Spring!!!

I am so happy that Spring is finally here!  Normally this is not the case as my allergies and asthma usually start to act up; but I have had no such problems this year.  My midwife says it's because of preggo hormones and if that is true then I praise the Lord even more for baby beckles #2  - Raymond DeShawn or Cassidy Moret (more-ae) Beckles.  Thus far this has been such an easy pregnancy.  My only "symptom" would be fatigue...this child must sleep during the day and play all night!  I am not complaining though, I REALLY enjoy feeling the life, a living soul, being formed and fashioned by our Creator in my womb.  What a wonderful blessing and privilege it is to be a woman and to be used by the Lord to bring new life into this world.  (Here is where my husband would interject that he had some part in it.  He is really excited about number two as well.)

Right now I am enjoying life as the wife of Raymond D. Beckles, Aaliyah's mother, and pastor's wife, etc.  This past week we were really busy.  The highlights for my week were planting seeds in our garden and attending a ladies meeting (COEBA ladies meeting in Jacksonville, ARK).  I was challenged greatly by the words of Mrs. Jeannete Baldwin, Mrs. Lora Baldwin, Mrs. Hart, and Mrs. Bethany Baldwin.  
Mrs. Jeannete Balwin really challenged me about my love for the Word of God.  She read her Bible through four times last year (for fun!) and her goal is to do it five times this year!  Isn't that wonderful!!! 

My loving hubby is calling me, so I must go; but I hope you enjoy these photos of our precious Aaliyah "helping" me in the garden.

Until next time,

Tinyla

This weeks favorite meal...Meatballs!

Last Friday evening we had meatballs, green beans, and yellow potatoes.  The recipe is as follows:


Meatballs
1 lb.      ground beef
1/4 - 1/2        cup oatmeal
1 TBS.  salt
1 tsp.    Garlic powder

1 TBS.  sugar
1           egg
black pepper to taste
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce.

Mush the top 7 ingredients together in a bowl with your hands.  Form your meatballs to a size you like - I did about an inch in diameter.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, then remove the meatballs from the oven and put in a large pot on the stove and cover with the bottle of sauce. ( I used Hot and Spicy BBQ sauce)  Let simmer for about 20 minutes to an half hour and Voila!

Green beans
2 cans green beans
2 TBS Butter
1/4 cup diced onion
2 cloves garlic minced

Cook stove top until done.

Potatoes
I cut up about four medium sized yellow (or sometimes called golden) potatoes and steamed them until they were tender.  Then I transferred them to a bowl and covered them with about 2 TBS of butter and a pinch of salt.

Note: The oatmeal in the meatballs can be replaced with bread crumbs or crushed crackers; but oatmeal is so good for you and it works great in meatballs as well as meatloaf.  I don't use salt in my recipes if I use a canned veggie (i.e. green beans).

Lost and Found



This past week was not my week!  I found a quarter at the laundry mat, but lost $20 ( My husband thought I had been in a car wreck or something when I got home because I was crying so much about the lost money), I broke my husband's favorite mug, I cut my finger on the toilet lever while trying to flush...you get the picture; But PRAISE THE LORD we had a great day Sunday.  Attendance was low; but I really was blessed by who did attend and the messages.  We also had two visitors and one young person respond to the invitation.  I'd like to try and and start posting our favorite meal from the past week.  I thought that would be fun, and it will also challenge me to find new recipes and try them. So read the next post to find out what my husband's favorite dinner was last week.

Until next time,

Tinyla

Aaliyah gets stuck in her toy grocery cart.  I told her not to get in it; but she didn't listen.  Instead of rescuing her and "taking care" of her disobedience,  I decided to let her experience the fruit of her disobedience.  I took a picture, then I rescued her.   (She refused to say "cheese!".)  She doesn't realize she is growing.



Praise the Lord...

It seems my husband may have a part-time job at Wal-mart!  When we first arrived in Ark.  he put in countless applications from every job from janitor to astronaut (not quite; but you get the picture!) and we received not one phone call.  Last Thursday we had lunch with a visiting preacher and he asked us about our finances so we gave him the update. In passing my husband mentioned that he always wanted to work for Wal-mart; but not even they would hire him!  Well, yesterday afternoon he received a phone call for a job interview to be a greeter, today he had the interview during which they found out he was mechanically inclined so they offered him a job as a tech in the tire and lube section...if he passes his drug test :).  We are excited!!!  My husband said that if the Lord permits, we will save  and look for two months, then move into our very own home!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Praise the Lord!!!

Until next time,

Tinyla

A Burden for Newport

With this post I hope to share with you our burden for Newport as well as some of the blessings and obstacles we face.  I may have mentioned before; but I don't remember, how we came about being in Newport.  Here it is again in a nutshell.

We were contently serving the Lord at Bethel Baptist Church in Wilson, NC  as assistant pastor and wife when we received a message from our pastor about a phone call from Arkansas.  A couple, the Parkers, had started a church in Newport about three years before; but now believed the Lord wanted them to go to Alabama and start a church in Bro. Burt's home town. (This was his original burden; but his paster - Pastor Patterson of Jacksonville Baptist Temple - needed a man to fill the pulpit in Newport where souls had been led to the Lord; but there was no good Bible preaching church for them to attend, so the Parkers filled the gap.  For three years they drove an hour and a half each way for every service and ministered to these people.)  We returned the call and prayed about the move for thirty days.  The Lord confirmed that Newport was the place for us in several ways; so we packed our belongings (all that would fit in our van and a small trailer) and headed for Arkansas.  You can read more about that "adventure" here.

Now that we have been  living in Newport, I can officially say...the honeymoon is over.  PLEASE don't misunderstand.  I love serving the Lord with my husband.  I wouldn't trade being here for the world; but reality has set in.  (I am sure those of you who are missionaries or pastors wives especially understand what I am saying.)  When we first arrived, everything was new and exciting - even camping out in the church on the weekends; but now (for starters) I am ready to move into a home. We decided to move into the church to save time, money, energy, and to allow us to go visiting and soulwinning on a regular basis. I have been praying fervently for this since I found out I was expecting.  Would you join me? 

Also, as we have been knocking doors in Newport and Diaz (a SMALL neighboring town), we noticed that there are at least eight government housing editions in Newport alone; plus there are a lot of HUD homes in this area as well.  What this means is that there are a lot of people in Newport (population 8,700+) who depend on the government for their housing, food, medical attention, etc.  Normally in places like so, these people have a mentality that go along with that lifestyle.  They often feel that everyone "owes" them something.  We have experienced this first hand.  Many have discovered that we are the "new church on the block" (which will soon be changing because two churches are being erected (one Church of Christ and one non-denominational) AND we live in the church; so they "visit" us often (and not on Sunday or Thursday) asking us for diapers, food, milk, formula, gas money, in one case - housing (read all about that here.) ect.  We do what we can; but we try to look at this as an opportunity to share the gospel and invite them to church.  We have had some takers and one couple has actually been visiting quite frequently.  Praise the Lord that as of last week Friday, we have knocked every door in Newport and Diaz.  Now we are going back for round two as well as following up on those who seemed interested; but may need a little nudge. 

Another thing that happened on visitation recently was while my husband was going door to door, he stopped to talk to a young man about the Lord and the man pulled out a marijuana joint and started rolling it up right in front of him!  I was shocked!  My husband warned him about the danger of that stuff after he had invited him to church; but he didn't seem to care.  OFTEN we knock on doors and when the door opens we smell a strong aroma of what we call herbal essence (marijuana) hit us in the face. It is almost like an epidemic or something.  Raymond preaches often about the power of Christ to free people from addictions and the importance for us to make decisions early about staying away from harmful substances.

Once again, I love being involved actively in the lives of other for the Lord's sake; but anyone serving the Lord needs prayer and needs to be praying.  Sometimes I have to remind myself that we (my husband and I) may be the only ones praying for many of these folks by name.  This year my spiritual challenge is to increase my prayer time dramatically. 

This post is getting long so I must end it; but thank all of you for reading! And a special thanks to all of you who pray for us!

Until next time,

Tinyla

Six months and counting!

Me today

We are officially in our 24th week of pregnancy and everything is going as well as can be expected.  My body ( and mind) have been and continue to do some strange things, all of which I will not share, but we are excited about Beckles #2 arriving sometime in June. 

As some of you know from my facebook account, I was debating about whether to find out the sex of the baby or not.  Well, as it turns out....Nobody knows, but the Lord.  Not even the doctor who did the ultrasound could tell.  I know this because I asked. 

I didn't mean to, initially!  I went to the hospital determined not to find out.  We even left the room.  Then I went to the restroom and suspense began to kill me, so I rushed back in (unbeknown to my husband) and asked.  To my great disappointment, she said she looked and looked; but the baby would not cooperate.  This one must take after it's dad.  Aaliyah and I don't like surprises that much.

Me six months pregnant with Aaliyah (uh-lee-yah)

Hazardous weather

This past Thursday evening we had 24 souls in church!  This is a major blessing considering we only had nine  in church on Sunday and there was no snow on the ground.  I tried to tell my husband that no one would send their children to church in a van with half bald tires on such a night; but he didn't listen (Bless his heart!)...and of course he was right - again.  He said last time he cancelled services because of snow he saw several vehicles out driving to who knows where, so he figured they may as well be coming to church.  Well, we had a great service.  Most of our audience was teenagers and the Lord had put it on his heart to speak about the importance of being and having the right kind of friends.  Praise the Lord!