October, November Prayer Letter

25 November 2011

Dear Pastor and Church Family,

            We hope you had a very happy and thankful Thanksgiving!  We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Lord for His goodness to us.  What a great God we serve!!!  These past two months seem to have been a season of blessing for us.  We have seen a number of prayers answered including an increase in our monthly support.  Another answer to prayer that I would especially like to share with you is our children returning to church in great numbers.  Last year when schools closed for Summer break, I think the children thought that the church closed as well.  No matter how much we visited them during the Summer, they just would not return.  Well, last month we planned a big event for them.  Praise the Lord we had a total of 19 people in church that Thursday evening!  They have since continued to come with enthusiasm and are excited about learning Bible verses. 

“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” - Isaiah 55:11

            More great news to share is that we continue to see visitors in church.  A husband visited with his wife and two young children, a single mom visited, and several children visited for the first time.  It’s always a blessing to see the faithful in the crowd; but it’s an added blessing to see others mixed in among them.

            We would also like to thank the Lord for what we believe to be new open doors of opportunity.  For some time now we have been ministering in one of the care home facilities in our area.  This has been a tremendous blessing to them and us.  We have been praying about getting into the other care home facility as well as the orphanage and the prisons.  We thank God that we were able to sing and preach at both care homes on Thanksgiving Day and they invited us to come back!  Now we will be able to minister in both facilities on a regular basis.  We were also able to speak to the owner of the orphanage and it seems that we may be able to minister there as well. Please pray with us about these opportunities.  We would also like to ask you to continue to pray for one of our charter members as her health still needs to improve.  This month alone she has been to the emergency room four times with low blood pressure and extreme nausea.  We have mentioned this family several times before, but we would like to ask you once again to please continue to pray for this young family.

            On a more personal note, for some time my wife was experiencing dizzy spells and mild nausea throughout the day.  We had no clue what was causing them.  We started praying about it and seeking some advice about what could be causing the dizzy spells.   Praise the Lord, we found out that it was fluid on her inner ear.   She took Gingko supplements and both symptoms were gone in a matter of three days.  Isn’t God Good!?!  To wrap things up...we want to thank you for your prayers and financial support that enables us to do all that we do here in Newport, Arkansas.  May the Lord richly bless you this holiday season!

                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                                Pastor Raymond Beckles

Dear Pastor and church family,

So much has happened since our last letter that it is hard to know where to begin.  We will start with family news.  Praise the Lord my wife delivered the newest addition to our family on Friday, June 17^th!  We are truly thankful  that little Cassidy Moret Beckles was born safely and she is truly a delight.  The next day we celebrated  the second birthday of our firstborn – Aaliyah LaRae Beckles.  They grow up so fast!  We also celebrated our fifth year of marriage on July 28^th.   We are excited about what God has done in our family and are looking forward to many more years serving Him!

Ephesians 2:20-21 “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

The church has also experienced many things.  Our numbers were steadily on the rise and we saw many visitors come; but then we experienced what we believe to be a Satanic attack.  (The Devil doesn’t like it when you are making a difference for Christ.)  Several people in our number experienced life threatening illnesses over the past two months.  Over a span of two weeks one gentleman had a heart attack which led to heart surgery, another gentleman’s right lung collapsed, one lady was hospitalized with pneumonia, another with gall bladder issues which led to it being removed,  and one of our charter members has been in and out of the hospital continually struggling for her life.  We mentioned her family in a previous letter asking for prayer.  We would like to ask you to please continue your prayers.   She is currently out of the hospital; but is continuing dialysis.

     Still, we Praise God for His goodness and that people are continuing to visit the church.  Most recently one gentleman visited our Thursday evening service.  He took great pride in announcing the fact that he possessed nine gifts of the Spirit (to include speaking in tongues and prophecy) and claimed he was a pastor; but he had no church.  After the service I spoke with him and he confided in me that he was shocked to find that many churches in this area believe that once you are saved you are always saved (which is not true, to my knowledge we are one of very few churches  in Newport that believes in the eternal security of the believer).  I replied, “Really, so do we!” .  He looked shocked; but promptly changed the subject.    He spoke of many things; but did not include any scripture to backup any of his beliefs.  This gentleman’s mentality is an example of one of the problems we face with the souls here in Newport. 

     Many of people here know just enough scripture to get themselves thoroughly confused.   They talk in circles and when you ask them if they are saved they say yes; but when you ask them how they KNOW they are saved they have many different responses.  When you show them the Bible way they say… “That’s what I meant.”  Sound familiar? A common trick of the Devil is to keep you confused about the basics, so that you will never grow in the Lord.   We are grateful for the privilege and opportunity to take the Word of God to these dear souls and we are thankful for your part as co-laborer with us through your prayer and support. 

Wishing you God’s best,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

Romans 10:13-14   For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written,”

Special Delivery!

Our Little Bundle of joy has finally arrived!  We are proud to announce the birth of Cassidy M. Beckles.  Born Friday, June 17 at 11:51a.m.  Everyone is doing well.  Thank you for your prayers. 

March - April Prayer letter

Dear Pastor and church family,

These past few months have truly been an adventure for us.  We praise the Lord that we have survived the big storms that came through this area recently.  We experienced severe thunder storms, hail and rain; but no tornados touched down in our immediate area.  There was a family not too far from us who lost their mother and seven year old son. 

            The people in our church have experienced many challenges as well as answers to prayer.  The young family that we mentioned in our last prayer letter have a three year old son who was seriously ill for several weeks.  He had to be medi-flighted to Children’s hospital in Little Rock with double pneumonia and a very low white blood cell count.  He underwent many tests, including a test for leukemia; but we praise the Lord that he made it though and is now back to his old self, with no leukemia! Also,  a young lady in our church recently passed out after visiting her child at school.  It was discovered that she has severely damaged kidneys and the doctors say she will have to be on dialysis for the rest of her life.  This is a faithful family in our church and they-

she, her husband, and two teenage children -  will need a lot of prayer as they face this storm. 

            We praise the Lord that the van has been running for a whole month with no problems!  We would like to ask you to continue to pray that our van runs well as it is a tremendous tool for us to reach our community.   Just last week two young people were saved.  One of whom has been coming for about three weeks.  We went by his home this past Saturday to find that he and his family are moving.  We also recently found that one of our members was seriously considering a big move; but changed her mind at the last minute.   These situations helped us to realize that we may only have a short  time to minister to those who attend our church.  May the Lord help us to make the most of each service.

            Recently we had two pastors come and visit and preach for us.  One of them commented several times about how well behaved the children were and how well they sang.  This was a tremendous blessing to us as well, as they do not always display such good behavior!

            Family News: Our family is doing rather well.  Soon our daughter will be two years old, which is very hard to believe; and my wife is due to deliver our second child on or around June 8^th.  Please pray with us for a safe delivery and a healthy baby.  Thank you for your faithful prayers and support! 

                                                                                    Until next time,

                                                                                    Pastor Raymond Beckles

What a Trip

Somehow we managed to make a 16 hour drive turn into a three day trip!

Our plan was to leave NC Friday evening and arrive in Jacksonville sometime around 3:00 p. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. We were still unloading things from the house - to put on the curb - late into the night. Raymond ran a quick errand to Lowe's and when he returned he noticed the fan on the van was still running to cool the engine down long after the had shut the motor off. Finally, it did turn off and we were glad until we found out why it turned off. We got in the car and turned the key....nothing! The battery had died. Well, our landlord made it clear that if we stayed one day longer we would have to pay another months rent, so we decided to stay in the van until we could get a jump the next day. Praise the Lord our neighbor had worked late that evening and around three in the morning he came home and Raymond flagged him down. It took about two hours; but we got the batter fully charged and officially headed out on Saturday morning around six. We gassed up and noticed the temperature signal come on in the van - it was about to overheat. Raymond removed the sensor - and everything was fine for a while (45 minutes) until we reached the Raleigh area and it started to overheat again. We made a pit stop and Raymond worked on the van for a few hours until we got everything fixed and the vehicle was again trip ready (or so we thought). ( I didn't mind because we got to go eat at a great Thai restaurant and I got to go shopping at Trader Joes:)


By this time it was late and we were tired, so we booked a hotel - that allowed pets - and headed out again next morning after church. All was well until we heard a loud BOOM! - a tire on the trailor blew. Time for another pit stop. Raymond put on the spare, then we went to the next town we saw and shopped around until we could find a place that carried the right size tire for our trailor.

On the road again, no more vehicle incidents (unless you include the top blowing off our trailor in the mountains of NC during a rainstorm!); but once we reached Nashville, Tennessee we learned that the Wolfe river had overflown its banks. We - along with hundreds of other travelors - spent the night on the side of the road hoping it would be safe to travel I-40 sometime early the next day. It wasn't. We had to take an 8 hour detour through Kentucky and down to Arkansas.

We finally made it to Jacksonville sometime around 10:00p.m. Monday evening!

What a trip!!!