Author Archives: Stokingthefires

For all of you who have prayed for Seth as he traveled and are wondering how it went…

Latest update from Seth this morning: He arrived safely in Indonesia! All is going well! ALL luggage arrived and was safe and sound! Nothing broken and no bags lost! This is a HUGE PRAISE! God has and will continue to answer our prayers. He is having a great time and was able to sleep almost 70% of the flights even though he was cramped into the small airplane seats (not built for a 6 foot 2″ man). He feels rested and is ready for the next two days with the family then Tuesday they head into the Dem Tribe. SOOO excited, or should I say I’m Stoked! 

Continue praying for Seth and the family as they get ready to head into the tribe for 3.5 weeks. Pray for safety as they fly in/out via small plane. Pray for physical safety & energy and for everyone to stay healthy while they continue working on getting the house finished. Thank you for all the prayers and checking on me (Nicole) as Seth is gone. I am having a wonderful time here in NJ with my parents. It’s been a blessing to be here! I will post pics and updates as they come. 🙂

Last week (16-20) we were separated once again. Nicole was with our home church’s youth group at camp and Seth worked. We are thankful for opportunities to work; we appreciate that whether in Pittsburgh or in New Jersey, God provides for us. Seth worked quite a bit last week; working 10-14 hour days plus almost an hour-long drive each way. Seth left worked encouraged each day being able to talk to fellow Christians and to be able to minister to those who are unsaved, praying to be a light in their lives. With Seth working long days it worked well for Nicole to be at camp.

Nicole had great opportunities ministering and connecting with many of the youth. She poured into them day in and day out, using times after the service to intentionally talk and question the girls. Following the pattern of Christ to minister and expound on the sermon after the message was given. That time of discipleship is quintessential to grow as Christians. Nicole had fun, heard great messages, fellowshipped, discipled, and made great friends. 🙂

Pray for the teens (40 from our home church) that went to camp and the commitments they made to God. Pray they make and keep eternal decisions. Pray for the men Seth worked with, that the seeds planted would grow and bring God glory.

Nicole & Some Of The Teens

Well, we thought that asking for $3,000 for our trip was asking too much… and as of right now, we have received $3,654.00. This is such a huge blessing, which means we wont have to pay for a lot of things out-of-pocket. This was an encouraging thing for us because this was our first project we ever did! We will have about 2-3 more projects in the next year, and since we are not 100% supported we need people (like you) to help us reach those needed funds. The next 2-3 projects (if the Lord wills and we can leave in January) would be; Medical Intensive Training, Moving to PNG, and our house building project. Those 3 projects will be the next big things we will need your help to do, if the Lord wills and when the time comes.

But first let us rejoice and share what just happened. We found out about this opportunity back on the 1^st of April, no joke for us 🙂 and shortly thereafter, we began to pray and found several people ready to support our trip before we announced it publicly April 5^th. In less than 2 months, several individuals began to partner with us on this endeavor, a Sunday school threw us a fundraiser, and many people gave anonymously. In a short time, God confirmed this trip.

Because of the extra finances that came in, we were able to purchase Seth’s vaccines that were over $200, a pair of hiking shoes, a headlamp, mosquito net, and a nice durable camera, (which we are dedicating to the Sunday school that facilitated the fundraiser for this trip.) A family from Indiana bought Seth a watch: Thank you! The flight to Jakarta Indonesia from Pittsburgh, PA is about $1,500. The flight to the Island of Papua from Jakarta is about $500. The flight into the tribe from a small plane/helicopter is over $500, plus some international and luggage fees which brings that total to $3,000. We want to always communicate clearly on where your money goes. We want to be good and honest stewards of all we receive.

The missionaries are very excited for Seth to come, they are behind schedule with everything due to their runway being torn up by wild boars…a normal thing in a tribal setting 🙂 . The foundation is set, the exterior frame is up, and the roof is on. Some of the siding on one side is on, and part of the kitchen was worked on. Seth will be in the tribe for over 3 weeks, he will be taking the video camera and recording all that he does to give an update to those who partnered with us for this trip. Seth leaves in less than 2 weeks (27^th) and will not be back till July 22^nd.

Nicole will be going to camp this week with our church kids and Seth will be working for a local tent company. We have been blessed in regards to speaking engagements as well; we speak the week before Seth leaves and Seth speaks the week after he gets back. So it has worked perfectly timing wise even for speaking engagements. Pray we can fill up our schedule and get more partners so that we can leave this January. We are at an approximate 35% of our financial goal in about 36 weeks. We just need to get to the required 75% of our support goal before we get the green light to go. So we are about halfway there! Praise our mighty God!

Please remember Seth in prayer during his trip, for God to keep him safe as he goes to Indonesia during Ramadan, flies into a tribe where spiders are bigger than your head, centipedes are able to kill you, and where mosquitos carry malaria. Pray Seth will have strength and ability to help get the house to a livable state so the missionaries can move in and get to work learning the language and developing relationships. Because at the end of the day, all that matters is God’s people advancing God’s Kingdom. Missionaries giving the Gospel to a people group who have never heard the Truth that is in Jesus. So that a new tongue can confess that Jesus is Lord, and know Jehovah-God Who created them with the purpose to worship Him, and Him alone. Too many years have passed for the Dem people of Indonesia to not hear the Gospel in their own language… and there are many more like them. Hence why we are dedicating our lives to this cause. We thank you for your partnership and help in reaching these people, and want to encourage those of you who are not aware or who are not connected in reaching unreached people groups, get connected in what God is doing. He said “Go” into all the world, and make disciples. We all are commanded to be a part of His commission, we pray you all get on board with what God is doing all over the world. You will not be disappointed.

Hey all,

Below is the link for our latest newsletter. Please take a moment to read!

Newsletter-April-May

As you can imagine, we have asked each other this question, “where are we, and what day is it?” several times the last couple weeks while on our journey.  In the past two weeks, we have spoken at churches from the southern tip of Indiana, to eastern Michigan, to Central PA. While at each place, we have made great friends, left very encouraged, and the churches have all expressed high interest in supporting us. This is encouraging! We are at 32% of our actual support and are still waiting to hear back from several churches and individuals that said they wanted to support us. We know that all of this is in God’s timing and being done in God’s way. We are trusting in Him so that we can get the support we need (75%) by our desired departure date in January.

One day last week and another time not too long ago we woke up and had a conversation that went like this… “It’s Thursday, no it is Friday… No it’s Thursday, I think it’s Friday. Check your phone please… It’s Monday!” J With traveling hundreds of miles a day, moving from house to house living out of a suitcase, days begin to be a blur. We have had the “missions trip” (which is coming up in less than 4 weeks!) added into the mix, along with our other responsibilities. We will write a separate blog about the trip this week, as well as post the latest Newsletter.

We want to say thank-you to all of you supporting us in a variety of ways! Whether it is through finances, encouragement, or prayer; we NEED YOU on our team! We covet the prayers of you prayer-warriors. God has enabled us to keep safe while on our journey. We have literally seen multiple accidents occur on the highway, missing us by minute’s even seconds. Deer have suddenly darted out right in front of us and just missing us, we have seen 3 accidents where the car in front of us get demolished by the deer, and one time a car passed us on a two-lane road and as it did it hit a deer. God has been good to us, and has allowed our car to keep going. So far just minor repairs and maintenance. We have put on about 40k this past year and by the time you read this blog our car will hit 195k. Pray for our continued safety as we travel, for our car to hold together until we leave (so we do not pour money into it), for us to continue connecting with others in order to build the team God wants behind us, and of course, that we can leave in January (Lord willing).  Several tribes in PNG are asking to know about the Creator and to have His Word in their language, we desire to answer that call and be your feet to the unreached.

Speaking at Our Family’s Church

We wanted to share some things that have impressed us in our short 7 months while on the deputation/support raising trail. But first, here are two charts to inform you visually of where “we are at” and how you can better pray.

Chart 1

Support Tracking

In this chart you can see we have an actual 30% coming in! This number does not reflect the several churches and individuals that have said they, “wanted to partner with us” but have not declared what amount/when they are starting to give to our ministry. We speak at and visit several churches from now up until Seth’s trip in June/July; churches from Indiana, Michigan, Central PA, and other parts of the Northeast.

Chart 2

Indonesia Trip

This chart reflects Seth’s mission trip this summer to Indonesia. We are at 65% in less than a month of making this request known! The costs reflect the main plane ticket into Indonesia, the flight to the island of Papua, the small plane “drop off” into the tribe, and the baggage fees. Seth will also need to get several shots (typhoid, etc.) before his trip, a video camera, and some hiking gear (both of which we were going to get in January before we leave for PNG).

Every gift that anyone ever gives us completely impresses us and humbles us.  We have received some of the larger gifts and support not by some of the large churches we have visited, but by those unsuspecting smaller churches. We want to share with you how God has spurred various people and groups to partner with us; some of these ways are so humbling. We have had a young girl (not even a teenager) give us a handful of dollar bills to our ministry, a family give to our ministry a dollar a day, Sunday schools and small Bible studies come together to bless us! A Sunday school said they wanted to host a fundraiser for our Indonesian trip, but one of the most humbling gifts was by a young man, not even close to the age of driving. Apparently he has done this for years, that in lieu of a gift for himself on his own birthday he asks his friends and family to designate that money to go to a charity/ministry. This year he chose us as his recipient for his gifts. Wow, what a testimony of this young man and his family, especially when we are living in a world that is consumed about “what they can get”! This young man has impressed us and we aspire to be more like him. Our God moves the hearts of his people, from pre-teens to the aged and mature of four-score and more. God will truly supply our needs, but the “how” he never says; we want to share with you “how” God is moving in HIS people. We want to say thank you to those who are impacting us, we will carry your passion with us to other side of the world and into PNG!

Hello everyone,

Below is the link for our latest newsletter. Check it out!

Newsletter February-March 2014

Pastor Rizzo & Seth

*Please read the corresponding blog to this project newsletter for more details. Contact us if you have any questions. Thank you for reading.

Project for July Newsletter

***Please read the newsletter that goes with this post.***

We are writing this blog to give more details about the trip: God’s confirmation, the journey, the list of jobs Seth will be doing, our heart in this trip, and more. We apologize for this post being lengthy, but we wanted to be thorough. If you still have questions, please feel free to call or write – we would love to talk with you!

God’s Confirmation

Before we started to head in the direction of actually going on this trip, God prepared the way in several areas. Here are just a few:

• God gave us a “go-ahead” after consulting with our home church’s leadership.
• We have scheduled meetings and God has kept the month of July open as to not have a conflict and miss opportunities to share our ministry and raise potential support.
• Before notifying others about the trip publicly, about one-third of the total cost of the trip came in already!

The Journey

The short-term missions trip in which Seth will be involved in will be on the same island (Papua/Papua New Guinea) in which we intend to serve in the not too distant future. The island of Papua is divided into two countries: Papua, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Seth will fly out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 27 to Jakarta Indonesia, which by God’s grace we were able to find a ticket for $1,435! This is unheard of, you cannot do better; the tickets are normally $2,000. Seth will then have to fly to Papua and then will have to take another small plane into the tribe! Both smaller plane rides (round trip) will be about $500 each.

List of Jobs

Seth will be in the tribe known as the “Dem.” He will be in this tribe for over two weeks. Seth has performed various handyman and maintenance jobs and has also been trained by our mission to do various “special” jobs, e.g. solar power, plumbing, etc. Seth will be helping the missionary either work on/finish/build:

-Bed for the couple

-Beds for the kids

-Desks

-A lot of staining

-Plumbing

-Electrical

-Digging for septic systems

-Gathering stones for various jobs

-Hauling lumber from a distance

-Tables

-Stools/chairs

-Many other things!

Our Heart in this Trip

We were initially very hesitant about this trip. Many thoughts swirled in our head. Is this a wise decision to stop our deputation trail to go and serve another missionary on another field? But after several confirmations for this trip, we continued forward, seeing if God would stop it through giving us a speaking engagement or some other reason we could not control. We also decided we did not want to use any support anyone has given us to date. So that is why we put this awareness out there and to see what God would do through His people. We are already one-third of the way there! We know several people like giving to projects, which is why we are writing this letter. This brings us to share about the next topic. We know God will always be faithful to supply for us, and He uses His people to do His work in the supply for others, that is why we are sharing about a need/project.

This trip is close to Seth’s heart for many reasons: the missionary family Seth is going to help is his brother and his family. Jeremiah and Briana Stokes are tribal church planters (along with their children, Eden and Jericho) in the country of Indonesia, serving the Dem tribe. They are moving into the tribe, Lord willing, late this summer. Seth likens this mission trip to that of Epahroditus’s: a short-term trip to assist the main minister with hopes to encourage and relieve physical labor. The missionary (Seth’s brother) will be moving into the tribe with his wife and two children after the house is built. Then he will begin the arduous task of learning a tribal language. After that huge accomplishment, he will then (with his teammates) present the Gospel to the Dem people. Seth hopes to encourage and lessen the physical drain of his brother before that part of his journey begins.

Seth’s mother will also be going with him. Her goal is to watch the children while Seth and his brother Jeremiah are building the house. While she is supervising the children, this will give Briana (Seth’s sister-in-law), an opportunity to better adjust to the people and location and spend much-needed time with the people in order to build relationships and gather language data. This is just part of our heart in this short-term missions trip.

Breakdown ($3,000?)

God already provided approximately one-third of the cost of the trip!

-$1,435 round-trip ticket from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Jakarta,

Indonesia.

-$490 round-trip ticket from Jakarta, Indonesia to Papua, Indonesia.

-Over $500 to get in and out of the tribe (The exact number fluctuates due to

the inflation of gas.)

-If more than the requested funds come in, we will use that towards

electronic equipment (a video camera) and apparel (boots, etc.) that we

were going to purchase before we leave for Papua New Guinea anyway but

Seth will need for this trip. The camera will be used for the updates after the

trip.  🙂 We will keep everyone thoroughly updated on the numbers.

What is Nicole doing during that time?

We figured that since Seth is spending that time in Indonesia with his family, working and serving, Nicole will be in New Jersey with her family, also working and serving. 🙂 Nicole will be with her parents, serving the churches we are connected with in the area, as well as working various jobs (babysitting, secretarial, etc.).

How do I participate financially in this trip?

If you have given to our ministry before, this will be normal. Please send your check to our sending church:

Harvest Baptist Church

224 Harvest Lane

Natrona Heights, PA 15065

-Pay to the order of: Harvest Baptist Church

-In the memo section: Seth and Nicole Stokes

-***Add a post-it note to designate it “Mission Trip.”

–> This will help us keep everything accurate in regards to our support and informing those who want to participate specifically in this project.

*Remember the main goal; presenting the Gospel to people who have never heard the name of Jesus. This is one of the many cogs in a machine that connects your part of serving God to the whole machine working. This trip will affect the missionaries in Indonesia and the Dem people, and may even have an effect on the people we one day serve in Papua New Guinea. Thank you for your partnership, thank you for your friendship, and thank you for reading this lengthy update. 🙂

 “Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour…

and he that ministered to my wants.…”

-Philippians 2:25

Beds slept in: 59
Miles traveled: 32,000
States visited: 15 (plus Canada)
Churches met with: Over 35
*Random tally: 8 nights of sleep missed due to driving (Seth)

Praise God; He continues to grow our support team! We are at an approximate 25% of our support, and have had many churches (5-10) and individuals (5-10) express interest in partnering with us. We are waiting to hear back from them before making anything “official”.

Continue to pray for us as we travel! We will be in New Jersey for all of April, to speak at several churches, to host some small groups, and to serve in various capacities. From there we head to Pittsburgh for less than a week to do the same thing, then off to Indiana for 2-3 weeks to once again…yes, to do the same things (speak, share, and serve). Then we are off to Michigan for the end of May, and then back to PA for the beginning of June! Phew… then, Seth is off to Indonesia for all of July.

Pay attention to our next couple of posts! We will share about the opportunity Seth has to go to Indonesia in more detail, and then also another opportunity we have in October. Since we are not fully supported yet, we will need prayer and support from those who like to be involved in financial projects. Praise God that about 1/3 of the first project is already paid for before we ever notified anyone! Our God is so great that He gives before we ever ask. Thank you for your following with us in this exciting journey!