Heading to the Bush for a Week!

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