Monthly Archives: January 2019

To be honest, to always be the odd-man standing out gets a little old; to always be asking clarifying questions, to not knowing many of the words being spoken, to ask them to explain comments/stories/jokes because of feeling like you are missing something and it appears everything is esoteric, to always looking different, dress different, and always a shade of feeling uncomfortable… that is what everyday feels like for the past 12-13 months. That’s how it feels… but recently we began to see a shift in them, how they address us, and how they refer to us.

Recently some people have said:

“We can’t hide anything from them”.

“They know us better than any outsider”.

“The longer they stay, the better they will know us, and it will be like they live in our houses with us”.

“They always question our actions and beliefs, they challenge me in things I have never thought about myself”.

“We can’t talk in our language secretly anymore, they’ll understand what we are saying”.

(Kids) “We want to go see Auntie (Nicole) and Uncle (Seth)”.

(Kids) “Can we go to mom (Nicole) and dad’s (Seth) house?”

Silly faces = international!

These are just a few things they have said recently, and it encourages us. Do we always feel like the odd man out? Well yes, Seth is a foot taller than almost everyone in our people group (except for like two people). Do we still struggle to understand what they are saying? Absolutely… it will take more time to learn this Tiale language. Do we understand their worldview fully and how they perceive events? Not wholly, but piece-by-piece, we are getting closer. Also, it is t

he time of extreme heat and endless rain, sometimes we don’t know if we are covered in perspiration or precipitation (mostly both)… in all things we “feel displaced”.

Discipleship Analogy at Church

Everyday is a struggle to balance learning culture, language, ministry, and being engaged in the community life here, have we mastered this process? By no means… but like the saying goes, “how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time”. Continue to pray for us as we juggle every day life; along with loving on the people, language learning, and discipling those whom God has given us thus far.

Your feet to the Tiale people,

Seth & Nicole Stokes

We have been blessed to be trained in both the scriptures and to also have missiological training, we have heard endless teachings and things on “what to expect” while in the tribe, but as for most things, life is the only teacher.

You think a missionary just learns language and teaches bible? We wish that is all we did this past 5 days…

-Cry with a pastor that we are training, because his dad died

-Help with the logistics of the burial

-Preach at the funeral

-Be a transport driver for people and materials

-Support (financially and food-wise) the many meals that have to be hosted for the next 10 days (their cultural way of mourning after a death)

-Make a casket

-Console the family

-Challenge the witch doctor’s teachings to both him and the people hearing him

-Encourage the pastor daily

-and much more…

Building the coffin

No training in this world prepares you for how to deal with death… no preparations explain how to balance getting involved and loving on families during this event. Our people group has a 5-day and a 10-day ceremony/mourning process, and then after that they arise and go walk the foot trails to think about where he has walked one last time. They also have a 100-day ceremony (they call it that, but it really depends on when their gardens are ready, most of their produce takes 3 months to grow, 90+ days). And then the mourning process is officially finished.

Weeping and wailing…

It has been an amazing time to see how the training we have given these people has been manifesting itself in their lives, to see how they harmonize following the truths of the Bible and still engaging in their culture, it has been great to see firsthand. The pastor has actually been sharing a verse here and there with the family that is staying together; the immediately family along with those who helped bury the body all have to sleep in one house for 10 days during this process. It has been good, because it is an opportunity for people in the village to see how you can be both a Christian and a person who speaks Tiale. The 10-day event finishes on our Sunday here in Vanuatu, continue to pray that the pastor stands strong in his beliefs, and is an example to those who are around him, all eyes are on him, people are waiting to see how he reacts to each traditional belief.

Your feet to the Tiale people,

Seth & Nicole Stokes