October Update 2014

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

Family: In September, we received a preplanned visit from Jennifer's parents, who had come down from West Virginia for two days. The children especially enjoy seeing their grandparents.

We have mentioned previously that Charity is studying French.  In September, one of our friends in Belgium, a dear sister in Christ named Denise, has agreed to help Charity learn French by doing a weekly Skype call with her.  During one of the times that we have visited with Denise and her husband in Belgium, she had once offered to have Charity come and stay with them for three months and learn French.  So that is why we asked if she would be willing to do this weekly call, and she agreed to it. This gives Charity some good interaction with a native French speaker, so that she can learn proper pronunciation. She herself is learning to speak English, and we had advised Charity offer to spend half the weekly call helping Denise learn English. However, after praying about it and discussing it with her husband, Denise felt that she would like to spend the whole time helping Charity, and she is happy to do it. Praise the Lord for her kindness and helpfulness.

More photos.    

In October the Lord gave us a beautiful afternoon to celebrate Jennifer's birthday with a little party, at which she received some gifts and cards.

We reported last month that Len's brother Paul had suffered a major stroke and was in the hospital in a coma.  Sadly, Paul passed away in the hospital on September 17, at 5:36 AM. One of his adult daughters was present with him at the time. His funeral was held on September 20, and you may view his obituary here., as well as the associated Guest Book online.

Ministry:  The barber that Len and the boys go to, who is a Korean lady named Sarah, had invited Len to visit her church.  That led to Len speaking by phone with her pastor, Arnold, and all of us subsequently visiting that church.  They have two congregations, one of which is Korean speaking adults, and the other is young people of various nationalities, who are typically in their twenties. 

Later that week, Arnold invited Len to out to a Korean restaurant for dinner, where Len got to try eating some traditional Korean food with chop sticks.  There he met a waiter, named Daniel, to whom pastor Arnold wanted to introduce him.  Interestingly Daniel was perhaps the only waiter there who was not Korean.  When Len spoke with him, he was pleasantly surprised to discover that he was from Hungary.  Although pastor Arnold said he had mentioned that to Len beforehand, Len did not recall him saying that. Pastor Arnold thought that perhaps Len could help him reach this young, Hungarian waiter with the gospel.  Len and Daniel hit it off well immediately, and naturally Daniel was quite surprised to meet someone who had lived in Hungary for nearly five years.  That night Len left a business card with Daniel and invited him to get together for lunch soon.

A couple weeks later, Daniel came to our home for a visit.  The children all introduced themselves in Hungarian and we shared a few sentences with him in Hungarian.  We also talked about Hungary, which we all enjoyed, and had a few laughs about some of our experiences there.  Then we sang some worship songs in the Hungarian language while he was here, but we did not expect the response we received from him afterward.  He said he was speechless.  He also said, "This was perhaps -- no, this was THE most memorable moment of my life."  The expression on his face told us he really meant it.  And he told us that if he didn't know we were Americans, he would have thought we were native Hungarian speakers.  That was a big encouragement to us, for which we praise the Lord.  We are mostly conscious of our inability with Hungarian, yet here was this man being touched by the Lord through these praise and worship songs we had sung.

Later during our visit, Len shared Jesus with him using the Hungarian-English Bible.  Afterward Daniel repented and surrendered his life to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.  Praise the Lord!!  To God be the glory.  We were so excited about his salvation, which happened to occur just before the sixth anniversary of our departure for Hungary on October 15, 2008.

The Lord has also led us to evangelize to our local community, which includes the homes along the rural road where we live, as well as a mobile home park about a mile down the road from us.  The outreach has been going well, and we are finding a number of people who are open.  One man named Steve is backslidden and wants to return to the Lord with his family. A young Mexican lady, named Annamaria, considered herself a Christian, but did not even know the way to be saved according to the gospel.  She seemed surprised when she heard the gospel. Another backslidden man, named George, was very open to our message, and indicated he knows he needs to return to the Lord.  His wife Doris also seemed to open up to the Word of God, whereas she did not seem that way when we first met her.  Amazingly, the first time we went to her mobile home, she did not answer the door.  But when we were there in that trailer park a couple weeks later, she had been locked out of her home, and it gave us an opportunity to speak with her and her George. The Lord divinely arranged that meeting!  George said he would like to come to our home next Sunday for worship and Bible study.  There is another backslidden man named Jesse that we reached out to.  These are just a few of the people we would like to highlight. Please pray that the Lord would touch each of these precious people, and bring them into right standing with Himself, so that they would be truly saved.

Len has remained in touch with David in Hungary, as well as the pastors in Southeast Asia.  He held a Skype call in October with one of the Asian pastors and did some teaching, which was well received and appreciated by the pastor, whom we will call Nigel.

We thank the Lord for each of these opportunities here in North Carolina and abroad, and ask that you join us in praying that the Lord would bring forth good fruit for His glory that would last.

We would like to mention that Len met by phone in October with the board of directors for Doulos Missions International, and the board voted unanimously to appoint David Vadnai from Hungary to serve on the board.  As you know, he is one of Len's disciples, who has really matured, caught the vision for multiplication of disciples, and is running with it.  He is actively serving the Lord, taking missions trips to other countries in Eastern Europe, leading people to Christ, and making disciples.

As we have prayed, we feel that Len should return to Budapest short-term to meet with David before the end of the year, to encourage him and his disciples, and pray together.  Would you pray about being a part of this by giving to support such a trip?  Please pray also that the Lord would raise up partners whom the Lord would use to provide financially for such a trip.

Lastly, the church in the Northeast that was interested in having Len for a visit has decided to wait indefinitely until a later time to do so.

Resources:  This month we would also like to suggest two important articles Len has recently written called, The Forgotten Sin of Worldliness and Separation from the World. All of Len's latest articles are available at Old News That's Still Fresh - October 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 celebration of Jennifer's birthday.
2. For the visit from Jennifer's parents.
3. For Denise in Belgium agreeing to tutor Charity in French.
4. For the new connection with the Korean pastor, named Arnold.
5. For the fact that Daniel, the Hungarian waiter, gave his life to the Lord Jesus.
6. For the ways He has enabled us to touch lives that are in need of him through outreach.
7. For the opportunity to serve Nigel in Southeast Asia through encouragement and teaching.
8. For David's decision and appointment to serve on the DMI board.

Next steps and prayer needs:

1. That Daniel the Hungarian waiter will receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and become a powerful witness for the Lord, growing in his new relationship with Christ. 
2. For the Lord to draw to Himself and save the people we have been witnessing to.
3. For the Lord to guide and provide for Len to go to Budapest and Vienna for prayer and ministry.
4. For the Lord to bless the Skype teaching and training with the pastors in Southeast Asia.
5. For the Lord to give Len guidance and provision regarding the open door for short-term work in Southeast Asia.
6. For the Lord to open new doors of opportunity for ministry for us, and that we would be fruitful.
7. 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.
8. For the church to allow us to stay at least until the summer, so we wouldn't have to move during the school year.   Or else that He would provide another place for us to move to in February.
9. For our financial blessing. 

Thank you so much for your partnership in this ministry.

with love from all of us,

The Lacroixs

There are two ways to donate to Doulos Missions International. You may either send a check or money order by mail to:
Doulos Missions International
PO Box 5526
Manchester, NH 03108-5526

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