September - November Prayer Letter

Dear Pastor and Praying Friends,

Time certainly has flown by for us since our last letter.  We experienced an extremely busy Summer, but this Fall, thus far, has been a bit more laid back. Our family has gone about our normal routine-  church, work for me, and school for my wife and the kids- with relatively little excitement .  Aaliyah (6) is in the first grade, Cassidy (4) is in K-4, and Raymond DeSean (2) is enjoying his own tailored program. 

⁷ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸ My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

-Proverbs 1:7,8

 

I am always surprised and impressed when I hear the children reading and practicing different things for school.  Even little Raymond is beginning to pick up so much just from listening to his sisters...so much so that my wife has decided to start teaching him to read now instead of waiting until he is four.  I wish you could see the excitement in his face when Tinyla calls him over to the couch for his "reading time".

 

Psalm 127:1, 3-5

1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

³ Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
⁴ As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
⁵ Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
 

To continue on a family note - We mentioned in our last letter that we are expecting another little one on Valentine's Day of next year.  Normally we wait until the baby is born to find out if it is a boy or a girl; but this year my wife insisted on finding out earlier.  I am happy to share that number four is a girl and will be named Rayanna Blythe ( pronounced Blithe and means "joy") Beckles.  As February gets closer and closer we become more and more excited to meet this new addition to our family.

Lighthouse Baptist church is doing well.  This past Sunday was a bit unusual, but extremely blessed and showed us the potential of our ministry. 

Our Sunday morning began as usual, but changed with a text from one of our members who had not been in church for about a year.  "I will be needing a ride and can you pick up my friend too?"
I picked her and her family up, along with our normal Sunday van crowd, but had to return for her neighbor who wasn't ready at the time. 
This caused me to be late, but when I returned it was to a full church parking lot!  I walked into the sanctuary that morning to be greeted by about 40 people!  Only two had never been to our church before and not every attendee/member was present.

 

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

- Luke 18:1

 

I opened in prayer and we began to sing.  Not only did our people sing with unusual volume and conviction, but during the message I had great liberty from the Lord as I began to preach the first message of a series on the types of prayer mentioned in the Bible.  The message was well received.  Directly after the service many expressed to me that the message really blessed them and we continued to receive texts into the evening about how the Lord used the message.

Last Sunday was truly a great day and we are praying that this spirit and our numbers will continue and even build as we prepare to close out this year.


Prayer requests:

1.  Our family's continued good health and well being.
2.  The Church's numerical and spiritual growth.
3.  The parsonages septic system.  I mentioned in July that we were hoping to close this project out, Although the situation has improved; it is not finished.  Some professionals came out and did some work which helped; but when they saw the situation and found out how many people lived in the house they said we would really need to replace the whole system with a larger one as soon as possible.  So we ask for your prayers regarding this and any financial help is appreciated.  The total cost will be approximately $4,000 for labor and materials.

Wishing you God's best and a blessed holiday season!
In His Service,

Pastor Raymond Beckles
Lighthouse Baptist Church
Newport,  Arkansas