Author Archives: Stokingthefires

We are here in Madang, PNG and it is home! It may have taken an extra day and a half, more money than expected, stress that was unwanted, but we got here. We arrived with half of our stuff; the other half should arrive next week? The locals say things may get hung up in Port Moresby for a day, week, or several months. Either way, we have what God sees fit for us to have, DHL is usually pretty reliable and should get here on time.

So what happened to us? Long story real short; we had to purchase two separate tickets from Pittsburgh to PNG, one ticket was from Pittsburgh to Washington DC, and the other was DC to our final destination in PNG. We knew and were told to get our bags checked all the way through to Madang, because international weight allowance is astronomical. So while in Pittsburgh, we asked the clerk to check and see if she could check our bags all the way through. While doing that, we watched her talk with her boss and they were “deleting tickets” and adding things onto them to make it work. We thought nothing of it at the time because we thought they knew the system and were helping us. Fast forward to Singapore, we had a twenty-hour layover and had to collect our bags to transfer them. We stayed active all day so we could be on this hemispheres time schedule and to help with the jet lag. Five people told us five different times of when to be at the early check in for our flight (long story short). We were moved around, sat, and waited from 2pm-6pm. Time to check in? Wrong, eighty people who had their flight cancelled the day before got pushed in front of us. Keep in mind that we are not permitted to check in after 7:20pm. Come 6:45, it is our turn, we begin checking our bags and the clerk (along with her boss) proceeded to tell us our tickets were “cancelled” by someone in New York…but she told us we could buy new tickets and fight United later (they kept emphasizing and telling us). After they put us through that ringer (it is about 7:10 now), they continued to tell us that we will have to pay $56 per kg (kilogram) because in Singapore, they do not allow any free checked bags. This worked out to be over $7000 Singaporean dollars, which is well over $5000 USD. We gulped, gasped and were in shock, we didn’t know what to do, we asked to use a phone and started talking with different people from the company and flight services. They were not much help because in the computer system, there was no record of our bags being checked back in Pittsburgh, even though we had stickers on them proving they had been weighed and checked. Eight fifty pound bags did not exist in their system?!?! Remember the clerk and her boss in Pittsburgh? By the time we were able to assess the situation, find options for shipping our stuff with DHL, it was 7:25pm and all the clerks at the airport had left. So that made us miss the flight for that day, we kept calling and tried to find a shipping method for our stuff. Found the best deal with DHL, repacked all our bags due to DHL’s specifications. Got our tickets re-issued for the next day after we plead our case, and now we are here… THANK YOU LORD!!!!

Sure we had other things happen like one of our bins get completely destroyed, have another flight cancel on us and re-book, have to fight for our carry-ons because they were bigger than the international allowance, we are pretty sure several things were taken from our bags from Singapore to Port Moresby (one of our bags were opened), and several other small things. But here we are, in PNG!

We got unpacked and had several meals with the different people here on the base.

We got to go to the grocery store and the “markets”, produce and fish, which are amazing. Good looking produce and marlin steaks for less than a $1/pc. Great! While walking around we bought some “kau-kau” (cow-cow), and sago or “sak-sak” and that was really good as well. We want to just jump in and get involved with the culture and language. We got to listen to the testimonies of a young PNG couple Joshua, Amelia, and their baby Russell. They were saved during the chronological teaching not too long ago in the tribe where the missionary family who is orienting us has been living for the past ten years. It was awesome to see the power of teaching chronologically, and how that when they heard the truth, they knew it was truth. This time of sharing was all done in “tok pisin” pidgin English (the trade language). Our host family did all the translation for us, they are trying to expose us to as many things as possible. We also went to a more local market and met a national pastor, Jephet and his wife, Nashville and their son Dan (4 years old). Please pray for Dan, he has malaria and will be taken today to hopefully get treatment.

With many thoughts and insecurities running through our heads, we are starting to catch on to a few words and phrases. Still the “where I am I” feeling hasn’t worn off yet with traveling for five days, and having everything new. The humidity during the day will take some getting used to, even the temperature at night is almost eighty degrees but cooler with the breeze.

Pray we can also encourage that young couple; Joshua, Amelia, and their young son Russell, they will be our main language helpers in this new phase of life. We love our new home, quaint, and it is all ours. Our first place with no strings attached. This is a small blessing as we start this new phase of life.

Thank you for all of your prayers, we are thankful already for the journey of getting here, because God has taught us to care more about Him than to care about our belongings. Are we going to miss those nice amenities? Sure, but at the end of the day God, is more important than any earthly belonging. Pray we learn well.

Your feet to the unreached in PNG, Seth & Nicole Stokes

Our First Papaya

Our House

Bleaching Our Produce

Seth Trying Sago

We are safely at the NTM base with all of our bags! Praise the Lord! This is all so surreal but exciting. Thank you for your many prayers that helped to get us here. We are off to lunch and have unpacking to do but wanted to make sure we kept everyone posted. We will update more later. And pictures to come 🙂

Hey there! Well after some hang ups we are “officially” in PNG. We still have one more flight and should be departing in one hour. So far nothing major, we think they might have taken some things out of our bags but won’t know 100% until we get home and go through everything. Yes, we are almost home. We will actually have to wait for a week or so until we get all of our bags in order to better know what got “lost” in transit. Oh well it is just stuff. For those of you who missed what happened, some of our belongings, well actually half, had to be shipped via DHL from Singapore. We will write a post shortly of our full story after we get to our final destination and get all of our stuff (well, whatever didn’t get “lost” or shipped). Thank you all for your prayers! We hope to do everyone a favor and shower and change 🙂 as soon as possible. We will write you asap when we are FINALLY home! Thank you!
~your feet IN PNG,
Seth and Nicole.

Long story short, we had to miss our flight yesterday because United messed up our baggage to Madang, PNG and they don’t have record of us even sending our bags at all. What now? We hope to fly out tonight at 8:40 local time. We have to pay DHL to ship our extra bags.

Please pray that our “new” flight does not get canceled. Sunday and Monday flights were canceled. We were ready for the flight Tuesday (yesterday) but because of United’s mess up while processing our tickets and baggage, we sat from 3p-645p at their desk. Then they informed us the situation at 6:45pm and they basically said if you want on, pay $5000 or else you will miss the flight. By the time we found a phone to call for other options they closed the door on us at 7:20pm and were not allowed to get on that flight. And that is how we are doing…The local company and United airlines closed before 8pm at the airport counters so we couldnt get any help, and now we are trying to get ahold of United from across the world. A little tired, hungry, disoriented (we have been traveling since 2am Sunday), and just a little sick at the dilemma we are approached with. People speak English here in Singapore, but it is not with an american mindset: right words, but missing the point of the conversation, hard to communicate “needs”.

Please pray this mess with United gets compensated. We will try to keep everyone updated.

Your feet to PNG,
-Seth and Nicole.

Hey there! We are at the airport in Singapore, waiting for time to pass until we are permitted to “check-in” for the nest leg of our trip to Port Moresby, PNG. Purchased a Mountain Dew, expecting it to be like the good ole US. But alas, we are no longer there and it tastes nothing like Mountain Dew. Piece by piece we move closer to our final destination with comforts being removed one by one.
Reading some good books on the plane researching the culture of PNG and then another book on discipleship. Make mature believers…What an overwhelming thought, not shunning away from teaching the whole counsel of God, teaching disciples “to observe ALL things, whatsoever I (Christ) have commanded”. That ought to be the goal for all Christians, to teach others ALL things Christ commanded and yet there are pastors who have not done that when they have been in one location for decades. Paul was able to do it in 3 years, it is possible!
Pray we learn how to be “disciple-makers”. The Gospel is not a sentence or something that can be shared in minutes, it takes time, and then we are commanded to teach them to observe ALL things. It’s a big task, that’s why we had to leave; we have to give up comforts, and cry tears as we said good-bye to friends and family. It’s a big task, that will take years, because we have a worthy King to serve and this life is insignificant compared to the weight of glory. Pray that we can get through these last two flights with easy transitions and no problems with our bags, one bin got pretty beat up but all seems to be there. It is held together by tape now. Pray we adjust to the time change. Well, we are basically in the right time zone now, so we will stay up for the next 10 hours so we should be right on track. Thank you for all of your prayers, we are almost there! Know, that we miss you.
Your feet to the unreached of PNG (1 step closer),
Seth and Nicole Stokes

Wheels up in 5! While we were waiting in DC, we were able to video call one of our supporting church’ Sunday school classes and talk to lots of friends. Saying last good-byes! Good-bye America…for a while. Please feel free to write us. We would love to hear from you. Email at: stokingthefires@gmail.com. We will post when we can. Pray for smooth transitions!

Hey everyone!

TODAY is the day! We leave for Papua New Guinea in a few hours. Can’t believe it is finally here. It is all so surreal but exciting. Below is our latest newsletter. Please pray for us as we travel over the next few days. We love and appreciate you all! Thank you for joining us on this journey. We can’t do this without YOU!

Your feet to PNG,

Seth & Nicole Stokes

January-2015 Newsletter

We are off to a place we have never been to before, to be with people we have never met, to a country we do not know the customs, culture, or language first-hand…no more training, no more good-byes, no more “one mores”, we are leaving for PNG!

Continue seeking Christ, pursue Him with all you can, “be attached to the Great Commission” in every way you can…this life is short, and all that is therein on this earth is meaningless. Only souls and what you do for our Lord will last for eternity. As we were packing up this week, many people were so focused on the “game”, so many people arguing about ball pressure, so many forgot about the march-for-life in Washington DC (pray for that by the way, decisions are being made in congress), so many people will miss out on fellowships in church; to go to someone’s house and wear a sports jersey, to eat potato salad, and watch commercials. Keep the perspective! America has so many things that can steal your attention away from what really matters. Do not forget your first love, do not forget we have a worthy God who deserves our everything. Not just our Sunday mornings, and Bible study times, but our decisions in what job to have, relationships, interacting with co-workers and family, how much time I invest in entertainment vs. things of God, He deserves our very lives of every day. Our God is not mystical, He is very practical, and we are striving to understand the imminence of God (His closeness).

Please pray that it does not snow in the next 12 hours…we fly from Pittsburgh to DC (@6am), once we leave DC we are in the air until Tokyo (we leave @12:20pm with United for those of you who want to know). Please pray all our bags get checked through smoothly and we can get them ALL in PNG, 🙂 Thank you all very much, we love you all. And we are off…

 Your feet to the unreached of PNG, Seth and Nicole Stokes.

We might not be leaving in a rocket, but in less than 42 hours we start our 4 day journey. We feel overwhelmed with emotions as we say good-bye to great friends and family. We spoke to our church Sunday night and said, “this might be the last time we see several of you on this side of eternity. Make sure that your life is attached to the Great Commission, or else it is meaningless”. It is humbling to think we may not see some of the people we love ever again until we are with the Father, but His message is worth it, He is worthy of all things, even our short lives.

Thank you to all of you who partner with us financially and or prayerfully. We could not be where we are at without each and everyone one of you. We are leaving not only at 95% support, and having our initial needs met, but we are leaving knowing we are loved, prayed for, and with a great support team behind us. Please stay connected, we will communicate as much as possible.

From snowmen to sweat stains, we are changing everything about our lives: weather from under 20 degrees with snow, to hot humid tropical weather, from the comforts of TV, food, knowing the language, to a foreign language, markets, and a land where everything is new. We are heading into a BIG change; we are as ready as anyone can be. We will be going straight to language learning the day we get there or the day after, please pray we acclimate well. We have just a few things left to do: our taxes, turn off our phone plans, and a handful of other things. We are spending the last 2 days with Seth’s parents and trying to take it easy. We are packed for the most part, bags are weighed, and we are almost just waiting for our departure time. We appreciate you all!

 Your feet to the unreached in PNG, Seth and Nicole Stokes.

Well, the time is FINALLY here! We received our visas on Wednesday, we filled out a bunch of paperwork and tied up various loose ends with our board Thursday, come Friday morning we were given the official green light to buy our plane tickets. So the tickets and visas are in our hands! DONE.

We will still have to to finish a few loose ends like banking, visiting family, and pack just a little more, but for the most part, we are done! We leave Pittsburgh, PA very early Sunday morning (in 8 days). We fly to Washington, DC and then catch a connecting flight starting at noon to head to our home in PNG. Yes, our home. We have a place already for us, we have our crate packed up and ready to move, and we will be taking what we need with us until our crate arrives, leaving no real attachments in the USA (possession-wise).

Yes, we have basically packed for moving overseas in about a week, it has felt a little rushed but this is the path in which God is taking us on. For all of those who are wondering, “how long it will take to get there”; we leave our house at 2 am Sunday morning, and arrive in the city of our destination at 10:25 am Wednesday morning. Yes, Sunday to Wednesday. We go ahead in time 15 hours, we have a 19-hour layover in Singapore, and we spend over a day in the air, actually close to 40 hours.

Tomorrow will be our last American church service for years (Lord willing); we will enjoy that time “one last time”. We are trying to finish any and all “things” we need to do by Wednesday, so we can have some “down time” for the last 3 days, before we start our world tour and get thrown into language and culture study. We basically start right up the day we get there/the next day 🙂

Thank you for all of your prayers with support, visas, paperwork, and our traveling. Thank you for everything! Your prayers made all of this possible.

We have been reading many autobiographies from Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, and John G. Patton. These men are heroes of our faith. Judson suffered a lot for Christ, and we have not yet had that privilege, but we might in the not too distant future. We desire to have our faith in God and resolve in His will so that when we do face trials and suffering, we can say this,

“If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived…”and then as Judson was getting older and young missionaries were coming to the field, he gave them this encouraging statement,

“bear in mind, that a large proportion of those who come out on a mission to the East die within five years (in modern days case, leave the field and go back home) after leaving their native land. Walk softly, therefore; death is narrowly watching your steps”. And one Theologian added, “The question is not whether we will die, but whether we will die in a way that bears much fruit”. John 12:24

~Your feet to the unreached people in Papua New Guinea,

Seth & Nicole Stokes