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Newsletter April-May-2016

~Seth & Nicole Stokes

Sometimes our life sounds like a never-ending transient journey, traveling from one place to another. We love the destinations, but packing and doing paperwork is something we have never been that good at, but God is gracious and lavishes mercy on us in our time of need.

We have done several bush trips now, but this one will be by far the most exciting… going into Dem-land! That is the tribe Seth’s brother works in, we are going to just hop the border and make the trip to go help them.

Seth’s brother and sister-in-law (and their team) are knee-deep into TCLA (tribal culture language acquisition), slugging it out with a tough language. We thought we could go and help them with any projects they need done. There are several work projects that Seth can do in order to alleviate (Phil. 2:25) time from Jay, so that he can put more time into language learning. Nicole will help with the household work; cooking, cleaning, maybe do some school with the kids. This too will relieve some time from Briana and enable her to get some more language time as well.

This is exciting for us in many ways; we as a couple have not been in a highlands mountainous-tribe, we have been in several swampy tribes in the lowlands, and even an island tribe, but this will be the first for us together. This will be Nicole’s first time in Dem-land, so that is very exciting! We can be a genuine relief to the ministry and enable them to put in more TCLA time, as well as hopefully encourage them. They have had many tribal fights and disruptions in their village recently, along with much medical care needing to be administered. We will be helping out in that ministry as well while we are there. Two more exciting parts about this trip:1. Did we mention we get to be with family? Nieces and nephew! Special times! 2. Seth’s mother is coming over for a short visit, which will make this good times all around.

Our Ride into the Tribe

Our Sweet Niece and the People

Seth Teaching Bible Class

We are super excited that God allowed this opportunity to come, we love bush life, we love serving, there is a lot of work for us to do, and how awesome is it to help others? Let alone help family?! We are so privileged to be your feet, and as usual, since we will be in the tribe, expect more pictures than normal!

Your feet to the unreached, Seth & Nicole Stokes

Thanks so much everyone, we know many of you read our update and were praying for Seth’s friend. Shortly after the update was posted, Seth was able to get ahold of his friend, Seth prayed many times for a clear opportunity to go deep with this guy. God opened the door, through the topic of prayer. God used this topic as the catalyst for Seth to navigate through the multi-layer worldview that many Papua New Guineans have… animism, syncretism, eastern mysticism, eastern shame culture, as well as a litany of other layers like cargo cult, other occults, and a veneer of Christianity plague this country, really much of the South Pacific. Because of these complexities of the culture, it makes you think through many things before you share, in order to communicate effectively.

We always try to be very clear, putting on that multi-layered worldview lens so we can understand better where we need to navigate in order to present a clear Gospel. The Spirit and prayer must be the focus of each opportunity God gives us. Seth was able to talk about how once you are saved, you have a relationship with God. Through that relationship alone does prayer make sense, Seth was able to use that topic and tie it into various aspects of the finished work of Christ, and how salvation is completely of God. There is not a drop of works you can be added to the mix, you must make sure the focus is on Him alone, removing any focus off of yourself.

Seth left the conversation with his friend knowing that salvation is of God alone, believers have a personal relationship with God the Father, Jesus paid the debt for all his sin, and the Spirit alone will grow him in God’s timing, no work or service can add to Christ’s finished work on the cross. Seth also left knowing that his friend better understood prayer, and believes his friend has a relationship with Jesus! All of this is possible because of God’s grace, and YOUR prayers. Thank you for being involved in each step!

Your feet to the unreached, Seth & Nicole Stokes

Making Jewelry With Friends

For several days this week, I have been trying to get ahold of a friend, calling him daily and texting him on his 4 or 5 different phone numbers, which is quite common here in PNG. We had some amazing conversations last week and I wanted to follow up with him on it, he, like many others, does not understand the Gospel of Grace and the eternal destiny of the Redeemed. Like so many others here in PNG, and even America, my friend has a veneer of truth, knowing some scripture but still thinking he has to do some type of work to receive God’s salvation. God has put him in my thoughts and prayers all week, but I believe Satan is controlling his phone and hindering us from being able to meet.

Why is it we want to play such a vital role in leading others to Christ? Yes, we are to be ambassadors and persuade men to Christ, but how many times have we said all the right words… used all the right illustrations… got them to question their own belief, and still not see their eyes enlightened? It’s a good desire, but in the end salvation is of the Lord alone. We must fall on our knees trusting Him and completely depend on Him to do His job. He is a faithful creator (1 Pet. 4:19), so lets not begin to doubt him now.

Nicole actually got witnessed to… just like in America; Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons exist here too. While she was making jewelry with two national friends under a little bush during the heat of the PNG sun, some ladies came to Nicole and began to ask about her beliefs. Through the conversation she learned they were JW’s, and because of that conversation she was able to witness to her other (Mormon) friends. Nicole got to share her testimony and talk in depth about the finished work of Christ, how we are complete in Him, and we cannot add anything to our salvation, it is all the work of Christ. Nicole was able to give her a Bible, and left confident she understood the Gospel, now the rest is between them and the Lord. Isn’t that exciting!?!

Once again we are just reminded of how small we are and how BIG God is; everything is of Him. The timing, the situation, the openness of others, and even how you get to that conversation. He is so far ahead of us we could never keep up. We are like kids at times, admiring our Dad and how amazing He is. Hopefully that encourages you this week, like it did us.

As always, it is our privilege to be your feet, Seth & Nicole Stokes

Yep, some things got left: some food, cargo, books, a kid, and even us at one point 🙂

Sorry for the delay in giving all of you the details with our bush trip, but as most of you know we got back from our trip around 6pm on a Saturday night… about 9pm that night Seth started to get pretty sick, the next day and for several days his fever went up, body ached, and then turned into pneumonia. He had a fever over 105F. He took his medicine, listened to the doctor, and stayed in bed (mostly) doing nothing physical for 7 days. He did a lot of coordinating with supply buying and store managing, and after that week was over he has been doing well since! We attribute his speedy recovery to our Omnipotent God, Who heard the prayers of His Saints, thank you!

So, this is how the trip unfolded. We arrived at the airport ready to get into the float plane, some things had changed and so our weight allowance varied quite a bit, thus making decisions pretty hard on what to bring. Well after evaluating how much we needed for us, and the other family (1 adult male and 2 kids), and two national pastors, we got rid of some clothes leaving us 3 sets of clothes for 6+ days (Sleep, dry, and wet :)). We found out that even after cutting back more and getting rid of some water we were still too heavy, so one of the kids said “well, my brother wants to stay with my dad, Nicole you need to take care of my brother, my dad is preaching and the people need to hear God’s talk, the other men and Seth need to go and share too, so I will stay here in Wewak with my friends”. That was from a girl who is not even 10 yet, that is awesome to hear such wisdom and perspective from a young lady!

We made 2 loads for 2 trips with the floatplane and headed out. It was late in the day meaning we did not have time to hop on a canoe and take a trip up the river to our destination. We stayed with a national pastor in his traditional house on the river, you can pull the canoe right up to his house because it has been so flooded. The sun rose and we all got in the canoe and headed up the river, we sped for over 2 hours up the May river. We then turned into a small river known as the “Ni” river, we headed up that river for over 5 hours only to find out the water was getting too shallow to continue on via canoe… so that means most of us had to get out and walk the rest of the way, luckily it was less than an hour walk.

We arrived mid afternoon, tired, worn out from the canoe, but we were welcomed with open arms. This was the first time an outsider (whitey) came to preach in this village. These people moved to this location over 12 years ago and have had no formal teaching from outsiders. The people group were taught through the Gospels and some of the New Testament, but the work was never “finished” due to health and other things occurring not allowing the missionaries to stay. They were so excited for this teaching, they built a house for any traveling speakers who ever might drop by… this house was about 6ft off the ground and maybe 9’x’9’ and it was awesome to see their excitement to have someone use it!

Now it was time to teach! The next morning several people from other villages came to hear the teaching. The teaching house (church) usually would fit close to 60-70 people (by my guess). But once the teaching started men, women, children, dogs, pigs, and cassowaries would pile in and the overflow would listen from the door and sides. I would say during the course, over 100+ came regularly. We saw it as a privilege to be there, we were with a veteran missionary, Jason, (over 20+ years on the field, completed a work and a translation) teaching and discipling other indigenous pastors to teach God’s Word in Tok Pisin to another language group. Seth had several opportunities to talk with the indigenous believers, as well as the 2 pastors from the other language group about the teachings. Galatians was taught, verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter, beginning to end by both Jason and the national pastors from another village. For many it was their first time hearing some of those truths. Much of the scripture was exactly what they needed to hear, so many things directly applied to them and their current situation.

Each day Nicole watched the young boy, she cooked for us (but didn’t have to cook too much because the people brought us lots of cooked food many of the days), and Seth asked many questions to the veteran missionary, as well as encouraged and challenged the nationals. It was an encouraging time for us, and we know the body of believers there in the middle of the deep jungle were also greatly encouraged and challenged. Amazing story! Gods Word was preached, discipleship was done, and believers were encouraged. The story stops there…? But wait, how did we get back? Not at all a highlight or focus of our trip or story. But we will give the short version.

How we got there: 1hr. 10min floatplane ride, 6 hr. canoe ride, 1 hour walk, and spent the night at a pastor’s house. Well, the floatplane had engine problems for our return flight, so we got stuck and left in the bush. So we came up with a new plan. It was Friday and no one else is flying at that time (no airstrips are close by). When we started the trip back, the canoe was a bit heavy so the kids and some women stayed in the boat, and the rest of the adults walked part of the way. Well the boat driver left Seth and some others to walk the whole way to the next village (unbeknownst to Seth, who is expecting to meet at rendezvous point). Seth and some other nationals walked in hip deep swamp for almost 4 hours; Seth was the first white guy to walk that trail! Arrived at the next village, spent the night and got on the boat in the morning for the remaining 5 hours to May river station. So once there, we had to find someone willing to take us across the mighty and infamous Sepik River. After hours of talking to people to find a canoe and driver, we finally found someone. We started our 10hr long trek, spent the night in a random village, made new friends, and then arrived by noon to Pagwi. Once we arrived, we waited for some of our friends to pick us up in a big open back truck, and then we began our 4hr 15min drive back to our base. We arrived around 6pm and then Seth began to sick around 9pm. And that was our trip, 8 hours there, and 24 hours back :).

Seth rested for a week, and then we jumped back into full-time ministry, getting the store cleaned up and fine-tuned some aspects of that ministry. Did lots of buying for several bush orders: food, cargo, drainpipes for a bush church, batteries, and much more. We have been getting back involved in witnessing to some of our national friends here in Wewak. God is opening the eyes for some of them (PRAY!). Thank you so much for YOUR partnership in our ministry, thank you for your prayers and sacrifice, it is our privilege to be an extension of you.

Float Plane

The Teaching House

Plane Load 1

Door to Door Service

Hiking

Pulling the Canoe Along

A Sweet Friend

Canoe Ride

The Trail

Overnight Stay

Our Ride Home

For more pictures from the trip go to our Instagram: Get_Stoked_For_PNG

Seth & Nicole Stokes,

Your Feet to the Unreached in PNG.

Hello everyone! Thought we should update you all. We arrived home from our bush trip safely on our Saturday evening, just before dark. After 16 hours in a motor canoe and a 4 hour open-back truck ride we made it home! We were so happy to be home and get washed up. 

It was an amazing trip! What an adventure and many awesome opportunities. However, Seth came down the first night we got back with a cold that has turned into pneumonia. We are thankful to be back where we have the comforts of home, doctors an email away, and medicine. We will update more about the trip when Seth feels better. Pray for him to feel better soon! 

-Nicole, for Seth too

Whew, now that conference is over, we are able to catch our breaths for a moment… For the past 10 days, we have helped ship off 1-3 missionary families a day to go back to their designated bush places. Helping them pack, getting their supplies, helping them plan and work out the logistics of their trips. Nicole even got to make pizza dough for one of the missionaries and got it in their planeload 30 minutes before they left. Saturday morning we took one family to the airport @ 4:30am, helped send off a boat @ 7a, and then load another family after that into a float plane as we hugged their kids good-bye. Conference is over and we are back to our different ministries, but wait! We too are heading to the bush-TODAY!

Pizza Dough For Missionaries

This will be very similar to our last trip back in January. Our main purpose in going is to assist a veteran missionary (Jason) travel to a remote village as he teaches through Galatians and Nicole will look after his two kids. We will be taking two other national believers from another tribe so they can join in the course as well. We leave Monday morning and come back Friday night. We will take two loads via floatplane to a main river junction. Spend the night in a bush house with one of our national friends, and then go the next morning first thing up a small river for 6+ hours and arrive in a different bush location. This place has had missionaries work there but not for over a decade. The goal is to encourage the church, teach Galatians, disciple the 2 national men coming with us and to gauge where the church is at spiritually. We will give more details when we get back.

Please pray: we get there at a good time, that the canoe situation works out, and we can get to the village. Pray for clarity as Jason teaches through Galatians. Pray we can engage the church and encourage them. Pray for safety and good health. Thank you for your partnership!

Here is a thought to consider: “Busy vs. Fruitful”, this was a title of a chapter of a book that I read recently. Please pray we have discernment in how to be fruitful during this trip and not just busy. “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry…”

Sending Some Missionaries Off

Wow, we cannot believe it is already April!? Where has the time gone? Well, we have been extra busy lately. Check out our Newsletter below to find out what all we have been up to. Thank you for being our team mates as we serve the Lord here in PNG.

Newsletter: February-March

   Your feet to the unreached,

Seth & Nicole Stokes

Ha! We made you look, yes, Nicole got her first ultrasound but it was not in the abdominal section it was on her foot. 😉 The last two weeks have been really busy; we went to our headquarters mission base, saw some friends, went to the doctor just for check ups, while also getting things ready here on our own base for our big annual conference.

Our Time at Headquarters

First things first, it was the first time we did not sweat in almost a year! That felt great. The headquarter base is up in the mountains approximately 5600ft., that was a nice change for our bodies and our skin. We went to the doctor to get a few things checked. Nicole has a ganglion cyst on the bottom of her foot and we both had various skin growths that got burned off by our missions’ doctor. Sorry for no picture, it’s hard to hold a camera and get something burned off your tear duct. We basically visited with people the whole 6 days, Seth played basketball with the high school team, and it was nice to have a change of pace. One of the main reasons we went was to see our good friends Jon & Adie Leedahl. Their story is amazing and we see God using this trial to bring His name glory everywhere. (Video about Jon & Adie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RKzv7RRMkE). In a nutshell, our friend Jon is a pilot and was heading home from work here in PNG back in October of 2014. He was driving a motorcycle and was run over by a land cruiser. He was immediately rushed to Cairns, Australia and hanging on by grace of God. The doctors ended up amputating his leg, and their story is amazing… through much hardship and recovery and in less than 18 months later, they are back here in PNG serving our Lord through aviation. He is the first amputee pilot in PNG and it is always awesome telling the people at the hangar his story, why he has a fake leg… and the worthiness of God’s message that drove Jon and his family to come back to PNG. It was a great time of fellowship.

Jon Leedahl (our pilot) and Seth

One of our great doctors!

Getting Accustomed to Things?

I had to laugh when yesterday I caught myself doing two different things without thinking that are just normal here in PNG. I will compare it to American currency so as to keep in more relatable (sorry if you’re reading this and not American). In the currency here (kina) they have 5,10,20,50 bills and 1.00 coins. And they do have the “5” cents or a nickel, but they are rare and under produced that if your bill comes to 9.95 and you give them a 10.00 bill, there is no change. Not that it does not exist, just that there are so few of them that it’s rare to ever see that change. Another thing is just the normal semi-volatile nature of where we are, on Sunday we received a text from a fellow missionary saying basically “there is a riot on this road, don’t go down there today”. Well there is only one main road in our area and so that cut off anyone who wanted to go east, we did not need to but it was just something we looked at and went… normal. Please pray for us, we had several opportunities to point to the Lord because of that riot. The riot started because one stole another mans “stim” or in English we might call it a home-brew, or alcohol made at home. So in return the man stabbed other man with his bush knife, then they returned the favor… and so on… and then families got involved and it escalated into a riot and blocking a road. Neighboring churches were praying that God would resolve this and it dwindled down to nothing rather shortly. It was just amazing to see that a riot started from taking a drink, and then someone stabbing someone for it. I was talking with a national about it and the topic of “valuing life” came up. He said you white people care and us black people do not care about another persons life, I told him its not about color but its all about how you view God. Life is a big thing to God and He alone gives it, it was really good to see him catch the difference. It’s not about skin color but who God is in our lives and what our perspective is after His impact.

We know PNG is not the “safest” place in the world, but we see that this country is so ready for the harvest. Please pray for our opportunities to witness even from day to day. Also, pray for our annual regional conference that has begun this week and will end on Monday. Many bush missionaries and missionaries on the base need to be recharged, encouraged by the Word, and they need time to be pampered and overwhelmed with friends and love before they go back to work next week. The base is full! We went from as little as 8 people (3 of them kids) to now having over 136!

Thank you for your prayers and partnership! We love, miss, and appreciate you all.

Your feet to the unreached of PNG, Seth and Nicole Stokes.

This week had some amazing highlights! We know many people are dealing with the snow and cold weather back in the U.S., however, it continues to get hotter and hotter here, and it feels like we never get dry; maybe that’s why they call it “wet season”? This past week Seth and his teammate he goes to jail with did a review session with the guys they have been teaching. They asked many questions trying to gauge where the men are at after receiving 68 lessons from creation to Christ. Here is a list of some of the questions asked:

1. How does man approach God?
2. How much belief is needed to be saved?
3. What sins can be forgiven?
4. How do you know you are saved?
5. Can you lose your salvation?
6. Why will you go to heaven?
7. Why do we (Christians, we didn’t tell them “who” as to see how they answered) do good works?
8. Judgments for reward vs. judgment of salvation… is there a difference?

All the questions except the last one we asked to several people; asking each person to expound more on their answer than the last person, we asked them to use Old Testament references-the Gospels (the 68 lessons were from Genesis-John) to illustrate their point. So many men gave CLEAR professions of faith; but the one who probably clearly answered most consistently was a young 18-year old young man. There were a few men who probably weren’t too clear on some points, but we were able as a group to direct them to the Truth. We gave out Bibles, we even asked permission to take a picture, they said yes! This had never been done before 🙂 . It was an awesome experience and now we are directing these new young baby believers to the book of Acts, they need to see how the early church started and functioned. Having a clear teaching of Acts here in PNG helps in so many areas, especially protecting them from the Enemy and false teachers. As you look at those questions, imagine doing that when the words “salvation, approach…” do not exist in their language, it was a fun challenge and we always feel like we are learning here in PNG.

Can you find Seth?

Nicole has been busy in the store getting ready for our annual regional conference (expecting 130 people) and also connecting with national ladies. This past week Seth had to load…unload…load… unload (you get the picture) almost 2.5 tons worth of supplies in less than 6 hours! Nicole had to do all the paperwork and organising of the big supply load. Seth had to load and unload the new Kodiak plane with supplies for the store, for our conference in 3 weeks, supplies for bush missionaries, drums (400lbs) of gas going to different locations, even a 250lb motor. He got a workout in the sun of PNG, which means he got to sweat a good bit. Things are shaping up here at our base for our annual conference; it’s a time of refreshment for all bush missionaries. Preaching, fellowship, and food, what more is there?!

Loading and Unloading

We will be going next week to our main base in the mountains to get some supplies for our store, and to catch up with some friends; we will share about that more in depth later. We also are having fun connecting with other missions, fellowshipping and encouraging one another, as well as growing in our connections here in Wewak. Seth has made 2 new friends; one is an ironman athlete from PNG, and another is in the military. Pray Seth gets opportunities to witness to these guys and for Nicole to also have opportunities to witness to the national ladies she has been spending time with. It is awesome to see God answer YOUR prayers in growing our relationships.

Seth’s Swimming Group

Our Friend’s Pet Tree Kangaroo

Thank you so much for your faithful support and prayer, we are honoured to be YOUR feet to the unreached of PNG,

~Seth and Nicole Stokes