Daily Archives: January 6, 2016

Ready to Go!

By the time most of you read this we will have begun our trek into the bush. We have to drive to the airport, hop on a floatplane (because there isn’t a land-able airstrip currently), land in the river, take a small canoe up river for about 5 hours, and then….we will arrive where we will be staying for the week.

We might stay right there and live in one persons house, or we might go for a 2 hour hike and stay at another persons house…we are not sure yet. We have to take two plane trips to bring us in and the other family we are going to help (you can’t bring much weight on a float plane). That means we will start our canoe trip after 1pm, and it gets dark around 6:30pm here on the equator. The reason we don’t know where we are staying is because we are not sure where the people want to do the teaching, we might teach on this side of the mountain or that side, we will find out when we get there. Typically a local and their family will leave their house and move in with a family member to let us use their house. Yes, we are staying in a national house. No water, no electricity, no bathroom, just four walls (hopefully), and a roof. Should be fun! You can see everything we are bringing; 4 bags and a box. Clothes for a week, back up medical supplies (just in case), our canopy-tent-hammocks, food, water purifier, cooking equipment, cleaning equipment, everything for the week. We even have some games and crafts for the missionary kids Nicole will be looking after.

One of the main reasons why we are going is to assist our missionary friend, Jason, is to help look after his two kids while he is teaching (his wife passed away this past year due to cancer, and yes, he is still here in PNG serving Jesus, so amazing!). Jason and two national men will be teaching through the book of Acts during our time in the bush. They hope to get through the teaching in about 5 days. Seth will be shadowing Jason to see how this job is done, he will also get opportunities to talk through the teachings with men (in Tok Pisin) after the main teaching. One of the days Seth and Jason will have to hike and set up a battery, solar panel, and a radio to another bush location about 2 hours away.

The audience is a fairly small people group, they live on the famous Sepik river, they have had missionaries come and go for years. Only 2 of the missionaries ever learned the language. Teaching wise, they got through the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and some other teachings, but not too much though, and this was all done about 15 years ago. God had put it on Jason’s heart to go there with a 3-fold purpose: 1. Teach a group of young believers the principles in Acts so they know better how to conduct themselves as a body of believers. 2. Train two other men from another people group as teachers through this process. 3. Show these two different people groups and two different churches we ought to come together and worship our Lord, and that a stronger group of believers should go and help the younger until they are more mature in the word.

All in all, there are a lot of uncertainties about this trip, not knowing what to expect…but we are excited for the opportunity! This trip is much needed; it will give us a shot in the arm until we move into the tribal location God leads us to.

Pray:

1. Safety for us and the other family going in and out of the tribe.
2. That many people come to hear the truths of Acts.
3. For those that come: they would apply the teachings after we leave.
4. That all 3 teachers preach the Bible accurately and are led by the Spirit.
5. God is glorified in this process, seeing many people from different locations coming together to worship Him through preaching.
6. We get our eyes opened more to the culture of PNG, and what is needed to do this process of Tribal Church Planting.
7. That we all come back healthy 🙂

Thank you! Your feet to the unreached of PNG, Seth and Nicole Stokes

The Prison

Well, Seth is in prison…again. Every Wednesday he goes with one other missionary and a national man to go teach foundationally through the Bible. They teach roughly two lessons each time, so they rotate lessons and share the load. This jail ministry is unlike any American ministry Seth been a part of before. When you get there, you walk in to what appears to be the “mess-hall”, a long building with low ceilings and hardly any wind, metal ceiling and roof. Seth says it is the hottest place in PNG 🙂 so far.

When you walk into this place, you will typically find 80+ men, no shirts, no shoes, everyone sitting on the ground and smiles everywhere. Each week the men come and are excited for the teaching. Seth and the guys treat it as a Bible school. Teaching chronologically pulling out the main meta-narrative themes of the Old Testament through the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus, using expository teaching throughout each passage. The men love it and they understand the main purpose of Jesus coming. Seth taught (lesson 63 of 68) through Mark 10, Luke 12, and 16 this week focusing on how money cannot get you to heaven, when you die it does not come with you, hell and heaven are real, God has marked a time for all men to die, so choose today while you are this earth, who will be your God? (Luke 16:13).

The cargo cult is a huge thing here in PNG, if you are not familiar with it read some excerpts from Google and you will see it permeates the thinking of all PNG, it goes down to their worldview-heart-core level. One group of missionaries learned the language of a tribal group, learned their culture, translated a good portion of the Bible and taught for months…when they came to the life of Jesus, they told everyone the BIG part of the message was about to come! They all sat down to hear the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, after the series of messages concluded, the people all said, (paraphrase) “this is the white people’s secret, this is the road to cargo”. People befriended the missionary, came to months of teaching, only to find out “a secret” to getting more stuff…that is not an isolated event, the cargo cult came to PNG at the turn of the 20^th century and was a strong belief system until the 1950’s or so, it came and it went, and in some areas it is taking a strong foothold again and making its resurgence.

We shared that brief story with you to show you what we and other missionaries here in PNG are dealing with. Some people are blinded by cargo and they have no interest in Jesus (it’s the same with American-materialism). This is just something we have to be attentive to when we are teaching and dealing with others and their eternity. Seth said that he asked a lot of questions in his message this week, and the men responded well, some knew the Christian lingo, and others clearly articulated the Gospel. That is so encouraging! Seth also wishes he could take his phone with him and record them singing, they have 1-2 guitars, both Seth and another missionary’s opinion is that they are the best guitar players and singers that that they have heard in PNG. The acoustics of a small concrete room and a metal ceiling makes every song echo and make a beautiful sound. One of his favorite jail-house original songs is, “God, He is here”.

Pray for Seth and the other men, Greg and Joshua, as they have 5 more lessons until they get to the resurrection of Jesus. After that, they will transition to the New Testament and the Holy Spirit’s work, and then possibly to some epistles. Seth is thinking through some ideas with another missionary as to see where else they can preach on a more consistent basis as well; pray God opens doors!

Thank you all for reading! We love and miss you all!

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