May
26, 2016
Dear
Pastor and praying friends,
Things
continue to go well at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Newport. For the sake of brevity I will share a few of the highlights with you.
We always enjoy Resurrection Sunday with our
people and this year was no different. We had a youth activity that was very
successful. Some young people we had not seen for almost a year attended,
heard the message of salvation once again, and were warned about the dangers of negative
peer pressure. We also had a movie night
at our house with some of the ladies from church. I had been preaching about the fundamentals
of Christianity, including prayer when someone gave us the movie, "War
Room". My family watched it and
felt challenged, so we decided to share it with our people. They seemed to be challenged about prayer as
well.
We
continue to see visitors nearly every week. Including a man that I led to the
Lord last Summer. I have mentioned him
before in a previous letter because he volunteered to cut the church lawn for
free. He did so faithfully for two years;
but never would come to a church service.
Every time I approached him about
attending church, or tried to witness to him he would suddenly have something
else pressing to do. One particular
Thursday evening, I was on my way into church for the evening service and he was
finishing the lawn. We struck up a conversation,
I began to ask again about him coming to church, then I asked him about
salvation. To my surprise, we stood there on the lawn and he listened
and even prayed to receive the Lord! I was very late for church, but it was
worth it. The folks understood and
rejoiced with us. Well, a year later, he
finally came to church with his girlfriend and son! He has come for two weeks.
Please pray for him to allow the Lord to
do a work in his life.
" But Jesus
said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such
is the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 19:14
I am extremely excited to report that another one of our children
is "in the boat"! Our second daughter, Cassidy, has been asking since
her sisters salvation last year if she could get saved as well. Since she was
only three at the time so we told her to wait until she turned five like her
sister, Aaliyah. She is only four now,
but during the invitation on Sunday, March 27th; I asked all who would like to
be saved to raise their hand. She was 1
of 2 who raised their hand. After the
service, my wife took her into the nursery and asked why she raised her hand in
church. She said because she wanted to go to heaven with Jesus too. Tinyla showed her a few verses and asked her
many questions. She answered them all
correctly so my wife prayed the sinners prayer with her! Cassidy is so happy
about being saved and is now begging me to baptize her. I told
her she should wait until the weather warms up...about June, so that the baptistery
waters won't be freezing cold. Praise
the Lord for the faith and excitement for the things of the Lord in children!
 |
| Cassidy and Aaliyah |
Prayer requests:
1. Good health and safety for our family.
2. More laborers in the church.
I have been trying to encourage our people to move past the basics of
Christianity on to service for the Lord.
So many think that there is one type of Christianity for the Pastor and
his family and a different type for everyone else. We are praying that the Lord will help them
to see that all of us should walk by faith in love and obedience to the
Lord...where ever it may lead us.
3. Spiritual and numerical growth in our church.
Until next time,
Pastor Beckles
Lighthouse Baptist Church
Newport, Arkansas
