Author Archives: Stokingthefires

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

So… What Happened? 

Back to Us

Good question! Even the doctors are kind of stumped and using their “best guess” with Nicole’s illness. This is a quote the doctor gave us: “The doctors are inconclusive on what exactly occurred, but the prognosis as of now states that she likely had a virus that caused several symptoms, as well as she was given a strong drug which she reacted adversely to, coupled with extreme exhaustion and dehydration, her body began to show many dangerous symptoms of something that could be life-threatening“.

At the clinic in Vanuatu

So what did that look like? To give context, Nicole is a person who normally sleeps 8 hours a night. We hosted a medical team from America and Nicole was in charge of feeding them, as well as cleanup, etc. (there are only a handful of us that hosted the team). Nicole worked super hard crawling into bed around 2am and waking up around 4am and she did that schedule for a week. The last two days she began to even neglected herself; taking care of Ni-vans (people from Vanuatu) and the team over herself, she drank next to no water… yup things are compiling if you are following. I (Seth), then helped (along with our coworkers) take most people back to the airport on Friday. As a husband my wife just looked tired, run down, and maybe a bit frantic… but who wouldn’t? I told her to go to bed and I will take care of things for the day and the weekend. I told her, her only job is to rest and take of herself. Adding to the matter, we just got our truck the day before she started to get sick, and our container came that same day as well. So yep, lots of paperwork and logistics that I had to take care of. I checked up on her, making sure she had food and was sleeping, but I was not able to be by her side the entire time. She was tired and restless and that continued from Friday through Sunday. I stayed with her on Sunday, watching over her and making sure she was eating… I thought she was just tired and a little sick, but thought it was weird that she could not sleep. That was not normal for her at all. I went to a pharmacist on Monday (because nothing is open over the weekend here), got her some sleep medication and thought, “this will help“. She then proceeded to have the first of many “episodes” that Monday morning. I gave her that medication and she seemed to even out. But then things started going downhill from there…  just completely unable to go to sleep that night, and her body started even fighting itself. We had to wait until morning for the nearby clinic to open…

Tuesday morning our lives changed. The doctor gave Nicole some medication to calm her body down but she still couldn’t rest. After several hours Nicole seemed to be “back to normal”.  But then she had another “episode” and the doctor was very concerned. The doctor was concerned because he didn’t know what was causing these “episodes” and for so many severe symptoms to be present. They began tests but the testing capabilities in Vanuatu are limited. The doctor was forced to give her a very strong drug which she reacted adversely towards. She is now labeled “allergic to that drug“. Her heart rate and blood pressure were spiking and dropping rapidly, her body started acting up involuntarily, moving and fighting itself, she tried to sleep but her body would not let her. Nicole literally said “good-bye” to me at one point. While dealing with all that, I then started the process of dealing with: the insurance company, hospitals, air ambulance, border control, embassies, and much more… making phone calls and taking care of my wife non-stop for 50 hours (not going to lie, I was coming to my personal max having averaged 3 hours sleep/night for 3 weeks before all of this, then Nicole started with her sickness so I didn’t sleep but for moments here and there for almost a week, only by God’s grace was I able to have energy to make good decisions. Thank you so much for your prayers throughout all of this! I literally had to massage Nicole almost continuously for the last 20 hours or so to keep her body calm. So after 50 hours… the plane came!

Being Medi-Vaced

Getting the Spinal Puncture

We were medi-vaced to Brisbane, Australia. Doctors did innumerable tests on her Thursday through Monday: Tests, spinal puncture, many infectious disease tests, screenings, EEG, and MRI, and much much more.

EEG Test

Off to the MRI

Talking things through with Nicole, her memory is spotty for those 10 days. She literally has pockets of memories but by and large, June 8-18 are almost completely vacant from her mind, even though for me (Seth) I will never forget those days.

First day out of the hospital

Seth did my nails so I would look pretty!

We were discharged Wednesday; a lovely Christian family has been hosting us since. We got to spend a lot of time with several good Christian families. We have Nicole’s consultation on Monday (Today), if they approve, we will then start the process of heading back to Vanuatu.

Getting discharged!

We cannot say “thank you” enough… so many people shared and reposted our updates. We have been reminded how connected the body of Christ is and how much everyone loves and supports us. The countless people who lifted up prayers for us has been overwhelming, in a very good way! God truly heard your prayers and we don’t take your gifts of prayer for granted. We believe God used your faithful prayers to perform a miracle, healing Nicole and thwarting any spiritual warfare that was waged upon us. THANK YOU! So what’s next…

Thank you Novembers for the flowers!

Up next for us:

• Transition well.
• Finalize things for our truck and container.
• Start making trips up to Big Bay and get ground ready for our house building.
• Start revising the firm foundations teachings and get it ready for the conference in August.

While we have your attention; We are still looking for people to come and help us build our house in September. Sorry for any delay or up dates on that, but the past 3 weeks have been a bit crazy for us. Please write us on our email stokingthefires@gmail.com if you are interested in helping out. Thank you in advance!

Last side note… people have asked how things are going “financially” for us. This will be our one and only post about it so we can be faithful to you our supporters and keep you up to date:

• This medical emergency “as of now” was an unexpected cost of around $3,000 (plane tickets back, hotels, transportation, cost of living, etc).
• Our truck cost an extra $3,000 than expected, we originally expected to buy one truck but thought the purchase was a better buy; more reliable and ability to buy parts on our island.
• About $2,000 more than expected on taxes for our container… hard to predict and guess on that…
• And our solar system cost about $5,000 more than expected. The batteries we had to purchase were a better quality and are expected to last over 25 years versus changing our batteries every 5 years, which would be about $2,500 every change out… long term another good buy, but money-wise another hard decision.

We made every decision in prayer as well as sought counsel from our Pastor at our home church and had him involved in every step of the process.  Many people asked us about “how we are doing financially“, and so we wanted to mention that briefly and explain clearly so we can be faithful to you.

Please pray for us as we make decisions for Nicole’s recovery and start integrating back into full-time ministry. We want to do this wisely, but are eagerly wanting to get back to our people and the job we love, while balancing longevity and making sure Nicole is 100% and not compromising her health.

Got to ride in a 1910 Sunbeam

Joyride: 1910 Sunbeam

We are always humbled and privileged to call ourselves…

YOUR FEET to the unreached, Seth and Nicole Stokes. We love you all!

Hi everyone, I am not sure if you have been following along but I will try to make this brief. Sorry for the delay but Nicole usually does the posts through our website… please read up on all of my posts on Facebook. 

1. Hosted a medical team, saw 2700 patients and over 800 professions of faith

2. Our truck and container Came

3. Our world changed on Tuesday June 13th. 

It appeared as if nicole was just sick and tired from working super hard for a week. She went from tired Friday and Saturday, to unable to sleep Sunday. To have Monday start a series of events showing us all something was wrong. I went to the doctor and got meds to see if that help her sleep and feel better. 

Tuesday started a series of things that made the doctor say “get her out of here”. It took 50 hours for the life flight to come and medevac us to Brisbane Australia. During that time her symptoms got worse and the doctor was forced to give her a Really strong drug. And gave her 3 doses until the symptoms stopped. The downside is the effects of the drugs still linger till today (Sunday). So it’s really hard to gauge where she is at this moment. 

We were medevac’d around Thursday at noon. Rushed to the hospital, and they have not ceased taking samples from her multiple times a day. Even a spinal tap. X-ray, CT scan, next up is an MRI and EEG. The weekend has slowed the process but they also want to see where she is without the drugs. Monday will start things back up. They sent off the samples to test for every crazy thing.  Some will take a week response.  I will repost a Facebook post here:

Update: Sunday June 18th, 2017. Nicole Stokes slept through the night without any “assistance” for the first time in 10 days, and it was her first actual full night sleep in 17 days. Praise God. Thank you for your prayers. The weekend has gone slower due to less staff. They are still testing and taking samples, but mostly checkups. More serious tests will happen on Monday when the doctoral staff is back. 

We have felt super encouraged with everyone sharing the posts and writing us, thank you so much to the body of Christ comforting us in this time. I try to let Nicole read one or two comments here and there, she only has so much energy. 

Im a grateful to God that we have an amazing marriage, the good and the bad God has used to help Nicole in this recovery process. The memories keep her focused and give her strength, saying things like “she is fighting for me” through this. Her beautiful and sensitive heart is so clear and is being revealed more in this event. God (prov 18:22) shown His favor to me through her. This has only made me love her more. 

This “event” has made us just trust in our Heavenly Father more, we are praying to be like Job… knowing we don’t deserve answers nor does God have to give us one. We are mere servants (Luke 17:10). Reading a little bit about Job and in 2:10 the word “evil” has a semantic range of: evil, bad, adversity, affliction, harm, hurt, trouble, unpleasant, sad, unhappy… and much more. It’s easy to receive “good things”, but those things that are “unpleasant, sad, unhappy” things are not easy. But that’s why He is Sovereign, He uses those things so His grace can shine through. Even in unpleasant times He wants to show us His grace, sometimes His Sovereignty is unclear to us… but that’s why Job said “receive”. There is no choice in the matter. The only choice is how we react, and we choose to react in Praising His name. This event has:

1. Made us focus on Him more

2. Made us love one another more 

3. Realize what’s really important

4. See the body of Christ bless us

5. Remind us we have an awesome family

And much much more. 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. Continue praising His name with us. I will keep you all updated as things occur here in Ozzie land.

Hello all,

Writing from Port-Vila, the capital, as we work on visa paperwork and inquiring about a truck. Please pray for us as we make decisions. Click the link below to read our latest update. Thank you! Love and miss you all.

May, 2017-Newsletter

Off to Port-Vila!

Your Feet in Vanuatu,

Seth & Nicole Stokes

Hello all, greetings from Vanuatu! Just wanted to write a very quick post to let you all know that we have arrived safely with all of our bags. Our team was there at the airport to greet us and carry all of our bags to the trucks and made us a wonderful welcome meal. We enjoyed sweet fellowship with our team after 5 months being away. It was so great to be together again! We are working on getting our visa situation all squared away. We had a great night sleep last night, even though we had an earthquake that woke us up in the middle of the night.  🙂 Nothing major just shook the house. We are glad to be back! We will write more later. Thank you all! We love and miss you already! 

Your feet in Vanuatu, 

-Seth and Nicole Stokes

Hi eveyone! 

Had some hiccups with bags (had 1 extra), but after that and the enormously long security check-in line, we are now waiting for our plane! 
We love you all so much; it is not easy to leave but God gives us grace. Please pray that cyclone Donna comes to an end by the time we leave, so we can get home! 

Thank you for your prayers and support, it is our privilege to be your feet in Vanuatu. 

-Seth and Nicole

Hello all,

Just want to give you our latest newsletter before we head out on Sunday! Please click the link below to read more. Also, please pray for us as we travel and for Vanuatu/our co-workers  as currently they are experiencing a Cyclone, praying this does not affect our travels. Thanks you all for your overwhelming love and support that you have lavished upon us during this time while we have been home. We love and appreciate YOU so much!

Newsletter: April, 2017

We are your feet in Vanuatu, YOU are our knees,

~Seth & Nicole Stokes