March - May Prayer Letter

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