June 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: As you probably know already, we've been experiencing a heat wave here, where it's been getting up into the nineties, and even hit a record high of a hundred degrees today.  Overall, it's been a hot, summer-like spring season this year.  We can't help but wonder what the connection is between the unusually hot weather globally, and the massive X-class solar flares that impacted the earth on March 11th and 12th, as well as on May 5th and 6th.  The Scriptures do say that one day the sun will be given power to scorch people with intense heat (Rev 16:8-9), so we know it is possible, and this seems to be a harbinger of things to come.

In June we continued to settle into our new residence.  The children continued to make new friends and play with them.  They have also been sharing Jesus with their friends in very meaningful and loving ways. One of those was a young girl who aspires to be a witch, whom we will call "Cassandra."  She is the daughter of the couple that we mentioned in our last newsletter that we witnessed to in our neighborhood, to whom we gave the alias "Steve" and "Nancy" to maintain their privacy. Please pray that "Cassandra" would come to know Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.

The children have now finished nearly all their home school assignments for the school year.  Aside from minimal coursework that one or two of them have to finalize, they only have left to take their standardized tests, which we ordered. These are the kind where you darken the circle to indicate your answer, and they are timed. It's a requirement in North Carolina for them to take these, so the plan is for them to take these tests this week.

The hunt for furniture continues. The Lord blessed us with a kitchen set of furniture and a dining set that we picked up used from two different military families, one of which was having a garage sale and the other was moving to West Point to become a professor there.  We thank the Lord for these two finds, because the cost of both sets was less than one new set, and even less than the cost of many used sets for sale out there.  They required some minor repairs, which we have since done, and they are meeting our needs very well. Praise the Lord! We still have no bedroom sets or living room set, but it doesn't matter. We are getting along fine for now on air mattresses and folding chairs.

We are also trying to find a mechanic that can replace our catalytic converter on our fourteen-year-old van.  The dealer's price for the work is around $1,500, so we have been trying to find someone who can do it for less with perhaps an after-market part. It's been a bit of a challenge, since we are new to the area and don't have a mechanic yet that we have built a trusting relationship with.  We have until August to get this done, so that we can pass inspection and renew our vehicle registration.  This has actually been an issue for about two years, but somehow the Lord miraculously helped us to legally and legitimately pass the inspection two years in a row in spite of it. So we're praying this would be resolved inexpensively sometime soon.

In our May newsletter, there was a late edition that you may have missed, in which we reported that 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.  But we had fun with it and it was a joyful time, as you will see if you look at the May newsletter photos at this link. The current June photos are at the following link below:

More photos.    

Ministry: Last month we mentioned that we are now living in a mostly military community that is close to Fort Bragg. After publishing our last newsletter, Len discovered a startling fact about the base that we were not aware of.  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 continued to meet more of our new neighbors, and the Lord has given us opportunities to share Jesus with some of them. One of them, whom we will call "Roy" for the sake of this letter, doesn't know Jesus as his Lord and Savior, but he indicated an interest in knowing the Truth.  Please pray that the Lord would open up the opportunity for Len to share further with him.

Brother Ayodeji

Len recently responded to some "urgent" questions from a young man in Nigeria, named Ayodeji, who is awaiting the defense of his Master's degree thesis in Agriculture (Soil science). He had read some of Len's articles and responded afterward:

"Thank you so much for the effort. The Lord has used your ministry to reach out to me. I prayed for a deeper relationship with the Lord and few days after, I started stumbling on those things on your blog. Even if no one will believe me when I share it with them, I want to live in holiness for the Lord....May God reward you for the work you are doing on Eternal Destinations. I pray that the Lord would give us the grace to reign with Him in heaven."

Then Len sent him some specific articles of his in response to specific concerns Ayodeji had, so that he might encourage him, to which he responded:

"Your article on Jeremiah 6:16 is a reminder to what path I should take. Thank you so much, sir. May the Lord bless you and continue to use you to draw more souls to the old, narrow path that leads to eternal life. Your writings has been a blessing so much that I also wish that I could write for the Lord."

"I will like to ask for a favour sir...I would like to have you as a counsellor. The Bible says we should not put our trust in man, but my spirit bears witness that you are indeed God-sent to this generation to help people like me in our walk with the Lord in holiness. I do not want to fall into watered-down teachings of holiness again. When I discovered these things on your blog, I was surprised at how much the church has conformed to the world."

"Thank you for the words of encouragement and for your counsel. May the Lord bless you, sir...I read those articles you sent me and I've been much stronger in faith than before I got them. They've been a blessing to me, sir. God bless you."

Another lady named Michelle contacted Len with a serious question after reading one of his articles.  She asked, "I am living in sin with my boyfriend , what should I do? Will I go to hell? Does just believing in Jesus get me into heaven?" Len told her about the love of Jesus, as well as what the Word says about the sins of fornication and adultery, and warned her of the fatal consequences if she continues. He also suggested other articles that would help her to understand that we must repent of sin, obey the Lord, and live in holiness. Please pray for Michelle to repent and follow Jesus.

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

Note: Comments and photo of Ayodeji used with permission.

Resources:  This month we would like to suggest an article Len has recently written called The Difference Between a Disciple and a Believer and All Our Deeds Are Known to the Lord. All of Len's latest articles are available at Old News That's Still Fresh - June 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 new people we are meeting and the relationships we are building. 
2. For the opportunities the Lord has given us to be a witness to people along the way.
3. For the lives being touched for Christ around the world through our writing ministry.
4. For the words of encouragement we have received from people. 

Next steps and prayer needs:

1. For the Lord to draw to Himself the neighbor, "Roy," that we have been witnessing to, as well as "Cassandra" the little girl our children have shared Jesus with, who aspires to be a witch.
2. For the Lord to place military people in our path who are ready for the gospel, and who will later be used by the Lord to reach many others for Christ here and in the uttermost parts of the earth.
3. For the Lord to give Len guidance and provision regarding his planned, short-term trip later this year to Malaysia. 
4. 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. 
5. For the Lord to open new doors of opportunity for ministry for us, and that we would be fruitful.
6. For the Lord to continue to raise up new faith partners.
7. For the Lord to provide for us, including all the furniture we need and the car repairs.

Thank you so much for your partnership in this ministry.

with love from all of us,

The Lacroixs

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