Nicole Got Her First Ultrasound!

Ha! We made you look, yes, Nicole got her first ultrasound but it was not in the abdominal section it was on her foot. 😉 The last two weeks have been really busy; we went to our headquarters mission base, saw some friends, went to the doctor just for check ups, while also getting things ready here on our own base for our big annual conference.

Our Time at Headquarters

First things first, it was the first time we did not sweat in almost a year! That felt great. The headquarter base is up in the mountains approximately 5600ft., that was a nice change for our bodies and our skin. We went to the doctor to get a few things checked. Nicole has a ganglion cyst on the bottom of her foot and we both had various skin growths that got burned off by our missions’ doctor. Sorry for no picture, it’s hard to hold a camera and get something burned off your tear duct. We basically visited with people the whole 6 days, Seth played basketball with the high school team, and it was nice to have a change of pace. One of the main reasons we went was to see our good friends Jon & Adie Leedahl. Their story is amazing and we see God using this trial to bring His name glory everywhere. (Video about Jon & Adie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RKzv7RRMkE). In a nutshell, our friend Jon is a pilot and was heading home from work here in PNG back in October of 2014. He was driving a motorcycle and was run over by a land cruiser. He was immediately rushed to Cairns, Australia and hanging on by grace of God. The doctors ended up amputating his leg, and their story is amazing… through much hardship and recovery and in less than 18 months later, they are back here in PNG serving our Lord through aviation. He is the first amputee pilot in PNG and it is always awesome telling the people at the hangar his story, why he has a fake leg… and the worthiness of God’s message that drove Jon and his family to come back to PNG. It was a great time of fellowship.

Jon Leedahl (our pilot) and Seth

One of our great doctors!

Getting Accustomed to Things?

I had to laugh when yesterday I caught myself doing two different things without thinking that are just normal here in PNG. I will compare it to American currency so as to keep in more relatable (sorry if you’re reading this and not American). In the currency here (kina) they have 5,10,20,50 bills and 1.00 coins. And they do have the “5” cents or a nickel, but they are rare and under produced that if your bill comes to 9.95 and you give them a 10.00 bill, there is no change. Not that it does not exist, just that there are so few of them that it’s rare to ever see that change. Another thing is just the normal semi-volatile nature of where we are, on Sunday we received a text from a fellow missionary saying basically “there is a riot on this road, don’t go down there today”. Well there is only one main road in our area and so that cut off anyone who wanted to go east, we did not need to but it was just something we looked at and went… normal. Please pray for us, we had several opportunities to point to the Lord because of that riot. The riot started because one stole another mans “stim” or in English we might call it a home-brew, or alcohol made at home. So in return the man stabbed other man with his bush knife, then they returned the favor… and so on… and then families got involved and it escalated into a riot and blocking a road. Neighboring churches were praying that God would resolve this and it dwindled down to nothing rather shortly. It was just amazing to see that a riot started from taking a drink, and then someone stabbing someone for it. I was talking with a national about it and the topic of “valuing life” came up. He said you white people care and us black people do not care about another persons life, I told him its not about color but its all about how you view God. Life is a big thing to God and He alone gives it, it was really good to see him catch the difference. It’s not about skin color but who God is in our lives and what our perspective is after His impact.

We know PNG is not the “safest” place in the world, but we see that this country is so ready for the harvest. Please pray for our opportunities to witness even from day to day. Also, pray for our annual regional conference that has begun this week and will end on Monday. Many bush missionaries and missionaries on the base need to be recharged, encouraged by the Word, and they need time to be pampered and overwhelmed with friends and love before they go back to work next week. The base is full! We went from as little as 8 people (3 of them kids) to now having over 136!

Thank you for your prayers and partnership! We love, miss, and appreciate you all.

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