Help IS on the way!

Hello everyone,

This morning I received two e-mails, one from Faye and one from Jim. I copy them here for your benefit. I know you will be encouraged by them. I don't have time for any editing, as I am supposed to head to a lake with my son on my day off (yeahhhhh!) and we were supposed to be on the road fifteen minutes ago!

PLEASE, KEEP PRAYING!

Pastor Ivanildo Trindade

"Hi again,

Jim called me about half an hour ago and said that the sat phone left Yaloke for Pama around 5 in the morning (around midnight our time) so they should be back in contact soon. Just thought you'd like to know.

Thanks for praying, faye"

Dear Ivanildo and Wooster friends,

Greetings from Bangui. Tom and I have had quite a few weeks here in the CAR. It has not been the easiest time for us and we have watched the devil hound us at so many points we have no where to turn but our Lord Jesus Christ.

Last night our team spent time with in two different homes listening to the passion and vision of some of our ICDI leaders working in ministry here in the capital city. No things do not always go well but these couples are thrilled with being able to use their skills to minister to people both here in CAR and visitors coming to learn about their country and the needs.

Tom left just 4 days ago for Pama and you have not heard from him since he left. We are not sure what went wrong with the phone but today you should be hearing from him again as we sent a truck to Yaloké with a phone and this morning at 5:00 am as I am writing this to you they are sending a motorcycle out to Pama with another phone for Tom to use. I am sorry we have not been able to keep the communication line as open as we had hoped but the Lord knows about this. I talked to Tom on Tuesday morning last and he was fine and it was then I learned that the phone I had been using had quit working for him.

Please do not forget to continue to pray for the team. My hope for them is not that they accomplish much, which is always the American mind set, but rather that they learn about the poor in Pama and how God is using the Grace Brethren Church there and the people there to meet those needs. Frankly, we could have just given them the money and they could have hired someone to build the rook and put up the walls but then my dear friends at Wooster would not have seen and touched the Poor in the CAR. Then they would not have known why I am so passionate about this work and even though there are vehicle break downs, accidents, phones that quit working and sickness ICDI still seeks ways to reach out to these people to give them hope!

Last night Josue Mbami our administrator was talking with me and shared that he had received three letters yesterday by bush taxi from small villages many miles away. These letters were expressing to him the responsible person for the Radio, their appreciation for the ministry of the radio station to their village. This man said, “we have never had a radio station we could hear here which brought us teachings on how to take care of ourselves and how to know God.” Please keep this radio station on the air.

Josue shared this with me because he was worried I would become discouraged as we had spent hours working on the radio station and then the power system we were setting up did not work. It was not fun but it is where we are often times in Africa. We were able to keep the radio station on the air but there are serious issues with the current and the inverter power system was to help protect our radio from damage. Please continue to pray as we seek ways to keep this radio reaching so many thousands of Central Africans on the air.

God bless….tonight I leave for the USA with the team I brought from WLGBC. We will talk to you again soon.

Jim Hocking