Dear Soldiers of the Cross,
We trust you and your families are doing well and enjoying the Lord and also these beautiful warm days. The month of May started out with a wonderful time of meetings at Maryville Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. God met with us in a special way, and we were revived and encouraged in the ministry. Thank God for His Divine Leadership.
After our meeting in Louisville we traveled over to the Fort Hall Reservation in Blackfoot, Idaho, for our summer missions’ project. On May 15th we began work on building a fellowship hall at the Faith Baptist Church. Bro Joe Copley has been Missionary / Pastor here for the past 10 years. Bro Joe and Sister Lela have been faithful missionaries to the Native Americans for over 30 years. This is their 4th church plant. We helped them build this church back in 2010, and God has truly blessed the work here.
As we began the work on the fellowship hall we were overtaken by many unforeseen issues. Day after day we began to receive calls from folks canceling out on coming to help in the work until we were more than 20 laborers short. Ours hearts were heavy with the weight of this news, but I could do nothing to change it. Because of the shortage of laborers we had to hire out the concrete work to a local company. To add to our problems we ran into more unforeseen issues with the concrete. The concrete problems set us back approximately $5,000 and four work days. In addition we had to hire a local electrician that has given us a finish quote of $6,500. If you look into your Bible you will find from Genesis until we leave this world that we are in a battle — there will always be those that rise up against the work of the Lord. I want you to know that I’m in it all the way, and my desire is to be that faithful servant until He comes. I want to be a Nehemiah for the Lord and not let the Sanballats and Tobiahs of this world discourage me from the work of the Lord. The Lord blessed us with 3 women, 5 teenagers, and 8 men, and by His grace we were able to dry in the building. At present most of the outside is finished, “thanks be to the Lord.” I want to thank all of you that came out and labored with us in the work. The work was very hard, but you stayed faithful, and I do appreciate all the sacrifices made for God’s Glory. I also would like to thank Alpha and Omega Trucking Co for delivering all our building material for the project. This was a great blessing, and I know God will reward you for all that have done.
Please keep us in prayer as we are trying to coordinate a new group to go out and finish up this project. I know the Lord is able to raise up another to fill-in the gap. If you would like to help financially or as a laborer please let me know. (828) 606-5011.
As We Labor for Christ.
Gerry & Sheril Locklear