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Jewish Synagogue in Budapest

While we were missionaries in Eastern Europe for four and a half years, based in Budapest, Hungary, I had the opportunity to post a number of testimonies of the great things the Lord did in people's lives.  Some of them were the testimonies of people I met, which I wanted to publish for the glory of God.  Others were testimonies of what the Lord did in my own life while we were there.  And now that we are in the States again, I continue to post testimonies of what God is doing, so that He can receive the praise.

I've tried to organize them in some sort of order, beginning with my own testimony of salvation and the salvation of others I know in the left column.  In the middle column you will find testimonies of healing, deliverance and protection.  In the right hand column, I have posted testimonies of miracles, signs, and wonders, as well as other subjects that did not fit elsewhere.

"Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth." (Ps 115:1)

The Truth Set Me Free!	Testimonies from Voila, Romania	Pastor Raised from the Dead
The Lord Healed My Backsliding	Healed from a Breathing Obstruction	Gems from Heaven
My Life Was Built on the Wrong Foundation	Healed of Chronic Leg Pain	Escaped Having a Possibly Fatal Accident
Delivered from Cigarettes and Saved	Delivered from Voices and Dizziness	Like a Man Finding a Pearl of Great Price
The Joy I've Come to Know	The Voice That Changed Everything -- the Testimony of Dr. Stenhouse	Letting Go of Someone You Love
Testimonies from Kozloduj, Bulgaria	Amazing Healing and Deliverance in Uganda	Seeing Dad Alive for the Last Time
My Journey from Buddhism to New Life in Christ	Nasty Flu Miraculously Cured	He Forgave Those Who Threw Gasoline in His Eyes
Saved By a Vision of Second Coming - O. Moses Alabi	Woman Healed of Blood Clot	You Give and Take Away
Prodigal Restored to God	Woman Healed from Breathing Difficulty	Outpouring of the Spirit
The Night the Lord Came into My Hut	Miraculously Healed from Auto Accident Injuries	Supernatural Encounter While Striving to Draw Closer to God
The Spiritual Awakening of Richmond King	Notable Miracles in Uganda	The Body Parts Storehouse in Heaven
Muslim Woman Now Follows Jesus	Notable Miracles in South Sudan	A Message from our Lord by Sister Catherine
Lifted Out of a Slimy Pit		Boy Raised from the Dead After One Day
Given a new Heart with Sweet Peace		Angelic Encounter Testimonies
My Overflowing Joy in Knowing Jesus		Angel Rescues Children from Doomed Flight Before Crash
Former Child Soldier Delivered from Alcohol		Angel Helps Man to Board Airplane Without Ticket
A Spirit Led Strategy for Evangelism		Uganda End Time Evangelistic Outreach
Hundreds Saved in Uganda through Jesus Film		Nigeria End Time Evangelistic Outreach
How I Came to Know Jesus		South Sudan End Time Evangelistic Outreach
Delivered from Bondage and New Age Deception		Pastor Shocked Upon Receiving Baptism with Holy Fire
Jesus Appeared to Me When I was a Toddler		Conserving the Harvest in Uganda
I Found New Life in Christ		Conserving the Harvest in South Sudan
		Conserving the Harvest in Nigeria
		Completing the Great Commission in Uganda
		Completing the Great Commission in South Sudan
		Completing the Great Commission in Nigeria
		Boy Raised from the Dead
		Persecution of Christians in Uganda

“Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” (2Co 13:1b)

"And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death." (Rev 12:11)

Attribution notice: Scripture quotation taken from the NASB.

You may also access my complete blog directory at Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

_________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.

Jesus Appeared to Me When I was a Toddler

I would like you to take a moment to read this amazing testimony from a sister in Christ I know in Albania. 

Testimony of Sofia Rubati

Sofia writes:

"My testimony is that when I was around a year and a half old, my mom had put me for a midday nap, and as I was sleeping, something shook me, and I woke up. Suddenly there was blinding light in the room and a very big energy came around me. I could not see anything, but I heard a voice speaking to me, 'I love you. Do you accept me in your life?' And I nodded my head for yes, smiling. The reason I said, 'Yes' is because I felt a very big Love that covered me. 

"A prophetic preacher told me the age, because I was not sure. I had asked the Lord many times, and He sent me his answer through the preacher. 

"And then when I was eleven years old, Jesus appeared to me face to face. I could see a shape, and there was a blinding light coming from the head. He spoke to me through the Holy Spirit, and He told me 'One day you will have to give justice.' 

"Those are two of the most powerful moments of my life with Jesus.

Yours in Christ.

Sofia Rubati"

END OF SOFIA'S TESTIMONY

------------------------

Video Testimony

When I was in Albania, preaching in the church that Sofia attends, I invited people to come forward for prayer if they wanted to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire. Sofia was one of several people who came forward, and she was completely set free. She testified that after receiving the impartation of the Holy Spirit's fire (Mt 3:11; Lk 3:16), she felt completely free, and light like a bird, as well as the mighty power of the Holy Spirit flowing through her from head to toe; she felt love, peace, and joy unspeakable, which she said was the most wonderful feeling she had ever experienced. In fact, she said it was so wonderful that she felt like she was floating. Her testimony of that experience is recorded on video, so you can hear her say it in her own words.

Closing Words

I trust that Sofia's testimony has touched your life in a powerful way. 

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." (1Jn 1:5)

Jesus is real. He loves you, too. In fact, He loves you so much that it is as if He loves you more than anyone else, although He loves everyone that way. He wants to have a personal relationship with you. He wants you to know the Father, and to know Him, which is eternal life (Jn 17:3). His love is the only thing that can fill the God-sized hole inside your heart. 

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1Jn 4:8)

Nothing and no one else will ever be able to fill that hole, only Him. He wants you to be with Him forever in heaven. Yes, heaven is real, and it's an amazingly wonderful place for those who truly know Him and have repented of their sins (Rev 21-22). 

Hell is real, too. It was created for the devil and his angels (Mt 25:41), but all who do not believe in Jesus will be condemned to that place also (Mk 16:16). That is the default destination for everyone on earth, since we are all sinners who have fallen short of God's glory and perfection. That's why God sent His Son Jesus Christ into this world to die on the cross for us to take our place and pay the penalty for our sins, so that everyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. You don't have to go to hell. But the choice is yours. God has given you a free will to decide for yourself whether to repent of your sin, accept His love, to accept Him into your heart as your Lord and Savior and be saved, or to reject the Son and perish. Which will you choose? I urge you to choose life!

"The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.." (1Jn 2:4)

Attribution Notice: All Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible NIV, copyright Zondervan, used by permission.

Author's Note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to read How I Came to Know Jesus, The Truth Set Me Free, and My Overflowing Joy in Knowing Jesus, which are the testimonies of myself and two of my adult children, who came to the Lord when they were little. Also see the Home page of this blog for more testimonies. You are invited to view my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe. 

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org. 

How I Came to Know Jesus

I'd like to share with you the testimony of my oldest son Christopher, who is now nineteen years old (as of 2024). Although I am his biographer, it's his true story of how he came to know the Lord, based on the journal I have kept for all my children since they were born. I hope you enjoy it.

Christopher's Testimony

Three years old

There were various points during my early childhood when I prayed to give my heart to Jesus, beginning when I was only two and a half. Only nine days after that, while I was on the phone talking to my aunt, she asked, "Who's this?"  I said, "I'm Christopher, and I love Jesus."  That was the first time I had ever said that on my own, and that was how I began publicly identifying myself with Christ. On another occasion, when I was three years old, I once again publicly identified myself with God. At a playground, I saw a little 4-year old boy, and ran over to him happily saying, "Do you know God?"

During those tender years when I was just a little child, God continued to reveal Himself to me in various ways through nature, through His Word, and through my parents. For example, I once looked up at the stars in the dark evening sky and said, "Wow! God is in heaven!"

As a result of God revealing Himself to me, I began to desire a relationship with Him. One occasion in particular that stands out to me was on Christmas, when I was three and a half. My father was washing and dressing me and I told him I wanted to pray to give my heart to Jesus. So I did that, as he led me in that prayer, and then he prayed for me to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

About four months later I told my father that when I grow up, I want to be a man who tells other people about Jesus. A couple of months later, I was preaching to my baby brother in his crib, who was only four months old, saying, "Now Joseph, you need to obey Jesus. You disobey the devil."

On another occasion later on February 4, 2010, when I was almost five years old, my father explained to me at the dinner table about how God is bigger than the sky, bigger than the sun, moon, and stars. But He makes Himself small enough to live inside our hearts.  We also talked about how we don't deserve heaven and we all deserve hell.  But Jesus loved us so much he took our punishment. And because of that, now when we get to heaven, He will give us a big welcome.  That was another one of those times when I invited Jesus into my heart and I committed my life to the Lord. 

About a week after that, my mother was praying for me and my baby brother at bedtime like she usually did, saying "Lord, I pray that they would come to know you as soon as possible."  When I heard her pray that, I said, "But Mommy, I already know the Lord!"

My parents began to see some fruit in my life after that, so once Jesus came into my heart, it definitely made a difference in me. I began praying for relatives to come to know Jesus and being thankful. For example, I said, "Daddy, I appreciate having you as my Daddy."  That was something I had never done before.

One evening I wanted to pray for all my uncles, that they would come to know the Lord. As I was doing so with my mother, I came to pray for my uncle Jeff, and instead of praying for him, I said, "He already knows Jesus."  The Lord must have revealed that to me, because my family and I were living in Eastern Europe as missionaries in Hungary (we lived there for four and a half years) and I didn't really have any contact with my uncle Jeff, who was back in the United States. But it was true that he did know the Lord already.

Six years old

When I was six years old I enjoyed reading Bible stories like the one about Noah and the ark. My favorite one of all though was the story of David and Goliath. By the time I was six and a half, I had read the entire gospel of John. About that time, my father prayed with me one day that I would receive all of the healing that Jesus Christ had for me, so that whenever I would lay hands on the sick they would recover, and that healing and miracles would happen. The videos of miracles and healing that I watched that day really increased my faith.

Soon after that, my family and I watched a video about a girl who went to hell and back, and another girl who saw Jesus. Afterwards we all repented as a family and asked the Lord to forgive our sins.  We asked the Lord to fill us with the Holy Spirit and he did.  I spoke in other  languages at that time, when I received the baptism with the Spirit.

A couple months later, I prayed, “Lord please give me a dream of You!” I then had a dream in which I saw a picture right in front of my eyes. In the picture, I saw the back of myself in a room, facing away and looking at Jesus, who was standing before me, facing me and looking at me.  Jesus did not look like a person, but like a round, bright white light. Behind Jesus in the room were four people, who were rather short. They all had black hair and squinted, oriental eyes like Chinese people.  Two of them were wearing conical, Chinese coolie, straw hats like the rice farmers wear, which are pointed at the top.  Behind the people was a stone staircase without a railing, which ascended to the right, and at the top it turned.  It was a still picture, like a photograph. Even though it was many years ago, I still remember that dream.

Right after that I received the baptism with holy fire when my father prayed for me. John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mt 3:11; Lk 3:16), and that's exactly what He did for me. It was a tangible experience where I could feel the fire of God on my back, and my hands became hot. Soon afterwards, I began to pray more deeply and fervently than I had ever prayed before. I prayed, "Lord, help us to love you with a whole heart, not half a heart!"

Soon after that, I had a dream from the Lord, in which I was together with my whole family outdoors in a field at nighttime in the dark, discussing the Lord’s glory cloud, like the one that appeared in the temple. Suddenly I looked up, and two white lights flashed in the sky about 10 or 12 feet above us.  They flashed simultaneously like a camera flash.  In the center of one white light, I saw a small, round, blue light.  In the center of the other white flash, I saw a small, round, pink light.  These smaller orbs remained in the sky above us after the white flashes, and there were other such orbs of different colors as well.  They went upward with a sound like a mighty, rushing wind and descended downward toward us.  As they descended, I felt something like a weight of glory coming down on me, upon my head and upper body.  This weight was so great that it caused me to bend backwards at the waist.  That’s where my dream ended. In the morning, I remembered the dream from the Lord clearly and shared it with my family.

I continued to experience God in many ways, and He made Himself very real to me, including through dreams, visions, and encounters with Jesus and his angels. One time at age six, when we had our usual midnight family prayer meeting, I prayed that we would all be baptized afresh in the Holy Spirit. Soon after I prayed that, I felt a gentle wind blowing on my right ear, then on my right hand, and then on the back of my neck.  There were no windows open in the house or fans blowing. It was definitely the Holy Spirit.

Also at age six, during my morning quiet time, I asked the Lord to show me what He wanted me to do.  The Lord first told me, “Obey your parents.”  Then I said, “What else do you want me to do, Lord?”  And the Lord replied, “Preach.”

When I was nine years old, at bedtime I asked my father if it would be ok if I started getting up 30 minutes earlier in the morning, so that I could spend more time in prayer each day.

When I was ten years old, during a Sunday service in our home, two of my older sisters separately received essentially the same prophetic words from the Lord for me about God's mighty calling on my life to preach and teach the truth of His Word.  Afterward my father laid hands on me and prayed for me that I would indeed be a mighty man of God and preach righteousness and love truth. He released the anointing so that I could do so, and as he prayed for me, I sensed the presence of God.

Fourteen years old

As a young teenager, I prayed for the Lord to show me my purpose in life, and I sensed that He said, "street preaching" and "evangelism". Then I seemed to see people coming together from two directions, pairing up in pairs of two and going out together two-by-two. Afterward the chapter I read that day was Mark one, which tells of John and Jesus preaching to multitudes. As I prayed further about it a few days later, I sensed "serving others" was part of my purpose.

I trust the Lord will use my story to encourage you, especially if you already know the Lord. Continue to seek Him and pursue Him. Go deeper in Him than you have before. Ask for the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire. Believe His promises and receive it. Give yourself totally over to Him to be His servant. Love Him with your whole heart, not half a heart! Ask Him to use you for the purpose for which He created you, and then let Him do it. Doing His will is the most fulfilling way to live your life, but also the most rewarding in eternity.

If you consider yourself a Christian, or if you have been in church all your life, or if you have been raised in a Christian family, let me just say this. None of that will save you. Jesus said you must be born again (Jn 3:7). He said, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (Joh 3:3, NIV). Many people have been in church all their lives, but they have never been born again. So don't let that happen to you.

God is real, and so is Jesus. Heaven is real, and so is hell. We all deserve hell, because we've all sinned. But by the grace and mercy of God, He has made a way for us to be with Him in heaven for eternity.

If you don't know Jesus yet in a personal way, then I want to say a few words to you. Jesus loves you with an everlasting love, and He died on the cross for you. He took your place and bore your punishment, so you don't have to go to hell, if you repent and believe in Him. He rose from the dead three days after He died and He is alive. 

Eighteen years old

He has a plan for your life that is far greater than anything you've ever experienced. He can set you free from every addiction, break every chain of bondage, fulfill your deepest needs, and love you like nobody else ever could. He'll be your closest friend. I challenge you to repent of your sins and believe in Him right now to save your soul. Ask Him to forgive you for all your sins and come and live inside your heart. Ask Him to be your Lord and Savior, as you commit your life to the Lord. Then be baptized in water and live your life for Him, not for yourself. Then when you get to heaven after you die, He will give you a big welcome, and an eternal reward.

I hope to see you one day up in heaven and rejoice with you there. What a time we will have praising God around His throne with the multitudes of saints and angels. Please don't miss it for anything!

Attribution notice: Scripture quotation taken from The Holy Bible NIV, copyright Zondervan, used by permission. 

Author's Note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to read The Truth Set Me Free, Saved at a Tender Young Age, Given a New Heart and Sweet Peace, My Overflowing Joy in Knowing Jesus, and Lifted Out of a Slimy Pit, which are the testimonies of myself and four of my other children. Also see the Home page of this blog for more testimonies. You are invited to view my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

_________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.

Delivered from Bondage and New Age Deception

I would like to share with you the testimony of one of the Kenyan students in our discipleship training school called Doulos Training School. She recently came back to the Lord following nine years of backsliding in sin after she initially came to the Lord in 2002. Here is the testimony in her own words:

The Testimony of Mwendwa
Born in the early 80s, my childhood was traumatic -- riddled with chaos, sadness, torment, and despair occasioned by living with an abusive alcoholic father. My father committed suicide when I was 17, while my own first suicide attempt was at the age of 15. I struggled with severe clinical depression, low self-esteem, rejection, self-hate, OCD, social anxiety, fear, suicidal attempts and ideations, and sexual bondage from my early teen years to my late twenties. 

I first got born again at age 20 alone at home, in 2002 after an abortion which left me guilty and filled with torment. I backslid two years later however without a foundation of the truth of God and always feeling not good enough and rejected even in church. I got pregnant at age 22. At age 29 after years of severe sexual sin, depression and constant suicidal ideations, I cried out to God in repentance in my bedroom as I could not go on any longer as I had been and he set free instantly from all my sin. I got active in a local church in worship team and teaching Sunday school, and also had my own ministry to the poor slum women and feeding street boys.

Sadly, five years in 2014 later following a series of bad experiences with cults and false churches with false teachings, and being dismissed from the church I served as a leader in for questioning some of the things being done, I was tired and disillusioned and kissed formal religion goodbye opting to follow Jesus away from organized Christianity. However, isolated, wounded, and alone I found myself an easy prey to the devil. I got sexually manipulated by an apostle who took advantage of my vulnerable state, and this filled me with deep self-condemnation and I stopped reading the bible and praying, and eventually found myself back to the sins of my past worse than before, effectively opening the door to Satan's deceptions.

I began accepting and embracing new-age spiritual beliefs which seemed to offer me some semblance of a relationship with God since I no longer identified as a Christian. Over the next 9 years, these new age beliefs had taken deep hold of me and I became a 'spiritual' teacher in the metaphysical, law of attraction, and new thought community. I published 3 books and had clients and a growing following on social media. My new beliefs were a mixture of Gnosticism, Hinduism, Buddhism, eastern philosophy, and mystical Christianity. I had embraced beliefs such as non-dualism, reincarnation, Christ-consciousness, and oneness, and believed all paths led to God. I thought I had found the ultimate truth but was deeply deceived.

As a ‘spiritual’ teacher I had also gradually developed a drinking problem and by 2022 was a full-blown alcoholic unable to save myself despite years of trying everything I could. My spiritual beliefs could not save me. I knew only Jesus could help me, and I cried out to him for help over and over. Finally at my lowest point when I felt I would surely die and gave up on all self-help, the Lord Jesus set me free instantly and miraculously in rehab. In rehab I began to study the teachings of Jesus in the bible daily, desiring the truth. The spiritual deception took longer to be free from because I still believed I was on the right path. However, Jesus was slowly opening my blinded eyes.

By April 2023 the word of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus had done their work and opened my eyes it seemed almost overnight to see how greatly deceived I had been. Through a convicting work only the Holy Spirit can perform, I was shown the depth of my deception for those 9 years and how I had turned to other gods. It felt like I had woken up from a deep sleep. I truly was the prodigal son. I had wasted all I had in prodigal living. Jesus said that the prodigal son "came to himself", and said, "I will arise and go to my father." Jesus opened my eyes, set me free from years of sin and deception, and revived my first love for him which had been lost. (Revelations 2:4)

Through godly sorrow and repentance, I knew I had to leave my old life behind completely. It was clear I could not maintain my old life and a walk with Jesus. In obedience, I left it all behind to follow Jesus (Luke 5:11). This included pulling down my books from Amazon, my old social media accounts, and all my articles on my website. I also made a public confession to my followers on social media and to my clients making it clear I could no longer teach what I had been.

It was not easy and there were many consequences to this change-financially, socially, and emotionally. Sin and rebellion always have consequences. But Jesus promised to be with me always if I obeyed him and he has.

Jesus has changed my life. I now truly understand the Grace of God. The old self-righteousness and works-based Christian life that always led to condemnation, frustration, and backsliding was been exposed. I finally realized that I cannot please God through my own efforts, and my efforts cannot save me. It is all by the Grace of God, and only by looking to Jesus Christ am I sustained. My salvation is the work of God. It is he and he alone who opened my eyes when I was greatly deceived, it was all him and none of me. I am grateful for his mercy, long-suffering, and kindness. He did not allow me to die and perish in my pitiful state. I was dead and now am alive again, was blind but now I see. All my life I felt not good enough and had adopted a performance mindset even with my relationship with Jesus, but now for the first time I feel truly accepted in the beloved without the need to DO things to be loved by the Father, but instead overflowing with good works as a response to his love, and not to gain his love.

END OF MWENDWA'S TESTIMONY

Closing Words

I trust that this testimony has blessed you by the power of the Holy Spirit. If you have been in a similar situation to hers, I strongly encourage you to repent and ask the Lord to forgive you and set you free, trusting Him to do so in a very powerful way.

Author's Note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to read The Truth Set Me Free, My Overflowing Joy in Knowing Jesus, and Lifted Out of a Slimy Pit, which are the testimonies of myself and two of my other children. Also see the Home page of this blog for more testimonies. You are invited to view my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe. 

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org. 

A Message from our Lord by Sister Catherine

On Sunday, 9th January 2022, I received the following email from one of the students in our Doulos Training School (DTS), sister Catherine, who is in the United Kingdom. 

Testimony of Sister Catherine

"Dear brother Len and sister Jennifer.

This morning at around 6:00 AM, I had a vision of being in heaven, and our Lord showed me the setting sun. 

I met Jesus face-to-face and He said, 'As much as I would love to give more time to save souls, I cannot, because our Father the Almighty has set the sun in place and His plans in place, and they cannot be changed. Time is running out for saving souls, please tell our Church. I am always with you'

It was crystal clear, and a very vivid message and very powerful.

This message  has really got me thinking of the urgency of witnessing praying more.

I felt it is very urgent to share this message with you.

I feel such a stronger urgency to witness more and pray more for salvation of lost souls and pray for more people to join the Doulos studies and for some churches to wake up before it's too late.

Praying for you all. 

Bless you all. 

With love in Jesus our Lord. 

Sister Catherine."

[END OF TESTIMONY FROM SISTER CATHERINE].

---------------------------------------------

Closing Words

Dear friends, I have no doubt that what sister Catherine has shared actually happened to her, and that the Lord did speak to her in heaven. I know her and she would not make anything like this up. 

This message from our Lord agrees with what we have been hearing from Him through many other servants of His. Time is up. The end has come. He is coming back very very soon (Rev 22:7). There is no time to waste. The Father has determined it. As the Lord said at the end of the Revelation given to John the apostle:

"Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star." (Rev 22:12-16)

Even so, come, Lord Jesus! Come! 

May the Lord help us all to be found ready when He comes. May He help us to be found faithful and obedient to all that He has commanded us to do, including the Great Commission to go and make disciples. May He help us to be faithful in prayer, especially for souls.

Author's Note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to read my other post about sister Catherine called Supernatural Encounter While Striving to Draw Closer to God. You may also read Rescue Souls, Share Jesus Without Fear, A Spirit Led Strategy for Evangelism, The Night the Lord Came into My Hut.  If you are interested in learning more about our three-year discipleship training school (DTS), please see here. Also see the Home page of this blog for more testimonies. You are invited to view my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master. 

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus. Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15). He preached that we must repent and believe. 

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International. He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org. 

Given a New Heart and Sweet Peace

I'd like to share with you the testimony of my daughter Hope, who is now twenty-three years old (in 2024). This is her own personal account of how she came to know the Lord, and how He gave her a new heart with sweet peace.  

Hope's Testimony

I grew up as the second oldest of five children in a strong Christian household, where we studied the Bible and prayed together and were brought up in the ways of the Lord from a very young age. We were also encouraged to pray and to have a personal relationship with the Lord. From a very young age it was evident that I had already come to know the Lord. When I was just barely two, I liked to pray for people. I also went around our house saying, "We don't worship idols.  We worship Jesus." When I was a tender three years of age, I said, "I love Jesus" and He put "a new heart inside my heart.” At this same age, my dad saw a lot of good things growing out of my heart. During the day, I talked about Jesus, expressing my love for him, and had a joyful spirit about me. One time when I was four, I said, "The blood of Jesus is on the door of our hearts." 

Not only did I have a personal knowledge of the Lord, but when I was almost five, I suddenly asked my mom without any prompting, "Mommy? Can we go tell the neighbors about God?  I'll tell the neighbors, 'You don't want to love the devil, because he wears black and there's fire in hell.'" I don’t think we actually went to talk to them, but there was that desire in me to evangelize to our neighbors. There were several times as a little girl when my father prayed with me to receive Jesus into my heart. One of those times was on August 3, 2006, when I was five years old. In addition to praying to receive Jesus, my dad laid his hands on me and prayed that I would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. When he did so, I told him that I felt happy. 

Almost a year later, on July 15, 2007, my family and I visited a church were my dad preached. During the message, he asked if there was anyone there who had not yet given his life to Jesus. Although I raised my hand, my dad I didn't see it. When my mom brought it up after we had returned home, I acknowledged that I had raised my hand.  My answer when my parents asked me the reason why was, "Because I wanted to give my life to Jesus." My parents then prayed with me to invite Jesus into my heart and give my life to Him. A week later, I was baptized in Jesus’ name in the presence of friends and family. That moment marked the most significant change that had happened up until that point in my life.

Faith (L) and Hope (R)

A couple months later, my sister already noticed a difference in me after our dad had taught us on praise, and I lifted my hands in worship. She related to my dad later, “I saw right through her hands and her arms that the Holy Spirit was all over her.  For the first time I saw that Hope had freedom to lift her hands and praise God that I had never seen before she knew the Lord.  But now she has that freedom.” The following year, my family and I watched a program which highlighted a revival in which young people were being set on fire for God. My sisters and I were inspired by this to hold our own revival meeting in our living room, which I led. As we played on drums we sang, “Baptize us in the Holy Spirit, baptize us in fire!" During this session, we also were praying for each other. 

Three and a half years later, when I was eleven, my family and I watched a video about two young ladies, one who had gone to hell and another who had seen Jesus.  This video brought conviction to us, and we all repented and asked the Lord for forgiveness for our sins. We also asked the Lord to fill us with His Holy Spirit, and He did so. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues. This experience was the beginning of the Lord burning away the dross in my life. A week later, on New Year’s Eve, my family and I listened to a book by a South Korean pastor called “Baptized by Blazing Fire.”  Through this book we all were encouraged to seek the Lord in prayer. My dad then prayed for me and both of my sisters. I repented of the darkness I had allowed in my heart and was set free. I also received the baptism with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. My family and I knelt down and prayed earnestly for quite some time. During this time that we spent seeking the Lord, I felt that God had set me free!  

After this time we spent in prayer, my family could all see the evidence of this new freedom on my face and in my eyes.  They could see a peace in my countenance, and there was a gentleness they could see on me that they had not seen before. My face was aglow with a light upon it.  It looked as though scales had been taken from my eyes, and they were now clear and glowing with light. In the period of my life leading up to that point, I had allowed a lot of demons into my life. I had a lot of self-hatred and even entertained suicidal thoughts. But the Lord had begun a work in my life to bring me out of that darkness into the Light. I was still far from perfect, but the Lord was working to purify me from the things in my life that were not of Him. One morning, six months later, my older sister heard me awaken speaking in tongues. I had no idea that just a while before, my younger sister had also awoken speaking in tongues.

In the years that followed, I still had sins in my life that I needed to deal with, and there were times when I wondered if I was even saved. During this time, one of my sisters went through a process of thinking for herself about God, and recommitting her life to Him. When she was going through that experience, my dad had told us that sometimes it is a good idea for young people, even if they have already given their lives to Jesus when they were little children, to renew that commitment to Him when they are older and have gone through a process where they have really thought for themselves about God, and independently made that decision to serve Him. Sometime after that, when I was almost fifteen years old, I decided that now was the time for me to recommit my life to the Lord. On October 10, 2015, I surrendered my life anew to Christ during my personal prayer time. 

Just a few weeks later, on November first, my mother had a word of prophecy for me during our family church meeting, which she spoke over me with tears. The word was, “This coming year of your life, the Lord wants to open your mind to greater understanding, greater revelation, greater knowledge of God, greater love for God, and for others. He wants to unfold your spirit like a flower bud opening up to the light of God.” She then prayed for these words to be fulfilled in my life. 

In the weeks that followed, I forgot about this word for me that the Lord had given through my mother. However, just months later, early the following year, the Lord began to bring these words to pass. I believe it started with the Lord bringing to my remembrance past sins in my life that I had not repented for. As I repented of those sins, the Lord kept bringing more to the surface. I also began to take even the small sins I committed in my everyday life seriously, crying and repenting for them. I was so aware of my sin that, there were times that I spent basically my entire personal prayer time repenting, sometimes crying from the depths of my heart over my sin. However, I needed to learn to accept God’s forgiveness and grace and not keep on beating myself up even after I had repented. During this time of refining, my dad told me that he had been noticing a change in me, which He believed the Lord was bringing me through so that I could have a breakthrough in the end. 

However, even though the Lord was bringing about this work in my life, the devil was also working to bring doubts into my mind. I started to wonder if God really existed and if Jesus had really come to earth and died for me on the Cross and risen again. There also were times when I didn’t feel that God heard me when I prayed. I went through days where I felt down, and didn’t feel like praying at times because of these doubts in my heart. I wanted to believe, and I kept on repenting of my unbelief. There were moments when I was alone when I cried my heart out in total despair because of these thoughts.

During this time, my parents encouraged and counseled me. I remember one particular night where I had been praying alone, and I started to enter into this despair and to cry uncontrollably because of these doubts. My mom heard me, and came into the room where I was. Among other things she told me something like, as the hymn “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” says, darkness sometimes hides the Lord’s face, but we just need to trust that He is still there, even when we don’t feel His nearness. My dad came in at some point, and they told me to go lie down and rest, and just “be still and know that He is God.” As I was lying there and resting in the fact that He is God, I felt the Lord’s peace, and I believe it felt as if there was literally a supernatural peace in my chest.

During this period of struggling with doubt, there was one time when I was listening to a replay of a Christian radio program, which had been from the previous Resurrection Sunday weekend. The focus of the program was about Thomas doubting when Jesus rose again from the dead. One of the passages quoted during the program was John 20:27 where Jesus said “Stop doubting and believe.” I felt that God was speaking to me through this to stop doubting. 

A little over a week later, during my personal prayer time I asked God to strengthen me and my family’s feeble hands and to strengthen our feeble knees that give way. After I had finished my regular Bible reading, I felt led to read an extra chapter in the Bible. I ended up reading Isaiah 35. Unbeknownst to me before I started reading, verse three of that passage says, “Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way.” I had “coincidentally” stumbled upon the very verse I had just prayed! I don’t believe I had ever prayed this verse before so it was definitely the Lord’s doing that I chose to read this passage. I felt that through this divine coincidence that God may have been trying to show me that He hears my prayers, since I had been having doubts that He did. 

During this time of struggling with unbelief, my dad also gave me articles of his to read to help strengthen my faith, such as one about Muslims who had been saved after Jesus appeared to them. Those were indeed faith-building. God eventually gave me victory and helped me to overcome these doubts. I give God all the glory for what He has brought about in me. Even though I am still far from perfect, I’m not the same person I used to be, and I believe that He Who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 

Each and every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, no matter how good we may consider ourselves, even if we were raised in a Christian family and never went the way of the world. We all deserve eternal hellfire and torment. However, God loved us so much that He sent His Son Jesus Christ into this dark world to die on the cross and take the punishment we deserve. Jesus rose again from the grave, victorious over death, and now reigns at God’s right hand. Jesus is longing for you to forsake your sins, and come follow Him for the rest of your days. If you have never made this decision, I invite you to do so today. Now is the time of God’s favor; now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2). No matter how young you may be, none of us is promised tomorrow, so this may be your last chance. 

Repent of every sin you’ve ever committed, and ask Jesus to forgive you and cleanse your heart as white as snow with His blood. Believe in your heart that Jesus took the penalty for your sins on the cross, and that He rose again. Surrender your whole life to Him, and make Him your Lord and Savior. If you are having doubts about God, I challenge you to cry out sincerely to Him and ask Him to reveal himself to you and help you overcome your unbelief, and He will surely do just that. He will bring you from darkness in his glorious light. I pray I will one day meet you at the throne of God when we reach heaven someday. 

Author's Note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to read The Truth Set Me Free, My Overflowing Joy in Knowing Jesus, and Lifted Out of a Slimy Pit, which are the testimonies of myself and two of my other children. Also see the Home page of this blog for more testimonies. You are invited to view my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe. 

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org. 

Saved By a Vision of Second Coming - O. Moses Alabi

Omolade Moses Alabi

This is the testimony of my friend, brother Omolade Moses Alabi, a Nigerian man living in the United Kingdom. He has been married for twenty years to his wife, Celestina. Together they have four children, three boys and a girl. He is currently 48 years old and was born again in 1988.

Here is his testimony:

“I was born in the United Kingdom but had my early life in Nigeria, and came from a nominal Christian family. We seldom went to church on a regular basis, and when I did, it is just to go and 'eye' and 'spy' the ladies! I was 22 years old; I was not ready to be born again. I had a few girlfriends and I wanted to enjoy life, which included lots of fornication. Fornication was the only sin I knew. I hated beer, since it's not that sweet; I hated cigarettes, because my Dad didn't smoke. I somehow planned out my life, ‘Maybe when I’m forty or fifty years old I will get religious, But not now.’

One night I was asleep, and in the middle of the night, and I saw the sky parted. Jesus Christ descended on a white horse. Out of fear and shock, I woke up trembling. Fear gripped me. If there was anything I knew about Jesus, it was about His second coming, which I was totally unprepared for.

As I was about to go down on my knees to repent, I heard a voice say, ‘Don’t do it now. Remember your girlfriends.’(for the first time, I recognized satan's voice!) As I thought about those words, then I heard another voice in my right hear say, ‘This may be your last opportunity.’ I knew that was the Lord, so I got on my knees and repented right there.

I went back to sleep. When I awoke the next morning, the sky was so brand new! I felt light! I felt clean, holy. I felt like a new baby. When I looked at the sky it was like heaven on earth.

I began to read the Bible at that time and it came alive like never before. I had read the Bible previously, but now I began to understand it for the first time. Initially I did not want to tell my mother, because I knew she would want to bring me to church right away, and my conversion had not really sunk in yet! Yet I had no doubt already received the peace and joy of the Lord.

A few days afterward, I was sitting on my front porch. I used to like wearing a lot of jewelry. So I had my rings and my gold necklace. And as I sat there, I heard the Voice of The Holy Spirit calling my name. I turned here and there, wondering where the voice was coming from as I saw no one! The voice continued saying ‘Lade, look at yourself.’ I looked at myself and it seemed strange for the first time, although I had never heard anyone preach about jewelry. So I went inside and took off all my jewelry. I put it into an envelope and later buried it. Some time later I heard a sermon against wearing jewelry, and also read it from The Word of God.

One or two months after I was born again, during one of the church services, when the preacher gave an altar call invitation. I thought within myself, ‘Oh, that's not for me. I have accepted the Lord genuinely in my bedroom.’ But the Lord said, ‘Go forward and give your life to Me publicly.’ So I did.

After we said the sinner’s prayer, the pastor instructed us to go to one side where a counselor would speak with us. But the Lord said to me, ‘You go sit down'. (I had already become a regular member and known by the small group leaders)

Then when I moved to England twenty-five years ago, I had the opportunity to go to school, but the Lord said, ‘Don’t go to school.’ I thought, ‘What? What will people say?’ I did my best to apply to colleges two consecutive years, but they could not trace nor find my application details that were duly submitted.

So I chose a day to sit before The Lord to hear right and not hear amiss! So I prayed, ‘Show me, Lord. Where is that in the Bible?’

Then something amazing happened. I didn't know where to start reading or scroll to in the word, so I just flipped open the Bible to Acts 4 and read verse 13, which says, ‘Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.’ (Act 4:13). Although the apostles were uneducated and untrained men, the rulers and elders recognized that they had been with Jesus.

So I prayed another prayer which came into my heart that the Lord will remove from me any spirit of fear, so that I may be able to stand before wise, learned and unlearned people of the world with complete boldness, with no inferiority, or inadequacy complex. He did it instantly and I arose from prayer with full confidence and assurance that all is well.

The Lord also laid upon my heart that I will be his signboard or signpost. This meant that I would be the one to raise banners for him throughout my nation, as it says in Psalm 60:4-5.

So I have learned that if you want to receive direction from the Lord, He can direct you so easily. It’s very simple for Him to do that, if you ask Him to. The problem is that we are so deaf when He does speak to us. Just listen to His voice and obey Him. He will lead you.”

Attribution notice: Scripture quotation taken from the NASB.

Author's note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like the other posts in this blog, such as The Truth Set Me Free!, The Joy I've Come to Know, and The Lord Healed My Backsliding.  There are more testimonies on the Home page of this blog as well. You may also access my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master." 

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

_________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.

My Journey from Buddhism to New Life in Christ

As we are currently back in the States on furlough, away from the mission field of Eastern Europe, I noticed that one of my articles had been posted on another website called VN Salvation.  So I contacted the President of that ministry, Hai Chuong, to introduce myself and get acquainted. I was interested in knowing if he was in Vietnam or the States, and was surprised to find out that he is only two hour's drive from me here in North Carolina, USA! So we had a great chat on the phone, during which he shared with me how he came to the States from Vietnam and how he came to know Christ.  Here is his amazing testimony of his search for truth, his harrowing journey as a boat person, and his miraculous conversion to Christ.

The Testimony of Hai Chuong

At the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, after twenty years of conflict and thousands of bombs being dropped, there were two million South Vietnamese dead, fifty-eight thousand American soldiers dead, and 504 Australians dead.  Since the communist Viet Cong had won, they began to round up anybody that had fought against them during the war and put them in prison.  The South Vietnamese people were scared; therefore, hundreds of thousands of them fled their homeland as refugees.  In 1979, I was one of those people who fled from Vietnam with my family as a refugee at the age of eighteen years old. 

Boat people, courtesy Wikipedia

We were known as boat people since that was the best way to escape.  Families had to sell all their valuables in order to buy a boat or pay a fisherman money to get out. Some of these boats were only three by ten yards in size and made of wood.  And then we had to secretly gather together in small groups of three to five, so that we would not be noticed, because if they caught us they would either shoot us or put us in prison.  And then once we escaped, we knew we would never see our families again, whom we had left behind.  We were on the Pacific Ocean in this small wooden boat, packed in like sardines, which was a terrifying experience.  There were many dangers and hardships to endure.   As people became sea sick, they would vomit right on the boat where they were, and they would also relieve themselves right where they were.  There were Thai pirates that could come on board and plunder our belongings or capture young women to rape or be sold.  There was the threat of thunderstorms, shipwreck, or running out of supplies and starving to death.  That is why one million South Vietnamese people died trying to escape the post-war horrors of communism.

My family has total eight brothers and sisters. We left Vietnam at three different times within a year, and ended up in three different countries as refugees – Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia – none of which we were welcomed in. We had some relatives in the United States, so we got in contact with them and managed to emigrate to Wisconsin, USA.

We were Buddhists from a Buddhist country, but a Lutheran church sponsored us. We attended the church services, but did not understand what they were saying. Although they were very kind to us, we declined their offer to get saved or become a Christian.

However, I had been looking for Truth since I was a child.  As a child, I had seen so much death, including my father’s death in 1974, so I determined that I would look for the Truth when I grew up.  I knew that whomever could conquer death had the Truth. After five years in the U.S., we received a letter about some of our relatives passing away. I was so shocked by that terrible news. I still wanted as much as ever to know Truth.

Although I was a Buddhist, I didn’t really know much about Buddhism.  My parents told me, “You’re a Buddhist, so live a good life.”  But they did not really give me much of the teachings of our religion.  So as an adult in the States, I tried to learn Buddhist teaching. The more I read, I realized that Buddha cannot save you. Buddha said you must save yourself! And he himself died, so how could he save anyone?

Nobody ever told me about Jesus.  As a young person I had watched a movie about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. But they only showed Him die on the cross, and did not explain why He died or show Him rise from the dead.  I was scared of the blood there on the cross. So I didn’t like to think about that. I even had Catholic friends in Vietnam, who could have told me the Truth, but nobody told me Jesus Christ rose from the dead.  In Vietnam, some Buddhists had black magic power like voodoo, but the Catholics had no power in their lives, and I wanted to know who had the power to overcome death.  I thought, “What good is it to worship a man like Jesus if He has no power?”

In the U.S., I did not feel I could find the answer I was looking for.  Death had so much power! I thought that nobody could overcome it. 

Then a friend of my oldest sister in Houston, urged my sister to open a Chinese restaurant, since he knew how to cook. My sister listened to him. I lived with my sister's family at that time in Houston, and my sister opened a Chinese restaurant in Arkansas. Since there was a military base there, a refugee camp was set up, where there were many Vietnamese refugees.

Then my sister decided to close her restaurant, and she began to look for someone to buy it from her.   But she could not find a buyer. She began asking $63,000 and even though she lowered her price to $30,000, she could not sell it! She made trips back and forth between Texas and Arkansas, which was very difficult for her, because of the travel and staying in motels. So the process of trying to sell the restaurant was hard for her. While working at the restaurant, my sister had met a Vietnamese Christian woman, who really liked my sister. Then one day that Vietnamese Christian woman invited my sister to stay with her at her house, whenever she was in Arkansas.

One day that woman told my sister, “Can you listen to me this time? Let us go to church, and ask the Lord to sell your restaurant. If He does, then you will become a Christian. If not, you don’t have to do anything.” So my sister did so. Even though Christianity seemed to us like just an American religion, my sister did not want to displease the woman, because she was so kind to her.

At the Vietnamese Church in Arkansas, they had worship and then a time for prayer requests. My sister’s Christian hostess stood up and asked everybody to pray that the Lord would help her sell the restaurant.  Miraculously some Chinese businessmen came and bought the restaurant that same day! So the Christian woman said to my sister, “You remember your promise!” So my sister became the first Christian in our family.

I was single at that time, living in Houston with my sister and her family, still searching for the Truth of overcoming death.  My sister did not even believe in Jesus, but she did not want to displease the lady, so she went through the motions of becoming a Christian. But when she returned to Houston to her own place, she figured the lady would not know if she did not attend church or follow the Lord. However, the lady knew Christians in Houston. So she arranged to get my sister connected with a Vietnamese church there, and my sister began to go to church in Houston, since she didn't want to show the Vietnamese Christian woman she was fake. I was upset with my sister. I said, “Why did you become a Christian? You didn't ask us!” I confronted her. Then she told her story about the miracle God did in selling her restaurant and how she became a Christian. Of course, after hearing that, I could say nothing more, but I was still against it, since it was just an American religion to me.

At my sister’s place in Houston, where I lived with her as a single man, eventually her husband became a Christian.  People from their church would come to the house for Bible study.  I always avoided them, since I did not want to get into confrontation or conflict. One day the Vietnamese pastor knocked on the front door. I would not have answered the door, if I knew it was the pastor. But I didn’t know, so I answered and he came in for an unannounced visit. 

During the visit, he talked with me, and I tried to be polite. He talked and it seemed like he just kept on talking. I wanted to get out of there so badly. Finally the pastor stopped talking and said, “Before I leave, did you know Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead?”  At that moment, it was like the lights went on inside of me.

I asked, “What did you say?”

He replied, “Did you know Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead?”

I said, “No. How did it happen?”

He said, “He died and rose from the dead in three days.”

I said, “That's real! That's true!” It was the Truth I had been searching for all my life!

Then I recalled how my grandfather had died, while my grandmother was sleeping close to him and heard him call out that he was thirsty.  I recalled how my grandmother had given him water, and he lived a couple more years. I wondered if Jesus was weak like that after He returned to life.

The pastor said, “No, He was strong and fully alive.”

I asked, “Did He die again after that?”

“No. He conquered death. He never died again. He appeared to His disciples for forty days, and then ascended into heaven where He lives forever at the right hand of God.”

I told the pastor, “If that's the Truth, I will become a Christian.”

Hai Chuong

And once I became convinced of it, I said, “That's the Truth.” Then I became a Christian.

Like I said already, I had always thought, “What good is it to worship a man like Jesus if He has no power? If you cannot overcome death yourself, how can you save others?  If you are drowning, how can you rescue anyone else who is drowning?  But if you can overcome death, then you can save others.” 

My friend, Buddha cannot save you.  He died and his bones are in the grave.  He has no power, and he even said that you must save yourself.  But Jesus Christ is the only One who has conquered death.  He died on the cross two thousand years ago for your sins and mine, and He rose from the dead three days later.  He lives forever and He is able to save you, if you will repent of your sin and ask Him to forgive you.  When you invite Him into your heart, He will give you new life, abundant life, and eternal life, so that you can live forever. 

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (Joh 14:6)

He also said, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" (Joh 11:25-26)

 -- Hai Chuong

Attribution notice: Most Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Photo of boat people courtesy Wikipedia.

Author's note: Please see Opportunities to Serve the Body of Christ.  If you enjoyed this post, you may also like the other posts in this blog, such as The Truth Set Me Free!, The Joy I've Come to Know, and The Lord Healed My Backsliding.  You may also access my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master." 

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

_________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.