Dear Soldiers of the Cross,
In my January prayer letter, we took a look back over 2024 and recapped all the blessings the Lord had bestowed upon us, and now we want to look into this new year God has given us to labor for him. Once again, we are fully booked with our Bible schools and some meetings and building projects.
Once again, we will be working in Washington DC with Capitol Connection and Awake America through Independent Baptist Church in Clintin, Maryland. This year we will be putting a reprint of a book giving the history of the signers of the Declaration of Independence into every office on Capitol Hill. Please pray that God will meet with us in a special way and touch the hearts of our government.
This year the Lord has blessed us with 15 Bible schools from the east coast to the west coast to Alaska. Oh, Lord, give me strength! I’m praising the Lord for touching the hearts of God’s people and making them willing to put their hands to the plow and labor for him. Please pray for all those that will be attending our Bible schools that God will be pleased to touch his Word and make it to become the living Word in the hearts of the people. Please pray for the Maliseet Reservation in Maine, the Kalispel Reservation in Washington State, the Spokane Reservation in Washington State, the Kootenai Reservation in Idaho, and the Mohave Reservation in California. These reservations have no solid Gospel preached, and we are trying to get a Gospel work up and going through our Bible schools.
Please continue to pray, as we are still trying to raise another $70,000 to purchase 1000 copies of John Eliot’s Native American Bible. This was the first Bible printed in America, in 1663. The last reprint was in 1685, 339 years ago. This past year God’s people helped us purchase 1000 copies of the Eliot Bible, and we were able to put those Bibles back into the hands of the original people, the Wampanoag People. We were able to put this Bible into three of their communities, but we have three communities left. Ask the Lord what he would have you to do.
Thanks to all of you that have been praying for me since my back surgery in December. For those of you that did not know about my back injury, this is how it all happened. In July 2023 we were doing a Bible school on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico. We had an 84-year-old Navajo lady that could not speak English, but she wanted to come to Bible school, and she was not able to walk. So I and another brother, as gracefully as we could, picked her up and seated her into a 15-passenger van. That’s when I received a bulging disc from a labor of love. I’m looking at it as just a battle scar for Jesus. That blessed day when I stand before him, I want to have some battle scars to show him because I will see his battle scar that he received for me as he purchased my salvation.
OH, PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME
As We Labor for Christ,
Gerry & Sheril Locklear
Missionaries to the Native Americans