November-December Prayer Letter

 

Dear Pastor and Praying Friends,

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6

 We are praising and thanking God for this Christmas season.  My family and our church family  both have seen many blessing this year and are looking forward to what next year will bring.  In the last month and a half we have seen eleven souls saved and one gentleman baptized!  The gentleman who was saved and baptized is a friend and former co-worker of one of the young men who was saved and baptized at Lighthouse Baptist Church this past summer.  Both men have been attending faithfully since June.  Two weeks before this particular gentleman was saved he lingered after the church service (which is very unusual for him); but I was attending to the needs of another family and wasn’t able to speak with him.  I went by his home, but he wasn’t there.  I sensed that he was under great conviction so I prayed all week for an opportunity to meet with him the next Sunday .  Sure enough he came back the next week and I made a point to meet with him directly after the service.  He prayed to receive the Lord that very day and was baptized two weeks later.

We have one family who seems to have a gift for bringing others to church with them.  The young man I mentioned above and several of the people who have received the Lord recently are folks whom they have invited; but we covet your prayers for them because it seems that the devil has targeted them.  I have counseled them both to increase their Bible reading and prayer time because several situations have recently occurred in their lives and they really need the Lord to intervene on their behalf.

In fact, we truly do covet your prayers for this coming year because we have seen the devil show his ugly face in several of our members’ lives recently. We believe this is because we have been praying for growth both numerically and spiritually and we have seen it start to happen.  We trust God that growth will continue in spite of our adversary as we are faithful to Him.  Thank you again for your faithful prayers and financial support!

 In His Service,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

 Special prayer requests and needs:

1.    Numerical and Spiritual growth in our church.  We are asking God to double our number by next Fall.

2.    Wisdom and provision as we continue to adjust to living in the Parsonage.  We praise God for His provision thus far and thank all of you who have had a part!

       3.    Good health for myself and my family.

May - June Prayer Letter

June 19, 2012

Dear Pastor and praying friends,

“And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.”   Ezekial 34:26

Normally this time of year people start disappearing, the church’s giving dies down, and we seem to have to work hard to keep everyone’s morale up; but these past two months have definitely been a season of blessing for us.  Two adults have been saved, three families have started attending regularly, and three children were saved during one of our Thursday evening Bible studies.  The Thursday that those children and one gentleman were saved we had a college singing group with us and they were a tremendous blessing.  We don’t know that this is our “due season”, but we do praise the Lord for His blessings thus far.

Another blessing we have noticed is that the people here in Newport have changed drastically in their demeanor toward us.  Previously they were cordial, but kept their distance.  Recently people in the community have asked us whether or not we lived in Newport and how long we have been here.  One lady in the care home expressed how sad she was to hear that we were leaving.  The talk around town is that a lot of new churches start here; but they don’t stay long; and the pastors of these new churches never live here in Newport.  It is blessings to have the people of Newport realize that we are here to stay and that we are here for them.  Please keep our ministry in your thoughts and prayers as we endeavor to be a church where people will be introduced to Christ and taught Biblical truth that will break the cycles of sin in their lives. What a blessing it would be if the three visiting families would become active members and if two other families that we have been in close contact with would come to church.   We know that the Lord can do a mighty work in their lives; but the Devil knows that as well and he is working overtime to keep them away.

 

On a personal note…

Our family is doing great!   Just this week we celebrated Fathers’ Day, Cassidy’s first birthday (June 17) and Aaliyah’s birthday (June 18).  God is so good!  Thank you for your prayers and financial support.

“And let us not be weary in well doing:  for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”  Galatians 6:9

Sincerely,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

Lighthouse Baptist Church

Newport, Arkansas

March - April Prayer letter

Dear Pastor and Praying friends,                                                                                                             April 18, 2012

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.  Ecclesiastes 3:11

We are so thankful that Spring has sprung.  It is such a joy to go outside and feel a cool breeze blowing, hear the birds chirping, see so many beautiful flowers in bloom and smell the fragrance of food cooking on the grill.  Our family sure did our part in contributing to that aroma on Ressurection Sunday.  What a blessed Sunday it was for us.  All of our members were in attendance and several children came as well.    I preached a message that was inspiring to me, if no one else, about the power of Christ and His resurrection.  After the service we had several activities for the children and their families including a scavenger hunt,  Peter and Paul relay race, and family photos. When that was finished we gave all who attended “Ressurection bags” filled with treats and trinkets. What a blessing to know we serve a risen Savior!

I am also happy to report that we have detected some spiritual growth amongst our members and to share the story about the salvation of a precious seventy-eight year old woman  by the name of Bobbie Jean.    As we began visitation we asked the Lord to send us to someone who was hungry for the Gospel.  My wife visited her home and she almost begged her to stay and talk for a while.  My wife asked her the question that we so often ask those we visit, “If you died today are you sure you would wake up in Heaven?”.   Her husband died just last October and Mrs. Bobbie began to cry and comment that she prayed everyday that God would show her how she could know that she would be in Heaven with her husband when she died.  By the answers she gave to our questions we detected a Church of Christ background.  Sure enough she said she had attended a Church of Christ just down the road before her husband died.  To make a long story short, she confessed that she was lost and on her way to Hell; but wanted to ask Jesus to save her soul and take her to Heaven.  She prayed to receive Christ and was saved that very night!  What a blessing!!!  I am not sure if her husband is in Heaven or not; but I am so glad that Mrs. Bobbie now knows that she will wake up in Heaven when that time comes.

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.  John 3:5-7

We truly have sensed the Lord’s presence with us this year and praise Him for His provision and blessings.  We hope you are having a blessed year as well and want to thank you for your prayers and financial support. 

In His service,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

One of our faithful ladies and her girls

Scavenger hunt items - none of the teams were able to find the donut!

Two of our teams of Peter/Mary - Martha/Johns waiting to be tagged to race to the grave.  P.S.  Peter and Mary won!

Scavenger hunt in the last ten seconds.

Some still searching during the scavenger hunt.  I think Aaliyah is just running for the fun of it.

Another one of our families

October, November Prayer Letter

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

Dear Pastor and church family,

So much has happened since our last letter that it is hard to know where to begin.  We will start with family news.  Praise the Lord my wife delivered the newest addition to our family on Friday, June 17^th!  We are truly thankful  that little Cassidy Moret Beckles was born safely and she is truly a delight.  The next day we celebrated  the second birthday of our firstborn – Aaliyah LaRae Beckles.  They grow up so fast!  We also celebrated our fifth year of marriage on July 28^th.   We are excited about what God has done in our family and are looking forward to many more years serving Him!

Ephesians 2:20-21 “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

The church has also experienced many things.  Our numbers were steadily on the rise and we saw many visitors come; but then we experienced what we believe to be a Satanic attack.  (The Devil doesn’t like it when you are making a difference for Christ.)  Several people in our number experienced life threatening illnesses over the past two months.  Over a span of two weeks one gentleman had a heart attack which led to heart surgery, another gentleman’s right lung collapsed, one lady was hospitalized with pneumonia, another with gall bladder issues which led to it being removed,  and one of our charter members has been in and out of the hospital continually struggling for her life.  We mentioned her family in a previous letter asking for prayer.  We would like to ask you to please continue your prayers.   She is currently out of the hospital; but is continuing dialysis.

     Still, we Praise God for His goodness and that people are continuing to visit the church.  Most recently one gentleman visited our Thursday evening service.  He took great pride in announcing the fact that he possessed nine gifts of the Spirit (to include speaking in tongues and prophecy) and claimed he was a pastor; but he had no church.  After the service I spoke with him and he confided in me that he was shocked to find that many churches in this area believe that once you are saved you are always saved (which is not true, to my knowledge we are one of very few churches  in Newport that believes in the eternal security of the believer).  I replied, “Really, so do we!” .  He looked shocked; but promptly changed the subject.    He spoke of many things; but did not include any scripture to backup any of his beliefs.  This gentleman’s mentality is an example of one of the problems we face with the souls here in Newport. 

     Many of people here know just enough scripture to get themselves thoroughly confused.   They talk in circles and when you ask them if they are saved they say yes; but when you ask them how they KNOW they are saved they have many different responses.  When you show them the Bible way they say… “That’s what I meant.”  Sound familiar? A common trick of the Devil is to keep you confused about the basics, so that you will never grow in the Lord.   We are grateful for the privilege and opportunity to take the Word of God to these dear souls and we are thankful for your part as co-laborer with us through your prayer and support. 

Wishing you God’s best,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

Romans 10:13-14   For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written,”