Long Overdue Update…

November 18, 2021 / Pray-for-Dem / 7 Comments

Hello friends,

Once again, we sincerely apologize for the lack of updates the last few months. We started an update months ago and things got crazy and just haven’t gotten around to knowing how to finish it well and sum everything up. We don’t want any of you to think that once we presented the Gospel in the Dem language, we didn’t have a need to update you all. That’s not the case at all.

Actually, there is SO much and so many things that are too good to put into words to be able to update you on everything here, but we will try to give you a quick run-down of the last 6 months.

After presenting the Gospel story in April, we started the next phase of lessons (Phase 2). These lessons go back through select OT lessons that we taught previously. But now that they have heard (And many believed) in Christ as the promised Redeemer, as we go through these stories again they can see that Christ was the one who truly is/was the promised Redeemer in a new light.

An example of this would be when the 10^th and final plague of the 1st born being killed, and God told the Israelites that in order to be saved, the blood of a lamb must be spilled and cover their door frames. When we taught this the 1^st time around the people loved the story but the 2^nd time we taught it, they REALLY loved it. Realizing that the blood of the lamb was a representation of what would come through Christ. That now those who have believed the blood of Christ was poured out, and it covers us, we have been saved.

This is just 1 example of how the 2^nd phase of lessons tie the Old Testament to the New Testament and how those of the Dem who have believed are now part of God’s family and what all that means.

In these phase 2 lessons we have been teaching the people what the word “church” really means Biblically as they have their own thoughts on what a church is, and how it isn’t just a building structure, but rather those who are connected with Yahweh and those who are part of His family. Also, why we pray, why we sing, what prayer is and we also give a time for people to share any testimonies they may have.

We have been doing these phase 2 lessons 2 days a week and then meeting again on Sundays to go back through the original chronological lessons of Phase 1. The 2 days a week of Phase 2 meetings are supposed to be believers meetings, but just like anywhere, we cannot tell for sure those who are true believers and those who are just following the trend, so because of that, we make sure to stress almost every believers meeting that, we do not know for sure who of you are truly connected with Yahweh, but Yahweh does, and if you truly are a believer, then we are all part of the same family, and we have the same Father, Yahweh.

Typically after the Phase 1 teaching, the group that attends Phase 2 is less. The hype of “this big, new talk” diminishes and people resume their old schedules. However, we continue to have anywhere from 300-400+ people coming to the believer’s meetings 2 days a week!! It truly has been the coolest thing Briana and I have ever experienced. We have literally witnessed a miracle (several) first hand. We have seen the birth of the Dem church and for the last 6 months we have been on the ground, talking with and seeing the change the Holy Spirit is doing the lives of our friends we have spent years praying for. We feel SO unworthy and so in awe of watching God work here. We are so thankful to be a part of what HE is doing!!

The Dem church is so so very young. They are just babies in the faith. They are hungry for God’s Word in their own language. We have seen change in many of them and they continue to want to hear and understand more of the Creator’s talk and grow more in their understanding of what it means to be a child of God.

Please continue to pray for the Dem church and thank you for your years of faithful prayers and support. It has ALL been worth it. It will be a privilege and a joy to see Dem in heaven with us on the other side of eternity and knowing many of you had a part in that.

As for our team and family….our kids are growing up fast. Jericho just recently turned 10 and Noelle 6. Soon in January Eden will be a teenager and we are very grateful that all 3 of them love living in the tribe. Since May it has just been us and 1 other family on the ground here as the Curries and VanRensberg’s are in the states on furlough.

We have had some very heartbreaking things medically happen the past few months, one being one of Jericho’s good friends died very quickly from what we think may have been TB that went to the brain? We were actually away from the tribe on a long awaited break when this happened, which made it even harder. We managed to thankfully get him a medivac to a town where he had family, but we heard he passed not long after:( It was very hard for Jericho and also us as he was one of the sweetest kids here and always around.

On the flip side, we have truly witnessed medical miracles. For those of you who don’t follow Briana’s posts on FB, I’ll try to fill you in. There was a young boy named Ande who when they brought him to us for the first time we thought he was going to die. His dad brought him to us for several days and we tried everything we could to help the boy, but literally every day when the dad left, we just assumed the boy would die that night.

After a few days of this Briana felt strongly for us to try and get the boy to town to just try and give the boy a chance. We weren’t even sure he would survive the flight out. Long story short, Briana spent a month in town with the boy and his father. Ande was in a coma for a long time and even went into septic shock. Although he recovered from the meningitis and sepsis, he seemed like a vegetable. He couldn’t eat on his own, hold his head up on his own, sit up or talk for a long time. Then he started to slowly make some progress, but we honestly thought he would probably just be a vegetable or have many handicaps if he indeed did survive and begin eating on his own. Briana came back to the tribe after a month while the boy and dad stayed in town for another month. During that month his improvement was incredible. After 2 months of being in town, the Lord healed the boy and he returned back to Dem land. When we saw him it was unbelievable. The Dem believers also were so encouraged and praised the Lord with us, as we all thought for sure there was no way Ande was going to survive, and if so, his quality of life wouldn’t be very good. He still has some recovery but even the doctors said, that only around 10% of cases like Ande recover and now he is smiling, talking, eating and walking around!!!

Another amazing thing about this story, is Ande’s parents didn’t come to the chronological teaching. For some reason they weren’t interested, but because Ande and his dad were in the hospital for almost 2 months, we gave his dad a recorder with the lessons and he sat there in the hospital listening to all 78 of the chronological Bible lessons every day. When they returned to the tribe, his dad and Ande came to a believers meeting and when I opened it up for testimonies, his dad quickly spoke up and thanked Yahweh for saving his son. (Picture below) We haven’t had a chance yet to talk to him 1 on 1 to see what he thinks of the lessons and hear a testimony, however, the Lord in His Sovereign plan was able to have another Dem guy who refused to come to the lessons, hear the Creator’s talk.

There is so much more we could share but for now we will stop here. Please continue to pray for the Dem church. They are just baby believers and trying to sort through and figure out how to walk in the Spirit (just like all of us are) and how to fully rely on God and not the things they have relied on their whole lives.

We also have our 4th literacy going on currently. Most of the students in this class have given clear testimonies, so it’s so cool to now be able to pray with them before class, and talk about how when they are finished with the class they will be able to read God’s Word on their own. We have been training 2 Dem guys to become teachers. They are doing a really good job and both os these guys have very clear testimonies of their faith in Christ. Please pray for Yoro and Tirinut. (the 2 teachers) Teaching takes up a lot of their time 5 days a week and they also have many responsibilities to their families and community, so pray as they navigate through this.

Please also pray for our family. It has been an INCREDIBLE year and we are 100% honored to be here to witness this first hand, but its also been a very stressful, taxing time on our family.

Sorry, our internet has been really bad and not allowing us to upload pictures/videos.

This is what our believers meetings usually look like. — Our believers meeting

1 of the believers explaining a lesson to younger kids — A believer explaining a lesson to younger kids.

The 2 guys training to be literacy teachers. — The 2 men training to be literacy teachers

A mom telling her little girl about the lesson. — A mom talking about the lesson to her little girl.

7pm Tomorrow night!!!!

April 10, 2021 / Pray-for-Dem / 4 Comments

Hello everyone,

Tomorrow night, 7pm Eastern time. (Our 8am Dem-Land time) we will be starting the death, burial, & resurrection lesson in the Dem language. We will be telling our friends how Jesus was/is the Permanent, Perfect, Sacrifice for our/their sins. We will tie all the Old Testament stories of how throughout the Old Testament the blood of a spotless lamb was the temporary covering of their sins and how now, Jesus, is the payment that has united us with Yagwe.

Because of His death, the veil was torn in the temple that separated man from a Holy God and that now we have direct access to Yagwe and that when they, (our Dem friends) put their faith, and trust in Christ, and “throw away” their old beliefs and fears, and “take hold” of Yagwe’s talk, repent, and accept that Christ’s blood is the only thing that can make them acceptable to a Holy God, then they can be reconnected with Yagwe and be saved.

This is what YOU ALL have been apart of. This is what WE ALL have been praying for. Please take a few minutes and pray, Sunday night between 7-9pm. Pray the Spirit would move and we look forward to giving you all an update next week of your new brothers and sisters. Thank you again for all the support and prayers.

Got 11 minutes?…

March 29, 2021 / Pray-for-Dem / 8 Comments

Hey everyone,

Heres another video (its 11 minutes) with an update about last weeks lessons and whats going on with the Dem. Please continue to pray for the Dem to have open hearts and to not be afraid to talk to us about things they are learning and give our team clarity in the language to be able to answer questions they may have.

Here is a list of some people who have been showing extra interest and really seeming to want to learn. They have stayed after to talk, ask questions, review lessons, etc… There are still anywhere from 400-500 coming daily, but the Dem are very nervous and hesitant to talk to us about the lessons. But this list of people are ones who have really seemed to “take hold” of Yahwes talk and wanting to learn more and more daily.

Eriak
Korina
Kem
Yoro
Jodagal
Tinus
Sopinut
Ton
Elia
Top
Mete

Thank you for your continue prayers.

Also we want you all to know our co-workers and if you want, start to follow them as well. They are all on facebook so you can reach out to them. We are truly a team, and we couldn’t be here in the position, without our co-workers.

Logan and Kendra Teall – TheTeallTimes

Jared and Melanie Currie

Dylan and Angie VanRensberg.

Quick video….

March 20, 2021 / Pray-for-Dem / 2 Comments

Hey everyone,

We wanted to just send a short video of the teaching building so you can kind of visualize whats going on here in Dem-land. Im not a professional “vlogger” but hopefully it does its job for yinz all to see whats going on. There is lots that have been going on and we will be sending out a longer update but for now. This is short.

*Mark your calendars…. April 15th will be the day we present the lesson of the death, burial, resurrection of Christ.

First 2 weeks of the teaching….

January 25, 2021January 25, 2021 / Pray-for-Dem / 9 Comments

Week 2 of teaching is finished, and it was another very encouraging week. Last week we wrapped up creation with Adam and then Eve and the fall of Satan. We taught on some things that were a direct contrast to their culture and beliefs. 1 being the value of women, and how they were created by God with a spirit like just like men. (Meaning- they have the same value as men, and God values women the same as men.) The Dem look at women as a possession just like their pigs. They constantly say women do not have brains and were created to serve the men and have zero value, besides raising children and working in the gardens.

They also learned how if they were to eat from the one tree God said not to, they would die. Not immediately, and not just physically, but like a branch Dylan cut down in front of everyone. When it is cut off from it’s life source, it will begin to die. When He cut the branch it still looked alive, the leaves were green, the branch is strong, but over time it will slowly dry up and die. Adam and Eve were like that once they disobeyed God and ate the fruit.

Another big thing was how all spirits that here on earth, were originally angels who decided to follow satan. That, spirits here on earth are not from past people who have died hanging around and, in the beginning, all of Gods talk was “straight” but over time humans have made Gods talk “crooked”. Because of that, they need to throw away the things that they believe that are not in the Bible, and to take hold of these new things we are teaching from Gods word.

The response and conversations that have been going on have been very encouraging. We have heard men talking amongst themselves saying, “We have been lied to and now we are hearing the truth.”

Other things that have been encouraging, is the Dem on their own are realizing how important this talk is. Last week there was 3 different big issues that normally based on their culture would prevent them from either leaving their homes, or even doing other things until the issues were resolved. But they on their own have changed their norms in order to hear Gods talk. 1 was a death where normally they would mourn for 1-2 weeks and not leave their yards, but they decided to come to the teaching in the mornings, and then return to their homes to mourn. This has never been done here before.

Another is an adulterous situation, where normally there would be talks of war and anger. My language helper is family of the woman who had an affair and he said to me the other night, “The enemy that we have is strong, and he doesn’t want us to hear the Creators talk. He is going to cause us lots of problems now so we won’t go listen to the talk.”

As he told me this, he was on his way to make a tribal peace talk. His family is going to request a payment (pigs) for the wrong doing, and tell the guilty party (Family of the man who had the affair with the woman from his family) that they do not want to fight and war. They want peace so that they can hear the Creators talk. This is so awesome.

Another guy came up to me the other day and said the same thing. He said, “The enemy is strong and he doesn’t want the Dem to hear the true talk.” He said, “From the beginning until now, our eyes have been in the dark, and we didn’t know what was true. But now, the talk that you guys are telling us is true, and the enemy does not want us to hear it, so he is going to cause many more problems now, tomorrow, and next month.”

These are things we as believers know, but the Dem on their own are understanding this already, and are trying to change their cultural norms in order to come faithfully and hear the truth. Little things like this…

… the Dem think a certain frog is a “spirit” and they are afraid of it and won’t touch it. Well after the teaching yesterday one of these frogs jumped out next to me and they started calling it a spirit again until one tribal guy came up and said, “No, It’s not a spirit. Remember what we have been learning? All these things were created by the Creator, and when he created them, He did not create them with a soul or spirit. They are just animals. We do not need to be afraid of them.” Of course, I was thrilled to hear this, and the man was still afraid to touch it, but baby steps here are very encouraging. Little nuggets of truth planted in their minds, causing them to question what they’ve believed their whole lives is all we are doing, and letting the Holy Spirit do what He does. So cool!

We are now into week 3 where we are going to introduce a redeemer who will come and crush the head of the serpent. We talked today about how Satan is a liar and deceiver and will not be an obvious enemy, but rather a deceptive, adversary who hates all things God loves and is always trying to deceive us humans and destroy us.

Please continue to pray for the teaching. As I mentioned… this is marathon, not a sprint. The first 3 weeks have been mind blowing for us to see the response and desire to hear these truths, but we know our enemy is not going to give up easily. Enjoy some pictures and thank you again for your faithful support. Those of you, who have been praying and supporting us have invested in this process as well and we do not take it for granted what so ever. Thank you!

Save the Date!!!

December 31, 2020December 31, 2020 / Pray-for-Dem / 10 Comments

Hello friends, family, prayer warriors, and anyone else!!!!

The time is soo close. As we all get ready to say good-bye to 2020, we are asking all of you to pray, and remember, and to be aware that in less than 2 weeks, a language group will begin hearing the true story of redemption in their own language for the first time EVER. January 11th is the day that the 3.5 month teaching will start. We will be teaching Monday -Friday in the mornings beginning with Creation and going through the Resurrection.

We have just about finished the teaching building. (For now, later after we have believers we will put walls and a floor in.) But for the next 3-4 months will you please be praying for the Dem and that the Holy Spirit would move in a mighty way. That our close friends would come continuously and hear the “Creator Talk” from the beginning to the end. Please pray that there wouldn’t be distractions from government or other things as we know our enemy doesn’t want the Dem to hear the story of their salvation.

Our team is very excited as this is the reason we left the states and moved to Indonesia over 10 years ago. And this is what YOU ALL have been praying for and anticipating and faithful supported all these years, January 11th!!! We will keep you updated as things go along but for now we wanted to let you all know the exciting news and please pray for our team as we teach, that we would be able to communicate the truths of the Gospel clearly despite our bad language blunders. Thank you again. and we look forward to 2021 and all that the Lord is going to do around the world and here in the Dem.

December Update…

December 7, 2020December 7, 2020 / Pray-for-Dem / 3 Comments

Hello friends,

We know it’s been a lil while since our last update…the past couple months have been all over the place (as I am sure it has been for many of you too) and we have been trying to plan for the upcoming teaching. We first of all want to again, thank you sincerely for your faithful support over the years and even AMID the Covid-19 issues God has used you all to remain faithful in supporting us and His plan to see the Dem reached with His “true talk.” So humbling. So THANK YOU for being a part of that!!

The past couple months here have been full of this and thats. Our main translator who was stuck off island for 3 months earlier in the year because of Covid, had to fly back to South Africa for passport issues that couldn’t be taken care of here in Indo. He was stuck out of the tribe again, for another month but fortunately he was able to continue translation and it didn’t slow down the work too much.

Also, Bri was able to make it out to Jakarta and get her dental work done, praise the Lord for working out those details and providing those funds.

Tarisi, who was sent out on an emergency flight with retained placentas after giving birth to twins was able to come back 3 months later and be reunited with her young son, Doliron. And Teh, The man who was shot through the intestines was also brought back in finally after 2 months of being stuck out in town too. We were so thankful to have them both back and in one alive piece!!!

Tarisi returning to her son she hadn’t seen for several months due to the medical-vac and Covid restrictions.

At this time, we are making preparations to begin the chronological teaching in January. I know, we have said this before many times. However, in the past it was always a “hope,” and this time it seems like things should and are actually falling in place, praise God. The necessary scriptures needed for 70 lessons have been translated, the lessons are being written and going through the comprehension checks with language helpers to ensure clarity and accuracy. We have cleared and leveled the land for the teaching, along with had wood cut for the framing of the building and the roofing is here in Dem-Land ready to go. Woohoo!

To say that our team is getting excited is an understatement! We are so very excited for this time. I mean, this is the reason our family left America over 10 years ago. To present the chronological story of a Redeemer who will adopt people from the Dem tribe into His Holy family!! And for them to hear this story in their very own language for the first time and for the Lord to use our family, our team, is extremely humbling.

Of course, with all the excitement comes other emotions, as we have many of our Dem friends who have been stuck out in a different town because of Covid and can not get back into Dem at this point. Please pray that the Dem will make it back in time for the teaching so they can hear the story as well.

As for update since last video we sent, the war has officially been over for some time now, but even after it was over there still was tension between both sides and we began to worry if this would affect who all came to the teaching.

However, we had a tribal-wide invitation to come and clear the land for the future Dem “Bible Talk Building” (what we call it in Dem), and many from both sides came and worked side by side and that actually was the first time many from each warring sides were together since the war in May. It was so encouraging to see and was kind of the “ice-breaker”, and since then we feel much of the tension has subsided.

Our other co-workers the Tealls who have been stateside most of this year have just returned to Dem-land. We are excited that our whole team is here and will be together for the next 6+ months and we can all join in the teaching and discipleship of the future Dem church.

We wanted to let you know that we admit, we aren’t good with updates and we sincerely apologize for that. However, when we begin the teaching we will try and give update every week or so on how it’s going and really try to involve you all in this time. You all, by praying and financially supporting us have invested into the future Dem church. And we can’t thank you enough. We will try and put up videos and pictures so you can feel a part of the process and see what is currently taking place and what all is happening.

Our prayer is that you all wouldn’t take this lightly. This is mind blowing to us when we think about the fact, that soon, these people who have been enslaved to the lies and fear of spirits and gods who are distant and impersonal, will soon hear the truth! And we pray the Spirit of God will move and bring many to Him!!!

Part of what I’m (J) going through daily is reviewing lessons with a language helper who has been with me for years now. His name is Yao. We recently went over a lesson that talked about what all the Creator created. We talked about how the Creator created the angels, (His helpers) and the world, and all that that entails. We talked about how after the one boss angel (Lucifer) rebelled against the Creator and became an enemy, and it was at this point where lots of the Creator’s helpers, (angels) followed satan and were cast out of heaven and then those angels became satan’s helpers (otherwise known as the evil spirits they know).

It was here where we talked about the spirits that are here on earth, and how they were not created that way during creation. God did not create evil/bad things, only good. So, if these spirits that are here on earth are actually satan’s (the Creators enemy) helpers, then they must not be good things. They, in fact are enemies of the Creator.

I could see his brain trying to process and think this through. Remember, the Dem and their everyday lives revolve around appeasing these spirits. In order for them to have a good harvest, or their pigs to not get sick, or their children not to die, they need to appease the spirits. So, for him (my language helper) to actually think through the idea of these spirits are actually, enemies of the Creator is a very big thing for them to think through.

This was just one instance where as we go through lessons I can see him thinking through things and it makes me excited for what he will be hearing soon. These language helpers of ours will be the first ones to hear the complete story and the Gospel message and we pray they all come to accept it and believe it. If you wouldn’t mind praying specifically for these 3 guys- Yao, Eriak, and Tinus, these are the main guys we have been using for comprehension checks of Bible translation and lessons. These could become the first Dem believers and Lord willing they will be able to convey the importance of this talk to the rest of tribe leading up to the teaching.

Please continue to pray this next month or so leading up to the teaching that as many Dem people as possible will be able to make it back here in time for the teaching.

Please pray for the language helpers as we go through lessons they will hear the true Gospel themselves before the rest of the tribe, and this could be taking place this month even.

Please pray for all the details that need to come together in the next month or so. And please pray for them to be receptive and faithful to coming each day. That’s good enough for now. Thank you again so, so very much!

J for the Stokes family.

These are some projects we would like to include you on:

Bible Talk House & Recorder Project-

We wanted to share this before hand, but life just keeps going and we are trying to keep upJ We have purchased the roofing, and paid wood cutters for the Bible Talk house.

We (our team) also have just purchased special MP3 players that are water proof and solar powered for the Bible lessons. Our hope is to put each day’s lesson onto the MP3 player for the people to take back and listen to the lesson at night in their huts, or in the gardens as they take a break from working. This is going to help them remember the lesson and even for others who might not have come to the teaching that day, for them to hear also. These players were bought in Singapore and were pretty expensive.

All of this, plus our team personally buys all the medicine for the tribe, along with copying the books for the literacy classes, has begun to put our team account into the hole. We aren’t complaining as God has and is providing. However, we have been told numerous times if there are specific needs such as this to let people know. So that is what we are doing.

If any of you would like to contribute and help with these big projects or like more information on the building or MP3 players, please email us so we can give you the information for our team’s account (not our personal one).

Thanks again!

Covid delayed update…

July 8, 2020 / Pray-for-Dem / 6 Comments

Hey all of YINZ!

We have written several different updates over the past several months and just about the time we go to send them out something changes. We know you all understand with the way the world has been the past 4-5 months as we are all in uncharted territory and even in the jungle these past few months have been very stressful.

We do apologize for the lack of updates. Things continue to change as our team has been separated in a sense and with a tribal war, that has caused complete division in the tribe things are constantly changing.

Here is a link for an update we made last week. If you have 10 minutes it will give you all some updates as to what has been happening and what the future might look like. We have been trying to get the video directly onto this blogspot for a week now and it just wont work but interent in the jungle is tricky sometimes. We will be sending out another update (Normal written update ) with more details following this video update. If you have any questions about something we mention in the update (Or if we dont mention something) Please email us!

We continue to be humbled by all of your sacrificial giving and prayers.

Link to video update!

Thank you all for praying!

January 13, 2020January 13, 2020 / Pray-for-Dem / 1 Comment

We wanted to update you all on the situation. Due to the timing of death and our flights we had to make a decision as to stay in the states and most likely lose our tickets or continue to Indonesia.

We spoke with our Pastors and decided to stay back a couple weeks praying for everything to work out with the tickets so we could stay and help my (J) mom with settling my grandfathers estate a little bit. I took a bus out to Pittsburgh on Friday and have been helping my mom with cleaning and what not and Briana and the kids are driving out to Pittsburgh today (Monday) for the week.

We appreciate your prayers and kind words. After hours and hours of going back and forth with the airlines we were able to get our tickets changed to the 26th for a minimum fee. PTL! Even though we were excited to be heading back to Dem-Land today at 8pm we believe we need to stick around a couple weeks to help with the situation.

If you are in the Pittsburgh area there is a funeral service at Bible Baptist Church in Plum Borough, Tuesday at 9am. Following that we will be driving to Frazysburg, Ohio (where my grandfather is originally from) to have another short service and burial.

Thank you all again to everyone who helped with this unexpected change in plans.

Please Pray!

January 9, 2020 / Pray-for-Dem / 1 Comment

This will be short but I would ask for you all to pray. Last night my (J) grandfather passed away unexpectedly. We can rejoice because he was a man who loved Jesus and we know he is with his heavenly Father now but the details are not pretty.

With out getting into details my family was planning on leaving to head back to Indonesia in 4 days and we bought non-refundable tickets (to save money) and I am torn as what to do in regards to staying and helping my mom (we don’t have extended family) settle the affairs of the house, my grandmother who has severe dementia but also not feeling at peace with the possibility of loosing the money for the plane tickets if the airline won’t honor the death certificate. (Money that some of you gave to purchase the tickets)

Please pray for peace and also that the airline will allow us to change flight dates. If you have any questions feel free to call us at 484-300-7069.