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

May - July Prayer Letter

Dear Pastors and Praying friends,

What an eventful  Summer this has been!  I am excited to announce that things have been busy here at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Newport.   Since our last letter we have held several  youth activities, a baby shower (the baby was born a few days later...2 weeks earlier than expected), two were baptized, two others have since been saved, eight adults have visited, and we experienced a couple other huge blessings which I'll share with you at the end of the letter.

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. " - 3 John 1:4

Our Youth seemed to really enjoy our youth activities this Summer.  We sang songs, played games, and I preached short sermons about things like the benefits of living an honest life and obeying your parents.  During the Summer we really like to take advantage of the time we have with our youth because during the school year they seem to disappear.  Most of the time it's due to the fact that most of their sports activities, practices, and games are held on Sundays and Thursdays.  My hope is that the things that they experienced in the house of God during the Summer will impact their school year and even their lives, regardless, we always see souls saved and no school activity can top that!

 

Another highlight was the baptism of my daughter, Aaliyah and the baptism of the daughter of one of our faithful members. I am so excited to include that since Aaliyah's baptism she was in the nursery with some other children and one of them said, "you have to be good and read your Bible and stuff like that to go to Heaven."  To which she replied, "No you don't! You just have to pray to Jesus and he will save you and take you to heaven."  My wife took the boy - a ten year old- and his mother and brother home after the service.  On the way he asked my wife if what Aaliyah said was true.  She confirmed it, and he said, "well, can I get saved right now?" 

 

Tinyla pulled over on the side of the road.  Took out her Bible and showed the young man from the Word of God how he could know he was saved.  He bowed his head and prayed right there for Jesus to cover his sins with His blood and take him to heaven when he died.  Praise God!!!   He is scheduled to be baptized this coming Sunday.

Last, but definately not least regarding the church's news was a great surprise and blessing which I received this past week.  For years we have been praying for a lawn mower or tractor to take care of the church property.  God more than provided for this need through the prayers and gifts of His people.  My home pastor, Bro. Leon Lucas, travels and helps pastors and godly families with home/church building improvments.  During his travels he mentioned that we needed a better mower  to take care of our land.  He gave and many others gave to help purchase us a new and much improved mower.  Curenlty it takes me about six hours or so to mow our lawn.                                                                

With my new zero turn mower I know that time will be cut in half or better!!!Thank you all for your part in this gift!  I am still in shock!

 

Family News and Prayer requests:

1.  Praise God for His provision!!!

2.  Please continue to pray for our church as MANY of our families are experiencing discouragment for on reason or the other.  We have been praying for spiritural growth and I believe we are getting ready to see it, if they will yeild to the Word of God.

3. Praise the Lord also because my wife is expecting baby #4!  Due on or around February 14th...which is not only Valentines Day, but its also a Sunday.  If he/she comes on that date it will be really interesting.

4. Please continue to pray about our plumbing/septic issue.  My hope is that in our next letter we will be able to praise God for this being taken care of as well.  He has provided the funds and even the labor.  I just need wisdom as I order the materials and schedule it to be done before the weather changes.

Future church pianist

 

That's it for this letter!  May the Lord bless you as you continue to serve Him. 
 

In His Service,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

March-April News Letter

Dear Pastors and Praying Friends,

     I have a lot of good news I want to share with you concerning the last couple of months.
I am most excited about the three souls that were saved over the last three weeks so I will start with their stories.
     A woman named Kelly was saved a couple of weeks ago on Saturday visitation.  I knocked on her door looking for someone else; but I asked her about her salvation before I left. She said she had always wanted to know for SURE she was saved.  She allowed me to take the Bible and show her what God has to say about eternal salvation.  Praise the Lord that after about an half hour she received the Lord with humility and tears!

Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. - Acts 8:35-38

     Timothy, a young man about 25 years old,  was saved about a week or so ago.  His girlfriend has been attending our church off and on for about two years.  She already has a solid testimony of salvation and desires to join our church as soon as possible.  They have been attending services together for the last two months.  They called me during the week and asked if I would be willing to marry them.  I agreed to perform the service only if they would submit to some counseling before they were married.  I went to visit them and first ask if they were equally yoked...meaning were they both saved.  Of course I already knew her testimony, but I hadn't heard his.  She shared hers with me again, and he said he "got saved just a few days ago".  This puzzled me because I hadn't dealt with him after any of our services; so I asked him to elaborate.  He said he had heard me telling folks how to pray to be saved after every service for two months...so he finally decided to do it a couple of nights ago.  Praise the Lord!  I continued to counsel them and before I left he was asking me when he could be baptized.  In next months issue I hope to be able to tell you about at least 3 baptisms that will take place this month.  To wrap up this story though...they were married the next Saturday afternoon at 12:30. 

     I am particularly excited about the third salvation that took place last week.  Between our services on Sunday I retreated to me room after lunch to look over my notes for the evening service when I heard a little knock on my door.   "Daddy, can we pray?  I want to be saved."  My little Aaliyah (age 5), after answering many questions from me and my wife, prayed and asked the Lord to become her Saviour!  Every day since her salvation she has thanked the Lord...of her own accord...everytime we pray for saving her and letting her become His child.  Hallelujah!!!

 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. - Matthew 18:1-3

There are many other events and things that I would like to elaborate on in this letter, but for the sake of brevity I will just mention them -
1. Our folks gave enough money to put really nice carpet down in our main hallway.  This has cut down on a lot of noise and made the hall a lot more warm and cozy.
2.  Our church celebrated another anniversary! We had a good number in attendance and enjoyed some light refreshments and fellowship after the evening service.
3. Three preachers came through and were a blessing to our people as well as our family.
4.  We have seen many visitors and a few  members we hadn't seen in a long time return.

Thanks so much for your prayers and financial support!

In His service until He comes,

Pastor Raymond Beckles
Newport, Arkansas

January-February Prayer Letter

Dear Pastor and Praying friends,

 

Praise the Lord for this winter season!  Usually this time of year our numbers are pretty consistent and this year is no different.  One thing different is that  a few visitors have  come through with solid independent Baptist backgrounds.  One has expressed interest in joining.  He had been attending another Baptist church in town and said he was disappointed because the Bible wasn't being preached.  We look forward to seeing what the Lord will do if he does join and decide to be an active member.

Recently at Wal-mart I ran into one family that had been visiting, but missed the past two Sundays.  The wife said they missed the first Sunday because they attended a birthday party for a cousin.  She said her son looked at her and asked, "Mom isn't church more important than birthday parties?"  She told him yes, but they still attended the party.  He became seriously  ill a day or so after  and he and the family continue to battle with sickness.  We are praying for them to get well and the whole family to return to church next week.

 

Children's Church

Matthew 10:42 - "And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."

 

The children in our church have become more excited about church since I decided to have my wife teach them during the regular church hour.  We attempted to have a Sunday School hour before church for years, but there was very little attendance in the three years we held it.  Teaching them at this time seems to be working for us a lot better and the children are able to learn skits and songs that they can perform in church  on special occasions.

Family News

Our family is doing well.  We have seen the Lord do some wonderful things and answer so many prayers on our behalf it is amazing.  One that I'll share with you is concerning our plumbing problem.  This has been on the prayer list for the past two years.  Our kitchen sink would not drain no matter what I did to it.  I even spoiled two snakes trying to fix it.  We had to call in a professional.  He fixed it, but it took him two days.  Praise God he charged us  less than half of his quote!  Thank you all for joining us in prayer about that.

 

Please continue to pray with us about:

 

1. Our family’s health and wellbeing. Praise the Lord that everyone is doing well.

 

2. Praise the Lord for the church’s parsonage- our home; but it does have one other serious plumbing problem.

 

3. Souls, souls, souls! Please pray with us that we will see more souls saved and become active in church.

 

In His Service,

 

Pastor Raymond Beckles