August Update 2016

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 August we celebrated Faith's fourteenth birthday with a party, cake, cards, and gifts. It was a picture-perfect day in the upper nineties. Please pray with us for the Lord's blessings on her life.

Since we last wrote to you in July, we've taken a couple picnics in the park. Meanwhile Jennifer has been buying the home school curriculum for the upcoming school year about to start in a couple weeks.

More photos.    

Ministry:  As we continue to administer our discipleship training school (DTS), which we established one year ago by the grace of God, we'd like to update you on the good things that God is doing with it.

Last month we wrote to you about brother David, one of our DTS students in Nigeria, who was accepted for admission to study Medicine and Surgery in the University of Jos, at Jos, Nigeria. Len spoke with him at the end of July and he had already moved to Jos and begun his studies.

David in Abuja, Nigeria

Len has put him in touch with one of our friends in Jos, a brother in Christ named Theophilus, who is a medical doctor working with the Nigerian military. Brothers David and Theophilus have already made contact with each other by phone, and it turns out that their places of residence in Jos are actually very close to each other. Brother David plans to start a Life Transformation Group (LTG) on the university campus like he did back in his home town of Abuja. Praise the Lord for the opportunity to assist David and each of our students in becoming disciples of Christ and fulfilling their callings. Please pray for the Lord to help him with his difficult studies and help him to start an LTG on campus.

Last month we mentioned a sister named Faith in Kenya who wrote to Len in June about his article on Eudoxia Varga Testimony of Heaven and Hell. She has stayed in touch and been praying for us, as well as encouraging us through our trials. Len has connected her with one of our DTS students, Sherry, who has recently moved back to Kenya from Lebanon. Although they are in different cities in Kenya, and are far apart, they have been speaking by phone and encouraging each other.

Len has also connected sisters Faith and Sherry with sister Collete, one of our other Kenyan DTS students, who is currently residing in Mali. When he spoke with Collete in July, she said she is prayerfully planning to move back to Kenya by December of this year. Hopefully she will be able to connect in person with Faith when she does so.

Collete in Mali

Sister Collete wrote to Len in August, "Brother Leonard, may God continue using you massively through your blog to bring light and truth. I cannot hesitate to say that it is through your blog I have grown spiritually. We return all glory to the Lord. May you abide in His abundance grace. Sister Collete."

Sister Tilia, one of our disciples in Liberia, has begun preaching on the streets.

A brother in Christ in Kenya wrote to Len to express his appreciation for our ministry. He wrote, "I'm Solomon from Kenya. I have read some of your articles and the divine revelations you collected from different sources..I can say that am really blessed and may God continue to expand your territories in JESUS NAME."

One of our DTS students in Kenya, sister Sherry, whom we have already mentioned, wrote to Len with an update in August. She said:

"Hello, brother Len. We praise God for everything. He is so wonderful. And our Lord Jesus who is so true, and doing great wonders. I am doing ok. I have an LTG partner and we are doing village evangelism together.  Sometimes I preach and teach women on holiness. But I don't have a job yet. I am thinking of going to Qatar or Dubai for one year as a receptionist, so I can support Gods work in a better way. Mostly when we go for evangelism we find people hungry. Also there is a lot of witchcraft here and  people value the old African traditions. But God is doing great things in the church I attend, 'King Jesus Faith Ministry,' because some women have indeed embraced holiness. Thank you so much. I am in contact with Sister Faith and she is a wonderful person. Bless."

Praise the Lord for the report that Sherry has started an LTG, is doing evangelism, preaching, teaching, and attending a local church. Pray that the Lord will lead her to find work locally, and that she would receive clear direction from Him about whether to move again to another country for employment.

A former Muslim lady named "Momina" (name changed for her security) in a Muslim country, where there is restricted access to the gospel, wrote to Len in early August to tell him how she has recently become a follower of Christ. Incidentally, the country she lives in is nearly 100% Muslim and it ranks among the ten worst countries in the world for persecution of Christians. She wrote in part:

"Hi, brother Len. How are you? You don't know me but I've become an avid reader of your blog Eternal Destinations since I've discovered it a few weeks ago."

"I have come to the conclusion that I wanted to follow Christ about two months ago, it was at the beginning of the month of Ramadan. You see, I used to be a Muslim. Although I never continually practiced the five prayers a day, I still considered myself a Muslim at heart and strongly believed it to be the ultimate truth and that everything else was corrupt."

"I wanted to personally thank you for your wonderful blog. Thanks to you I was able to find all the resources gathered in one blog and taking in all the information I could get, it was very scary and overwhelming at first, but with the Grace of God I have started repenting and applying those advices in my life one by one and it's not as bad as I thought it'd be."

"God bless you and your family, looking forward to your answer!"

She also asked for advice about water baptism, and began translating Len's blog into French after receiving permission to do so. She stated:

"Concerning the blog translation...I just want the information in your blog to be also available in French to reach more people (so basically it will be a blog identical to the one you have now but in French). I'm doing this because I want to preach the gospel too, but I can't do it physically from where I am. However, I can at least contribute on the internet which is a huge platform that can help reach people all over the world, I don't even want credits for translating those articles because it is simply my duty as a disciple of Christ."

She has also enrolled in our DTS to begin her first quarter on September 1, making her the fourth new student enrolling for this fall, and bringing our total enrollment to thirteen disciples in nine countries. If you would like to read her full testimony that Len has posted online, we highly recommend doing so! It is called Muslim Woman Now Follows Christ. It's truly amazing. Glory to God for her conversion to Christ from Islam. Please pray that she will follow Jesus all the way, no matter what persecution she may face.

"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 Muslim Woman Now Follows Jesus and Who is God? Len's latest articles are available at Old News That's Still Fresh - August 2016. His 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 Faith's fourteenth birthday celebration. 
2. For helping sister Sherry in Kenya to start an LTG.
3. For the glorious testimony of "Momina's" salvation and deliverance from Islam.
4. For the opportunity to assist each of our students in becoming disciples of Christ and fulfilling their callings. 
5. For the Lord's leading, guidance, and help administering the Doulos Training School (DTS), and for the progress the students are making.
6. For the lives being touched for Christ around the world through our writing ministry, including sister "Momina" and Solomon in Kenya.
7. For the words of encouragement we have received from the people being touched. 

Next steps and prayer needs:

1. For the Lord to assist us with the administration of the Doulos Training School (DTS), as well as develop through it many disciples who make disciples, resulting in multiplication for His glory. And for the Lord to help each one of them to find an LTG partner to meet with for discipleship, which is crucial.
2. For the Lord to give sister "Momina" grace, fortitude, courage, and protection, as she serves the Lord now as a new disciple of Christ in a Muslim country. Pray that she will follow Jesus all the way, no matter what persecution she may face.
3. For the Lord to help sister Sherry in Kenya to find a job, and to provide for brother Deji in Nigeria.
4. For the Lord to help all of our new DTS students to find LTG partners, particularly Lusindiso, Tilia, Willie, Bamidele, Colette, and Nickeshia.
5. For the Lord to fulfill His purposes for us and our ministry.
6. For the Lord to send His angels with Len’s written messages to those who need them, and for an open heaven over them when they receive his messages. 
7. For the Lord to heal Len from lower spine and sciatic trouble, causing chronic pain, and from tinnitus. 
8. For the Lord to move mountains to raise up new faith partners, including those who would sponsors our students, and for Him to provide for all our needs -- not only ours personally, but also those of the ministry.

Thank you so much for your partnership in this ministry.

with love from all of us,

The Lacroixs

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