One of the events we have here in the jungle of Vanuatu is Friday night date night! Well, it’s not “actually” Friday night date night, it’s part two of a marriage course that we are running to help husbands and wives grow deeper in their relationship with one another and with God. At 7:00pm Friday night, you will see approximately 23 different couples from various villages come into the classroom at the Bible School with just one thought in mind, “how can I have a better marriage?”… See below to continue reading…
Thank you for your faithfulness to us and our ministry! Please continue to pray for us as Bible School nears the end and for the students as they gear up to be tested in their faith as they head back to their various villages! Pray that they finish strong and learn well.
As always, we covet your prayers.
~Your feet to the Tiale people & the country of Vanuatu, Seth & Nicole Stokes
Bible school is back in full swing! School runs from the beginning of May through the end of October. We have four families and one single guy living on the property, along with having two men from our village attend classes this year, making it 11 students in total; 8 of which are Tiale people, 2 from another language on this island, along with another from a separate island altogether. Seth first translated the ‘Firm Foundations’ into Bislama back in 2016, and each time we go through the course, many come to the Lord. Just this past course, 1 of the husbands along with 2 of the wives came to the Lord. We (Seth has been training 3 local pastors to be co-teachers alongside him) start by teaching from the foundations and then build upon themes/doctrine throughout the teachings. We continue to translate and teach in the national language at the Bible school, with nearing the completion of translating all of the Pauline epistles into course curriculum to both train the teachers to use, and for the students to grow in their walk with the Lord. This method has shown great results! Also, this past weekend several other people in our village came to the Lord and 14 in total were baptized! …See newsletter to continue reading…
We are your feet to the Tiale people & the country of Vanuatu,
We get this question a lot… what is the food like in Vanuatu? What do people eat? This video gives you a “taste” of some of the things the people here eat on a regular basis.
Your feet to the Tiale people & the country of Vanuatu,
The rainy season is “officially” over as of the middle of May. We were finally able to leave the bush for a few days after being in “lockdown” there for almost 6 months straight. As a husband, I am proud of my wife who thinks more of ministry and serving the Tiale people than any insecurities that could come our way, knowing that for nearly 4 out of the 6 months, it was nigh impossible to leave our village because one or both rivers were flooded, and yet God never let anxiety get to her (or us).
Bible School Teachers & their Wives
Honestly, we were so engaged in our ministry that we didn’t even realize 6 months passed us by. We cannot express all of the things God is doing in and through the Tiale people! Yes, people are getting saved but also their faith is ever growing; finding freedom from centuries of animism and worship of the occults. Even a few months ago our core believers didn’t understand that some of the things they were doing were of animistic nature. God is truly stoking the fires! (to continue reading see the newsletter below or click the link).
We wanted to share a short video with you about what Mother’s Day looked like for us here. These cultural events are very special and are always a highlight for everyone in the community… not to mention, a good excuse to eat cake! This is a newer tradition that got adopted into the culture not too long ago.
Mother’s Day-Vanuatu Style
Your feet to the Tiale people & the country of Vanuatu,
We want to share a video highlighting a recent cultural event here in our village. A child’s first hair cut means they are now part of the village, and the boys first shave means they are now men who are allowed to get married. Both ceremonies are very important in the Tiale culture. Thank you for following our journey as we minister to the Tiale people!
Your Feet to the Tiale people & the country of Vanuatu,
We wanted to send out a brief post to let you all know that we have officially kicked off Bible school! We have four couples and one single guy living on the property and also have two men from our local village Currently enrolled in school. If you would like to follow our picture highlights, pop over to our Instagram page, we use this platform to share photos. Last week they finished their first class, a course on marriage. We had 14 couples attend, some our local village and some from other villages nearby. It was such a blessing to see them desire to grow in their marriages. This is part one of a two-part series during this Bible school term. As always, thank you for following our journey and for your continual love, encouragement, and prayers for us and the ministry here amongst the Tiale people. Please continue to keep us, the students, the teachers, and our ongoing Bible studies in prayer.
Marriage Course
Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu,
Check out what has been going on over here… God has been doing some amazing things! Read our newsletter below to hear more… also, stay tuned for some blog posts with more…
Happy Resurrection! We hope that you all had a great weekend as we did.
On Good Friday we had a blessed time with the Tiale people, having encouraging conversations, talking about our Lord and Savior, got to attend a birthday party for one of the local kids, and we even got to help coach a friend to be able to lead someone to the Lord!
The birthday girl fell asleep after all the fun!
Sunday was a great day, talking about Jesus! The man who just got saved on Good Friday gave his testimony at church, confessing what God has done in his life. He said “the day Jesus died (Good Friday), I was granted eternal life”! What a blessing to see another dear brother added to the family of Christ!
Sunday schoolKids doing a special song & their teacher sharing a short message (one of the future church leaders in training)Testimony Testimony
-Your feet to the Tiale people & the country of Vanuatu,
It is interesting that the phrase “stoking the fires” is our tagline and the name of our blog/website. We see one of our desires (Jeremiah 20:9 and checkout one of our first blog posts) is to ignite a “fire” in the Tiale people and the people of Vanuatu to both come to God and be passionate in their walks with Him. Our Tiale friends frequently discuss with us that our time away, because of lock-down, made them like “dry wood”, they did not progress, but they yearned for more teachings. Since we have been back, they keep using this phrase “you guys make the fire in us get stronger (for our faith).” As always, it is a humbling thing to be used by the Lord and so exciting to see how He is fanning into flame a hunger for Himself and His Word.
A young girl Nicole has been discipling since 2017
Men’s Bible Study
Ladies Bible Studies
We cannot articulate all the glorious things that God is doing here in the jungle, but we will try to summarize them here:
-Many of the Christians have been growing in their faith, finding strength to walk in right relationship with God amidst the animism and shame culture.
-Many of the leaders are learning how to actually shepherd their flocks, while also being proactive in discipling their members.
-Many married couples are growing in their relationships with one another, some proactively desiring to model that Christ-like marriage in Ephesians 5.
-Many parents desiring to break the chains of traditions and pursue spouses for their children that align with their Christian values, not traditional values.
-Many are coming to the Lord; hearing a clear Gospel (many for the first time), and also hearing it in their own language.
We continue to live life on life with the Tiale people, we have been teaching them Chronologically (Firm Foundations 1-3) since 2016, and then trained several leaders in 2019 to be able to teach those materials in their own villages. It has been years of planting seeds, but now we are seeing some real harvest in people coming to the Lord (hearing a clear Gospel), while also seeing Christians rejoice in their freedom they have in walking by the Spirit and no longer being slaves to sin. One of the believers recently said, “we are starting to see people as firewood, we are testing it, when it rains will it still lite or not. Is it wet and dead or ready to make a big fire? Only strong, dry wood lites in the rain. We see a lot of wet wood here in our villages. We want to share the Word so people can become dry wood and lite a strong fire that warms everyone.”
Over the past few months, we have been diving deeper into parts of Romans with many of the Tiale people, and imparting unto the them the Truths of being controlled by the Spirit. This exposure has immediately shown fruit in the more mature believers, realizing that they can have a close relationship with God, enjoy it, and not be consumed by sin.
When we first got back, we immediately returned to having multiple studies with various groups, and early on we saw a disparity in many of them and also in their prayer lives. One Sunday night, an older believer in our village rang the bell (how they inform the community of a meeting), and thus began our weekly prayer meeting for the body of believers here. Through this special time, we have seen God answer many prayers; people who left the faith have come back to church, God restoring marriages, several people have given clear testimonies of changed lives, and much much more. God desires for all His children to unite in corporate prayer and we have been excited to see a new spark in these believers.
What does our weekly prayer service in Tiale land look like? Don’t forget your flashlights!
Lastly, as a result of prayer, one of the local leaders was stirred in his heart to take care of a dying church (he already pastors another church). On Sundays, he is now teaching in the morning in one village, and then hikes to teach at another village that night (about a 3-hour hike away). God is doing great things! Continue to pray for the Tiale people and for God to continue growing them according to His divine will.
-Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu,
Stoking The Fires 