2018 - A Year in Review

BLESSED!

"O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him". Psalm 34:8

Dear Pastors and Praying Friends,

The definition of the word "blessed", according to Webster, is to be held in reverence; honored in worship; of or enjoying happiness; or as bringing pleasure, contentment, or good fortune.

If I were to sum up our year in one word, it would be the word "blessed".  Not because we experienced more good than anyone else; but because we are grateful for what we did receive in the year 2018.

We saw many new faces in church.  Many decisions were made by those among us to live for God. It appears that our influence in Newport is growing.  In this year alone, six of my associates at Walmart have frequented our services.

One of our members in still with us...and is now cancer free.  Many of the children who were preschoolers when we first arrived are now teenagers.

Our son Brayden went to be with the Lord.  My nieces and nephew joined my children in our homeschool.  Last, but not least, all of our children are growing n their knowledge and understanding of the Lord...I could go on.

Yes. I would sum up our year with this one word.  BLESSED!

In His Service,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

Lighthouse Baptist Church

Newport, Arkansas 

July 2018

Dear Pastor and Praying Friends,

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  - Matthew 5:14-16

We are having a wonderful Summer!  I hope you are as well.  A few of the highlights that I would like to share with you are 1.)  We FINALLY  were able to replace our church sign that blew away in a storm last year.  We mentioned the need to a group of friends and the Arkansas fellowship of pastors took care of it.  Praise the Lord!!!  2.)Three new families have been faithfully attending our services...two of which are my fellow employees at Wal-mart.  I pray daily for the Lord to use me to glorify him while I am working.  I have mentioned before that I know God uses my position there as a ministering tool.  Folks may not come to my church, but everyone in Newport goes by the meat wall at Wal-mart!  Many have promised to attend, a few have kept those promises.  I am really glad to see the families of my employees grow in the Lord as they attend our services.  They have begun to invite others from work to attend, and some of their friends and family have since visited. 

 3.) We recently celebrated two birthdays in our family. My daughters were born one day short of two years  apart.  My oldest girl turned 9 and our second born turned 7 on June 17th and 18th.  We enjoyed having the cousins here to join in celebrating with us.  Which brings me to the next point.   4.)  We are enjoying an extended visit from my nieces and nephew from Oklahoma. I have included a picture of our church sign just to the right.  My nieces and nephew were so kind to pose for the photo.  You can see the personality just bursting forth in the photo.  Pray for us and them! 

We are thankful for every day that the Lord allows us to try and make a positive impact on their lives.  Last Summer two of the three trusted the Lord.  We will see what the Lord will do this year.

 5.) Last of all, my wife and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary! Eleven years have flown by.  We have had challenges and such, but apart from salvation, my wife is the best gift I have received from the Lord. I am truly blessed!  Thank you for your continued financial and prayer support!

In His service,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

Lighthouse Baptist Church

Newport Arkansas

April Prayer Letter

April 23, 2018

Dear Pastor and Praying Friends,

 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. – Romans 14:8

     In our previous letter we asked for prayer regarding our son, Brayden.  He was diagnosed with Trisomy 18.  On Thursday, March 7^th, we went for his 36 week checkup, and found out that he had passed sometime that morning.  We know it had to have happened that morning because he was such an active little fella and that morning was no different.  Even the ultrasound tech thought he was sound asleep upon first glance because he had not yet begun to show any signs of death. You can imagine how shocked we were when we found no heartbeat.

     The doctors recommended that my wife try and go into labor naturally for the sake of her health, so she did.  March 11, 2018, Spring forward Sunday, she began to have contractions as she was preparing for church.  Once we were sure it was real labor we headed for the hospital just down the street.  He was delivered that afternoon at  just after 1:00.  We had a small memorial service on the following Thursday.  I am thankful for those who attended, two of which raised their hand for salvation.  As was  mentioned in the verse above, Brayden was the Lord’s while he lived in the womb; and Brayden is definitely the Lord’s now.  We are thankful for the opportunity to have been his family for the brief time that he was with us.  Of course, we would have preferred to have him with us now; but we trust our heavenly Father, who loves us more than we could ever imagine, to know what is best for Brayden and us.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support for our family and our church.  May the Lord continue His work in us.

In His Service,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

Lighthouse Baptist church

Newport, Arkansas

February News

Dear Pastor and Praying Friends,

Church News

1 Peter 4:10 " As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."

Once again, I have much to share with you as it has been a while since our last letter.  I want to begin by thanking all of you who support us faithfully with your prayers, as well as financially. We do continue to see both spiritual and numerical growth in the church and are happy to be able to not only "trust" that God is working; but to "see" His work.  As the verse above states, we are commanded to minister to others in the church with the gifts that God gives to us when we are saved.  I am always happy when visitors show up, in fact, we have had a steady stream of visitors every Sunday for months.  I am especially excited to report that two people from my job have been faithfully attending for months now as well; but I am rejoicing today because I have seen our faithful people demonstrating the gifts that they have before, during, and after the services.  
     This is a very important aspect of "building" a church.  My family can do everything in our power to keep people in church; but when the members take it upon themselves to not only invite others to church, but to also show hospitality, encourage, and minister to each other; it is then that people start to stick around.

Family news

John 9:1-3 "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."

In our last letter we rejoiced over the fact that #5 is on the way.  Shortly after that letter, we received news that Brayden (#5) is faced with many challenges.  The doctors believe he has trisomy 18 which is a chromosomal disorder.  Our first visit to the geneticist after the diagnosis left us with very little hope.  The ultrasound showed that he had issues from the top of his head to the bottom of his little feet.  We set up an appointment for the next visit; but did not believe he would be with us that long...but he was and still is!  The second visit showed problems, but they were fewer.  The third visit showed fewer still.  Of course, the doctors are still giving us no hope of his survival or living a "normal" life; but we are asking God to do a mighty work in this "impossible" situation.  Regardless, we know with Christ there is always hope!  This is the difference between the saved and the lost.  We are blessed to be able to approach the throne of grace on our son's behalf because of the work of Christ.  The lost have to accept what the professionals tell them.  Would you join us in prayer about our precious son?  Thanks again for your faithful prayers and support!

Prayer requests:

1.  Our church to continue to experience spiritual and numerical growth.

2.  Favor in our community.

3.  Wisdom and finances to pay off the churches Mortgage supernaturally.

4.  Continued health and safety for our family.

5. Baby Brayden's miracle

6. Several others in our church who are facing health issues (cancer, kidney problems, lung/heart problems). I would love to share these situations with you in future updates as we are seeing the Lord work here as well.

In His Service,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

Lighthouse Baptist church

Newport, Arkansas

June - August Prayer Letter

Dear Pastor and Praying Friends,

Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.   Acts 2:47

I have much to share with you as it has been a while since our last letter.  I want to begin by thanking all of you who support us faithfully with your prayers, as well as financially! We  always ask for your prayers regarding our church's spiritual and numerical growth. We are happy to report that we are seeing both happen. 

In the middle of July,  our family went on vacation to California to visit family.  I never realize how much I need a vacation until I am leaving for vacation! We had a wonderful time of rest, relaxation, and renewal.  It was the first time for some of our family to meet our little Rayanna.  You can believe that the grandparents and grandkids thoroughly enjoyed one another; but their parents enjoyed having time alone together even more!

Once we returned home to Newport, we were greatly encouraged by how things went in the church while we were away.  Our people handled every aspect of the services themselves.  We even received reports from people in town who visited  that the service was a blessing to them.  We continue to see the hand of God in our services in a unique way since our return.  The first Thursday evening service we held in August we had about 15 visitors!  Most of whom have since returned.  Several of them have made professions of faith after our Sunday morning services.  We are scheduled to have a baptismal service next Sunday. What a blessing! PLEASE, keep these new believers lifted up in prayer! We can really see a hunger and thirst for righteousness in some of them.

Family news

Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

                                                  Psalm 127:3

We have had an exciting year; but these past few months have been packed with events -  vacation, three birthdays, our wedding anniversary, stomach viruses, and  the news that we are to expect baby #5 sometime around March 24th!  God truly has been good to us.

Prayer requests:

1.  Our church to continue to experience spiritual and numerical growth.

2.  Favor in our community.

3.  Wisdom and finances to pay off the churches Mortgage supernaturally.

4.  Continued health and safety for our family.

Thanks again for your faithful prayers and support!

In His Service,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

Lighthouse Baptist church

Newport, Arkansas

March-April Prayer Letter

Dear Pastor and Praying Friends,

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.            -Romans 1:17

We are thankful for the change in seasons once again, but we have reason to be more thankful this season especially.  Recently, severe storms ( complete with tornados, hail, flooding, and winds blowing up to 60 mph) have swept through our area.  Several buildings were damaged.  A few had their roofs blown off their apartments.  Telephone poles were snapped in two along our street.  Several neighborhoods were without power for up to five days. One gentleman just down the road from our church and home experienced a huge tree branch...and I do mean HUGE, fall onto and completely total his truck.  We praise the Lord that other than a few panels of siding being blown off, three days without power, and the loss of our church sign; we suffered minimal damage.

Our Church Family

Some of our members have been going through storms of their own.  Please join me in praying that these storms will be a source of growth for them.  One of our members, in particular, recently took in his aging mother.  She lived with him for about two months or so and came to church with him regularly.  She passed away in her bed on a Thursday morning. He thoroughly enjoyed caring for her and we enjoyed her presence in the services. She will be sorely missed.

One highlight I want to share with you is the success of our Ressurection service.  Several new families and many children were present.  Two visitors in particular met me at Wal-mart during the week and told me they were coming to my church for Easter.  Well, I've heard that before, and we live in a small town with many large churches where people usually attend where their families attend.  I was tremendously blessed when they both showed up with their relatives in tow!  Every Easter we do a pinata instead of an egg hunt to conclude our services.  Everybody loves it! We have my nieces and nephew here with us and we could tell they had hit a few pinatas during their short lifetimes; but my oldest girl, Aaliyah, had the pleasure of bursting one open this year. She was SO excited! I have decided that next year we will have three pinatas instead of two.  One for the little ones, one for the older kids, and one for the adults!  I heard some faint murmuring from the "grown kids" about not having an opportunity to try and burst a pinata.

I trust that you had a wonderful Ressurection Sunday as well. Praise the Lord that we serve a risen Savior!!!

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 1 Corinthians 15:17

In His service,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

Lighthouse Baptist church

Newport, Arkansas

October - December Prayer Letter

The New Year is fast approaching! As we close out this year, we are encouraged to reflect on the past and set new goals for the future.

Highlights 2016

The year 2016 was a year of growth for us personally as well as our church, spiritually and numerically.  

We were especially blessed with the addition of little Rayanna on February 11^th. She brings joy and delight to our family everyday.

Another of our main highlights was our trip to our home church, Bethel Baptist Church, in North Carolina.  It was a celebration of their 19^th year and I was invited to preach during the service. My goal in preaching was to encourage them, but they encouraged me! Seeing so many of the people that attended there during my nine years as assistant pastor, as well as the many new faces, TRULY blessed my soul! The Bible says in Galatians 6:9 - And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.  What a beautiful manifestation of that verse. Please continue to pray for us in the New Year as we aim to continue serving the Lord. My heart’s desire is to continue doing well that we all may rejoice in what the Lord has done here in Newport, Arkansas. Thank you for your prayers and faithful support during 2016! 

Pastor Fontenot (the current pastor), myself, Pastor Leon Lucas (founding pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Wilson, North Carolina)

Mrs. Lucas (founding pastor's wife) my wife-Tinyla, and Mrs. Fontenot (the current pastor's wife)

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Raymond Beckles

Lighthouse Baptist church

Newport, Arkansas