B.O. on an Island

What is Bush Orientation?

Bush Orientation (B.O.) is a period of time when you go into a tribal location (we will be going to an island called B.M.) and live with missionaries. You go to a place that typically has given the Gospel and has a young to maturing church. There are several goals (ideal and real) that we have during that phase; this phase also signals the end of E2 (the time you spend at the National Culture and Language level; NCLA). This is a time of isolation to dive 100% into language, culture, relationships, and tribal church planting. Several goals for this time (keep in mind these are goals which will always have room for growth and a more full understanding, not something any of us could ever fully attain):

1. Finish up language study; As we stress, there is always room to grow in the proficient level, but once capable high is attained you are, for all intensive purposes, finished and given the green light to teach.
2. Have a greater picture of cultural awareness; Culture is the ingrained blue print that makes up the grid for each individual to perceive reality, so this too is a level of understanding, not completion.
3. To glean valuable insight from the church planters to see how they did the process of church planting.
4. To learn from the tribal church; they all speak the tribal language as well as Tok Pisin so we will be able to get testimonials, ask for their insight in doing this work, and have fellowship.
5. Last but not least, this is not something we are too affected by but this time is also a time of evaluation and “practice”, we will take our supplies with us for 6 weeks and have no contact with the outside world (unless it is an emergency). We will try to go as minimal as we can so we can be with the people as much as possible. Truly this is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Tid-Bits 

B.M. is an island approximately a square mile in size and has about 2,000 people and is 80 miles east of Wewak. Wewak is the base we are currently stationed at and will Lord willingly stay at during our time in PNG. Since it is an island, there are no airstrips and which makes it only accessible by boat. It takes approximately 3 hours in the big boat with two 90-horse power engines or with the small boat it takes about 6 hours. The weather determines whether you can go or come so you have to constantly stay in contact via radio with those on the island to see what day is a good day to come. B.M. currently has an active volcano on it, and is well known for being one of the few tribes that surf! They currently are recovering from a blight/famine/heavy storm that attacked their island, and though fresh seafood is in abundance, they still had people fainting due to lack of adequate food and nourishment. Another random tid-bit about the island is that there are several basketball courts (half courts) which will be a great way Seth can connect with the men and kids.

History 

           B.M. is an island that had and has had a Catholic history for almost 100 years. Much of the island is impacted by and follow the Catholic faith. Three New Tribes missionary families came to B.M. island in 2008 and began to learn their tribal language (previously, the catholics had done everything in the national language). In 2012, they taught through Creation to Christ (Firm Foundations Teaching developed by Trevor Mcllwain) and the B.M. church was born. Since then, the 3 men have suffered much hardship (one with his wife developing breast cancer; read our blog “giants are among us”) from various diseases, medical evacuations, persecution, and opposition from the Catholic church. All this has not deterred the missionaries who have taught the foundational teaching (Genesis-Mark) 2 times, while developing strong disciples and future elders in the church, and to top it all off they are approximately 50% completed with the New Testament translation! The church itself has had a major milestone this month, they are doing their first outreach and are finishing teaching the foundational bible lessons (FBT), Phase 1: Creation to Christ themselves! What an exciting time of replication! Pray for many souls making eternal decisions.

In Summation, While Looking Forward!

We hope this post helped you understand what we will be doing these next 6 weeks, starting July 28, 2015. We would love to hear from you this week and if you have any questions go ahead and ask away. We hope this was insightful and also helped you get a better grasp of what one of our final stages in E2 (national culture and language) looks like. This is also exciting because once we get back we can start helping out the mission and other missionaries full-time! We will be doing guest housing, driving, supply buying, liaison work, and even PGA’s (people group assessments); that will be Seth of course, he will hike with an other missionary and possibly a national pastor checking to see where would be the best place to send another missionary and plant a church. There are still 100’s of tribes asking for missionaries! We are planning to spend some valuable time with our future coworkers in Madang sometime in October, as well as experience other possibilities! As E2 comes to a close we come one step closer to E3, which is when we begin the process of tribal allocation! So many BIG things will happen these next 6 months!

Please pray for us:

1. Pray we will be healthy so we can give 100% while on B.M..
2. Pray that we finish Capable High and move onto the proficient level in our language learning process.
3. Pray that we learn more fully the culture of PNG so we can better engage people at a heart level.
4. Pray we will be a blessing to the Missionaries on B.M..
5. Pray we can be an encouragement to the church on B.M..
6. Pray that we can show a difference in our lives and challenge the many unsaved still found on B.M. Island.
7. Pray for safety in traveling, especially when Seth spends time with the men as they fish in the ocean (they have killed many sharks there, including hammerheads!).
8. Pray that we are wise in our conduct so that we can grow spiritually during this time and glean as much as we can from the missionaries and the church on B.M..
9. Pray we use our time wisely.
10. Pray that this time will strengthen our marriage, and reflect Christ and the church to both the saved and unsaved on B.M..
11. Pray for Seth, he will be preaching for the first time in another language during a main service while we are on B.M.. The church is going through 1 Corinthians so once we get there he will figure out what passage he will be given. Pray for boldness and clarity as he unpacks God’s Word in another language.
12. Please Pray that it rains! It has not rained in 1 month and the water supply is getting low, they are afraid that if the water gets too low we might have to postpone our orientation till a little later.

We love you all and covet your prayers,

Your feet to the unreached of PNG, Seth & Nicole Stokes        ~Romans 15:20