Finally Home!

We are here in Madang, PNG and it is home! It may have taken an extra day and a half, more money than expected, stress that was unwanted, but we got here. We arrived with half of our stuff; the other half should arrive next week? The locals say things may get hung up in Port Moresby for a day, week, or several months. Either way, we have what God sees fit for us to have, DHL is usually pretty reliable and should get here on time.

So what happened to us? Long story real short; we had to purchase two separate tickets from Pittsburgh to PNG, one ticket was from Pittsburgh to Washington DC, and the other was DC to our final destination in PNG. We knew and were told to get our bags checked all the way through to Madang, because international weight allowance is astronomical. So while in Pittsburgh, we asked the clerk to check and see if she could check our bags all the way through. While doing that, we watched her talk with her boss and they were “deleting tickets” and adding things onto them to make it work. We thought nothing of it at the time because we thought they knew the system and were helping us. Fast forward to Singapore, we had a twenty-hour layover and had to collect our bags to transfer them. We stayed active all day so we could be on this hemispheres time schedule and to help with the jet lag. Five people told us five different times of when to be at the early check in for our flight (long story short). We were moved around, sat, and waited from 2pm-6pm. Time to check in? Wrong, eighty people who had their flight cancelled the day before got pushed in front of us. Keep in mind that we are not permitted to check in after 7:20pm. Come 6:45, it is our turn, we begin checking our bags and the clerk (along with her boss) proceeded to tell us our tickets were “cancelled” by someone in New York…but she told us we could buy new tickets and fight United later (they kept emphasizing and telling us). After they put us through that ringer (it is about 7:10 now), they continued to tell us that we will have to pay $56 per kg (kilogram) because in Singapore, they do not allow any free checked bags. This worked out to be over $7000 Singaporean dollars, which is well over $5000 USD. We gulped, gasped and were in shock, we didn’t know what to do, we asked to use a phone and started talking with different people from the company and flight services. They were not much help because in the computer system, there was no record of our bags being checked back in Pittsburgh, even though we had stickers on them proving they had been weighed and checked. Eight fifty pound bags did not exist in their system?!?! Remember the clerk and her boss in Pittsburgh? By the time we were able to assess the situation, find options for shipping our stuff with DHL, it was 7:25pm and all the clerks at the airport had left. So that made us miss the flight for that day, we kept calling and tried to find a shipping method for our stuff. Found the best deal with DHL, repacked all our bags due to DHL’s specifications. Got our tickets re-issued for the next day after we plead our case, and now we are here… THANK YOU LORD!!!!

Sure we had other things happen like one of our bins get completely destroyed, have another flight cancel on us and re-book, have to fight for our carry-ons because they were bigger than the international allowance, we are pretty sure several things were taken from our bags from Singapore to Port Moresby (one of our bags were opened), and several other small things. But here we are, in PNG!

We got unpacked and had several meals with the different people here on the base.

We got to go to the grocery store and the “markets”, produce and fish, which are amazing. Good looking produce and marlin steaks for less than a $1/pc. Great! While walking around we bought some “kau-kau” (cow-cow), and sago or “sak-sak” and that was really good as well. We want to just jump in and get involved with the culture and language. We got to listen to the testimonies of a young PNG couple Joshua, Amelia, and their baby Russell. They were saved during the chronological teaching not too long ago in the tribe where the missionary family who is orienting us has been living for the past ten years. It was awesome to see the power of teaching chronologically, and how that when they heard the truth, they knew it was truth. This time of sharing was all done in “tok pisin” pidgin English (the trade language). Our host family did all the translation for us, they are trying to expose us to as many things as possible. We also went to a more local market and met a national pastor, Jephet and his wife, Nashville and their son Dan (4 years old). Please pray for Dan, he has malaria and will be taken today to hopefully get treatment.

With many thoughts and insecurities running through our heads, we are starting to catch on to a few words and phrases. Still the “where I am I” feeling hasn’t worn off yet with traveling for five days, and having everything new. The humidity during the day will take some getting used to, even the temperature at night is almost eighty degrees but cooler with the breeze.

Pray we can also encourage that young couple; Joshua, Amelia, and their young son Russell, they will be our main language helpers in this new phase of life. We love our new home, quaint, and it is all ours. Our first place with no strings attached. This is a small blessing as we start this new phase of life.

Thank you for all of your prayers, we are thankful already for the journey of getting here, because God has taught us to care more about Him than to care about our belongings. Are we going to miss those nice amenities? Sure, but at the end of the day God, is more important than any earthly belonging. Pray we learn well.

Your feet to the unreached in PNG, Seth & Nicole Stokes

Our First Papaya

Our House

Bleaching Our Produce

Seth Trying Sago