Some Things Got Left…

Yep, some things got left: some food, cargo, books, a kid, and even us at one point 🙂

Sorry for the delay in giving all of you the details with our bush trip, but as most of you know we got back from our trip around 6pm on a Saturday night… about 9pm that night Seth started to get pretty sick, the next day and for several days his fever went up, body ached, and then turned into pneumonia. He had a fever over 105F. He took his medicine, listened to the doctor, and stayed in bed (mostly) doing nothing physical for 7 days. He did a lot of coordinating with supply buying and store managing, and after that week was over he has been doing well since! We attribute his speedy recovery to our Omnipotent God, Who heard the prayers of His Saints, thank you!

So, this is how the trip unfolded. We arrived at the airport ready to get into the float plane, some things had changed and so our weight allowance varied quite a bit, thus making decisions pretty hard on what to bring. Well after evaluating how much we needed for us, and the other family (1 adult male and 2 kids), and two national pastors, we got rid of some clothes leaving us 3 sets of clothes for 6+ days (Sleep, dry, and wet :)). We found out that even after cutting back more and getting rid of some water we were still too heavy, so one of the kids said “well, my brother wants to stay with my dad, Nicole you need to take care of my brother, my dad is preaching and the people need to hear God’s talk, the other men and Seth need to go and share too, so I will stay here in Wewak with my friends”. That was from a girl who is not even 10 yet, that is awesome to hear such wisdom and perspective from a young lady!

We made 2 loads for 2 trips with the floatplane and headed out. It was late in the day meaning we did not have time to hop on a canoe and take a trip up the river to our destination. We stayed with a national pastor in his traditional house on the river, you can pull the canoe right up to his house because it has been so flooded. The sun rose and we all got in the canoe and headed up the river, we sped for over 2 hours up the May river. We then turned into a small river known as the “Ni” river, we headed up that river for over 5 hours only to find out the water was getting too shallow to continue on via canoe… so that means most of us had to get out and walk the rest of the way, luckily it was less than an hour walk.

We arrived mid afternoon, tired, worn out from the canoe, but we were welcomed with open arms. This was the first time an outsider (whitey) came to preach in this village. These people moved to this location over 12 years ago and have had no formal teaching from outsiders. The people group were taught through the Gospels and some of the New Testament, but the work was never “finished” due to health and other things occurring not allowing the missionaries to stay. They were so excited for this teaching, they built a house for any traveling speakers who ever might drop by… this house was about 6ft off the ground and maybe 9’x’9’ and it was awesome to see their excitement to have someone use it!

Now it was time to teach! The next morning several people from other villages came to hear the teaching. The teaching house (church) usually would fit close to 60-70 people (by my guess). But once the teaching started men, women, children, dogs, pigs, and cassowaries would pile in and the overflow would listen from the door and sides. I would say during the course, over 100+ came regularly. We saw it as a privilege to be there, we were with a veteran missionary, Jason, (over 20+ years on the field, completed a work and a translation) teaching and discipling other indigenous pastors to teach God’s Word in Tok Pisin to another language group. Seth had several opportunities to talk with the indigenous believers, as well as the 2 pastors from the other language group about the teachings. Galatians was taught, verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter, beginning to end by both Jason and the national pastors from another village. For many it was their first time hearing some of those truths. Much of the scripture was exactly what they needed to hear, so many things directly applied to them and their current situation.

Each day Nicole watched the young boy, she cooked for us (but didn’t have to cook too much because the people brought us lots of cooked food many of the days), and Seth asked many questions to the veteran missionary, as well as encouraged and challenged the nationals. It was an encouraging time for us, and we know the body of believers there in the middle of the deep jungle were also greatly encouraged and challenged. Amazing story! Gods Word was preached, discipleship was done, and believers were encouraged. The story stops there…? But wait, how did we get back? Not at all a highlight or focus of our trip or story. But we will give the short version.

How we got there: 1hr. 10min floatplane ride, 6 hr. canoe ride, 1 hour walk, and spent the night at a pastor’s house. Well, the floatplane had engine problems for our return flight, so we got stuck and left in the bush. So we came up with a new plan. It was Friday and no one else is flying at that time (no airstrips are close by). When we started the trip back, the canoe was a bit heavy so the kids and some women stayed in the boat, and the rest of the adults walked part of the way. Well the boat driver left Seth and some others to walk the whole way to the next village (unbeknownst to Seth, who is expecting to meet at rendezvous point). Seth and some other nationals walked in hip deep swamp for almost 4 hours; Seth was the first white guy to walk that trail! Arrived at the next village, spent the night and got on the boat in the morning for the remaining 5 hours to May river station. So once there, we had to find someone willing to take us across the mighty and infamous Sepik River. After hours of talking to people to find a canoe and driver, we finally found someone. We started our 10hr long trek, spent the night in a random village, made new friends, and then arrived by noon to Pagwi. Once we arrived, we waited for some of our friends to pick us up in a big open back truck, and then we began our 4hr 15min drive back to our base. We arrived around 6pm and then Seth began to sick around 9pm. And that was our trip, 8 hours there, and 24 hours back :).

Seth rested for a week, and then we jumped back into full-time ministry, getting the store cleaned up and fine-tuned some aspects of that ministry. Did lots of buying for several bush orders: food, cargo, drainpipes for a bush church, batteries, and much more. We have been getting back involved in witnessing to some of our national friends here in Wewak. God is opening the eyes for some of them (PRAY!). Thank you so much for YOUR partnership in our ministry, thank you for your prayers and sacrifice, it is our privilege to be an extension of you.

Float Plane

The Teaching House

Plane Load 1

Door to Door Service

Hiking

Pulling the Canoe Along

A Sweet Friend

Canoe Ride

The Trail

Overnight Stay

Our Ride Home

For more pictures from the trip go to our Instagram: Get_Stoked_For_PNG

Seth & Nicole Stokes,

Your Feet to the Unreached in PNG.