and testimonies with one another, but there is no teaching.

Greg said that recently a local church in Budapest wanted to include the group in a church plant they are launching.  But neither he nor the members of the house group want to become part of a church plant, since it is not a church, and they want to keep it that way.  Greg encourages the members of the group to become disciples and he recommends the Life Transformation Group (LTG) approach that Len used in making Greg a disciple.  He reads the Bible every day, following a plan to read through the Bible in a year, and he gets messages from the Lord in his reading.  He is also seeking the will of God diligently.  So praise the Lord for the good fruit in Greg's life.

Back here in the States, Len had the opportunity in May to share Jesus over the phone with a young man in Costa Rica, named Randy.  He has rejected his Christian upbringing, denies the deity of Christ, and believes in reincarnation.  He is twenty-six years old, and told Len that he is at the point in his life where he is doing the research to determine what his spiritual path will be for the rest of his life, so the timeliness of Len's sharing with him was obviously prompted by the Lord.   He was "overwhelmed" by the love of God that he witnessed from Len, because he felt like his views were respected.  And he accepted an invitation from Len to correspond further about the claims of Christ.  Please pray for Randy's salvation.

That same day, the Lord led Jennifer to share Jesus with a lady named Penny here in North Carolina, who also had left her Christian upbringing.  She said that her life had fallen apart since she had done so, which was obvious for Jennifer to see.  She was open to the witness of the gospel that Jennifer bore, and it was clear the Holy Spirit is at work in her life, drawing her to Christ.  Please pray for Penny's salvation.

On another front, Len continues to stay in touch by email and blogs with pastors, elders, and laborers in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia.  We give God the glory for the encouraging feedback we recently received on Len's blogs from Zipporah in the Zambia, a Christian university student, whom we have mentioned previously in the articles Zipporah Mushala Testimony of Hell and Zipporah Mushala’s Second Testimony of Hell. She wrote:

"Hi, Thank very much for these wonderful articles. Am finding your articles very helpful especially at this time because School is hectic and I don't really have time to read and meditate on the Bible. It's easy to read your blogs because everything is already explained with scriptural evidence. Am enjoying them very much and when am reading one, it's over before I know it. God bless you and your family."

Len also receives correspondence from people like Zipporah and her sister Rachael, seeking godly, spiritual counsel from him.  An evangelist in Australia contacted Len for spiritual counsel in June. Another such person who did so recently was a young, Christian lady in Uganda, named Evelyn.  She has been living unmarried with Timothy, her companion for three years, and requested direction on how to get right with God.  Since contacting us, she and her companion have repented, sought the Lord, and made the decision to remain chaste until they get married this summer.  The wedding is currently planned for August 23rd.  Please pray that they will indeed remain chaste during this period, and that Timothy would become rooted and grounded in Christ.

Elsewhere in the world on May 6th, someone on an online forum used one of Len's articles to provide Biblical evidence to a man in the United Kingdom, named Rich Rock, who was considering a conversion to Roman Catholicism.  The man who was in search of direction titled his question: "Why shouldn't I convert from Evangelical Protestant to Catholic?" He stated: "I am taking steps towards joining the Catholic Church and my question is this....'Why shouldn't I?' I am not asking because I doubt my journey, I am asking because I haven't come across a good enough reason NOT to join."  One person who responded to him stated in part, "I would have to see Scripture backing up every doctrine, and it appears to me that there are a few that fly in the face of scripture."  That person linked to Len's article, Unbiblical Practices of the Catholic Church, which we hope has helped to better inform the seeker and arm him with the Truth.  Let's pray that Rich Rock will know the Truth and that the Truth will set him free.

We also discovered in June that a US-based ministry to Vietnam has re-posted on their website one of Len's articles in its entirety, called Inquiring of the Lord. You can see the reposted article here on the "Vietnam Salvation: Butter Fly" site.

Previously we have not known of this ministry, so Len wrote to them and asked about their ministry.  Afterward the President, Hai Chuong replied, "Our ministry is presently working with some churches and some denominations in Vietnam, by offering 'ISOM Bible school' in Viet Nam and Online.  We have supported house churches group with laptops, Internet and other means [so] that they can get online for Bible school, healing, intercessor prayer and counseling.... Our goal is to train Christians in Viet Nam and Vietnamese people all over the world, so they can be affective for the kingdom of God. May God Bless You and thanks for your interest in the work of Vietnamese people. Hai Chuong."

As Hai corresponded with Len, they were surprised to find out that they are both in the same State of North Carolina, so they spoke by phone and plan to meet in person sometime soon. They have some wonderful photos of their worship meetings posted, like the one pictured above, which you can view, as well.  We invite you to read the amazing testimony of Hai Chuong, which Len has now written in his article, My Journey from Buddhism to New Life in Christ.  As always, we are very blessed to see others in the far corners of the mission field benefiting from our teaching and training materials.

Each week, there are typically around twelve page-views from around the world of Len's article, "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"  This past month, there were 66 page-views from people in Viet Nam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Netherlands, Swaziland, Luxembourg, Canada, and the United States.  Let's pray that all of these people who invited Jesus into their hearts this month, and made a commitment to serve Him, would come to know Him, and continue to follow Him as disciples.

Resources:  This month we would also like to suggest Len's blog called, The Light and the Glory, which is an article Len wrote years ago, and recently revised with some interesting additions, including a testimony from Dr. Richard Wurmbrand.  You may also enjoy My Journey from Buddhism to New Life in Christ.  All of Len's latest articles are available at Old News That's Still Fresh - June 2014. Len's entire collection of his most popular blogs are at Writing for the Master.

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 prison ministry of Gabor and his son David.
2. For the good fruit in Greg’s life.
3. For the encouraging feedback we recently received on Len's blogs from Zipporah in the Zambia.
4. For the benefit that others are receiving in the far corners of the mission field from our teaching and training materials.
5. For successful removal of the lump in Christopher’s mouth.
6. For the disciples in Hungary that have agreed to move our property and for the Lord providing storage space at the home of Gabor's father.
7. For the fact that Faith’s tick bite has not resulted in any adverse side effects.

Next steps and prayer needs:

1. For the Lord to bless David’s upcoming, missions trip to Romania in August, and give him souls for Jesus and much fruit!
2. For the upcoming move of our property in Hungary to go smoothly.
3. For the Lord to open new doors of opportunity for ministry for us, and that we would be fruitful.
4. For the Lord to further expand the awareness of this ministry throughout the US, and raise up many new faith partners, who will sponsor us.
5. For both Randy in Costa Rica and Penny in NC to come to know Jesus. 
6. That Evelyn and her companion will indeed remain chaste during this period, and that Timothy would become rooted and grounded in Christ.
7. That Rich Rock will know the Truth and that the Truth will set him free.
8. That everyone who invited Jesus into their hearts this month through Len’s “Do You Want to Know Jesus” article, would come to know Him, and continue to follow Him as disciples.  
9. For our financial blessing. 

Thank you so much for your partnership in this ministry.

with love from all of us,

The Lacroixs

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