A famous missionary once said, “wherever you are, be all there!” This past year has been different for all of us, so let us get that out-of-the-way. Since we knew things were always up in the air, as in a sense of “when” we could go back to our field, our home pastor along with many other pastors that support us encouraged us to raise our finances; seeing that we were at roughly 80% when we came home from the field. So we took that as a sign from the Lord to be proactive in pursuing new partners in our ministry. And we went from 80 to about 86% currently. We have something scheduled for every Sunday (except two) from now till October 31st. We purposely end it then, because as of right now we are planning to leave that first week of November for Vanuatu and be there by The 6th (by the Lords will and grace). This is exciting, and by early September we hope to finalize this.
Continue to pray, we have two open Sundays and would to love and fill them, whether it be by a potential partner, or the privilege to share about Unreached People Group ministries and the need that still exists worldwide in 2021; we are rather passionate about getting that information out to churches. We are currently available September 26th and October 3rd, if you know of a church that would be willing to host us and give us an opportunity to share, please let us know and email us at: stokingthefires@gmail.com
God has also been gracious and all of our projects have been taken care of except for one building project and our quarantine fee. It is amazing to see how God is bringing this all together on His timing.
We love and appreciate you all, we cannot do this without your love, encouragement, prayer and support. We eagerly await to head back to the place we call home and to serve the Tiale people. -Seth and Nicole Stokes, your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu
Psalms 27:14“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait…”.
Teacher in Training
Video Call with Friends
It comes when we least expect it, a message that one of our Tiale friends are in town and are available to talk or a few minutes… before they do their shopping, and are at the mercy of jumping on the back of a transport vehicle; being shuttled around by the whim of the driver… we leap at the opportunity to call and connect with them! …click on the link below to continue reading…
Today is quintessential for our Faith! Seth had the opportunity to preach this morning… here are some snippets from his messages…
“The focus of Good Friday is Jesus paying the penalty of sin, but the purpose for Easter is that Jesus gave us the ability to have power over sin in our lives.”
“Jesus lived a life that we could never live and died the death that we all deserved…”
“When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to God; He had to die to Himself, before He died on the cross. “… not my will but thy will”…”.
“If Jesus’ death does not pull at your heart’s chord…
then Jesus might not be your personal Lord…”
We hope you all had a wonderful passion week! We greatly appreciate you all.
Your feet to the Unreached & the country of Vanuatu,
For the past month and a half, we have had the opportunity to share at a couple of new churches, preach at a church several times, and get more contacts. Seth has had the privilege to fill in at a pulpit of a supporting church for three Sundays as they are transitioning pastors. It is interesting for Seth to preach in English as he had been preaching/teaching so much in a foreign language… CLICK on the link below to keep reading…
We feel so blessed, as many of you ask us regularly when we are going back to Vanuatu, knowing that our heart desire is to be with the Tiale People. We have officially driven over 20k miles, our car is doing great, and we have had no issues while traveling! Praise God! … CLICK on the link below to continue reading.
Can we all just agree that 2020 has been a “different” kind of year?! Things keep compiling on top of one another, so much so, that 2020 felt similar to that of a decade; whether it is Covid-19 related, churches open/closed and then repeat. Jobs looking differently, no travelling, the great mask debate, phrases such as “social distancing, co-morbidities, quarantine, active-drinking/eating, etc…” all becoming the lingua franca of the day, now everyone knows this vernacular. Whether you are isolated or displaced, 2020 has been a good trial of many things; we are all learning patience during this time.
We would love to be back in Vanuatu serving the Tiale people, however, we are waiting for a few things to fall in place before we head back… even though we have not received any funds towards our tickets to go back, that is the least of our worries. We are waiting for the process to enter the country to be reduced to ONLY two weeks of quarantining. Not two- four weeks of quarantine and about $6000; which was the process until the first case of documented Covid-19 in Vanuatu, which occurred just a few weeks ago. Not only are several weeks of quarantining not practical, it is also financially taxing, whether you are a missionary or not. Another thing we are waiting for, is for the country to go back to some sort of normalcy, especially for the medical facilities to be an option again. Both of Nicole’s medevacs were directed via an Australian run clinic in town, and that is currently not functioning ‘normally’ at this time. A new aspect of our life we have to consider is the medication Nicole takes every day. If that clinic is not working at full capacity, we might not be able to get her the medication she needs. We also received an update from travel affairs regarding international travel to Vanuatu, in short they said, “if you make it to Vanuatu, do not expect to be able to leave even if it is for medical reasons”. These are three of the many things that are compiling on top of one another which greatly impact our decision of “when” we head back to our home in Vanuatu.
Not only are those three major things weighing down on us and our decision, but also with this vaccine being pushed, we heard just last week from a CEO of the major airline we use say, ‘that they want to see how well the vaccine works and will make it a requirement to fly with them. This will be the norm most likely for all traveler’s and for many other things even in the USA. If this proverbial domino falls into place, it will fall down in all places, making it “standard” for all flying, and possibly even for us to enter Vanuatu. Whatever your stance is on vaccines… know this, no one should feel comfortable in taking a mandatory vaccine, literally removing your choice from the matter. Nonetheless, we will not let a vaccine impact our decision in any way, shape, or form in our desire to head back to Vanuatu. We would never let something so small impact our decision in serving our Lord. If we have no choice, then this too fall under the realm of Sovereignty… we would honestly not feel comfortable taking ‘this’ vaccine for many reasons… but if it’s a “must”, we will move forward so we can serve the Tiale people, our preferences do not take precedence over our Lord’s command to see all nations having fully mature disciples.
Of course, we want to get back, like yesterday… how can we not want to???? But we are resting in our Sovereign, He will allow those four things to fall into place (1. Tickets 2. Medical 3. Quarantining for ONLY two weeks 4. Vaccine). After they fall into place, we will be on the next plane back! We would love to go back in January, but it is looking more or less like February or later… time will reveal the path God will give us. There are so many things that make us want to go back; discipling the people, starting translation, going forward with the Bible school, etc. All of these things are pulling at our heartstrings. We know our physical house will be in poor shape and needing lots of cleaning since no one has lived in it for over a year, we left in a rush because of Nicole’s condition, expecting to return a month or two later. We are praying our solar system stays strong and has no issues. So many physical things to think about practically; house, truck, rivers, and cyclones etc.… it can bog you down. Not to mention the spiritual degradation that could possibly be happening with all the people we serve. Men and women whom we invested in for several years, none of them fully mature spiritually yet; many of them have much more growth needed before they would be seen as being autonomous. The churches are not yet to the point of being solid New Testament churches that replicate themselves, we are burdened for their spiritual health and not being able to be there with them. We know God is our ultimate Father, and He takes care of every detail, but He did give us the command to mature others, His followers (us Christians), and much like Paul, we feel burdened for their spiritual growth.
Franckie & Family
Youth Outreach
Kevin & Family
Continue to pray for the spiritual health of the Tiale people, and that God would allow those 4-steps that we need to fall into place so that we can head back. We hope this encouraged you in some way, while also giving you glimpse into our lives practically. We appreciate your prayers and partnership as we serve our Lord, whether it is here or in Tiale land.
Your feet to the Tiale people & the country of Vanuatu,
We are almost done: We have driven nearly 20k miles in less than 5 months, we have two more churches still to update. Please pray not only for our safety, but also for a time of fellowship and to be able to engage with others in what God is doing in Vanuatu… We continue to have our ‘fingers on the pulse’ of things in Vanuatu, watching world news, getting updates from airlines, and national news, as well as communicating with missionaries and locals who are in Vanuatu currently… please CLICK on the link below to continue reading…
This is one of the students at the Bible College, this student shares the real struggles of understanding God’s Word in Vanuatu. The lack of materials and training is ever present… even if you are a pastor, getting equipped in the national language is nearly impossible.
Thank you for continuing to follow our journey as we are home during these unpredictable times. This year has changed so many things for many people in the world. We eagerly await the day when we are able to return to Vanuatu, but for now we are trying to make the best of the situation and use this time to visit our supporting churches and Lord willing, maybe add a few more, which would be a blessing. We would love to connect with you while we are home, please contact us if you are interested in getting together and to hear more about what God has done in our lives and is doing in the country of Vanuatu.
From the newsletter…
We continue to travel from church to church, holding most of our plans loosely. We continue to check in with various missionaries in Vanuatu, along with friends in Australia and other places in that South Pacific area, as to when international travel is predicted to open up again… Click on the link below to keep reading.
Stoking The Fires 