Monthly Archives: July 2017

Well, it’s about that time, it’s time to build! If you are interested in coming and helping us build for either; one, two, or all three weeks, we would love to have you! Here are the preferred dates we would like to have teams come, if you want to come outside of these dates please contact us. I have spent several hours researching what days would be cheaper for people to come from America. I started the departure flights from Dallas, (Fort Worth) Texas and or Los Angeles (LAX). You will have to do your own shopping online, the internet here is slow and it took me some time to load pages. Ideally we would like 7-11 people per week/team.
Team-1: There are a few who have committed to this time already, but there is still plenty of space available. 
Tuesday August 29th- Friday September 8th 

(Framers, Concrete workers)

One day for transition on Saturday, September 9th.

Team-2: We have a team (of 9) coming from Fort Scott, Kansas and are confirmed for:

Sunday September 10th-Tuesday 19th 

(Plumbers, Electricians, etc.)

One day for transition on Wednesday, September 20th.

Team-3: There are a few who are committing during this time, but there is plenty space available. 

Friday September 22th- Tuesday October 3rd.

(Finishers) 

The dates are made in such a way that you get at least 7 working days in Vanuatu, allowing for some transitions, jet-lag, and possibly a nice “fun day” at the end of your trip so you can experience the “beautiful things” of Vanuatu. 
If you are interested in coming, please write us: stokingthefires@gmail.com. We will then send you a “schedule for teams” document, along with a Reach Vanuatu Visitor Packet. Both of which should answer most of your questions. We will also try to coordinate you with others who are coming during the same time, which would make the transitions on everyone much easier.

Please pray we can get the materials ready before the teams come… there have not been bags of cement for almost two months. We are in Vanuatu, pray the ordering and delivering of things to our location goes as smoothly as possible. We would much appreciate your prayers in all of this! Thank you.

Your feet to the unreached, Seth and Nicole Stokes

It is crazy to think that just a month ago, Nicole was life-flighted to Australia. Nicole said “good-bye” to me, and then one month later is able to say “hello” to our friends and the people we will minister alongside, Lord willing for many years to come. We love going to the place where God has led us; the people, the culture, and we love that at every moment they are not talking with us, they are speaking in their heart language. We are so excited to start the process of learning their language and culture in just a couple of months, and they are so excited for us to come… They have been asking for missionaries for almost two decades, and they so desperately are wanting someone to speak their language so they can hear the deep truths of God in their heart language; that is why we must translate the Bible into their language. They say things like “we know the trade language, but that is not the language our heart speaks”. 

Our first trip to Big bay last week was a brief one; one we did intentionally to remind them we are here, to: “test the waters with Nicole”, to mark out the ground and see what tools we need, to encourage the faithful, and then to host our culturally adopted families and the men we will be discipling for a big meal… it was quite a large group (sorry no pictures, it was night time and was too dark). We sat there and talked until everyone was tired, once again we loved the fact that when we were not talking, everyone was using their heart language to talk amongst themselves, which is encouraging to us. We told them at the fellowship in the morning and at night, we cannot wait to have fellowship with them in their heart language, to which they all reply with eyes wide open, a big smile while nodding their heads in a notion of excitement. 
While we were there, we were able to better explain what happened to Nicole, and what it will look like for her, particularly in the next two years as she recovers more fully. The doctors said she would get tired more easily, along with some other symptoms for up to the next two years. We have definitely noticed that Nicole cannot do what she normally was able to do, she needs to rest more often, but other than that she is doing very well! We know that this is not a one week recovery thing, and the doctors did say that she will take up to two years for her to be at full strength, so we are taking things in strides, not overlooking her and making sure we keep her in good health. It was also good for us to see how our people responded to Nicole, everyone was genuinely concerned and cared for her, they also seemed to grasp that she is still recovering even though she looks well.
We would greatly appreciate your prayers to stay with Nicole for these next two years as she gets back (one day) to 100%, if not… we know God’s grace is sufficient and His strength is made perfect in weakness. 

We are also getting geared up for a conference we will be a part of… Seth is in the process of training 10-15 teachers who well help team-teach. We will be teaching Creation to Christ to about 30-40 men who are wanting or thinking of being in full-time ministry, along with another 30-60 people who will come as well to the teaching. Needless to say, August 14-19 is coming soon! We would much appreciate your prayer for all that needs to happen with that.

 After the conference, we have just two weeks until we start building our house in Big Bay, Lord willing. We will post details about that tomorrow, but we did not want to combine the two updates and make it too lengthy. 
 We have enjoyed catching up with our co-workers in town, the Pinero family, Frazer, and Emylee. We have had some good fellowship and we help each other out as we are able to. Continue to pray for them and their ministries as well. 

Your feet to the unreached, Seth and Nicole Stokes

It is crazy to think that just a month ago, Nicole was life-flighted to Australia. Nicole said “good-bye” to me, and then one month later is able to say “hello” to our friends and the people we will minister alongside, Lord willing for many years to come. We love going to the place where God has led us; the people, the culture, and we love that at every moment they are not talking with us, they are speaking in their heart language. We are so excited to start the process of learning their language and culture in just a couple of months, and they are so excited for us to come… They have been asking for missionaries for almost two decades, and they so desperately are wanting someone to speak their language so they can hear the deep truths of God in their heart language; that is why we must translate the Bible into their language. They say things like “we know the trade language, but that is not the language our heart speaks”. 

Our first trip to Big bay last week was a brief one; one we did intentionally to remind them we are here, to: “test the waters with Nicole”, to mark out the ground and see what tools we need, to encourage the faithful, and then to host our culturally adopted families and the men we will be discipling for a big meal… it was quite a large group (sorry no pictures, it was night time and was too dark). We sat there and talked until everyone was tired, once again we loved the fact that when we were not talking, everyone was using their heart language to talk amongst themselves, which is encouraging to us. We told them at the fellowship in the morning and at night, we cannot wait to have fellowship with them in their heart language, to which they all reply with eyes wide open, a big smile while nodding their heads in a notion of excitement. 
While we were there, we were able to better explain what happened to Nicole, and what it will look like for her, particularly in the next two years as she recovers more fully. The doctors said she would get tired more easily, along with some other symptoms for up to the next two years. We have definitely noticed that Nicole cannot do what she normally was able to do, she needs to rest more often, but other than that she is doing very well! We know that this is not a one week recovery thing, and the doctors did say that she will take up to two years for her to be at full strength, so we are taking things in strides, not overlooking her and making sure we keep her in good health. It was also good for us to see how our people responded to Nicole, everyone was genuinely concerned and cared for her, they also seemed to grasp that she is still recovering even though she looks well.
We would greatly appreciate your prayers to stay with Nicole for these next two years as she gets back (one day) to 100%, if not… we know God’s grace is sufficient and His strength is made perfect in weakness. 

We are also getting geared up for a conference we will be a part of… Seth is in the process of training 10-15 teachers who well help team-teach. We will be teaching Creation to Christ to about 30-40 men who are wanting or thinking of being in full-time ministry, along with another 30-60 people who will come as well to the teaching. Needless to say, August 14-19 is coming soon! We would much appreciate your prayer for all that needs to happen with that.

 After the conference, we have just two weeks until we start building our house in Big Bay, Lord willing. We will post details about that tomorrow, but we did not want to combine the two updates and make it too lengthy. 
 We have enjoyed catching up with our co-workers in town, the Pinero family, Frazer, and Emylee. We have had some good fellowship and we help each other out as we are able to. Continue to pray for them and their ministries as well. 

Your feet to the unreached, Seth and Nicole Stokes

Wow! Where do we begin?! To say this was the hardest month on us to date would be an understatement… Click on the link below to read our Newsletter for more information…

Know we love and appreciate YOU and our team, literally all around the world, in more ways than we can express! We could not do what we do or be where we are without YOU! Thank you so much for the many prayers that have gone up on our behalf and the many notes, letters, texts, and other forms of encouragement sent during this challenging season. God is so good and has used this incident to teach us so many things and to bring His name more glory- that is what it is all about anyway! More later, but for now, please stay tuned… we will be posting about our house build soon…

Newsletter-June, 2017

We love you all!

Your feet to the unreached in Vanuatu,

~Seth & Nicole Stokes