Monthly Archives: January 2015

We are off to a place we have never been to before, to be with people we have never met, to a country we do not know the customs, culture, or language first-hand…no more training, no more good-byes, no more “one mores”, we are leaving for PNG!

Continue seeking Christ, pursue Him with all you can, “be attached to the Great Commission” in every way you can…this life is short, and all that is therein on this earth is meaningless. Only souls and what you do for our Lord will last for eternity. As we were packing up this week, many people were so focused on the “game”, so many people arguing about ball pressure, so many forgot about the march-for-life in Washington DC (pray for that by the way, decisions are being made in congress), so many people will miss out on fellowships in church; to go to someone’s house and wear a sports jersey, to eat potato salad, and watch commercials. Keep the perspective! America has so many things that can steal your attention away from what really matters. Do not forget your first love, do not forget we have a worthy God who deserves our everything. Not just our Sunday mornings, and Bible study times, but our decisions in what job to have, relationships, interacting with co-workers and family, how much time I invest in entertainment vs. things of God, He deserves our very lives of every day. Our God is not mystical, He is very practical, and we are striving to understand the imminence of God (His closeness).

Please pray that it does not snow in the next 12 hours…we fly from Pittsburgh to DC (@6am), once we leave DC we are in the air until Tokyo (we leave @12:20pm with United for those of you who want to know). Please pray all our bags get checked through smoothly and we can get them ALL in PNG, 🙂 Thank you all very much, we love you all. And we are off…

 Your feet to the unreached of PNG, Seth and Nicole Stokes.

We might not be leaving in a rocket, but in less than 42 hours we start our 4 day journey. We feel overwhelmed with emotions as we say good-bye to great friends and family. We spoke to our church Sunday night and said, “this might be the last time we see several of you on this side of eternity. Make sure that your life is attached to the Great Commission, or else it is meaningless”. It is humbling to think we may not see some of the people we love ever again until we are with the Father, but His message is worth it, He is worthy of all things, even our short lives.

Thank you to all of you who partner with us financially and or prayerfully. We could not be where we are at without each and everyone one of you. We are leaving not only at 95% support, and having our initial needs met, but we are leaving knowing we are loved, prayed for, and with a great support team behind us. Please stay connected, we will communicate as much as possible.

From snowmen to sweat stains, we are changing everything about our lives: weather from under 20 degrees with snow, to hot humid tropical weather, from the comforts of TV, food, knowing the language, to a foreign language, markets, and a land where everything is new. We are heading into a BIG change; we are as ready as anyone can be. We will be going straight to language learning the day we get there or the day after, please pray we acclimate well. We have just a few things left to do: our taxes, turn off our phone plans, and a handful of other things. We are spending the last 2 days with Seth’s parents and trying to take it easy. We are packed for the most part, bags are weighed, and we are almost just waiting for our departure time. We appreciate you all!

 Your feet to the unreached in PNG, Seth and Nicole Stokes.

Well, the time is FINALLY here! We received our visas on Wednesday, we filled out a bunch of paperwork and tied up various loose ends with our board Thursday, come Friday morning we were given the official green light to buy our plane tickets. So the tickets and visas are in our hands! DONE.

We will still have to to finish a few loose ends like banking, visiting family, and pack just a little more, but for the most part, we are done! We leave Pittsburgh, PA very early Sunday morning (in 8 days). We fly to Washington, DC and then catch a connecting flight starting at noon to head to our home in PNG. Yes, our home. We have a place already for us, we have our crate packed up and ready to move, and we will be taking what we need with us until our crate arrives, leaving no real attachments in the USA (possession-wise).

Yes, we have basically packed for moving overseas in about a week, it has felt a little rushed but this is the path in which God is taking us on. For all of those who are wondering, “how long it will take to get there”; we leave our house at 2 am Sunday morning, and arrive in the city of our destination at 10:25 am Wednesday morning. Yes, Sunday to Wednesday. We go ahead in time 15 hours, we have a 19-hour layover in Singapore, and we spend over a day in the air, actually close to 40 hours.

Tomorrow will be our last American church service for years (Lord willing); we will enjoy that time “one last time”. We are trying to finish any and all “things” we need to do by Wednesday, so we can have some “down time” for the last 3 days, before we start our world tour and get thrown into language and culture study. We basically start right up the day we get there/the next day 🙂

Thank you for all of your prayers with support, visas, paperwork, and our traveling. Thank you for everything! Your prayers made all of this possible.

We have been reading many autobiographies from Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, and John G. Patton. These men are heroes of our faith. Judson suffered a lot for Christ, and we have not yet had that privilege, but we might in the not too distant future. We desire to have our faith in God and resolve in His will so that when we do face trials and suffering, we can say this,

“If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived…”and then as Judson was getting older and young missionaries were coming to the field, he gave them this encouraging statement,

“bear in mind, that a large proportion of those who come out on a mission to the East die within five years (in modern days case, leave the field and go back home) after leaving their native land. Walk softly, therefore; death is narrowly watching your steps”. And one Theologian added, “The question is not whether we will die, but whether we will die in a way that bears much fruit”. John 12:24

~Your feet to the unreached people in Papua New Guinea,

Seth & Nicole Stokes

Very soon we will be in another culture, language and worldview. We will see, hear, and experience things that will make us say “how do we say…this/that?” But we have already experienced searching for words in our mother-tongue language (English) this past Wednesday. Wednesday was a day we will remember forever, it was one of those days that we will look back on and reflect upon for years to come. Seth was ordained and we were commissioned by our home church in Pennsylvania. Seth sat down with several Pastors for almost two hours as they examined his theology/doctrine, and his philosophy of ministry. After they were done, they all came to a consensus and ordained Seth. Shortly after the ordination we had the commissioning service, the auditorium was full, and God was gracious and spoke to us all that night. It was such a special event! THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO WAS A PART OF THIS SPECIAL DAY!

What happened during the commissioning service:

First, It all started off with a charge to us by the man who encouraged Seth to first come to Harvest, Pastor Seth Leeman. He gave us a challenging thought to live a life and have an “attitude worthy of the Gospel”. Next, Pastor Greg Stine from our co-sending church in Kansas gave the church a charge to take responsibility of us, keep track of us, send us, and to partner with us. What else occurred that night, Pastor Skelly orchestrated the service seamlessly, Seth’s grandfather gave the dedicatory prayer, the young kids of Harvest sang a beautiful song (and they were all soooo cute!), the church provided an opportunity for people to mingle at the end of the service over cupcakes and lots of hugs and tears. So what made you at a loss for words? Two things: 1. The church gave us an overwhelming love offering that stunned us. We tried to say thank you, but we were overwhelmed with emotions and in shock of how much people sacrificed for us. 2. The service ended by everyone lining up and saying good-bye and giving us hugs… THIS LASTED FOR CLOSE TO TWO HOURS!!!! Many tears were shed, hugs were given, good-byes were said, and to see a line of 100’s of people wanting to say good-bye to us was overwhelming. We want to say THANK YOU to our church body at Harvest Baptist Church, Pastoral Staff, other participating staff, family, and friends! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Other thank you’s (which we still see as an inadequate word) that we want to say and express our deep appreciation for:

• Journey, in Rochester, NY
• Canatella family, in Rosedale, MD
• Evans family, in Kiski area, PA
• Humble family, in Mansfield, OH
• Edgar family, in Natrona Heights, PA

THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SACRIFICES! Your over and abundant love and sacrificial giving humbles us and makes us at a loss for words. Thank you for being used by God to bless us.

Update: We are at an approximate 91% of our monthly support.

-We are still waiting for our visa, we had another hang-up in the process but we are not worried. We have been in communication with both the consulate in Washington DC, and our leadership in Papua New Guinea. We “might” get our visa Thursday or Friday or anytime really, only God knows. On the plus side! We were informed by leadership that since we are a part of a small group coming we can assimilate into our language study class anytime we get there…whether the end of January or the beginning of February. We were encouraged to keep pressing on and expect to get to Papua New Guinea ASAP, whenever God allows. Be encouraged prayer warriors, we will get there in God’s timing. But please keep praying, so that we can get to PNG (Lord willing) by the end of next week or the beginning of the following week (1/29-2/2).

Thank you prayer warriors, thank you for reading this post, thank you to all those special families and churches mentioned above, thank you Pastor Leeman and Pastor Stine for bringing your families, representing your churches we love, and challenging us, thank you Harvest Baptist Church, thank you to our adult Sunday School class, thank you to both of our parents for being there and always being supportive, thank you to all of you who came Wednesday night from the Pittsburgh area, Beaver Falls area, Rochester NY, and New Jersey. Thank you, thank you, thank you! From the bottom of our hearts.

Because He said Go,

Your Feet To The Unreached in PNG,

Seth & Nicole Stokes

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6-7

Today is the day for Seth’s ordination and also for our commissioning/send-off service at our home church. We just wanted to remind you that everyone is welcome to come to this special event. Seth’s ordination is from 3pm-5pm in the Chapel at Harvest Baptist Church (224 Harvest Lane, Natrona Heights, PA 15065. Phone: (724) 295-0607). Our commissioning/send-off service is at 7pm in the Auditorium, a cupcake fellowship to follow. We would love for you to join us for this special occasion! Please PRAY for Seth as he answers many questions for his ordination. PRAY he has a clear mind and has the energy needed for this big day.

We said “good-bye” to New Jersey today, not knowing when we will be back…we were overwhelmed with emotions and sentiments as we walked through the house Nicole grew up in one last time. We are now back in Pittsburgh trying to tie up the endless loose ends, and we did have a breakdown (not our car). One of our computers hard drive just broke, luckily we were able to get it fixed and have it back to working order by the next day. We are thankful it broke down before we left for PNG, and that is grace…grace that it broke where we can get it fixed.

We have been waiting many weeks now for an 8 digit number for Nicole’s letter of sponsorship. Well, we are happy to say that we have it! Next up, we sent in all of our paperwork and passports (there is a weird and sickening feeling putting those documents in the mail) to the PNG embassy in Washington DC to finish the process. Yup, that is it! We are now at the mercy of the US post office. Thank you for all of you who are praying for us, this is the last step of our paperwork…then reality sets in. Please pray we get our visa and passports back quickly.

Deja Vu

We have been having a lot of last moment sub-realities like; this is the last time I will go here, or this is the last time I will have a good Oreo dunked in whole milk, you know…the important things 🙂 we are being overwhelmed with emotions. God has given such sweet times of fellowship with friends and family this past week it is amazing.

Send Off

Our send off service in New Jersey this past weekend was humbling; scripture was read, the word was preached, hearts were open, the Spirit was present, and many eyes were filled with tears. That is what occurred Sunday morning as we were sent off by our sweet dear friends and family at Calvary. The spirit of fellowship, intentionality, and love were very present during the service, after which sparked over 3 hours of conversation over lunch. We want to say thank you to everyone at Calvary in NJ, your love was felt and we will carry it with us to PNG.

How to Pray?

Please pray that our visa’s will be processed quickly so we can leave around the 27th. The earlier we get them the better we will feel and be able to finalize last minute details.

Please pray we manage our time better; we have many loose ends (shots, doctor, dentist, etc.) with sentimental things, finish packing, getting rid of stuff, figuring what to do with our stuff that we leave in the states, and connecting with people as we say that “final” good-bye (see you in 5 years, Lord willing).

Please pray we can stay healthy, so we can get to the field and be ready to go.

Please pray we stay strong spiritually and emotionally, we have waves of emotions that we will have to deal with in the next 3 weeks…Gulp! Yes, there is some anxiety, but by God’s grace we are leaving in 3 weeks!!!!!!!!! (as long as we get the visa). 🙂

Do NOT Forget our commissioning service in Pittsburgh January 14th 🙂 ALL are invited.

~Your humble co-servants for Jesus Christ, Seth and Nicole Stokes.

Hold The Ropes For Us

Hold the ropes is an expression used for people back home who pray for missionaries.  In 1792, William Carey (the father of modern missions) was talking to his mission board about heading to India, they told him since he was going to the dark places where the unreached are (on their behalf, the senders…) they would pray for him faithfully until they die. They said it is like he is going into a dark cave, and they are holding his rope as he goes deep into the darkness, they said they will never let go (i.e. never stop praying for him) until they die. We are by no means William Carey, but those people at home: you, our support team, our senders, our friends and family are the ones we had in mind as we wrote this blog. You have all partnered with us in prayer for our support and for various other requests over this past year. Now we are asking that you “hold the ropes” for us. You are A VITAL role in our ministry. WE NEED your constant prayer and intercession.

When Abraham pleaded with the Lord, Lot and his daughters were spared from total annihilation (Gen. 18-19). When Moses prayed the nation of Israel was spared (Ex. 32). When Hezekiah prayed his life was prolonged for 15 years (II Kings 20). The Lord incarnate taught His disciples “how to pray”, Paul always talks about prayer, the last thing Christ did before He went to the cross was pray… and now HE ever lives to make intercession for us! (Heb. 7). Prayer is a HUGE thing! When the disciples asked about the laborers for the field, Christ told them to pray! Please, do not forget us and continue to pray for us. We NEED your intercession MORE now then ever. We will be going into a place that is foreign to us in every way. The physical, emotional and spiritual warfare will be real and testing. Please choose today to partner with us in a significant way, to PRAY FOR US. Finances get us to the field… but YOUR prayer will keep us and sustain us on the field. We are your sent-ones and are your responsibility, please claim us 🙂 do not let us be like some unclaimed baggage at an airport.

One faithful prayer warrior told us that he does not want to miss a day of prayer for us, he is a veteran and understands war. He said that prayer is his ministry to us, he knows that Satan is real and is seeking to devour us, he knows what it is like to be on the front lines on the battlefield. This was super encouraging to us to know we have such a faithful prayer warrior who knows how crucial HIS ROLE (and all our pray warriors) is in our ministry. Thank you John! (You know who you are). 

We believe in prayer so much we are going to start a prayer letter specifically for those WHO ask to be on it… YOU have to contact us. That means you would have had to read this post and then contact us. WE want this to be something YOU want to do… We desire to be transparent and so it will be something we ask you not to share with others… It will not be something that comes out consistently but it will come out regularly. Please contact us and ask to sign up for this specific email by writing us at stokingthefires@gmail.com. Tell us you want to be on that update personal email list. Thank you for your faithfulness. We know we would not be able to do this job WITHOUT YOU!

Your sent ones who are off to go spelunking in the caves of PNG, Seth and Nicole Stokes. Would you please consider holding our rope as we go into the deep and dark caverns of Papua New Guinea?