Monthly Archives: October 2014

Practicing Suturing

The past 10 days have felt like one very long day continuously strung together. When you do a similar thing for several days all day long, and it feels you are always on the “go; have you ever felt like that? We have been in classes from 8am until 5pm, or sometimes as late as until 9:30pm everyday studying a wide range of topics in the field of medicine. Specifically, medicine where there are no hospitals in remote areas. Homework, case studies, projects, and math problems every night; we look at the clock at midnight and hope that we can crawl into bed sometime soon, but a 3 o’ clock bed time is not uncommon. We better get ready because being in class by 8am comes quickly the next day.

There were many topics from our classes we thought would be fun titles for this blog update, so here are some highlights that will give you a glimpse of our training 🙂 . Our classes are truly equipping us for the field! We now feel more confident to administer so many necessary clinical procedures, and thanks to the case studies (50+), we feel more empowered to diagnose and begin the treatment process. The classes started off with this quote, “They (the people you will minister to) will see Christ through you before they ever hear about Christ from you”. This is such a true statement! We will be living with the tribal people, cooking, hunting, and administering medical treatment, and much more before we become proficient enough in the language in order to teach them about Christ. “They will never care about how much you know… until they know how much you care”.

Missionaries Doing Drugs

If that is not a headliner, then we do not know what is?! We have been given much information in terms of suturing, giving anesthesia, basic hygiene, and personal protection while prepping for a procedure. We know people will come to us with diseases we have never heard of, and we will have to give them a drug (medication) we cannot pronounce, but God is merciful. “God will protect you in your ignorance, but not in your arrogance”. This class has truly helped us become more empowered, but has also been used to show us our limits, and what is even practical for us to do once in a tribal setting. Did you know that the average life expectancy in Mozambique is 38-39 years old? We must learn practical steps to save lives!

The Earth is Truly Cursed

One thing we are truly seeing is that this earth is cursed! The very ground itself. While studying hour after hour, doing case scenario after scenario, we have found that there are so many bugs/sicknesses/diseases in developing worlds (like ascariasis, guinea worms, malaria, and much more) and even in the water like schistosomiasis or katayama disease. This class has made one thing clear for sure, we will always wear shoes when in a tribal location! God truly cursed the very soil we walk on every day (ex. hookworm). We have a new fondness and appreciation for washing hands, simple hygiene that protects us so much! (Caution: shaking hands 😉 ).

ALL Creation, Even Malaria…Truly is of God

40% of toddlers and an incalculable number of pregnant women die (in a developing world in the tropics) from malaria. Malaria is virus that has many strands, and is and has been in the top 5 killers of humans for most of history (those who live in hot/tropical areas). Thank God for antibiotics! But after studying “how” malaria occurs and what causes it to reign in the body, and watching the process of destroying the healthy blood cells, etc.… you cannot give any form of creation to anyone else, but to God. He alone could make something that intricate. Did you know more people have died in the 21^st century due to aids than all the wars in the 20^th century? So many simple and practical tips could help reduce that number drastically!

Ischial Tuberosities, Meconium, & Paristalsis…Anyone know what we are talking about?

Yep! We are learning how to deliver babies, what to do when the umbilical cord is wrapped around the neck, how to do an episiotomy, give sutures, and much more! We were trained to understand “that pregnancies are a natural process and not a disease to manage”. That thought will change how we engage in the situation. We find that in all of these classes we have to find a balance between being in awe of our Creator and being slightly grossed out by what we might have to do, and what can occur to the human body. Did you know the amniotic fluid is filtered and changed every 3 hours during the pregnancy process? Wow what an amazing Creator!

These classes have taught us a greater balance of worshipping the Creator and being humbled by the magnitude and wisdom in which He created ALL things. We very well may need to claim ignorance and seek out wisdom in order to learn practical ways to help ourselves, and others when on the field.

We feel overwhelmed with knowledge, Pray that we can retain as much knowledge as we can during this training (only 2 days left). Also, pray for us, we still have several thousand miles to travel in the next 4 weeks, and we meet with a handful of new churches and reconnect with other churches during that time. Pray God provides more partners! We are so close to the required support we need and the window of time for us to leave is approaching.

                                                Your feet to the unreached of PNG, Seth & Nicole

Injections

Charlene-Our Suturing Teacher

Visiting Some Friends

How do you get to Ohio from Michigan? Sometimes because of scheduling and dates of conferences you have to travel out of the way, to get to where you are going. We had to go from Michigan to Pennsylvania, and then head to Ohio for another conference. Praise God! We have been well received everywhere we go and several new churches are interested in partnering with us. We are getting so close to our goal it is exciting and yet nerve racking. We have to be at our goal of 75% (minimum) support in order to be permitted into the country, and the window of time to meet this goal is drawing more and more near. As we reflect upon the places we have been, we realized that if only 8 of the churches that said they were interested in partnering with us followed through with their interest, and if we were able to pick up about 4 more churches during this tour, we would be good to go! It is crazy to think that it is within our grasp, and yet we cannot reach out and attain it until our Lord moves, from the beginning to the end of this journey He wants to show off His glory.

All of the mission’s conferences so far have gone really well, we have had several opportunities to preach and teach, young, old, and anywhere in-between. The opportunities are not what we are gauging in regards to “doing well”, we have seen several people impacted by our messages, people coming to the realization that there are so many people without the Gospel in their own language, and have had several opportunities to deal with young people and their response to possibly go into missions. So yes, God is good and things are going well!

We leave Ohio Sunday morning and head to North Carolina; we will be there for about 2 weeks and go through a medical intensive training course. This will be a very profitable tool to have so that we can preserve the people we will work with in PNG long enough, so they can hear the Gospel. We are thankful for the privilege in taking this training.

Specific prayer request: Please pray we can get the remainder of our minimum support in time, so that we can leave for PNG in January. We only need 12 churches @ $100/mo. to finish our minimum goal (like we said earlier, we know that over half of that support is there, we are just waiting for people to follow through with their commitment). Pray God continues to bless us with safety in our travels. Pray we can get all the necessary paperwork done in time so that we can leave in January.

Most importantly! Please pray for our dear friends Jon and Adie Leedahl, Jon is a pilot with NTM in PNG and he was in a serious motorcycle accident, he was “rushed” to Australia (which took almost a day) for medical treatment. His left foot was crushed and he had a compound fracture in his right leg. He was given blood transfusion(s) because he had lost so much blood; the tourniquet was on for almost a day. He made it to Australia and had his first surgery, which was basically to stop the bleeding. Tomorrow/soon they will go back into surgery and assess the damage to the muscles and ligaments, words like “amputating” have been thrown out there, so PLEASE PRAY that is not the case! Nicole will keep everyone updated on her Facebook. Jon’s wife Adie went with him, and they left their 3 little boys at the mission base with some friends. Please ask our Heavenly Father for Mercy and Grace to be poured out onto this family during this time. Thank you.

Before we could post this we received more up to date information… Jon is on the operating table RIGHT now (2:21am 10/17/14) and the decision has been made to amputate his leg, above the knee. Pray that there are no complications. The left leg and foot are severely damaged and will need to have surgery later. The 3 boys are under way on getting paperwork done to fly to Australia to be with the parents. Please pray.

Leedahl Family

A Day in The Life of a Pilot

Hello Everyone!

We hope this fall season is treating you well. Below is the link to our latest newsletter. If you or anyone you know is interested in learning more about our ministry, go to our Videos tab on our site and watch our Stokes Mission video. The Video about Seth’s trip this summer will also give you a better glimpse at what we will be doing in the not too distant future. Contact us for more information. Thank you!

Newsletter: August-September

The seasons are changing, the leaves are turning, and we are about to start our 15 states in 8-week tour. It is crazy to think that this will be our last fall for many years. Papua New Guinea pretty much stays green all year with mud everywhere. We will not miss the cold 🙂 but we will miss the autumn skyline as the sun sets, the serenity of the snow before anyone walks on it, and the effervescence of spring as the flowers begin to bloom.

The Lord has been gracious and has provided us with over 55% or our required monthly support in just about a year. Yes, we have been doing this phase of life for about a year. We plan on leaving in January; we need just 20% more to get the official green light. We sent off our paper work this week and we started compiling all of our possession and labeling them. We started researching items we still need to purchase and the start-up costs for everything next year. It is quite a bit but we know God is Faithful and will provide. We are trusting in Gods timing and pray that we can leave and answer the call of those who are lost and dying, going to a Christ-less eternity.

Tentatively, we are planning on leaving January 20^th 2015 if we get the green light, we will keep everyone posted. If so, we plan to have a commissioning/ordination service at Harvest Baptist Church, PA on January 11^th, and we will plan to also have a “send-off” service on January 4^th in New Jersey. All of this is a tentative thing and we are waiting to get the official “go-ahead”, but we wanted to get the dates out there for you so you can plan.

Please pray as we present in many different contexts in the next couple of weeks. We will be presenting our ministry to several churches, teach the importance of literacy to an English class, preach on several topics like: missions, unity, sending, perspective on giving, and much more. So pray we can be effective and communicate clearly, while showing the need and enlightening more people into missions in unreached people groups. Pray for our safety while traveling and also pray for the remainder of our support. Thank you, we covet your prayers.

~Love, Seth and Nicole Stokes (your feet).

P.S. We posted a video on our site under the “Video” tab, it is a 4-minute video that is intended to give new people a sketch of who we are and where God is leading us. It is also a tool for people to share with others about ministry. Enjoy!

Physical for Work Permits

Packing for the Crate

Paperwork!