Well, I have some time so I will expand on my last post. I know it was short. This past week has been fun and busy. We spent last weekend in Gambula with other missionaries. It was really really good to get away and spend time with friends. We came back from there and heard that we needed to travel to the capitol Bangui to get our Carte de sejours. This was an unscheduled trip, but it was fun. We had a good trip down listening to music from both my and Marty's cd collections. :) It was a really fun trip. We got to Bangui, on Tuesday evening. We had a nice dinner with Bob. By the way the cook there is my Godfather, so I am always to be with him. He makes the best bread ever!!! In my opinion anyway. ;) We went in early Wednesday morning to get our paperwork done, which went fine. We filled out forms and had our fingers plunged into ink and squished into small spaces on paper. Then.. they didn't let us wash our hands, so our fingers were blue for the next 2 days. We got done with that and we had to travel to the community hospital to get a clean bill of health. Which the doctors told us "Well, you came from the states and we know the doctors there check you out before you come, so we will just sign the paper for you." Which is true, but funny. So we now have our carte de sejours... Well, I guess we have papers that say we have one, the actual card is coming later... sometime. The rest of Wednesday and Thursday Doug spent most of his time trying to fix our power steering line on our car for our trip back. It turned out to be a much bigger job than we wanted or anticipated. We replaced the line, and had someone weld the line. (the line itself costs like $80) We took the piece back and there was a hole in the weld that we had just had done... so it was worse than before... So we had to find another place to weld it. Well God provided and we found one and we got it fixed. It was after dinner that we finally got the car going though. We stopped for gas that night so we didn't have to worry about it in the morning. We left Bangui at 6am on Friday. We had a wonderful trip back. We had two of the cutest little kids in the car with us. Michele and Patrick. They were amazing. Didn't fuss at all the 13 hour trip. They had lots of fun. And we decided that we wanted to get rid of our 3 huge bags of candy on the road. So we started tossing them out the window to kids on the road. That was amazing! Those two things along with our wonderful music selection of Go Fish just made the trip amazing. Also good news from the trip. Doug finally got his drivers license so he was able to drive, which meant I got to ride rather than drive. Which was nice. I spent a good portion of the drive with my head out the window looking at things and enjoying the wind. Plus I tried a couple different times to land a banana peal on the car behind us with Bob inside, but both times I missed.
The past two days have been rest and recouperate for work tomorrow.. Saturday was a great day for me. In the morning we had a meeting with Bob. It went very well. I also fixed up a place for my new garden. Mom sent me seeds so I am planting them so that when she comes out next year they will be ready for her. I had time to do that in the morning. Had lunch and then headed out with a few friends to the river to go swimming. It was... PACKED. There was barely room to walk on the bridge. It was amazingly fun though. Everybody was shocked to see a white guy swimming in their river. It was really fun jumping off the bridge and diving and just playing. We went back from the river played soccer and then I had a nice relaxing evening.
Today... was an adventure. :) We went to the Apostolic church. Which is an amazing church. The people there have such energy. After about 45 min of singing we had introductions of the "white people". I introduced Doug and Marty. They kept asking me if Doug was a pastor. Well... he isn't. I told them like 3 times. They wanted him to preach but I kept telling them that he wasn't a pastor. So finally they asked me to come up and at least translate the message for Doug and Marty. So... me.. John Hocking translated the message into english, which is hard, because a lot of it doesn't translate directly. Marty kept looking at me and winking and smiling at me which also made me lose concentration cuz I would smile back and start chuckling. It was really fun and I did enjoy it, although Doug did say he got sleepy so next time I will be more active in my translations. :) After the service they had us for a drink of Jino, which is a juice drink here, and we talked for a little bit. They want me to come back next week and play my djembe with them. Which I told them I would. So next week I am going to get to play my drum. Makes me excited and happy. :) This afternoon we went to the river again, planed my garden, and played soccer. This evening I had dinner with the Murtoffs and Bob. It was nice, and we watched Loui Giglio, which if you haven't heard his messages, you should go look them up on youtube. They are amazing. Look up the Indescribable tour. God has blessed this man and he is working for our God.

Well, I would like to ask for your prayers for this coming week. With us being gone for a week it will be interesting getting back into a groove with the guys. Also that Bob would have a good week of meetings here. Pray for me that I would have strength in my jobs as well as interacting with the people here. I love these people so much, and I pray that God makes me a light for his kingdom.

Again, I need to ask you all to seek God's council and if you are willing to help me financially. I don't really like asking for money, it seems so.. impersonal. But I want you to be a part of my ministry. I want you to understand that if you are helping by supporting me, you are as much here in the country as I am. Without you I would not have the opportunity to be here. It is through Gods will, and his servants that I have found a doorway here in the Central African Republic. I ask you to seek Gods council in giving. I do not want you to give, just because you can or because you know me. I want you to give with the thoughts and prayers that God will use your gift through me to touch the people here in this country. I thank all of you for everything you have done. You have all had a part in my life. I love all of you very much. I look forward to seeing all of you and telling you my stories of Gods work here in person.

In Christ,

John Hocking

April 20th

Well, it has been an amazing few weeks here! I have still been playing
soccer everyday (with the exceptions of when I’m gone) and it has been
amazing getting to know the guys some more. I have invested in two of
them that I have over every weekend. Their names are Apo, and
Gbiatiala. If you could pray for them I would appreciate it. They are
Christians but I am not sure about their actual beliefs. God is
working and it is great!
We took last weekend off and went to Gambula. It is about a 2 ½ hour
drive from here to there. It was a good rest. We actually got to watch
the super bowl that someone had recorded and sent out for us! It was a
lot of fun. It was good to be in a different place and be able to
relax a while.
This month has been hard with some of our personnel. We are having
some problems, so if you could pray that we would get them worked out
that would be great! Bob Belo is coming this weekend to Berberati. I
am excited to see him. It will be nice to visit for a few days. We are
actually leaving tomorrow morning to go to Bangui. We have to travel
down there to get our Carte De SEjours. I think that’s how its spelled
but no promises. Haha. Anyway, also pray for safety on the road as I
will be driving and we are leaving at 3 am and it is about a 11 hour
drive. Pray that God will keep me awake and alert. I will have my
music so I should be fine, but still, prayer is important. Thank you.

I have reached my half way point in my trip and I have realized that
I am still short on my support. I would like to ask you to pray and
ask God if you would be willing to continue to support me financially.
I have raised about half of what I need for this whole trip. God has
blessed me with a spiritual family that involves each and every one of
you and I think God everyday that he has given me the opportunity to
be in ministry with you. Thank all of you.

Sorry this is short, but as we are leaving early tomorrow morning I
would like to turn in early. ☺ Again, thanks to all of you!

God Bless

John Hocking

Dear Friends and Family,

I have had an amazing time here so far in the Central African
Republic. I am currently traveling with one of the guys from the drill
team, Marcillen. We have spent the past few days traveling to
different villages with new wells. Making sure everything is working
properly and fixing things and also taking pictures of the places
where they used to get water. Most of the water I saw was filled with
tadpoles, leaves, mud… it’s awful.
I have experienced two main things that I want to share with you from
my trip. First off, we were at one of the pumps and it was not pumping
water. Well, the pipes were a little too short, so we replaced the
pipes. As we were just about finished the “Pastor” from the village
came and started ranting about how the pump never works. He was
obviously drunk and was telling the people it was because of their
sins and evil spirits that the pump didn’t work. Well, this got mine
and Mace’s attention. We kept working, but sort of asking him why he
was saying stuff like that. Then the pastor got mad at Mace and said
that he was making it so the pump wouldn’t’ work.. Well then I chimed
in and said can’t you see that we know its not working right and
that’s why we are here right now working on it. Well, he responded and
said, no no, my problem isnt’ with you, its with the black man working
on our pump. He is the one making it not work. Well, by this time Mace
had finished his work, we didn’t tell them that it was finished. But
we just got up packed up our stuff and left without talking. So they
thought that we were not finished and just packed up and left. Well,
we saw them pumping water as we left, so we know that they know it
works, but it was just so upsetting that the pastor was drunk and
leading other people to believe that their sins was the reason the
pump wasn’t’ working. It was a bit discouraging and it really upset
Mace. God has lots of work to do in that village and we will be
returning there again sometime. Prayer for the people in that village
would be much appreciated.
The second thing I would like to share with you is encouragement. We
visited a village called Lambi Lac. It is the most beautiful village I
have ever seen. It is up on a hill, so there is always a breeze, very
cool in the shade, but still hot in the sun. The people there are
amazing. There are three people groups living there. Central Africans,
Fulani, and another tribe I don’t know the name of. They all live
together in harmony. They don’t’ have arguments about religions. The
pastor there doesn’t’ have a church, he just talks to people and his
wife has meetings every week, but not specifically a bible study. If
she gets the chance she shares, but doesn’t force it. This is the kind
of work that needs to be done. The pastor told us about 4 different
people who have rejected islam and are now christians. The landscape
was also beautiful. It was not a forrest, but not savanna. Open fields
with trees, but not brushy. Its beautiful. I hope to return there many
times. It is also only about and hour and a half from the Capitol
Bangui. God is amazing and that village encouraged me soo soo much.
Thank you all for your prayers. Also pray for the pastor and his
family as they continue to minister to the people in Lambi Lac.
Work in Berberati has been going very well. I have really enjoyed
working with the guys and Doug learning and building things. I am
watching them build a car from the frame up. Its very interesting as I
see it come together. I know what a car looks like, but seeing it come
together is cool. I am getting better and better at welding and
learning new things everday. God is good.
There are guys that I play soccer with everyday in Berberati. There
are two in specific that I would appreciate prayer for at this time.
Apo, and Gbiatiala. I have spent some afternoons with them and one
whole Saturday. They are both Christians, but lack some of the
understanding of Christ. I would appreciate prayer that God would give
me wisdom in what to say and do with the guys to help show them the
love of God as well as what he tells us to do with our lives.
Thank you all so much for your prayers. I pray that this letter finds
you all well. Please feel free to email me back and ask me questions
and let me know how you are doing. I miss all of you so much, and am
looking forward to seeing you in a few months.

God Bless

John Hocking