July Update 2014

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

Our little girl ready to blow out 16 candles

Family: In June, we celebrated Charity's sixteenth birthday, as well as the graduation of our four oldest children into the next academic grade.  We went for a picnic at a local park, where we ate dinner and played ball together.

On a separate occasion, we also went for dinner to a local barbeque chicken restaurant in July.  After we finished eating and were preparing to pay the bill, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that our bill was already paid.  A group of older folks, that had sat at the table next to us and left before we did, had gone to the check out counter at the front and paid our bill forward when they paid their own.  They even tipped our waitress for us with a generous twenty percent tip! Praise the Lord!

On another occasion in July, a youth group from a church in Indiana came to visit the missionary housing community where we are living, so that they could do some work to help out here. On the last day of their visit, they came to our door to introduce themselves and give us a bag of food and other items, along with a card with fifty dollars in it!  Praise the Lord!  These are just some of the wonderful experiences we get to enjoy, living by faith.

We also began preparing for the move coming up at the end of July, which included some cleaning and packing.  Thank the Lord, we had help from Roger, the local pastor whom Len had trained last fall.  Our packing and cleaning continues for the rest of July until our moving day on the 31st.  We don't have much to move, but it's enough to require a small moving van.  Please pray that we would have all preparations completed by then, and that our move would go smoothly.

More photos.     

Len at Charity's 16th birthday party

Meanwhile, back in Hungary, Gabor successfully moved our things into storage at his father's home in Tokol.  He did this single-handedly on a Saturday during the only weekend of his short, one-week stay in Hungary, before returning to Germany.  We are thankful to God for his help and that everything went smoothly.

The girls have written several new poems, three of which are Jesus, Bitter or Better, Who is Judge?, Our Sympathizer, Die or Deny, and Sin's Price.  The first one they wrote together, and the others were written by Charity.  We invite you to check those out on their blog, Verses to the King.

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 in June 2013.  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.

In July, we received correspondence from a man in Zimbabwe, Africa, named Rufaro K., who testified that he was reading the testimonies on Len's blogs, then went to the article, Do You Want to Know Jesus? and prayed to give his life to Jesus!  He wrote, "I was moved by the testimonies and your info on entering the kingdom. I want to serve The Lord and work for Him." As Len followed up with him, he was delighted to learn that Rufaro has since been baptized with water. What a joy it is each time someone gives their life to the Lord, and another lost sheep is found, another soul rescued from darkness.  Praise the Lord!  Please pray that Rufaro will stand firm in all the will of God, mature, and fully assured.

David with Len (file photo)

In July, Len spoke with his spiritual son in Christ, David in Hungary.  He has begun a new job with a major insurance company, and is  in training before he can sell insurance. Once he has completed his training in July or by the end of August, he’ll be certified to sell everything. He is hopeful this will enable him to support his mother and twin sister.

He spoke about a burden the Lord has placed in his heart, because of the wickedness taking place in Hungary.  For example, there is a mythical, black, iron bird at the Royal Castle in Budapest, called the Turul bird with a sword in its mouth. Another Turul bird with a wingspan of about 45 feet stands on a mountain near Tatabánya, Hungary.  According to David, some people in Hungary actually worship the Turul bird.

There has also been a lot of innocent blood shed in Hungary by other nations, which never asked for forgiveness. And we know that God hates the shedding of innocent blood (Pr 6:17), which brings a curse on the land. Therefore, there are some major strongholds in Budapest that need to be broken.

Jennifer and the family at Heroes Square

There is a museum in Budapest called the House of Terror, which was once an actual torture house.  People were kept captive, beaten, starved, tortured and killed in this building, by members of two of Hungary's most frightening regimes - the Nazis in the early 1940's, and the Soviets, until 1956.  It is a place that you really don't want to go into just to satisfy curiosity, because to this day it is oppressed by the sense of a heavy, evil spirit.

Another noteworthy site in Budapest is the famous Heroes' Square, where David says that hundreds of people were once slaughtered. We were not aware of that background.

According to David, the Hungarians have committed atrocities worse than the Nazis, in fact they were faithful to them.  They killed Jews and homosexuals, and hated them. They persecuted them, and even today there is still anti-Semitism in Hungary. 

In addition to that, there is also wickedness in high places within the Parliament. Every year on August 20th, the entire nation is re-dedicated to Mary.  This too is a great sin before God.  As a result of all these things, the hearts of the Hungarians are broken, depressed, and adulterous. Pray for these strongholds to come down, for curses to be broken, for the Lord to have mercy, for His glory to be released in Hungary, and for the light of the gospel to shine in the hearts of the Hungarians.  Pray for the Lord to help David as he fulfills the important mission the Lord has given him with regard to these things.

Pr. Hai Chuong

Last month we mentioned a Vietnamese pastor named Hai Chuong, who had re-posted one of Len's articles on his Vietnamese evangelistic website, and how we later discovered that the church where he serves is right in Charlotte, North Carolina -- just two hours away.  In July, Len and Hai met together for the first time in person in Lexington, and began to build a relationship.  Hai has graciously extended an invitation to Len to come and preach at the church in Charlotte. Please pray that the Lord's will be done on earth as it is in heaven regarding their relationship and this opportunity.

We occasionally receive positive feedback from those around the world who are benefiting from Len's blogs.  One such comment came recently from sister Rachael Mushala, a Christian journalist in Zambia, whom Len has written about in Rachael Mushala Testimony of Hell.  After reading Len's article, The Need for Accountability, she wrote, "Hello brother, This is a very sobering study.  So often we take failure to warn people who perish in sin so lightly. But this article clearly proves from the bible that its not a light matter to GOD. I've been blessed by it. Thanks!"

On another occasion, regarding Len's article, False Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, she wrote "Hi, brother! I feel so happy right now because the article you wrote about false blasphemy has been such a blessing to me today! A sister who is really trying to get right with God and live in holiness wrote to me saying she is having blasphemous thoughts uncontrollably flush in her head and was really worried she had committed the unforgivable sin. Immediately I knew she is experiencing an attack that satan once tried on Zipporah...and me, so I referred her to your article.  It made things really easy!  Praise God. Now I am realising there must be so many Christians experiencing this attack and are despairing.  I've also realised satan targets those really trying to get close to the Lord so they'll give up.  Thank God who used you to write the article!"  Praise the Lord for the positive feedback and the things He is doing with these articles.

Resources:  This month we would also like to suggest Len's blogs called, Compelled by Love and Grace, Mercy, and Peace.  You may also enjoy Noah's Ark a Type of Christ.  All of Len's latest articles are available at Old News That's Still Fresh - July 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 salvation of Rufaro K. in Zimbabwe and that he has already been water baptized.
2. For the random act of kindness done by the people who paid our bill at the restaurant.
3. For the food and offering we received from the youth group from Indiana.
4. For the moving help we received from Gabor in Hungary and Pastor Roger in North Carolina.
5. For this sixteenth year the Lord has given to Charity.
6. For the poems the Lord has given to Charity and the other girls recently.
7. For the benefit that others are receiving in the far corners of the mission field from our teaching and training materials.
8. For the burden the Lord has placed in David's heart for his native country of Hungary.

Next steps and prayer needs:

1. That we would have all preparations completed by July 31, and that our move would go smoothly.
2. That Rufaro will stand firm in all the will of God, mature, and fully assured.
3. For the Lord to help David carry our the mission He has placed in his heart regarding the strongholds.
4. For David to successfully complete his insurance training by the end of August, so that he’ll be certified to sell everything.
5. For the Lord's will to be done regarding Len's relationship with Hai and this invitation to preach.
6. For the Lord to give Len guidance regarding invitations to other countries.
7. For the Lord to open new doors of opportunity for ministry for us, and that we would be fruitful.
8. 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.
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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