May Update 2015

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

Family: In April, we continued with our search for another place to live until we ran out of time.  We encountered more difficulties with this move than in any move either of us have ever made before.  We were approved to rent a place, but our negotiations with the rental agency and owner failed, so we walked away from the table.  In the end, by the grace of God, we found another place. And within less than a week before we had to move out of the guesthouse, we received approval to lease it. God provided a place for us to stay at the "eleventh hour". It's a two-story, four-bedroom, two and a half bath home with a private back yard. It even has a playground for the children. Praise the Lord!

But even once we were approved and signed the lease, we encountered many trials and difficulties in the process of moving.  For example, something happened with our mover during the last thirty minutes before our scheduled move time, and we were left without help.  All our belongings were packed and ready to be loaded into a truck, the guesthouse was cleaned and we were ready to go on time, but we now had nobody to move us, and no truck. Len asked a few neighbors and called a local pastor, but nobody was able to help us. He decided to rent a truck and managed to find a mover who could move us the next morning, whom we will call Bill.  So we stayed an extra night at the guesthouse, still within our allowed time limit to stay until April 30th.

The next day we moved without a problem, and the Lord gave Len an opportunity to share his testimony with the mover that rode in the truck with him, whom we will call Don.  It turned out that both Don and Bill are Christian men, but Bill said he is not walking with the Lord as he should.  He also asked Len to pray for Don, as well. It seemed like the Lord had put it together, and we were all very grateful for their help, as well as our time of sharing together. Praise the Lord.

Meanwhile, we are shopping for furniture.  Thank the Lord that the place we are leasing came with all the major appliances, including a washer and dryer.  But we have been staying in furnished homes since we returned from Hungary, and we don't have furniture of our own, except some office furniture. So it's like starting all over again.  We are managing fine with air mattresses, folding chairs, and folding tables that we bought to get us through temporarily for a few weeks or months until we can furnish the place.  Meanwhile some of us are still living out of suitcases, but nobody is complaining. It's an adventure! Please pray the Lord will help us find all that we need.

Since we have been in this house, the children have begun to make new friends and play with them.  One of the young girls in the neighborhood told Christopher that she hasn’t gone to church in a while.  Later, while the children were talking with her, Faith asked her, “May I ask you something?” The girl said she could, so Faith asked, “Do you know that Jesus loves you?” The girl said she does. Then Faith asked, “Do you know Him as your Lord and Savior?” The girl nodded. “Good,” Faith said. Sometime during the conversation, the girl said, “I beg my parents to let me go to church, but my mother and father are busy.”  Pray that the Lord will enable this girl and even her parents to eventually join us for church here in our home.

Christopher celebrating his tenth birthday

Meanwhile the children have resumed home schooling and will soon be taking their final exams, Lord willing. One advantage of living here is that there is a home school coop in the area that is connected with a local Church. And a nearby Christian neighbor, who came and introduced herself to Jennifer, mentioned that she home schools her children as well. So we are grateful for the new relationships we are already beginning to build here.

In May, two days after we moved to the new location, we celebrated Christopher's tenth birthday.  Since we didn't have chairs, we were sitting on milk crates around a folding camping table.  So that's why he appears a little low in the birthday cake photo above.  But we had fun with it and it was a joyful time, as you will see if you look at the additional photos at the link below.

More photos.    

Ministry: We are now living in a mostly military community that is close to Fort Bragg, home of the Airborne and Special Forces Operations. The Special Warfare Center is where the U.S. Army’s special operations warriors are trained and prepared for assignments around the world.  According to Army Technology, "Fort Bragg serves 52,280 active duty soldiers, 12,624 reserve components and temporary duty students, 8,757 civilian employees, 3,516 contractors and 62,962 active duty family members. It is also home to 98,507 army retirees and family members."  It's the largest military base of any country in the world!

We have been told that seventy-five percent of the population in the subdivision where we now live is comprised of military residents, and perhaps the majority of the remaining twenty-five percent are retired military personnel. Many people are able to retire from the military in their early forties, so most of the community seems to be our age or younger.

Before we moved here, as we were praying about where we should live, we spent some time together waiting on the Lord about that. Len sensed the Lord was saying it would be within a forty-five minute radius of the guesthouse where we were living.  But he didn't want to consider moving south or southeast of the guesthouse toward Fort Bragg, because we had read that the crime rate is very high in that area.

Nevertheless, Len sensed the Lord may want to use us to reach and minister to military servicemen and women (he himself got saved as a young soldier in the Army), so he felt he could not rule out the possibility of living in that area. He figured that if it turned out that the Lord was speaking the same thing to Jennifer, then he would take that as a confirmation and he would be open to such a move. And as we later discussed what we each received from the Lord in prayer that night, we did in fact both sense that the Lord may have us to minister to the military servicemen in the Fort Bragg area.  Neither of us had any natural desire within ourselves to move into this area, but we felt that we were being led by the Lord to do so.

The home we moved into is forty minutes south of where we were living at the guesthouse, and about twenty minutes north of Fort Bragg. So the fact that we ended up in this area seems to be precisely according to the direction we received from the Lord, and it seems to be a step forward into the territory where the Lord wants us during this next year.  We feel as though we have been divinely and strategically positioned.

Many of these people around us are in positions of influence and are often deployed to various places around the world. So the potential for multiplying disciples is great, and it's no wonder there seemed to be such strong opposition to us coming here. Please pray that the Lord would place military people in our path who are ready for the gospel, and who will be later be used by the Lord to reach many others for Christ here and in the uttermost parts of the earth.

We have already begun to get a taste of that as we have started to meet our neighbors.  As we took a walk in the neighborhood one night recently, we stopped and talked to one neighbor, who was sitting on his front porch. As we spent time getting acquainted with him and his wife, Len had the opportunity to share the Lord with him. We learned that he is an Army officer who recognizes that he needs the Lord. We both appreciated how he was honest with himself and us about his spiritual condition. So we are praying for these precious people, whom we will call "Steve" and "Nancy", and are looking forward to the chance to share further with them, as the Lord allows.

Meanwhile, we still believe the Lord will continue to have Len go on short-term ministry trips overseas for the time being, and continue with the Christian literature ministry online.  Len continues to receive encouraging notes from readers regarding his articles.  One reader commented by saying:
"Dear Len, Thank you very much for your incredible teaching. Be blessed abundantly."  Praise the Lord for the way He is touching lives for eternity through this ministry.

"Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness." (Ps 115:1)

Resources:  This month we would like to suggest some articles Len has recently written called Confrontational Evangelism, The Love of Jesus, and Philosophy and Empty Deception.  All of Len's latest articles are available at Old News That's Still Fresh - May 2015. 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 successful move to a new place to live in a new territory where the Lord has placed us.
2. For the new people we are meeting and the relationships we are building. 
3. For the opportunities the Lord has given us to be a witness to people along the way.
4. For the good health the Lord has blessed us with.
5. For the lives being touched for Christ around the world through our writing ministry.
6. For the words of encouragement we have received from people. 

Next steps and prayer needs:

1. For the Lord to provide us with all the furniture we need. 
2. For the Lord to draw to Himself the neighbors, "Steve and Nancy," that we have been witnessing to, as well as "Don" and "Bill" the movers, and the little girl our children have invited to Church.
3. For the Lord to place military people in our path who are ready for the gospel, and who will be later be used by the Lord to reach many others for Christ here and in the uttermost parts of the earth.
4. For the Lord to give Len guidance and provision regarding his planned, short-term trips later this year to Malaysia and the United Kingdom. 
5. For the Lord to send his angels with Len’s messages to those who need them, and for an open heaven over them when they receive his messages. 
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 continue to raise up new faith partners.
8. For the Lord to provide for us.

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

Donate Online