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
