As we continue to live life-on-life with the Bible School students, we become more and more involved in their lives. We have begun to understand where they really are at spiritually. Mutual trust and respect is given and the process of discipleship will be a lengthy one. They are coming out of animistic backgrounds where; fear, witchdoctors, and the communal structure dictates their every thought. It is a hard and lengthy process to mature and equip believers, but it is a privilege to do so, to see the Holy Spirit change them from the inside out, and in a sense, “turn on the lights”.

We recently had to help with a marriage dispute, and part of the “healing” process is going to the father of the woman, along with the chief of the village, and then giving them a pig as a “payment” for the dispute. The woman seemed to be elated with the process, and when we got back to the school we sat down and processed the event with the young married couple.

The Payment…

We not only discipled them in regards to why the marriage dispute arose, but also explained the fallacies of how to reconcile a person with another person via traditional methods. We showed them that there was no communication, no instruction, no warnings, no advice or counsel given for the couple’s marriage, and we asked them, is the problem fixed? Were the issues addressed? Were you guys shown a process of how to prevent this dispute from happening again? The couple answered all of these questions with “no”.

The girl then realized that their culture is of no profit in this situation, the only “warning” they gave to the couple was, “if this happens again, we want another pig”. The girl began to realize that their culture is selfish and rooted in only self-love (saying something along the lines of, “they only care about food and not our marriage”). She went from being satisfied in the payment of the pig, to sorrow when she understood that her family didn’t really love her because they did nothing that actually “helped” her, they actually just took food from her (the pig for the payment comes from the married couple).

As we taught them through Biblical forgiveness, reconciliation and principles for marriage found in Ephesians 5, the couple went from sorrow to joy slowly seeing that God’s plan is unity and closeness in a marriage… and since the study, they said that their marriage is “doing better”. Praise God that no matter what the culture is, no matter what era it is, the pureness of the Gospel is always one of healing and restoration.

Three months of Bible school are complete! Please continue to pray for the students as they dedicate themselves to studying and learning more about who God is and how to better understand His Word. Thank you for your prayers and for continuing to follow our journey!

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

We count it a privilege to be used by our Master… 

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Newsletter-April-May-2019

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

Seth & Nicole Stokes

School has been in session for about 3 weeks now! We are busy every day with being involved in the students lives; from checking up on them and their studies, to how they are doing as individuals, and trying to live life with them whether it be via gardening or the routine of life and sharing meals… this has truly made our responsibilities grow, time and time again God gives us opportunities to speak into the lives of these people teaching them about doctrine and even practical things of life like marriage.

Pastor Abraham teaching the students

Seth is working everyday making new lessons in the national language and getting them out early enough so that the local pastors/teachers can have time to study them. Seth is not wanting to be the sole teacher and is training them so that one day this training facility can be autonomous. Since there are little to no materials in the national language, Seth has been translating them himself.

While this is going on, Seth is still learning the Tiale language, discipling the men, preaching regularly, and being the maintenance man for the grounds… all the while still being involved with other villages and our ministries located in town. We were able to take the students out of the Bible School and let them enjoy a missions conference in town. It was a great time of bonding and connecting for the students and teachers.

First time for this little one to eat ice cream & ride in a truck

The group to town

Guilty! Enjoying ice cream in town

For some of the students this is the first time they were required to read and write in a daily format, really challenging them, especially for those students who only completed a few years of primary education. In our short time, we have already had one student (single male) leave and get married… this is Vanuatu, this can happen at any time when the father says so, and another one of the students got saved while going through the studies! Seth was asking them to share their testimony, and in that process another student led him to the Lord. There are a total of 11 students, 3 of which we refer to as student pastors or pastors in training. All three student pastors have made huge strides in their practical maturity in their Christian lives, and in their understanding of God’s Word and letting it reign in their lives. It looks like we will be coming closer to one of them being ordained as early as next year! Continue to pray for one of the student pastors, Francky and his wife Erin, as they have probably one of the hardest works here in the Tiale people; there is much persecution from their family, false-religion, and animism via a witchdoctor.

Francky sharing his testimony at the missions conference (sorry for the poor quality)

Nicole has added some more small groups to her schedule, she now has another small group study with a few ladies along with a prayer group with all the women her from the school grounds and surrounding ministries, along with still progressing in learning the Tiale language. Continue to pray that these groups Nicole is investing in builds the ladies up in their faith, culturally the women have been neglected in all areas of life, even spiritually. Seth is trying to train the men to encourage their wives in the faith, contemporaneously Nicole is trying to grow the women in their faith as well; their identity in Christ is growing, learning that they are no longer property and items for trade, but accepted in the Beloved. The young ladies’ ministry continues to grow! Every week there seems to be a new face! Pray that the young men could learn the fervency of the women. 🙂 Pray for us to have discernment in balancing the many variables and responsibilities of life. We covet your prayers!

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

Everyday we are blessed with opportunities to encourage people in their walk with the Lord, or explain more clearly how one comes to know their Lord and Savior. It feels like God ordains topic after topic so that we get to meet peoples ‘real’ needs, in order that we may see their heart, and catch a glimpse of their true understanding…

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Newsletter-March, 2019

Men’s Bible Study

Nicole’s sweet friend Amber

Painting the Dorms

Your friends ministering to the Tiale people,

Seth & Nicole Stokes

Wanted to share this video recap from Seth’s trip this past weekend. There is no Gospel preaching church in or near this village.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support!

Your feet in Vanuatu,

Seth & Nicole Stokes

It was St. Francis of Assissi that once so poignantly said, “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words”. Let’s be honest, this might be one of the hardest things to do in the Christian life, to be faithful, to have a good witness at all times. In Colossians 3:17it tells us that ‘whatever’ we do, we ought to do in the name of our Lord Jesus. Whatever? In all things? Are you serious? Even when we are sick? Even when it’s hot? Even when its pouring down rain and now you have to hike 4 hours to go preach at a village (where they are glad you came, but aren’t Christians or very hospitable… they want to “hear” about Jesus, but at night ask you to leave so they can indulge in their type of drug known as Kava and get drunk… well, because they are still unsaved). We are always reminded we must model faithfulness to them in our day in and day out lives… whether or not we “feel” like taking certain days off, we can’t, we don’t have substitutes, we don’t have anyone learning this language for us, every week we have Bible studies, and no matter how we feel, they are coming to hear God’s Word so they can grow, so we must be faithful to the ministry God gives us. The men keep telling Seth, “we look forward to our Bible study, it’s a time where I get to eat for ourselves (implying they are the ones always feeding others).

Isn’t she the cutest umbrella holder?!

Over and over again we are always asked the question by these growing believers, “why are so many believers here so unfaithful to God?” It is a very good question, unlike most of us westerners we cannot make the excuse that we have never seen someone model faithfulness and a mature Christian walk, we have seen it countless times. The Tiale people have had people coming and going throughout their Christian lives, but have never had someone live and model with them day in and day out the Christ-life. They have never seen someone work in the community, love their wife, work in the garden, and still be faithful to the Christian life day in and day out for years… it’s the first time they are seeing it. And recently we have seen tremendous growth in the core men and in their wives…

Seth and the guys heading out for a weekend outreach

PLEASE, PLEASE understand this, it is not us that lives, but Christ that lives in us… quite personally we thinkwe are terrible models and feel like we fail all the time because we desire to do more for them and their walk with God… and from time to time, we will hear them tell us, “thank you for your faithfulness… it has encouraged me to take my walk with our Lord more serious”, which then will motivate and reminds us of this truth of being faithful, if all else fails, continue to be faithful; God is moving and working. Sometimes we feel like we are not doing enough, we haven’t learned the Tiale language yet, we can only meet with so many people per week to grow them in their spiritual life, but there is a truth in God’s Word, and a principle that He gives to… “be faithful”. This week the men and Seth sat down and studied Galatians 6:9 for almost two hours and just discussed that point, it’s not our job to focus on when the harvest will come… it’s our job to keep working and not get fatigued, God promises that the harvest will come in its due time… as Seth was teaching the men, we too were focused and encouraged on this verse. Continue being faithful, and God will bring forth a harvest in due time.

Ladies Bible Study!

Please continue to pray for us, we desire to be models of Christ for the Tiale people; as Christians, as a married couple, as friends, and as a family in the community. Though we honestly feel we are inadequate and feel like we fail from time to time, we are reminded that God has commanded us to be faithful, and He will bring forth fruit in the timing that best suits Him, and not us. A servant doesn’t serve his Master for a thank you, he simply does the work that his Master commands him to do (Luke 17:10).

Your feet to the Tiale People, Seth and Nicole Stokes

We come from the North East part of America, we are “use to”, flash flood warnings, blizzards, and various events that the weather throws at us which causes; the inability to drive to a place for a few hours… up to a day or two, the cancellation of an event, or even loss of power out for a couple of hours…. up to a week. But all of that is pretty uncommon, and we have a phone number to call in order to find the right people to correct the issue…

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Newsletter-January-February-2019

Your hands and feet to the Tiale people,

Seth & Nicole Stokes

Cyclone Oma stayed longer than welcome, most of the locals said they never saw a cyclone linger so long, for over 6 days. The rivers rose faster than they ever have, said one local.

The picture above is the second river we have to cross to get home… this is after the water receded for over a week! It might be another 2-3 weeks until we can drive to our house. I (Seth) crossed both rivers and then hiked 2+ hours to get home last week to check on our house and animals. Everything was just fine, we even have a larger family (our dog had a litter)!

In about 10 hours we will head back to our house… cross the first river, leave our vehicle with our friends, and then hike home across the second river with minimal supplies for the next 6-8 weeks.

Pray that it stays sunny and the waters recede more, and pray we can get back to work quickly since we have been displaced for almost 2 weeks. About 300 yards of our road was washed away, so we will be busy fixing a new route.

Thank you for your prayers, your feet to the Tiale people, Seth and Nicole Stokes.

To be honest, to always be the odd-man standing out gets a little old; to always be asking clarifying questions, to not knowing many of the words being spoken, to ask them to explain comments/stories/jokes because of feeling like you are missing something and it appears everything is esoteric, to always looking different, dress different, and always a shade of feeling uncomfortable… that is what everyday feels like for the past 12-13 months. That’s how it feels… but recently we began to see a shift in them, how they address us, and how they refer to us.

Recently some people have said:

“We can’t hide anything from them”.

“They know us better than any outsider”.

“The longer they stay, the better they will know us, and it will be like they live in our houses with us”.

“They always question our actions and beliefs, they challenge me in things I have never thought about myself”.

“We can’t talk in our language secretly anymore, they’ll understand what we are saying”.

(Kids) “We want to go see Auntie (Nicole) and Uncle (Seth)”.

(Kids) “Can we go to mom (Nicole) and dad’s (Seth) house?”

Silly faces = international!

These are just a few things they have said recently, and it encourages us. Do we always feel like the odd man out? Well yes, Seth is a foot taller than almost everyone in our people group (except for like two people). Do we still struggle to understand what they are saying? Absolutely… it will take more time to learn this Tiale language. Do we understand their worldview fully and how they perceive events? Not wholly, but piece-by-piece, we are getting closer. Also, it is t

he time of extreme heat and endless rain, sometimes we don’t know if we are covered in perspiration or precipitation (mostly both)… in all things we “feel displaced”.

Discipleship Analogy at Church

Everyday is a struggle to balance learning culture, language, ministry, and being engaged in the community life here, have we mastered this process? By no means… but like the saying goes, “how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time”. Continue to pray for us as we juggle every day life; along with loving on the people, language learning, and discipling those whom God has given us thus far.

Your feet to the Tiale people,

Seth & Nicole Stokes

We have been blessed to be trained in both the scriptures and to also have missiological training, we have heard endless teachings and things on “what to expect” while in the tribe, but as for most things, life is the only teacher.

You think a missionary just learns language and teaches bible? We wish that is all we did this past 5 days…

-Cry with a pastor that we are training, because his dad died

-Help with the logistics of the burial

-Preach at the funeral

-Be a transport driver for people and materials

-Support (financially and food-wise) the many meals that have to be hosted for the next 10 days (their cultural way of mourning after a death)

-Make a casket

-Console the family

-Challenge the witch doctor’s teachings to both him and the people hearing him

-Encourage the pastor daily

-and much more…

Building the coffin

No training in this world prepares you for how to deal with death… no preparations explain how to balance getting involved and loving on families during this event. Our people group has a 5-day and a 10-day ceremony/mourning process, and then after that they arise and go walk the foot trails to think about where he has walked one last time. They also have a 100-day ceremony (they call it that, but it really depends on when their gardens are ready, most of their produce takes 3 months to grow, 90+ days). And then the mourning process is officially finished.

Weeping and wailing…

It has been an amazing time to see how the training we have given these people has been manifesting itself in their lives, to see how they harmonize following the truths of the Bible and still engaging in their culture, it has been great to see firsthand. The pastor has actually been sharing a verse here and there with the family that is staying together; the immediately family along with those who helped bury the body all have to sleep in one house for 10 days during this process. It has been good, because it is an opportunity for people in the village to see how you can be both a Christian and a person who speaks Tiale. The 10-day event finishes on our Sunday here in Vanuatu, continue to pray that the pastor stands strong in his beliefs, and is an example to those who are around him, all eyes are on him, people are waiting to see how he reacts to each traditional belief.

Your feet to the Tiale people,

Seth & Nicole Stokes