It’s Official!

Thank you so much for your constant prayer for Nicole during this time!

It is quite unbelievable to think that Nicole has been in the hospital for almost 30 days! She is officially being discharged today!

What does that mean?

We will be heading back to the “states” as of our tomorrow. We will head back to get Nicole 100%, or whatever that may look like. She will be on longterm medication, and will need to have regular checkups and bloodwork to make sure the medication is staying within the “therapeutic window”. So at minimum, we will be back until April for a “medical furlough”.

We will be spending the bulk of our time getting Nicole recuperated, having a good routine, and being encouraged by our home church. We might venture to see family, but that is dependent on Nicole’s recovery.

Any details?

Many of you have asked, and quite honestly we were being vague because the doctors themselves were unsure… very similar to last time back in June of 2017. Because she relapsed, this has made the doctors label her illness in the mental health category. But because of her age, onset, and overall good health, she is a-typical and does not fit the “textbook examples”. To make a long story short; she had a series of “manic episodes” in quick succession making her unable to sleep, thus becoming unwell. Living in the jungle, with no one nearby (3 hours from town), and no real medical facilities to help long term… we had to leave the country, and Nicole was even involuntarily checked into the hospital upon arrival because of how ill she was.

If you remember from her last bout with this illness, the doctors labeled it as an “infectious disease”, which is clearly not the case anymore.

Anything with the brain is a “guess-science”, there are no blood test or scans that clearly tell you what you have. But thankfully through the wisdom God has given mankind, we have medicine that can now help, and in Nicole’s case, supposedly “reduce the chances” of ever having another episode. There are some side-effects of the medication, and that is another part of the recovery process we will have to figure out.

We have a cornucopia of emotions from all of this… but one thing has not changed; we eagerly await to serve our God back in Vanuatu. One of the things that sustained us through this hardship was the affirmation of doing this work for our Lord. As Nicole was recovering, she constantly would be telling the nurses and doctors she cannot wait to go back and serve in Vanuatu. I (Seth) have never wavered in our goal and mission, although I am content with “the when” of returning, the Tiale people and Bible college have been on my mind every day.

We are not sure why God has allowed (many theological phrases one could could use here) this happen to Nicole, and we are at peace knowing, we don’t need to know. Job was never told “why”, or “saw” why God would do such a thing, and Job was far more righteous and suffered far more than us. But there is something in learning peace and patience that ties intrinsically to contentment that we cannot quite articulate to you all. We both have learned patience and peace more deeply through this event. We are content in whatever our Master has for us.

We love and appreciate you all! We look forward to seeing some of you at church this Sunday.

Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu, Seth and Nicole Stokes.