We want to share with you about two separate events we recently hosted in our village, one on Saturday and one on Sunday…
There was a lot work that went into getting things setup and prepared for the weekend festivities; going back and forth to the river (40 min. drive roundtrip) to gather firewood (to use for cooking) and to gather stones (used for baking/traditional style cooking), cutting the grass, cleaning up the area, decorating both the community house and the local church, along with preparing lots of garden food, killing two cows, and a pig, along with many bags (40lbs.) of rice. The culture here places eating together and working together as high core values, thus the relationship building, even in the setup process, was encouraging. It was a full weekend starting Friday night with killing of the pig and throwing it in the traditional pit to cook, which really is like an old school ‘crockpot’, and the events continued through until Sunday night.
Saturday’s focus was to encourage the Tiale people as a whole in regards to the Tiale Translation project, to help the locals who did not know its purpose and how it will bless them all (as a language group), as well as to encourage the Tiale people who are aware of its purpose.
Although not as many people came as some projected, we still had over 250 people come, and that represented about 15+ of the 37 (technically 41) Tiale villages. It was a great opportunity to influence and encourage as many of our people as we could. People lingered until late into the evening talking about the topics at hand, feeling both encouraged and motivated, our language helpers were especially impacted. Seth had intentionally prepared the men (those whom he has been discipling for 5+ years) to use this as an opportunity to engage people on a heart level and lead people to the Lord; they really used that opportunity well.
The event consisted of 5 speakers; our local chief, a local language helper (who is viewed as the “head” of our language translation project), a local pastor, a language helper who has assisted in Bible translation for over 25+ years (in a sister language group), and lastly, Seth. Each of the men expressed excitement and gratitude for having a Bible Translator come to their language group.
Some feedback from Saturday…
“I never understood what the importance of translation was, now I see the purpose and it pricked my heart… oh I want to hear God’s Word in my own language.”
– A chief who does not Jesus as his Savior
“I needed to hear this, even though I know Jesus, I don’t know him in my own heart language, I see that once I have God‘s word in my own language my faith in him will grow.”
-A local believer
“Even though I’ve worked in translation, I never really thought about what it will look like in heaven, that I will still be praising God in my heart language.”
-A language helper who has assisted in Bible translation for over 25+ years (in a sister language group)
Sunday’s events were replicated but with more of a focus on encouraging those who are already believers. We had 5 local churches (those within a 3-hour hike) come to our village so that they could be both fed spiritually and physically. When people come for events like this, they usually spend the night, so we took this as an opportunity to teach and train the core group of people within the local churches, while also having one of the local pastors give a Gospel-oriented message to those that lingered around. We wanted to make sure we maximized our reach and scope of our ministry, as God allowed. Some related the events to John 6, having spiritual encouragement and abundant food, while also having leftovers to take home.
The weekend was such huge a blessing! It was wonderful to be able to see so many of our Tiale friends after being away for so long and be able to encourage people inside and outside of our immediate village/language group.
It is an honor to be able to represent so many people and churches back home in the USA and to be able to be used by the Lord in one of the language groups in the world who has YET to hear God’s Word in their heart language. There are over 2,600 languages who have YET to hear God’s Glorious Gospel in their heart language to date, and it is 2022!
Continue to pray for us as we seek discernment with how to disciple the believers and evangelize to the unbelievers. Also, please pray for us as we start back into full-time Tiale learning mode, in order that we can more effectively teach the people and help them to know their Creator God more fully. We so desperately want the people to hear God’s Word in their heart language. Thank you for your partnership in the journey, we could not do this job without YOU!
Check out our Instagram to see more pictures… @stokingthefires
Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu, Seth & Nicole Stokes
Stoking The Fires 