Hey everyone,

It’s that time again for our least favorite kind of update, but God has showed Himself faithful to provide each time and use you all to do so.  We were told by a supporting church to make these needs known to all of our supporters to see what God can/will do.  So, for those of you who have asked or wait to hear about these projects to help with, here is a list of big expenses or items you can help with for this year.  The new items below are not just new things that we want to upgrade just for the fun of it, but rather the solar electric equipment we have currently is starting to not hold the charge or function well, and it’s time to replace them.

We will be purchasing these things asap as the panels and batteries take up to 3 months to arrive on our island and the tickets will need to be purchased soon as well.  Thank you for praying about these things.  Please call (484-300-7069) or email us with any questions or thoughts. Thanks again.

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New Solar Panels– We have been using solar panels the past 4-5 years that we purchased from another missionary that had left the field, and at that point they were already several years old. They also are smaller (lower wattage) and older technology then what’s available now and so we are hoping to purchase newer panels that can charge batteries faster/more efficiently making it easier to do everyday tasks. The price for these including shipping to our base in town is around $900.00

New Solar Batteries– These are what gives us power to run a freezer, charge a computer, run the satellite for internet and anything else that requires any power.

Again, technology continues to change and as of recently they now have Lithium batteries in the size we can use for our solar system.  This has many benefits compared to older technology, but some of the main ones are, they can charge faster and be used longer than the older technology.  They also are half the weight so it helps with our house not sinking, saves money when flying them into the tribe (We pay per pound on the mission planes), and the newer technology is “supposed” to be better and last much longer.  The cost of these including shipping to our base in town is about $3,800.00

Airplane Tickets-  We actually have found the cheapest tickets we have ever found to head back in January. The total for all of us to get to Indo and then to Papua is around $3,700.00

Amazon Wishlist– We in the past have heard from many of you if there are specific material items that we need and so we put together an Amazon wishlist. The link is below and anything purchased will be mailed directly to us so we can begin packing to head back .

*These items need to be purchased quickly so we will probably need to pay for these things out of pocket trusting the Lord to provide the funds.

We just wanted to let you know what the summer and our time in the states has looked like and what we will be up to. (If you care…lol)

We hit the ground running here in the states, back in mid April. The first few weeks were filled with going from place to place looking for warmer clothes and closed toe shoes (what are those?!) that fit everyone. That was a task. And just trying to get used to things here. Then we headed to Disney World with Briana’s family! That was magical! We had never been on a vacation with her family since having kids, so it was a really special time.

We then headed on our way trying to connect with as many of our churches and supporters as we could on some longer trips. We even got to meet new churches and people, which was really fun too. We had been praying that the Lord would provide some new support for us since we were a little low, and He was faithful to encourage us. Many have asked, we don’t currently have the 100% support we are recommended, but we are excited to see what the Lord will do. He has never let us down yet. He has been more than faithful to provide for us through the years and we are touched by so many of you who give to us and help us out in many ways. We have seen it again this furlough…just the outpouring of love and support for us is sometimes overwhelming. So, if you are one of those people that has blessed us this furlough, THANK YOU!

We then spent the rest of what was left of our summer with J’s parents in Pittsburgh. That was a jam packed, fun-filled time too. Of course, we tried to keep school going as much as possible too, but we went and we went until we couldn’t go anymore. So many fun memories made.

Eden got to go to her first camp, overnight camp for a week with our church’s camp. She LOVED it! All the kids were able to attend VBS this year, which was a gift. And we (J and Bri) were able to attend a ministry retreat in Colorado that was just what we needed. Another gift.

Since we church hopped all summer due to our schedules, we are really enjoying our time here in eastern PA with our home church for a few months and just getting plugged in and my kids making friends and remembering names and faces. We moved back with Briana’s parents a few weeks ago, and are getting settled and finishing up some of our goals for furlough over the next 2 months. We just decided due to a series of information, that we will be staying through the holidays! We will be headed back to our home in the tribe, in January. We are all pretty excited to be staying for the holidays with family. It has been 6 years since we shared a Thanksgiving or Christmas with family and our kids have been begging to see snow.

If you would like to get together, let us know soon as we are trying to schedule it all out and time goes fast. We would love to get together with all of our supporters, but it can be tricky.

We have also been heavy hearted for our friends in Dem. There have been a couple deaths and sickness is always an issue. Don’t forget to pray for our Dem friends’ health and our coworkers as they selflessly care for them the best they can. It can be burdensome.

And lastly, we will be sending out a project you can consider being a part of soon! Living off grid means solar electric, and solar electric means solar panels and batteries. Our batteries are at the end of their little lives and we will be needing new. J will be writing an update with all those details.

For now, we thank the Lord for you and are looking forward to the rest of our time here.

Psalm 51:10-15 – Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

So what’s been happening with us since you heard from us last? We have been all over the place! Here is my best attempt to recap some of it for you:) In stages over a couple of updates…

Back in March and beginning of April, we had 2 weeks of Translation workshops and 3 weeks of Literacy workshops. Both were VERY profitable. It was a full 5 weeks squishing in every bit we could of learning and working on developing our own literacy curriculum for the Dem people. When I say “we”, I don’t just mean us Stokes, I mean our whole team.

We were able to develop literacy materials to teach the Dem people how to read and write their own language!!! It was very tricky to put together what I like to explain as a Preschool, Kindergarten and 1st/2nd grade grade class reading program for them that takes them about 5-6 months to graduate from. We had the help of some amazing literacy consultants every step of the way and 2 of our tribal men flew out and sat patiently all day in confining chairs to check our work each step of the way too.

We are thrilled to announce our first literacy class started in July! It is going on without us there, and while we are disappointed to be missing this exciting phase, we thank God we will be able to have a part in the literacy classes to come and that we have coworkers to do an awesome job. Our coworkers have paved the way and worked hard to get a small classroom built, books and materials printed and class started. It is a class of 14. The Dem are very excited about this opportunity to learn to read and write and in their language. The one tribal man who helped us said he was so excited that his legs were shaking. Another said they had pig’s hands and eyes…that they didn’t know how to hold a pencil to write and couldn’t read words on a page, like a pig…but they are learning they CAN read and write! This skill is necessary to have the Bible in their language so they can read it for themselves and be passed down for generations.

Please pray for our coworkers as they work tirelessly to teach, translate God’s Word and finish language study. We are all in different places/stages with different roles, but all working hard to see the Dem people reached with the lifesaving Gospel of our Savior. It won’t be long now! We are on track to start teaching them the Bible chronologically hopefully come spring/summer 2019!!!!! What a GLORIOUS day it will be.

I know many of you have a picture of a Dem person with their name on it- that was only a fraction of our Dem tribe and we ask you to pray for many to come to the teaching to hear for themselves and that they would be freed from their dark beliefs and set free from the darkness that encompasses them. We have already seen many what I would call miracles, people’s lives being preserved. We have lost a couple that we knew and have grieved that, but overall, it is shocking how many people have NOT died…and that is just a testament to our God. We thank Him for keeping them alive to hear the best news ever!

Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.
-2 Corinthians 12:9

There is some new unrest on our island. I can’t foresee when it will be done. I imagine this could go on for years. Just wanted to keep those praying updated.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-papua/indonesia-says-20-killed-scores-hurt-in-fresh-unrest-in-papua-idUSKBN1W807Q

Hi everyone,

We wanted to thank you all for praying for the situation in Papua. As for now it seems like it has calmed down but this could very well be temporary so please continue to pray.

We will try and keep you updated if things change.

We also want to ask if anyone has a vehicle in the Pa area that we could borrow for a couple months. Our mother-in-law has generously been letting us use her car while she has been driving an older pick up truck, but that pick up truck is starting to have a lot of issues so if we could borrow or rent someone’s car that would be amazing.  Please email or call at 484-300-7069. Thx again for everything.

J

Hello friends,

We haven’t updated since being back in the states as its been so much going and the business of life and we apologize for that. We will be sending an update out this week with pictures and info about some plans but we are writing to ask you all to pray for the situation in Papua.

If you haven’t seen it on the news there is a lot of unrest in Papua these past 2 weeks. Without going into a really long letter here, the Papuans have been rioting as they are fighting for independence from Indonesia. This has been the case for many years but recently there was an incident that occurred and has sparked the worse span of riots to date on our island. I will attach a couple articles about what’s going on and Ill preface it with this;  because of social media and the internet we will not publicly discuss our views or more details on the topic on a public platform. If you’d like to discuss things in more detail we will gladly do so over email or phone but for now please pray for Papua.

At the moment many of our co-workers who live in town are headed off island until the unrest subsides. As far as our partners that are interior in the Dem they are not currently affected by this except for the fact that the people who buy supplies and the mission aviation orgs that make living interior possible are all in towns where these riots are taking place and thus could have affect our teammates interior if they continue.

Please pray for the riots to stop and for some sort of peace to take place. Please pray for the many missionaries that are in these towns that are needing to move off island until the violence subsides. We know nothing happens outside of God allowing it and we can rest knowing He is in control but these are certainly stressful times for many on the island we now call “home.”

Thx so much!

J

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/papua-protests-5-things-know-indonesia-unrest-11858328?fbclid=IwAR2RcKpxE0QCQ9C0Ng4497mjohLt1oGNQF3CYOAEh_5HnkO73jiZ3f3cgLU

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/indonesia-papua-riot-torch-government-building-11854306?fbclid=IwAR0Et4GlPLXh-WS6FRWvy7yndoOzOuL9nw5D5k2WqQM04jh2-U0ZfG6fRPE

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-29/papua-unrest-turns-violent-as-at-least-three-killed/11459994?fbclid=IwAR2AEtyw0WFEx5ytxAKp0VNdmtg7MtzyuPKb3nH2kK4yvEE8lc3fepZ76eI

“God is more concerned about the work He’s doing IN you, than He is THROUGH you.”

We are back home in Dem-Land after a great break! We had been in here since January and were really ready for one!  For those who didn’t know, we as a family were able to take a vacation for some much needed family time. We have done a couple day get away’s at a hotel here and there before, but never an actual, planned get-a-way where we didn’t need to focus on ministry and just have some R&R. We felt like it was very much needed and we thank you all who had a part in seeing that possible. It was SUCH a blessing!

Best Zoo ever!

Releasing baby sea turtles

After our vacation, we came back to Papua where Eden did a week of standardized testing and we did some of our supply shopping.  Then we had our regional conference.  It was 5 days of hearing from other works on the same island with our org (NTM) and also a time of sharing, learning and encouragement.  It was great for the kids as well as they were able to take part in a VBS program that was put together for the kids while the adults were in meetings all morning.  It was encouraging to hear from other works and how the church is growing all over this island and we have new brothers and sisters in Christ.

After conference, our organization had a couple days of Church Development  forums where we talked/learned about practical topics pertaining to our current and future ministries.

We can’t help but become anxious for the day we can give a report of the first Dem person putting their faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. But until then we keep plugging along at what He has for us now.

As of last week Eden started 4th grade, Jericho is starting 1st grade and our family is back in the swing of things. After being gone from our home for a little while, it took us a few days to get our house back up and running and all our supplies unpacked (for the next several months) and laundry done. LOTS of cleaning-you wouldn’t believe how filthy a house can get in a month here and how much spiders can overtake a house!

For those of you who have been praying for the mom and baby who didn’t have enough breastmilk; the baby is doing well! Our team has been helping her everyday that we have been here to supplement formula, pump, give medicines, etc.. This is a big shout out to our co-workers, the Teall’s and my wife Briana, as they have been diligently spending so much time cleaning bottles, preparing bottles for her to take home, teaching the mom and caring for these two.  Also THANK YOU to those of who sent packages of formula for the baby.  It hasn’t been something that our team has honestly wanted to do every day, but in the end we are thankful to be able to help this mom and baby and it would be so cool if this baby one day accepts Christ as her Savior.

As far as plans go for this year, we are not planning on coming out of the tribe until next March. Our hope is to work hard these next 7 months and for me (Jay) to take my final language evaluation sometime before Christmas. Then, Lord willing, Briana can can have a couple of months of full time language while I would be house dad before we need to go to town in March (2019) for some literacy and translation workshops. These workshops, which will last 5 weeks, are exciting because it means we can start the fun stuff like Literacy in the Dem language and of course the translation of God’s word into the Dem language for the first time in the history of the PLANET. How crazy is that!

After these workshops are over, our plan is to take a 6-7 month furlough. At that point next year, it will have been almost 4 years since being stateside, and the plan is to return to the Dem tribe in time to help with final preparations before we can start teaching the creation to Christ chronologically to our Dem friends in their own heart language. Pretty exciting!!!

In the coming months we will be sending out updates/requests for people who may want to give to specific projects. Next year when we head to Pennsylvania, we will need a car, possibly housing, plane tickets and also new solar equipment. We know God will provide as He ALWAYS does, but just somethings for you all to pray about.

Along those lines, if there is anyone out there who might have an extra car they’d be willing to rent/lend us while we are back, would you please let us know? We are tentatively planning on purchasing a car and praying we can re-sell it when we go to leave, but we thought we could put the need out there and see what happens first.  Also if you know of any furnished housing options in the Boyertown/Pittsburgh area we’d appreciate any leads.

And in closing, as I mentioned during our regional conference, we had a guest speaker from the states and he challenged us everyday from the Word and something that I was reminded of was something I think a lot of us forget. For me I stay so busy with my ministry and what God is allowing me to be a part of and what is being accomplished “through” my work/ministry and I get caught up in wanting my ministry to count, and wanting others to see what we are doing for God, that I forget sometimes that God cares so so much about a personal relationship with me and He cares about what He is doing IN my life, far more than He cares whats being accomplished THROUGH my life. He doesn’t NEED any of us to do ANYTHING for Him. He desires you and me to be intimate with Him. THAT is the WHY He sent His son to Calvary. This was a great reminder to not let ministry get in the way or take priority before my relationship with Him and I hope you all remember the same thing.

Thank you all once again for your faithful support and we look forward to seeing you all next year.

*Also, over the years many people have changed email services or for whatever reason we have had our issues with some people receiving our updates who used to and its so hard to track so many different email addresses,  so please feel free to share this  amongst your churches and/or friends/family  and hopefully we can get re-connected but please try and leave out specifics about our location and organization on social media.

Hey everyone,

We hope and pray you all had a great thanksgiving remembering all that the Lord has given and blessed us with. We also pray this month leading up to Christmas we can remember what we as the body are celebrating. Not the presents and lights but the greatest gift in the history of the world, Gods Son.

We actually have several things to update you on and will do so in the next couple weeks but we wanted to let everyone know that on January 2nd a couple people from our sending church will be coming to help us with some big house projects but mainly to secure the foundation of our house that seems to be sinking a little.

They will be bringing our kids school curriculum for next year along with other things we cant get get here in country. We have had several people ask if there are specific “items” we needed or wanted that they (the people coming) could bring so we put together an Amazon wishlist.

We know this is last minute and this kind of thing is always awkward for us but like I said, people have asked for specific “items” so here they are. If anyone would like to help with any of the items they need to be purchased within the next couple weeks so they arrive in time for the people to pack them and bring them.

Whatever is not purchased by 15th we will purchase ourselves. We appreciate you all so much and for your continued support. In the next couple weeks we will be adding pictures and updates about the last month or so.

You follow the link provided to the wishlist and the items will automatically be sent to the family coming.

– the Stokes’

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/GKZ58SDTCL9Y