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
