Daily Archives: July 23, 2017

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