Greetings from Steve and Charlotte Beadles!
We are the managers of the beautiful and comfortable 12 room Crestview Inn Deluxe Suites. We live on site. We have been the owners (along with the bank) of the Crestview Inn for 3 years and have enjoyed it immensely. We get to meet people from all over the world coming to the small town of Thomaston, Georgia. We have hosted people from more than a dozen countries and from nearly all 50 states!
We lived close, 75 miles from Thomaston, in the metro Atlanta area, for 25 years before moving here. The ministry of Be In Health at Pleasant Valley Church is the reason we relocated to Thomaston. Upon the prompting of the Holy Spirit on August 4th, 2008 I researched the book, A More Excellent Way, by Pastor Henry Wright to learn the root causes of an auto immune disease with which I had been diagnosed recently. The book had been given to me some years ago by a friend at church. It was in my personal library until I had that urging to read it. I first attended the For My Life and For Thier Life programs in November of 2008, along with my sister, Mary Harris of Oklahoma. She had been healed of severe and life long allergies after reading the book, AMEW, which I had sent to her for her birthday in September of 2008. [ side note: Mary told me of her healing and I, of course, was skeptical. But after spending two weeks with her in my RV in the woods in the Fall with animals, flowers, fragrant candles and scents of all sorts around us, I was convinced!] In December of 2008, I attended the FML City of Refuge program on my own. After that it was Jubilee, also in December of 2008 between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Sometime after my third trip to Thomaston and the expense of staying in two local motels, Steve stated, “You spend a lot of time in Thomaston.” And then he asked, “Do I need to buy a place down there?” “Funny you should ask!” Was my reply. “There is a small 12 room Inn for sale in Thomaston, near the Pleasant Valley Church, where the programs of Be In Health are conducted.”
I had already seen the Inn and met with the Realtor, Martha Adams. Steve agreed to see it on New Year’s Day, his day off. Martha was not available that day for a showing but agreed to leave the keys in a manilla envelope taped to the door of her office so that we could see it ourselves. Steve was impressed that people were so trusting. We spent the night at a lovely Bed & Breakfast, The Woodall House. When we checked out the next morning, Mr. Bill Woodall informed us that he does not take debit or credit cards but would take a check. Problem! We do not carry cash or checkbooks. We do everything by debit or credit cards! I asked about an ATM machine. We were just off the square of Thomaston with banks galore. It should be an easy thing to do. It was Sunday morning. The Woodall’s and we were headed to church. Mr. Woodall stated that we didn’t have time for that and for us to just “drop a check in the mail upon returning home.” This man only knew our names! No address, tag number, or any other info was required for us to check in….other than he did ask if we were “church goers”. Interesting. I think that ‘sealed the deal’ with my husband. Steve said, “This town is like Mayberry; I wanna live here!” We did go to church at Pleasant Valley. After church we had lunch in Thomaston, went to an ATM and then returned to the Woodall House to pay our bill before leaving town!
The next step was talking to the bank about the purchase of the Inn. Again, Steve was impressed that the bank president himself, Scott Swafford, of United Bank, handled all of the interactions. Small town living was good! After many phone calls, research and prayer, we took a ‘leap of faith’ and signed the papers to purchase the Inn on March 20th, 2009, a mere four month period after my having attended the programs of Be In Health. Why? You might ask. I believe it was ‘divine intervention. I tend to get somewhat carried away when it comes to things of God. Well, this time, when I came to the first classes of Be In Health, I said to myself, “I am not going overboard into this ministry; I will just observe and be cautious.” “Famous last words, as they say!” God must have had other ideas; He had orchestrated it so that I would drive past the Inn twice a day for two weeks on my way to and from For My Life and For Their Life. I saw the building for sale and thought it was “interesting”. After two weeks of exposure to the awesome teachings of God and witnessing miraculous healings, I wanted to ‘support this ministry’ but already had several others to support and without additional income it would not be possible. I believe it was at that time, the Holy Spirit, prompted me to pursue the idea of purchasing the Crestview Inn. I contacted the Realtor during my second visit in December. When I first told Steve about the Inn, his response was, “I am not interested in some block building.” I replied that it was really pretty inside. And “the rest is history” another famous quote. He saw it one time, and bought it. We opened for business on April 25th, 2009.
People often ask, “Did you have any previous experience running a business, a motel, etc.?” The answer quite simply is “No.” We were relying on the adage, “If God brings you to it; He will bring you through it!” Steve had worked at the Post Office for the past 35 years and was ready for Retirement. He started out in Maintenance of machines and equipment and worked his way all the way up to Financial Supervisor, second in command under the supervision of the Postmaster. I pursued the career of being a Nurse for the first twelve of my working years and most recently had been a Substitute School Teacher for the past three years. In between careers, I was blessed to be able to assist in the care of my elderly parents for years and also cared for my grandson while his parents worked.
The first year was a testing of our faith to say the least! Just suffice it to say, there is no harvest without upheaval! Steve still worked full time at the Post Office the first six months of us owning the Inn, so, he was only available on weekends. He did a lot of driving back and forth and hard work without any respite for most of that time. I had to hire a lot of things done, such as yard work, plumbing, reconstruction, etc. That all took a toll on the income of a new business! Finally, in September of 2009, Steve did retire and was happy to do so! He witnessed the transformation of lives from one weekend to the next and heard how “awesome” the programs were and yet was still unable to attend them for himself until January of 2010, almost a year after signing the papers on the Inn! In the long run, he said he was happy to get the teaching in small doses attending church there for the past year. In February of 2010, Steve attended For Their Life. And in September of 2011, we both attended Advanced Insights Into Spirit World Realities. Now the circle is complete. We both volunteer at the church. Steve helps out in Publishing and has helped with the Children’s For My Life program and I did some transcribing of teaching tapes to written text.
We both love to meet the people coming for the programs and especially enjoy when we get to know them by sharing a meal, having praise and worship together in our Lobby or just sitting and talking with them and enjoying the view of this beautiful countryside with which we are surrounded! We think we have the BEST jobs! We are convinced that our guests are some of the finest people on Earth! We have many guests who share their talents with us such as singing, playing guitar or keyboard, which we have readily available in the Lobby.
Come for a visit soon!
Charlotte and Steve Beadles
