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Thank you so much for your constant prayer for Nicole during this time!

It is quite unbelievable to think that Nicole has been in the hospital for almost 30 days! She is officially being discharged today!

What does that mean?

We will be heading back to the “states” as of our tomorrow. We will head back to get Nicole 100%, or whatever that may look like. She will be on longterm medication, and will need to have regular checkups and bloodwork to make sure the medication is staying within the “therapeutic window”. So at minimum, we will be back until April for a “medical furlough”.

We will be spending the bulk of our time getting Nicole recuperated, having a good routine, and being encouraged by our home church. We might venture to see family, but that is dependent on Nicole’s recovery.

Any details?

Many of you have asked, and quite honestly we were being vague because the doctors themselves were unsure… very similar to last time back in June of 2017. Because she relapsed, this has made the doctors label her illness in the mental health category. But because of her age, onset, and overall good health, she is a-typical and does not fit the “textbook examples”. To make a long story short; she had a series of “manic episodes” in quick succession making her unable to sleep, thus becoming unwell. Living in the jungle, with no one nearby (3 hours from town), and no real medical facilities to help long term… we had to leave the country, and Nicole was even involuntarily checked into the hospital upon arrival because of how ill she was.

If you remember from her last bout with this illness, the doctors labeled it as an “infectious disease”, which is clearly not the case anymore.

Anything with the brain is a “guess-science”, there are no blood test or scans that clearly tell you what you have. But thankfully through the wisdom God has given mankind, we have medicine that can now help, and in Nicole’s case, supposedly “reduce the chances” of ever having another episode. There are some side-effects of the medication, and that is another part of the recovery process we will have to figure out.

We have a cornucopia of emotions from all of this… but one thing has not changed; we eagerly await to serve our God back in Vanuatu. One of the things that sustained us through this hardship was the affirmation of doing this work for our Lord. As Nicole was recovering, she constantly would be telling the nurses and doctors she cannot wait to go back and serve in Vanuatu. I (Seth) have never wavered in our goal and mission, although I am content with “the when” of returning, the Tiale people and Bible college have been on my mind every day.

We are not sure why God has allowed (many theological phrases one could could use here) this happen to Nicole, and we are at peace knowing, we don’t need to know. Job was never told “why”, or “saw” why God would do such a thing, and Job was far more righteous and suffered far more than us. But there is something in learning peace and patience that ties intrinsically to contentment that we cannot quite articulate to you all. We both have learned patience and peace more deeply through this event. We are content in whatever our Master has for us.

We love and appreciate you all! We look forward to seeing some of you at church this Sunday.

Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu, Seth and Nicole Stokes.

We want to say thank you to everyone for their prayers. We appreciate your love for us.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Nicole has been recovering slowly, and she has been making strides in her recovery. She is still in the hospital, and will be there for at least a week longer, if not more…

Many of you hopefully enjoyed the opportunity to be with family, it was strange to not be able to celebrate Christmas together… visiting hours and other patients, etc. but tried to make the best of it, even if it was in a hospital. We read the Christmas story, shared the gospel with two other patients who were inquiring about God… I (Seth) even spent some time with the Pinero’s (late at night with them, after visiting hours).

Continue to pray as Nicole recovers, this will not be something done in a day, we now better understand what happened 2.5 years ago, so our goal is to come home for a period of time and get several opinions, and make sure we do what’s best for Nicole and her health long-term. Once we get that sorted out, we will then plan to head back to Vanuatu. But for longevity’s sake, Nicole’s health comes first.

Thank for your partnership in prayer through this time. We love and appreciate you all.

Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu, Seth and Nicole Stokes.

I want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone praying for Nicole and I during this time of uncertainty.

Because of the onset of things, the severity, and the various symptoms the doctoral team was not quite sure “what was the problem”.

For the first three days they put Nicole on one track of medication, after seeing that it was not effective, they changed over (Tuesday night) to track two of medication. Between the medication and actually getting a full nights sleep (the first in almost 2 weeks!), Nicole made major improvements (our Wednesday). She still has several steps of improvement needed, but we are praising God for each step.

The new medication is suppose to take 4-5 days to be able to fully witness its efficacy. Which means that is the weekend. No one said a time frame to us (because of its moment by moment case), but earliest Nicole would be released is Monday (my speculation alone).

Continue to pray that Nicole sleeps well every night, because rest is what her body needs, and will drastically propel her recovery. Also, pray that this new medication is the proper medication for Nicole. If so, she will be on it long term.

Our plan, once Nicole is well enough to travel, would be to go back to America (PGH) and get some long term help. Once things get settled, and Nicole is full recovered, return to our Tiale friends. All of this, is dependent on the will of God alone. As we know, God moves through the prayers of His people. We greatly covet your prayers.

We cannot say it enough, THANK YOU.

Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu, Seth and Nicole Stokes.

I cannot begin to tell you all the small miracles that God worked timing wise to get Nicole from the bush Vanuatu, to a first world country’s hospital in about 12 hours. God enabled Nicole (to the minute) to walk with assistance to and from the plane to show the flight attendants she was in “good enough” health to travel… I’ll be honest, she wasn’t. But by Gods grace a doctor (who was lovely) came with us from the clinic (Medical Santo) on our island, endured the two different plane trips.. got us through customs because she had the proper paperwork, and then put us on an ambulance (she even took care of our luggage). From leaving the bush by the assistance of some Tiale people, to the Medical Santo work team, to the staff at the Hospital here in Australia, everyone has been a huge help.

We literally purchased 3 of the last 5 tickets off of the island to fly commercially. If we missed that flight, we would have had to wait two days for the next flight. The insurance company flat out told me, that waiting for approval for a medevac could take up to a week… last time it took over 55 hours. So we were grateful that this route was available.

Nicole is currently being looked after by a full time staff. Since it is the weekend the specialist won’t be able to check her out appropriately until Monday. Once I get some news from them, I will give another update. There are some talks that if she gets stable, we might be able to be transferred to the States (PGH). But no definitive timing on that…

Pray communication between the hospital and insurance goes well, we have full coverage but everyone always has their issues. It’s the weekend so the offices aren’t communicating with each other. Nicole was just admitted and things will get “sorted out” later. There are a few things we’ve already had to pay out of pocket (some of you have already asked how you can help, thank you).

I am allowed to see Nicole from 10a-8p. Because of the ward she is in, no electronics are permitted for privacy purposes. I can bring meals, there’s a kitchen for me to cook for her (they provide meals as well), and there are several crafty things for us to at the hospital to do together while she recovers. So in short, I get to ‘date my wife’ while she recovers.

Continue to pray for her recovery, she did significantly better in just one day. Tuesday-Friday was the worst of it thus far, Saturday she showed much improvement.

For those of you who followed us from two and a half years ago, this is identical to what happened then. The doctors realize now, since it is a reoccurrence, that they misdiagnosed her last time, and seem significantly more confident of what is actually the problem now. They seem confident they can remedy her ailment.. she just needs some time to heal since her body went through such a taxing episode.

We desperately covet your prayers.

Before we left, I was able to close off the house before cyclone season hits. I was also able to give the men I’m discipling lessons to study for the next 3 months… so the ministry is still progressing and the churches are still being strengthened. Pray for the men since we were at some very crucial steps with them in their faith and understanding of Gods Word.

Your feet (that you are bathing in prayer) to the Tiale people and the country if Vanuatu, Seth and Nicole Stokes

We will share more in depth of how God worked to make it even possible for us to get from the deep bush of Vanuatu to a major hospital in Brisbane Australia in a little over 12 hours.

Truly it is only a testimony of your prayers. Thank you.

I (Seth) was able to sleep for the first time (about 4 hours) since Wednesday (4 days ago) while Nicole was administered to the hospital and being taken care of. We should be able to see a specialist within the hour (it’s not 8am yet here in Australia).

We will give more information when able.

Thank you so much for your prayers, continue to pray to our most Mightily and capable Father so He can show the doctors what to do for Nicole. We covet your prayers.

Love, Seth and Nicole Stokes

After several roller coaster days and finally being able get to town, we are hopeful we can jump on a commercial plane in 5 hours (if the doctors here can get her to a comfortable place) and arrive in Brisbane around midnight, so that, Nicole get diagnosed properly and receive whatever help she needs.

Talking with insurance companies now, waiting to see how Nicole reacts to the meds, and then… purchase the plane tickets. Needless to say many moving parts.

One medication arrived to help in the transition process just 30 minutes ago! God is listening to YOUR prayers. Keep it up!

Thank you very much! God bless! Seth and Nicole Stokes.

For the sake of brevity, we would appreciate all of your prayers! Please don’t write us too many questions seeing as the next 48-72 hours we will be rather busy.

But for those of you who love us and want to pray effectively and genuinely, Nicole is sick (similar to that of two and half years ago), and we are exploring some options to get long term help. Praise God it seems like it could be something easily rectified… but we will need to get several doctoral opinions before we proceed.

We love and appreciate you all, please pray for us. Thank you.

Your feet to the Tiale people and the Vanuatu country, Seth and Nicole Stokes.

Many of you will be either having your Thanksgiving meal, or have already finished it by the time you receive this email…

Happy Thanksgiving! Our own Thanksgiving meal

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! We hope you all are taking full advantage of the blessing and opportunity you have to be with your family; whether it is a short drive, or a little hop on a plane or train, either way; if your work allows it, please enjoy your family! There are several people who cannot be with their family during this time… shift workers, people who have jobs that make it almost impossible to see their family because of the small allotted window or because of distance, and then there are those who are overseas; military and missionaries. As missionaries (all of our siblings are missionaries as well; on both sides) we understand that holidays are the hardest part of doing missions; being away from family, familiarity, and feelings of belonging. We say that because as missionaries we never feel like we “wholly” belong here in the jungle, always treated as “different”, and yes, we know we don’t belong in this world… but the joy of decorations, smiling faces of family, and nostalgia while you sit around the table makes your heart warm inside.

We have a lot of pineapples in our garden and we got to give them out to the people in the village! Just like the first Thanksgiving 🙂

For us, this is our third consecutive Thanksgiving being away from family, and in about a week or so the nearest ex-pats to us (about an hour away), will be phasing out and thus no one will be remotely near us (the closest ex-pats will be about 3 hours away), we thank God for the internet so that we can call and chat family; which lessens the separation. We say all of this to remind you to be thankful for what God has given you, even if your family is weird, you are uncomfortable with them, someone has a different political view, or someone brought the same dish as you did to the meal… it’s okay! Enjoy that time! Also, pray for the missionaries and military that you know who are away from family during this time… we are confident it is hard on them. As a family we focused on Revelations 7:12 as the key verse for our Thanksgiving, understanding that thanksgiving ought to be unto God for ever, with no reason or caveat attached, He is God and we must give thanksgiving unto Him without end. We love and appreciate you all!

Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu,

Seth and Nicole Stokes

How many times does God provide us with the opportunity to make an eternal investment? We have just finished our first year at the Big Bay Bible School; though this school has been open for many years, there has never been a structured plan or a written curriculum developed. For us to share the countless stories and testimonies from the School and training would be endless, needless to say, God is working and He is doing great things in and amongst the students. We have had the privilege of living life-on-life with the students for the past 6 months, having them in our house, getting to know who they really are, and how they think; we have gotten to know their real needs and real struggles, one student said, “you didn’t just teach us in the classroom, but in our every day lives, as you worked with us. We learned through you and your wife’s example of being together, that ministry should be done as a married couple.”…

Please click on the link below to keep reading

Newsletter

Your feet in the Country of Vanuatu and the Tiale People,

Seth & Nicole Stokes

A Pastor’s testimony about the Bible school…

This is Pastor Jean Marc. He has been faithfully looking after a church in the middle of the island of Santo in the deep bush of our language group, the Tiale people for over 15 years. He was trained in a French speaking Bible college for 3 years, in which he told us he “learned nothing” because it was not done in a language he understood.

We asked him to come to Bible school, him and his whole family; wife and 4 kids, as we offer to train him in the national language, Bislama, along with some things being done in Tiale.

He has faithfully finished the first year, despite not being a strong reader, and he is eagerly waiting for the next two years of training we will offer him.

Please pray for the Bible School as we see God doing great things through it.

Your feet to the country of Vanuatu and the Tiale people,

~Seth & Nicole Stokes