// December 31st, 2009 // 10 Comments » // Loux Family News

Derek Loux Memorial Service

On Wednesday morning December 23, 2009, Derek R. Loux (37), a husband, father, musician, and justice advocate, went home to be with the Lord after a fatal car accident in Nebraska. Derek, a faithful servant of the Lord, was husband to Renee Loux for 17 years and father to ten children, several with special needs.

The Louxs’ two biological daughters, Sophia (12) and Michaela (9), were joined by five adopted daughters from the Marshall Islands: Telma (19), Teyolla and Keyolla (twins, 18), Leeann (15), and Sana (8). Of their three adopted sons from the Ukraine, Sasha (7), Ethan (6), and Silas (3), two have Down syndrome and one has spina bifida.

Late in the evening on December 22, after attending a training seminar on how to save children out of the sex slave industry, Derek and his friend Jonathan, began their return drive home from Colorado. They hit a patch of black ice as they drove through a Nebraska snowstorm, causing their vehicle to spin out of control and flip several times. Derek was not driving the car and was sleeping in an almost completely reclined position. Derek was wearing his seatbelt, but when the car flipped, Derek was literally sucked out of his lap belt. Because he was reclined, his shoulder harness was not tight enough to hold him.  Jonathan and a witness of the accident immediately performed CPR on Derek while waiting for the ambulance. Derek was given several different drugs to revive him and after an hour, he regained a pulse. The doctor’s told the Loux family that Derek had been without a pulse for over an hour and that while being transported to a larger trauma care hosptial, his heart rate began to drop and he passed away.

Derek was part of the senior leadership team of the International House of Prayer of Kansas City (IHOP–KC) and served many areas of the missions base, including helping to pioneer Forerunner Music Academy. Before joining IHOP–KC, he served as the director of Indianapolis House of Prayer for four years. As a professional musician, singer, and songwriter, Derek recorded several CDs including Paper Religion and Fragrant Burning. He was also a worship leader and a frequent conference speaker.

Derek’s life passion was adopting and restoring orphans, particularly those with special needs. He pioneered the vision of the Orphan Justice Center, a haven of restoration for rescued orphans.

Kirk Bennett, director of IHOP–KC’s justice department, worked with Derek and the Orphan Justice Center.  “Derek was a joyful husband and father. He is one of the most amazing champions of justice, adoption, and life that I have ever worked with. He was intensely and personally involved in bringing justice to many; he demonstrated the value of life to people and individuals so that they could experience their own value and freedom,” said Kirk.

Derek and Renee’s firstborn son, Josiah, a special needs child, passed away when he was 2½ years old. Josiah’s life and death opened the Louxs’ eyes to a whole new world of love for children with special needs. As a result, one of their dreams has been to buy approximately 45 acres on Blue Ridge Boulevard, Grandview, to build a “mansion of mercy” and therapy center for special needs children and the staff caring for them. Renee and the Loux children plan to continue their current efforts to help children, fulfilling this dream even in Derek’s death. For more detailed information about the Josiah project and how you can partner with the Loux family, go to www.josiahfund.org <http://www.josiahfund.org> .

Mike and Diane Bickle and the entire IHOP–KC staff will greatly miss Derek Loux, his excellent leadership, and his faithful friendship. Speaking of Derek, Mike Bickle says: “He was a faithful man who loved God and cared about people. He led worship teams, and helped start Forerunner Music Academy and the Orphan Justice Center. He was an integral part of our leadership and he will be greatly missed as a dear friend.”

Derek’s memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 2, 2010 at the IHOP–KC Forerunner School of Ministry building located at 12444 Grandview Road, Grandview, Missouri, 64030.

Service times are as follows: viewing, 10:00am–noon; memorial service (available by live webstream on IHOP.org/louxmemorial<http://www.ihop.org/louxmemorial> ), 2:00pm–4:30pm.

If you would like to assist the family at this tragic time, you may do so by mailing your tax-deductible financial gift to:

IHOP–KC
3535 E. Red Bridge Road
Kansas City, MO 64137

Please make checks payable to “SCCF” and write “IHOP–KC Benevolence Fund” in the memo line.

Checks may also be brought to the IHOP–KC Business Office at 3535 E. Red Bridge Road, Kansas City. If you would like to make a credit card donation, please call: 816.763.0200 x.2250

Please Keep Our Family in Prayer

// December 23rd, 2009 // 210 Comments » // Loux Family News

The letter below was sent out to our IHOP community on the recent loss of husband, father, son, brother, and friend, Derek Loux. Please keep our family in prayer as we grieve this incredible loss.

On behalf of the entire family, we thank you,

Tracie Loux

Dear IHOP family,

Derek Loux, who was such an important part of our IHOP family for many years, is now in the presence of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Early this morning as he was traveling home from Colorado, Derek was killed in an automobile accident when his car hit a patch of black ice.  Derek had been in Colorado to receive more extensive training in how to minister to victims of human trafficking,

For years, this precious man of God has faithfully served his Lord and our Missions Base in so many areas, including helping pioneer the Forerunner Music Academy, where he served as director.  Derek was part of the IHOP-KC senior leadership team, a worship leader in the House of Prayer, and a frequent IHOP-KC conference speaker.  He has recorded professionally as a musician, singer and songwriter; including his albums Paper Religion and Fragrant Burning.  Before joining IHOP-KC, he served as the director of IHOP-Indianapolis for four years.

Derek’s life passion was adopting and restoring orphans; he pioneered the vision of the Orphan Justice Center – a haven of restoration for rescued orphans.  OJC recently become an official part of IHOP.  His tireless voice for the weak and voiceless indelibly marked us all. How we will miss him.
Renee and the children will need so very much love and support, not only in these first weeks, but for many years. In the immediate, Pamela Stead will spearhead all practical care for the family.  Please contact her (pamelastead@ihop.org) if you want to be involved in practical helps. We ask you to please give the Loux family (immediate and extended) privacy to grieve, and only go to the home if invited. There will be many ways to give – meals, childcare, home care, finances. More details will follow soon on how you can give to this precious family, as well as Memorial plans.

We do not grieve as those who have no hope, but oh how we grieve. For Renee, for children who have lost their earthly father,  and for our family who has lost a marvelous comrade.  Until that Day when He dries every tear…we mourn with the Loux family.

The IHOP Leadership Team

Our Beautiful Sana

// December 13th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Loux Family News

In our previous blog post, we were talking about how precious our family support staff is and how thankful we are for each of them!  For some reason, one of our Family Support Staff member’s (Claire) pictures didn’t post when I posted the blog post.  Claire is so precious to us and I just wanted you to get a chance to go back and view the post once more to see her beautiful face and to know how thankful we are for her as well!  We love Claire so much and are blown away by her servant’s heart!

The following  account below is from our family support staff member “Kristen”.  Sophia and Sana performed in their school’s Christmas play last week (Michaela got sick the last minute and couldn’t participate) … the rest of the family attended.  The date had been changed and was earlier than the previous years so Derek and I were very disappointed that we were going to miss the girl’s Christmas program!  We will get to see it on video so that helps a little.

Kristen’s account of something very special that happened:

Tonight I took some short little videos of Sana singing–she was beyond
adorable.  Sana had seen me up front taking pictures, but didn’t know about the videos.
When I told her that I had taken them, she lit up and exclaimed “Oh good then my mommy can see
them.”  Talk about melt your heart!!!  I said, “Yes, your mommy will love to see it!”

As we were leaving home to come to the performance tonight, Sana looked at herself in the mirror and said “I am
different.”  I could tell she meant that in a positive way, but wasn’t sure
what she meant.  So I asked her about it and she said “I feel different” as she studied
herself in her pretty outfit.  So I said, “Oh, do you feel really beautiful in that pretty dress?”
With her eye’s beaming she said “Yes!”  … moments I wouldn’t trade for the world!

At the end of the show.. the kids sang a song “There Are No Orphans In God’s
Family” … Sana was on my lap and Sasha was on Renee’s mom’s lap. Sasha kept
reaching over to hold Sana’s hand throughout the night… so as this last
song was sung, it about moved me to tears because these two precious
treasures, placed in such a wonderful family this year,  were holding hands with
each other.  Sasha loved the tune so much he raised his other free hand in
worship and Sana was humming aloud to the finale.   Joyful little hearts!!!

Thanks so much Kristen, for sharing this with us!  Only God would devise such a heartmelting plan as to take the little orphan crippled boy from rural Ukraine and the orphaned bright eyed South Pacific princess, put them into the same family as brother and sister, and have them sit together in Missouri, hold hands and sing “There Are No Orphans In God’s Family”.  There is no story teller like our God!

Our beautiful Sana and precious Kristen!

Our Amazing Family Support Staff!!!

// December 13th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Loux Family News

Renee and I are in Hawaii for 12 days together.  We did five days of ministry here,  both at a church in Hilo and at the Youth With A Mission base in Kona.  While in Kona, we got to see our precious  Telma.  She is completing her missions school at YWAM’s University Of the Nations.  Telma will be getting on a plane for Rwanda on Monday, headed for her outreach, where she will be ministering to orphans with AIDS.  We had such a wonderful time loving on her, celebrating an early Christmas together and telling her how proud we are of her!  What a beautiful heart she has!

We are now taking a week to celebrate a long overdue 2nd honeymoon.  The Lord blessed us with the use of a great time share home right on the ocean!  He is so good!  While we’ve been away our “Family Support Staff” (Claire, Tiffany, Peter, Kristen, & Travis) and Renee’s mom Flo, have been taking care of our kids.  We received the following email from Kristen and had to share it with you.

Before bedtime last night, we put the IHOP (International House of Prayer) webstream on in the boys room
and we started praying together.  At first we just had the little boys along with Sophia and Sana.   We prayed
for different ones and we could really feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in a strong way… Then Leann brought
in sweet KK (Michaela) who wasn’t feeling well so we could pray for her.  As we prayed I opened my eyes to see
that Ethan, Silas and Sasha had all scooted over and put their hands on Michaela and were praying for her too.
As KK opened her eyes periodically and saw all her siblings, especially the boys praying it even put a contented
smile on that sweet little face.  She was feeling miserable!

Later as I was holding Sasha and praying for him, I could feel the fire of the Lord resting so strongly on him.  He seemed
so peaceful and just rested into it.   My hands were so hot as Sasha and I danced to the streaming worship together–Sasha
in my arms.  God loves to encounter little boys!!  Tucking him in bed that night, I asked him what he wanted to pray for… he
said “Healing”… I asked, “Healing for who?”   He said “Mama” I said “Okay”,  and then he said “Sasha too.”  I said “Okay, what
should we ask God to heal?” He said “My legs.”

It is unbelievable to have such incredible people on our team as we fight for justice for the orphan together.  To have people give of their time and of themselves so sacrificially, loving the Lord, loving our kids, and taking the time to lead them in prayer, worship, and discipling them while we are gone just blows our minds!  Renee and I stood in the kitchen of the home we’re vacationing in, with tears of gratitude streaming down our faces.  Thank you Claire!  Thank you Tiff!  Thank you Peter!  Thank you Kristen!  Thank you Travis!  Thank you Mom! We love you and are so thankful that you are family!

Our beautiful Claire with our precious Ehan! Claire is our "Wonder Woman!" She goes above and beyond what is asked of her daily! What a beautiful servant's heart she has! Claire, we love you so much! You are so precious and we are blessed beyond belief to call you "family." Thanks for giving of yourself daily to each one of us!

Claire, Silas and Ethan having fun among the apple tree

Our beautiful Tiffany with our precious Silas.... Tiff is amazing! She has such a tender heart of love and Silas adores her! Thanks Tiff for all you mean to each of us. You are priceless!

Our Peter has a beautiful heart and the most precious spirit! Sasha absolutley adores him. We love you Peter! You are a true and priceless gift from Jesus to us! Thanks for loving Sasha so well!

Our Travis is incredible! He loves to play with our kids and he's just so much fun! We love and appreciate you so much! You are a gem and we are so thankful for you!

Our beautiful Kristen! What a servant's heart she has! Our kids adore her and we love her so much! Thanks for how you pour out your love on our children! We love you so much!

Mom is amazing! She loves her grandchildren so well! Thank you Mom for how you give of yourself daily to each of us. You are such a servant and we are so thankful for you! We love you very much!!

Sana and Kristen

Our Fun Day At Disneyland

// December 11th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Loux Family News

As those of you who have read our previous blog posts know, our family  was not only blessed with an all expense paid trip to Universal Studios, but to Disneyland as well.  Here are some pictures of our fun day!

Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse

Sasha getting his first experience of being lifted up on a wheel chair ramp. He thought this was so much fun.

Enjoying the tram ride

Fun on the Merry-Go-Round ..... Silas was a bit sleepy, bless his heart

Going in the belly of the whale... hmmmm... must of been a little of what Jonah felt like!

KK (Michaela) and her buddy Matthew, taking a Hot Cheetos break

The Christmas Parade

Key and Tey in Adventure Land

Ethan and his proud Papa

Our happy Sasha

Telma and Mommy

Telma and Daddy

Four beauties under the Christmas Tree

Daddy carrying two of his wild princesses

Silas and Telma lovin on each other

Daddy and his girls

Our friend Matthew and our Michaela having fun with Daddy

Just look at those smiles!

Leeann, Daddy and Sasha taking a fun flight with Dumbo

Some good lovin!

Sasha taking a sneak sip of Daddy's iced coffee... the end to a very happy day!

The beautiful castle at night

An awesome hug in front of the castle

A Day At Universal Studios

// December 10th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Loux Family News

Here are some pictures of our fun day at Universal Studios in Los Angeles!  What a blessing! Thanks again to the beautiful person who owns a business in LA who treated us gold and blessed our entire family with this fun trip!  We are humbled and so moved by your love!

We are family!

Leeann and Silas getting ready for the fun!

Sophie, Derek and Telma, along with "Donkey" from Shrek

Sasha said "Green man, big muscles!" Ha!

One of our wonderful new friends, and hosts, Kevin, with our Michaela

Derek and the kids

Fun, fun, fun!!!

Our friend Misuk, here with Leeann, was our main host. She was just amazing! What a servant's heart!

OOHHH, glad this is just pretend! Just look at those teeth!

Our beautiful Silas and Tey

Sasha thought the jaws of this great white were pretty cool. They look a lot cooler on land than they would coming up out of the water!

Derek, the man I love, and our beautiful Sophie!

Sasha has a new buddy named Matthew. He was such a great friend to Sasha while we were in LA. What a great young man! Sasha loves him!

Just look at these beauties!

Ethan getting ready for a 3D show

Silas lookin cool

Let The Fun Begin!

// November 30th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Loux Family News

As most of you know, if you’ve read the previous post written by Derek, our entire family (yes, all 12 of us)  just returned from an amazing all expense paid trip to LA.   I’ll be posting more pictures this week of our awesome adventure.  The local LA business that made this trip possible just blew our minds with their kindness and love towards our family. The owner of the company that dreamed up and facilitated this entire blessing has the heart of Christ. She is such a humble and beautiful person and the love of Jesus is so evident in her life!  Thank you again to our special new friend who made this entire trip to LA  (including Disneyland and Universal Studios) possible!!!  Here are the pictures from our flight to LA.

Ethan, chillin on the plane with some great tunes! He was so calm on the whole flight.... a big change from his first airplane ride from Ukraine to his new home in the U.S.!

Happy Silas sure enjoyed the flight... no crying or fussin at all!

Sasha, Soph and Leeann flying the friendly skies

The father of 11 children (including our son who is with Jesus) Just look at that peaceful countenance! Could the headphones have something to do with that? HA!

Tey and Mama

Key, getting excited about her trip to LA

Michaela, lovin on her little world traveler brother, Ethan. He's not having it too rough. With a pretty sister like this, feeding him cheese crackers and stroking his head while he listens to his favorite tunes..... what a life!

Poor little Sana got sick on the plane!

A Grateful Heart

// November 27th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Loux Family News

There is nothing more powerful in our lives to keep us in the light of wisdom and reason than a grateful heart. Romans 1:21 says that “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened”  Ingratitude leads to ignorance which results in darkness and foolishness.

As we celebrated Thanksgiving we had so much to be grateful for.  We’ve watched the Lord add five beautiful children to our family this year alone, felt the grace and supernatural love of God imparted to us, blending us into a family and helping us find our new “normal”.  We’ve watched over the past 10 months as the Lord has transformed their hearts, minds, and even their bodies (Ethan went from looking like a survivor of a death camp to a plump little Christmas elf in 9 months).  We just returned from Los Angeles where our entire family was treated to an all expense paid Disneyland / Universal Studios vacation.  THANK YOU to the local LA business that dreamed of, paid for, and facilitated this dream vacation for us (they asked to remain anonymous).  It would not have been possible without you! This company even flew our precious Telma from Hawaii (where she is attenting YWAM) out to LA to join us!  What an amazing blessing!

When I look at my beautiful bride Renee and our 10 gorgeous kiddos, I am overwhelmed by how blessed I am.  I am a rich man, and this wealth can’t be stolen or lost or destroyed.  No human system or government or disaster can take my wealth, and there is nothing that anyone could offer me that could cause me to give up this wonderful life I have.  Thank you Abba Father!  You are such a good God!
My wife will be blogging more about our trip this week and you’ll get to experience some of our grand adventure through the pictures she posts as well.

God bless you all!

Derek Loux

Our family at Universal Studios

An Update On Silas

// November 17th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Loux Family News

Our happy little Fire Chief!

Captain "Si"

We love you precious son!

Our little Silas is doing great just 2 weeks after cardiac surgery!  He’s healing quickly and growing stronger everyday!  He is still on a little  heart medication and meds for latent TB, along with a little Motrin for pain now and then, but that’s it!  His progress is amazing and we are so thankful for all of you who prayed that Silas would have a speedy recovery!  It’s so awesome to have him home!

When Silas was in the hospital we could tell that Sasha was worried about where he’d gone. This happened the last time Silas was in the hospital with pneumonia.  Sasha would ask where Silas was.  He seemed confused and a little scared.  Again, because Sasha was the oldest boy in the orphanage he grew up in, he saw children come and go, some never returning. Some of the children had been adopted out and some had passed away.  He didn’t understand what was happening. Sasha’s face lit up when we brought Silas home. He hugged and kissed his brother and did his little happy “Sasha dance.”

It’s still hard not to know the details what our boys have been through, or what’s going on in their little heads and in their heart but,  we keep praying that the Lord will bring healing to their spirit and that they will be secure in the fact that whenever any of us walks out the door to go anywhere,  we will always return home.

Fun With Horses

// November 15th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Loux Family News

Sophia lovin on "Old Blue"

MIchaela (KK) getting ready to ride!

Sana was so excited to get to see horses for the first time!

Our twin's brother Jikko, got to ride for the first time too! There aren't any horses in the Marshall Islands.

OOHHHH this is fun!

Leeann nervously getting ready to ride

You can do it Lee!

Sophia

Teyolla feeding one of the horses

The end of a long day of fun!

Just a short time ago, we took our kiddos to a horse ranch.  Several of our adopted children had never ridden horses before.   There was no provision for special need’s children to ride at this particular ranch, so Sasha, Ethan and Silas were not able to ride.  We are on a waiting list at a ranch that does facilitate riding lessons for special need’s children and are looking forward to the day that they get to experience the beauty of horses!

My brother Terry,  his wife Amy and their children Jikko, Jaukon and Tanya were just here visiting from the Marshall Islands.  Some of you are aware of the fact that they adopted our twin’s brothers Jikko and Jaukon.  When my brother and his family flew back to the islands, they let Jikko stay an extra week with us.  We had so much fun with him and we got to take him to this horse ranch too.  There are no horses in the Marshall Islands so this was a great experience for all our kids from the islands!

As many of you know, our vision is to rescue, adopt and restore 30 needy and neglected orphans. We are raising funds now through the Josiah Fund site (see the link on this page for detailed information) to purchase 45 acres of land. We will be building a larger home to house all the precious ones we bring in, as well as  housing for the staff members who will be helping us.  Many of the children we will be adopting will have special needs. We have a vision to restore them through involvement in the International House of Prayer 24/7 worship & prayer environment here in Kansas City, as well as through equestrian therapy, horticultural therapy, and traditional therapeutic programs (PT, OT, Speech).

To see the joy on our children’s faces as they rode these beautiful horses was just priceless!  We made some great memories that will last a lifetime!

By the way, Jikko, we know you read our blog and we just want to say we love you, we miss you and we are SO glad that you got to go riding with us on this special day!  Love to all of you (our family and friends) there in the Marshall Islands!