He is Worthy of Our Trust!

“All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God, because they reckoned on His being with them”. –J. Hudson Taylor

This blog will be a little different, we will keep the names anonymous in the stories we will share…but know this, giants (of our faith) walk among us. Unless you get close to them and hear their story, you will never know what God is doing in and through them, you will never know the journey of how much God has brought them through.

Time after time people have come to Papua New Guinea to serve as missionaries, many come, but many go. This field is not easy: it is hot, there are diseases everywhere, infections and stomach problems are common, and you hear of someone having malaria as often as you see the rain coming during rainy season. This field has an astronomical attrition rate, but there are many times God shows His glory to and amongst His fallible and fragile creations. Here are 3 short stories:

1. The wife of a close friend of ours has had many health issues, sick from time to time removing them from their tribe in which they are working. Eventually they got x-rays and found a massive tumor in her brain. Everyone’s heart dropped and prepared for the worst. They have kids, they are doing an awesome work, and it makes you wonder what God is doing. As they were walking onto the plane to fly to Australia and seek better direction medically, the husband turned around and told his friend who had dropped them off, “I will be back”. Wow! People, he is saying with or without his wife he was coming back! When we were going around raising our support we met people who said they couldn’t do missions because they were afraid of flying, they like modern conveniences, they don’t like bugs or the heat, and yet this man saw missions not as an option, but as a mandate, an obligation (Rom.1:14). To go and share the Good news of Jesus Christ, even if he lost his wife…God spared his wife for now, and they are back in PNG serving full-time.
2. Another man had his wife diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor as well. They, with their young kids, were already in Australia and the doctors gave her less than 6 months to live. However, she made it only a couple of weeks, and then passed. Within less than one month after his wife’s passing, this man was able to collect his things and purchased tickets to come back to PNG in the near future. He just lost his wife, his kids lost their mother, and yet he sees the message of the cross and the worthiness of our Savior that nothing will hinder him from serving our God full-time in missions.
3. The final story we will share for now, another man and his family had 3 medevacs in less than a year. First time, his young son went limp and had no body functions for a while; the Lord healed him and the doctors are still not sure what happened. Second time was a severe case of malaria. Third time, this man’s wife had severe body pain, she began to have open sores and pustules that oozed, not the nicest of things. Her bones ached and it was laborious for her to move. Eventually they took her to the doctors in Australia and they didn’t know what was going on with her either. She came back with little improvement; this was a crucial time in the ministry. This was the time they were presenting the Gospel for the first time. As she sat down in pain she shared with the team, “I got it! I know what God is teaching us, He is teaching us to trust Him! He is worthy of our trust”. Such a simple statement, and yet so profound, this was said and done in the midst of a trial.

We pray you have been blessed as we have been by these stories of faith building. Our God is worthy of our trust and there is no trial too BIG to remove us from His will and serving Him in missions. Because He is worthy of our trust!

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