Jim and Marcia Cocker are celebrating their 30 years as Salvation Army officers. Originally from Ohio, they spent their first 21 years ministering as pastors of local Salvation Army churches in Eastern Pennsylvania. Having early sensed a deep calling and urgency to serve on the mission field, they were blessed in 2007 to receive an appointment to Papue New Guinea, a country that remains one of the most difficult settings for oversears ministry within the Salvation Army world. Their three years there found them primaily engaged in the developtment, training, and pastoral care of officers (Pastors), a ministry they fulled enjoyed and one in which they found great fulfillment. The training school has a capacity of 25 adult students and their families; another 75 receive training through distance/corespondence lessons. The two-year residential program prepares Papua New Guinea men and women for Salvation Army officership. Major jim, as personnel secretary, had responmsibility for the ongoing pastoral care of about 300 officers of the Papue New Guinea territory, which allowed him to trade extensively throughout the country's provinces.

Major Marcia Cocker is an alumnus of Malone College (BA), Greenville College (MA), and Asbury Theological Seminary (MDIV). Major Jim Cocker is an alumnus of Eastern University (BS).

The Cockers hav two adult children: Katie, who is a medical doctor stationed in Mannheim, Germany, wih the U.S. Army; and Jim, who works for Campus Crossings in Los Angeles, where he servers as the facilities manager for their site at the university of Southern California.