October Update 2011

Greetings from Hungary! It’s time for another update on our progress.

It's been a beautiful autumn here with cooler temperatures and sunshine. This month marks the beginning of our fourth year in Eastern Europe.    As we celebrate this anniversary, we praise God for sustaining us and bringing forth fruit.  We also thank our partners, whose faithfulness in giving to God has made our work here possible.

Family:  The children are enjoying a weekly home school coop where they meet with other home schoolers in the area once a week for classes.  It is also a great time for Jennifer to have some fellowship with other home school mothers.

Faith has been experiencing a flare up of seborrhea dermatitis on her scalp, which we have been treating with prayer, a strict candida diet, coconut oil, and frequent washes with a homemade antifungal solution. Since we started the antifungal solution and the anti-fungal candida diet, we have seen some improvement.  Please pray for the Lord to heal her. 

Charity has experienced asthma, as well as lockjaw and other symptoms of TMJ syndrome.  We’ve been praying for her and trusting God to heal her.

Len and Jennifer were able to take a holiday for one night, using rewards points.  It was a relaxing and refreshing time together.  Our translator, Dora (pictured above), watched the children for us while we were away.

Ministry:  At the end of September, Len traveled to Bucharest, Romania to build a relationship with Ioan, a pastor and denominational leader there.  It was a very rough, fifteen-hour train ride.

In Bucharest, Ioan, pronounced "yo-AHN," introduced Len to several other leaders, with whom Len began to establish relationships. These included a pastor in Ploisti, named Gigi, pronounced "JEE-jee" (pictured below).  In addition to his oversight at the church there, he is the director of ethnic ministries for the AoG denoination in Romania.  Another man in Ploisti, whom Len met was Mihail, pronounced "MEE-hi" (pictured below). He manages a Christian radio station, called S.O.S.  Len was part of the station’s sixteenth anniversary celebration, and gave a word of encouragement to him and the church in Ploisti about their important ministry of broadcasting the gospel over the Romanian airwaves.

Ioan, Gigi with his wife, Mihail, Georgeta, Bogdan & Ioana in Ploisti

One person in particular that the Lord connected Len with was a man named Călin (pictured below), whom Len stayed with in Bucharest.  He was assigned by Ioan to be Len's host. While Ioan introduced Călin as a pastor, Călin insists that he is not a pastor, but simply a servant of the Lord.  He is a true man of God. During their time together, they built an enduring friendship and are praying about opportunities the Lord has in store for them in the future.

Len with Călin in Bucharest

Len also preached the Word at Grace Church in Bucharest, where Ioan serves as pastor.  He received some good feedback about the message afterward.

During Len’s time there, Ioan was also hosting a secular group of public school educators from Finland, with whom he is conducting an educational project.  Len had an opportunity to be a witness for the glory of Jesus to these precious people.

On the train, returning from Romania, Len also shared Jesus with a man on the train, named Meil, who is a Jew from Tel Aviv, Israel.  It was a seed planted.  Please pray for Meil to hear and believe the Word of God for what it really is.

We mentioned in our last newsletter that Len loaned the Jesus Film to Ferenc. After watching it in Hungarian, Ferenc had a whole page of questions for Len about it.  It took an hour and a half to go through all of his questions.  And in doing so, Len had the chance to completely share Jesus with him.  Ferenc has been searching the Scriptures to see for himself what they mean.  He is very open and tender to the gospel, but has not yet surrendered his life to Jesus. Please pray that he will do so soon.

Tamás

Len has also shared the film with Tamás (pictured right), and discussed it with him afterward. He had an excellent opportunity to share Jesus with him.  It was another seed planted.  Please pray for Tamás to come to know Christ.


Of course, Len continues to meet with Greg for discipleship, as well as with Barnabás. In addition, Len continues to encourage over forty servant leaders in Eastern Europe and North Africa via the web with things the Lord has been stirring in his heart.  And he's been getting very good feedback on that.

Administrative Needs: We have been making plans for Len to make a trip to the US this fall.  We thought November and December would be the best months to go.  But we are still waiting and watching for open doors.  If you know of a church that would be interested in having him come and share about our ministry, please let us know as soon as possible.

Resources:  Len has recently written a blog called “One Thing”. It’s about where our focus must be placed, and the heart attitude we need, in order to live a simple, happy life. He also wrote one called “Success in God’s Eyes” that discusses keys to godly success, as seen in the lives of some of God’s prophets, who appeared in man's eyes to fail. If you would like to read any others he has written, you can find them 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 our overall health and wellness.
2. For the progress we are making in treating Faith's sebborhea, finally understanding the cause and discovering the proper treatment.
3. For blessing us with a relaxing time away together without the children.
4. For the opportunity to share the gospel with Tamás, Ferenc, and Meil, and the seeds that were planted.
5. For the openness of Ferenc to the gospel.
6. For a safe and healthy trip to Bucharest.
7. For the new relationships Len has established in Romania, especially with Călin, Mihail, and Gigi.

Next steps and prayer needs:

1. For the Lord to heal Faith from sebborhea and the underlying yeast infection.
2. For the Lord to heal Charity from asthma, as well as lockjaw and the underlying TMJ problems.
3. For Greg to grow in his walk with the Lord and continue to multiply.
4. For the Lord to reveal Himself to Ferenc and Tamás, the businessmen Len has been training.
5. For the Lord to work in the heart of Meil, the Jewish man with whom Len shared the gospel.
6. For specific direction and open doors concerning Len's possible US trip this fall.
7. For divine appointments wherever we go.  Pray that the Lord would help us make key connections with people all along the way, develop relationships and be a blessing. 
8. For our financial blessing.  That the Lord would continue to raise up partners to help us with special gifts and monthly partners, so that we will be able to focus on the ministry in Eastern Europe and accomplish all that He has put in our hearts to do.

Thank you so much for your partnership in this ministry.

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 or you may donate securely online using e-check or major credit card. 

You may send your tax-deductible check or money order made payable to Doulos Missions International to the following address:

Doulos Missions International
PO Box 5526
Manchester, NH 03108-5526

Donate Online

September Update 2011

Greetings from Hungary! It’s time for another update on our progress. 

We’re enjoying a summer-like September with lots of blue skies and sunshine, which is normal for Hungary at this time of year.

Family: The children resumed home school at the beginning of September, so Jennifer is back to teaching. Christopher is in first grade now, but already reads proficiently at a second grade level. He’s been faithful about reading through the gospel of John during the summer break.

Faith has experienced a flare up of seborrhea dermatitis on her scalp, which we have been treating with prayer, dietary changes, moisturizers, and frequent washes. We’re seeing a progressive healing take place, and she is doing much better! It's amazing. Please pray for the Lord to completely heal her.

Len has spent a lot of time at the dentist and that has been going well.  He still needs a lot more work done, including a couple crowns. 

We recently watched the movie, called “Candle in the Dark,” about the life of William Carey, which was excellent. He said, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.” His motto was: Begin with prayer, asking God to do great things in your own life and in the lives of others. Then act on those prayers, attempting great things for God as you expect great things from Him. He taught that in order to reach other countries for Christ, we must cooperate, get ourselves organized and plan strategically for these ventures. It was a big encouragement for us in our work here. We’re so grateful for each of you who have chosen to cooperate with us in reaching the nations of Eastern Europe for Christ.

In the summertime in Hungary, everything moves at a very slow pace. Most people are away on vacations, some lasting for as long as four to six weeks. So during the lull, we decided to take a day trip to Lake Balaton (pictured above) in August for the national holiday known as Saint Stephen’s Day. Each year on August 19, everything shuts down for the weekend in honor of the country’s first king. And Lake Balaton is perhaps the largest lake in Europe. People come from all over Europe to visit this area.

It was our first time there, after living here for three years! People kept telling us we should visit it, so we finally did. The day started off well when we got a 90% discount on train tickets, instead of the expected 50% discount. So we paid only fifteen dollars for the whole family to take a two and a half hour train ride! It was a "large family" discount, and really beat driving the van there, burning up all that fuel. It was very beautiful at the lake, and the children got to dip there feet in the water.

Altogether, we spent six hours there in a scenic little town called Tihány. We ran out of time at Lake Balaton and had to rush to get dinner. Without our van, we were on foot, and had to rush to catch some dinner. We ended up at a fast food stand, where we ate burgers, fries and gyros.

In our rush to get back to the train station, so we wouldn't miss our train back to Budapest, we were out of good options. We ended up on an open-air, street trolley on wheels. The driver told us it would only take 10 minutes to get us to within 600 meters of the train station and we could walk from there. But he headed right into a major rain and thunderstorm. As it turned out, he dumped us off far from the train station. The crazy part was that he went right by the train station and didn't stop to drop us off, even though he knew we needed to go there. He then proceeded to meander around town farther and farther away from the train station, and further and further into the dark storm. We ended up stranded at a grocery store in the rain, minutes before our train was scheduled to leave, and no way to get there.

Thankfully we found a young man who spoke English, who got his friend to call a taxi for us. Two taxis came to pick us up at the grocery store in the rain, and then got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. They pulled some rather unsafe maneuvers, passing, and cutting through gas stations, braking hard once to avoid an accident. Thank God we made it safely to the train station without getting soaked or injured, and caught our train back to Budapest!

Ministry: With most others away on vacation during these past weeks, we have had very little opportunity to meet together. But Len has continued to meet with Greg (pictured below) for discipleship, as well Ferenc (“FER’-ens”) and Tamás (“TAW’-mush”).

Greg

Len also met with Sándor to mediate a contentious matter, and the Lord worked everything out for good. Peace has been restored in that situation, and there is complete reconciliation between the people involved.

The pastor’s daughter, Dora, who is in her mid-twenties, is Len’s translator. You can imagine what a difficult task it was for her to translate in this impartial mediator role for Len in such an emotionally heated situation. Recently, after the Lord resolved this contentious situation within the church, she was speaking to Len about it. She was giving God the glory with such joy and happiness. He asked her if she would put what she said to him into a brief, written testimony that we could share in our newsletter. She gladly agreed to do so and wrote, “Approximately two months ago, a division occurred in the church between one brother and the pastor. Exactly at that time, Len and his family started to come to our church. I felt it was a godly timing. Len saw the seriousness of the issue, and the Lord put on his heart to help us to resolve it. I felt from the beginning that it must be from the Lord, because this could not stay like this among Christians.”

She recounted how she felt in the final meeting Len held with the people involved. “Finally, in the last meeting, which took place, everything turned upside down. During the meeting, I felt the presence of the Lord, and I got so much joy and peace during the whole meeting. In the beginning it seemed impossible to resolve this issue, so for me to see those people speaking without bitterness and pain was a miracle for me. God was working in their hearts. During that meeting, there was forgiveness and reconciliation, and the Lord was there, confirming everything. At the end of the meeting, we all acknowledged that the Lord was leading Len in this situation, and we were so thankful for his obedience to God.”

She then described the reaction in the church meeting, when Sándor announced to everyone what had happened. She said, “Last Saturday, my father announced in the church that they are reconciled, and that this couple is welcome once again in the church. People were shocked in a good way by hearing this news. You could tell that everyone was happy about the news. Everyone was happy, and it felt like a burden was taken away. One lady even said, ‘Finally! This is from the Lord!’ I'm so thankful that the Lord had His way in their lives and in the church.” Praise the Lord! Please join us in giving God the praise for what He has done in the lives of these precious people.

Tamás

We mentioned in our last newsletter that Len loaned the Jesus Film to Ferenc. After watching it in English, he commented, “It is a great film, but at the end it made me sad. Why are people so cruel that kill such a true person? I think life and love should be honored by us.” But he only understood about half of it, so Len found a Hungarian version of the film for him to watch. After he watches it with his wife in their mother tongue, he and Len plan to discuss it. Please pray that the Lord will speak to them through this powerful film, and that the discussion Len has with Ferenc afterward will be used by the Holy Spirit to lead him to Christ.

Len has also shared the film with Tamás (pictured above), and is looking forward to discussing it with him after he watches it.

Zsofi and Barnabás with their son, Miklos

We also mentioned last time that Len met a worship leader at a Baptist church named Barnabás (pictured above). He and Len had been praying about possible training. Len has since begun training Barnabás. The first meeting went very well, and Barnabás had good feedback about it.

Greg’s father, Zsolt, with 
his granddaughter

Len met with David, whom he discipled during our first two years in Hungary.  He is doing very well, attending a university, and engaged to a lovely young lady, named Kati, who loves the Lord.  He is serving the Lord in numerous ways, including worship, preaching, sharing Jesus, and making disciples.  Pray that he will continue to bear much fruit for Christ.

Last month we mentioned that Greg’s father, named Zsolt (pictured to the left), was recovering from back surgery, and some of his muscles weren’t yet working like they should.  Although he still has pain, he has returned to work as a medical doctor, seeing ninety patients a day.  Additionally, while his back is still healing, he has just learned that his pancreas is not functioning.  This is very serious.  Thank you for your prayers for Zsolt.

Administrative Needs: You may have noticed that we're trying out a new blog and format for our newsletter.  The Jesus Reigns site will remain online, as well as the Doulos Missions International site.  If this works out well, we may continue to post our newsletters here.  Feel free to give us your feedback.

We have been making plans for Len to make a trip to the US this fall. Currently it looks as though November and December are the best months to go. But we are prayerfully seeking to be led by the Lord, and watching for open doors. If you know of a church that would be interested in having him come and share about our ministry, please let us know as soon as possible.

Resources: We hope you'll take a moment to check out the side bar of this blog, where you'll find a number of resources including a video, a link to the official DMI website, newsletter archives, how to connect with us on Facebook, and a slideshow featuring the people in Eastern Europe whose lives we have touched, as well as our board and US staff.  You can also subscribe to this blog, in order to receive notifications when it is updated.

Len has recently written a blog called “Candle in the Dark”.  It is about William Carey (1761 – 1834), the father of modern missions, who went to India as a missionary with his wife and children. Through his sacrifice, faith, endurance, and love, he has become an inspiration to us all. Len has also written one called “Hiding Place” about Corrie Ten Boom, who spent time in a prison camp for hiding Jews from the Nazis.  Both of these blogs will encourage you in your walk with God. If you would like to read these or any others he has written, you can find them at “Writing for the Master.”  Additionally, you can now view our past newsletters online here.

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 our overall health and wellness.
2. For the progressive healing of Faith’s scalp.
3. For the way Len’s dental care has been going so far.
4. For blessing us with a relaxing day off as a family in August at the lake.
5. For the good feedback from Barnabás following his first meeting with Len.
6. For the way the Lord brought about reconciliation in the Erd church.
7. For the fruitfulness in David's life.
8. For the good response from Ferenc after viewing the Jesus Film in English.
9. For the good report that Greg’s father, Zsolt, is back to work and healing.

Next steps and prayer needs:

1. For complete healing for Faith’s scalp.
2. For Greg and David to grow in his walk with the Lord and continue to multiply. 
3. For Greg’s father, Zsolt to recover completely from back surgery and pancreatic dysfunction.
4. For the Lord to reveal Himself to Ferenc and Tamás, the businessmen Len has been training, so that they would come to know Jesus personally.
5. For the Lord’s help in training Barnabás.
6. For divine direction regarding opportunities to help the pastor in Romania, named Dr. Ceuta.
7. For the Lord to continued to anoint us and lay the foundation in the Erd church. 
8. For divine appointments wherever we go.  Pray that the Lord would help us make key connections with people all along the way, develop relationships and be a blessing. 
9. For our financial blessing.  That the Lord would continue to raise up partners to help us with special gifts and monthly partners, so that we will be able to focus on the ministry in Eastern Europe and accomplish all that He has put in our hearts to do.

Thank you so much for your partnership in this ministry.

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 or you may donate securely online using e-check or major credit card. 
You may send your tax-deductible check or money order made payable to Doulos Missions International to the following address:

Doulos Missions International
PO Box 5526
Manchester, NH 03108-5526
Donate Online

November Update 2008

On the terrace, celebrating Hope’s birthday

Greetings from Budapest!  I have so much to write to you about.  But some of you will not have time or necessarily want to read it all.  If that’s you, then just know that we are all well, God is guiding and helping us, and we are still getting settled in.  Then you can skip to the final two bullets below.

Health and Wellness: The family has been staying healthy, praise the Lord.  Charity’s asthma has been acting up quite a bit though, probably due to the air pollution. I have been walking many miles per week using the public transportation, so I’m getting plenty of exercise.  We love it here, especially the children.  And we consider it a great privilege to represent Christ in this part of the world.  Jennifer’s pregnancy is going well.  She feels the baby boy kicking quite often, and the other children are very excited about his arrival in February.  The morning sickness is still in the background, but almost gone and usually not bothersome.  Praise the Lord.  Please pray with us for total healing for Charity.

Hope in front of her birthday cake.

Hope’s Birthday: On 11-2-08, we celebrated Hope’s 8th birthday, and it was a real joyful time.  All went well, the weather was perfect, and we celebrated all day, had a special guest over, ate a wonderful home cooked beef stew, and had birthday cake that was very delicious.  She received gifts and cards, and was a very happy girl.

Education: Placed children in school on 11-3-08.  Had to get an official translation of their school certification which required a two hour roundtrip by public transit across the city to drop off the papers and then another two hour trip back there a few days later to pick up the documents.  However, there were issues with the school.  They bumped Charity (10 yrs old) from 5th grade to 3rd grade, and said that for Math she will be in the 2nd grade.  At the end of the school year she will be required to pass a Hungarian test in order to be certified to advance to 4th grade.  We contacted the president of the Hungarian home school association and he agreed with me that since the girls speak no Hungarian at all, it would be a useless exercise to have them in the Hungarian school.  We are now planning to take them out of the public school at the end of their first week (tomorrow), resume home schooling them and hire a language tutor for them.  Our goal is for them to learn the language and maybe we will be able to put them in public school next fall.  That seems more realistic.

The girls loved the school though.  They were extremely well liked and popular there, so they quickly made lots of friends.  None of the children there spoke English except for a couple that may have spoken one or two broken sentences in English.  But there were also some quirky things about the public school.  For example, when they change into their gym clothes, they change right in the classroom in front of all the other boys and girls.

In front of Parliament

Seeing the City: We did have the chance on 10-19-08 to go downtown with the children on a Sunday.  They loved it.

Language Acquisition: We are working on learning the language through immersion and using various language learning aids.

Translator: We have a translator who has been available to assist us part time on a very limited basis.  So this has been a blessing.  But we have also been stepping out and using what Hungarian we know to communicate with people.  Our abilities in this area are growing every day. 

More photos.    

Internet Connection: We received some very disappointing news.  We learned that we are unable to get DSL Internet service where we live, since it is not available in our area.  We did manage to get what they call mobile Internet, which is basically a USB stick that allows us to connect to the web. Once we got our home Internet connection activated, it was like Christmas!  I had been making one hour roundtrips by bus to an internet café, so it was a huge effort to get their only to have one hour or less to do everything I needed to do, including shopping for vans online, handling online banking issues, corresponding with our US office, etc.  I had a lot of work to catch up on that got backlogged while we were offline.  My new Internet cafe is in my office, praise the Lord.

Our Regular Vonage Phone: Since we are unable to get DSL Internet, we cannot connect our regular US Vonage phone unless we either buy a router, which is currently unavailable here, or a little USB device called a V-Phone which can only be purchased in the US.  So while we tried to figure out how to get one of those two devices, I bought a webcam and a Skype headset, and that opened the lines of communication for us back to the US.

V-Phone: The good news is that a friend in NH went online and bought us a V-Phone from Circuit City, which was picked up at the store in KY by a missionary to Hungary who was returning here. I plan to travel 45 minutes tomorrow to get it from him.  This will allow us to make free calls to the US and Canada on our Vonage service.  The difference between this and our regular phone is that we can only make and receive calls when our desktop computer is turned on and we need to wear a headset to talk.  We will need to watch and see how that affects our electric bill and we may need to only have our computer on for short periods during the day.  Friends and family can call us at our US phone number and we will answer here in Hungary at 603-623-4423 between approximately 3 AM (EST) and 5:00 PM (EST).  Please make a note in case you would like to call us.

Connecting the regular Vonage Phone: We are still looking into a router that would allow us to make Vonage calls from our regular phones without needing to keep the computer on all day or use a headset.  That may take a while, since the router is unavailable and it is not so easy to find specialized electronics like this around here.

Selling our Van in the US: We recently sold our Sienna minivan back in NH, so we are very thankful for that. Praise the Lord!  We were very happy with the price we got for it and so glad that a family from our church got the van. 

The 2000 VW Bus we have made a deposit on. 

Buying a VW Bus in Hungary: I have put in a great deal of effort during the past 3 weeks to shop for a family van mostly using public transit and walking, although we rented a van twice to go out shopping for a van.  But with city traffic and language barriers, it was very slow going.  Vehicles here are much more expensive than in the US, and there is a great deal of corruption in the used auto marketplace.  So we were warned not to try this on our own.   At the recommendation of our friends here, we decided to hire a trusted expert to help us whom they referred us to.   Within 24 hours after we hired him, he found us an excellent used one that is 8 years old and owned by a mechanic who has maintained it meticulously.  This was truly an answer to prayer.  It will cost us about the same amount of money we made altogether from the sale of both the car and minivan in the States. So we gave a deposit to the seller and once the money is wired to us from the US we will purchase it.  Then the man we hired will take it for two days to get all the paperwork done for us including taxes, inspection, etc.  We hope to have the van on the road by 11-20-08. 

Buying household items: We are very grateful that we have been able to purchase household items like, dishes, glasses, a vacuum cleaner, washer and dryer, office chairs, printer, computer speakers, iron and ironing board.  These are major accomplishments when everything is so far away and we are using buses or subways.  Praise the Lord!

Residence Permits and Visas: We recently took a 1.5 hour trip across town using two buses, a subway, and an electric tram to pick up our approved visas and residence permits allowing us to stay for one year -- the standard length of time given the first time you receive a visa here.  Praise the Lord.

Contact with Eastern European leaders: I have begun gradually reaching out by telephone to Eastern European indigenous church leaders whom we know in other countries.  It’s been so good to be in touch with them.  We would love to have them come to Budapest for a visit.  Since I am very busy getting the family settled in and helping Jennifer prepare for the new baby’s arrival, it will not be possible to make any long trips away from home base for now.  In order for me to eventually visit them, I will need to buy a reliable car in the next few months that I can rely on for these upcoming trips around Eastern Europe.

Some Obvious Difference: Some of the differences we have observed besides the language: 1) we live in the land of perpetual barking.  Every home in our neighborhood seems to have a dog and they bark continuously at all hours for any and every reason, 2) the usual odor of something burning in the air, 3) the smog in the city, 4) the school actually rings an old-fashioned school bell at the start of the day, 5) many people drinking alcohol out in public, as well as public drunkenness, 6) the return policy at retail stores is 1, 2, or 3 days, not the standard 30 days we are accustomed to in the States; 7) the clothes dryers do not have vent hoses, so they separate out the water from the moist air from inside the machine, which means it takes 3 times as long to dry the clothes.

Culture and Spiritual Need: There is a great need spiritually, even right here in our community.   In this city of 2.2 million people, we have found that the culture is very sensual and materialistic, which is very common in other parts of Europe as well. We know that only Jesus can fill the inner void they are trying to satisfy.   Pray for the Lord to open the hearts of Eastern Europeans and draw them to Himself.

Worship: We have been having church right here at home as a family, since we are not yet connected with a local church.  That has been going great and the Lord is meeting with us during our times of worship together.  We are also delighted to have received an invitation to attend church at the only evangelical church we are aware of near our community.  It is about 15 minutes drive from here or a 1.5-hour walk, so we have seen no gospel outreach at all in our part of the city.  We hope to visit this church soon.

New Partners: The Lord has continued to slowly add ministry partners to our team, even since we have arrived, so we are very grateful for that.  Praise the Lord.

Contacts on the field: We have already been in touch with other missionaries here who live an hour away on the other side of the city to the south of Budapest. They have been a great help to us and one couple has already visited us here at our home.  This was Jim and Brenda Puhr, whom we have been associated with for the past two years. This is the missionary couple we visited here in 2006. Jim plans to introduce me to the church leaders he is connected with around Eastern Europe.

Discipleship contacts: Meanwhile I continue to pray that until I am able to travel outside Hungary that the Lord would put some local nationals here in our lives to reach out for the sake of the gospel. Please pray with me on this.

Next steps and prayer needs: Our immediate next steps to pray about include:

1. For the glorious day the Lord gave us to celebrate Jennifer's birthday. 
2. Actually purchasing the VW bus and putting it on the rode, 
3. Finding an OBGYN or midwife for Jennifer
4. Getting a Hungarian landline telephone and a Hungarian cell phone
5. Picking up our V-Phone and connect it
6. Find a way to connect our Vonage phone without having to leave our PC on
7. Buying furniture, incl. wardrobes, beds etc (we are still sleeping on air mattress & children are still living out of suitcases since September),
8. Placing Faith into kindergarten, as the local one is already filled to capacity
9. Language acquisition including finding language tutors for ourselves and the children, 
10. Visiting the church we have been invited to, and 
11. Finding a reliable babysitter. 

Please pray that the Lord will help us and guide us in all of these as well as provide for every need.

We love you and can definitely feel your prayers.  Things are happening that could only be the Lord working them out.  Thank you so much for your partnership in this ministry.

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