January 2, 2004

Dear Friends,

Praise items

• Praise for the opportunity to be in Chiang Mai, Thailand, January 4 to 27 to be with our youngest daughter Sara and her husband, David Treece, for the birth of their first child, due January 15. Paul and Pat with their family will also be there from January 15 to February 12. So it will be a joyous partial family reunion. A kind Australian family who are on home leave have made their home available for us all to use, a wonderful provision! During January please use Treece's address claypots@pobox.com in order to reach us. Please send a copy to our usual address above as well. Pray for a safe delivery and a good adjustment to parenthood.
• Praise for a fun time of games, worship, and fellowship at the Christmas party, which was attended by our workers and their families. This is the one time each year that all the wives and children can come. They relish this chance to enjoy one another. Sammy, a Chinese missionary from Hong Kong who is studying language, gave a good message.

• Praise for another good experience in the Cardiac Institute with Resham. For several days they had to work to get her hemoglobin down and her blood thinned out. Finally she was able to have the angiography, in which they inject dye into her veins and then take a CD of how the blood passes through her heart. She has serious deformities in her heart. She must return in February to have a final analysis made by a team of heart surgeons who will determine if surgery is possible and advisable. Pray for a wise decision, as the risks are great. Her husband Daniel and mother-in-law Mutto came with us this time. In tribal culture a girl cannot show her face or speak freely with her in-laws, so they have hardly come to know one another in the year since her marriage. We believe this time together did much to cement their relationship and give them new respect for one another. Mutto cared for her very lovingly. During the last three days Resham’s father and a brother joined us at the hospital. They are not believers but were open to prayer and witnessing.

• Once again, the children’s Bible with excellent pictures steadily made the rounds of the ward. Several young Muslim women took time to read stories to Resham and Mutto, neither of whom can read. Pray there will be fruit from this contact with Scripture.
• Praise for a good Christmas tour in several villages. Christmas Eve was spent with our evangelist, Daud, visiting an extended family that is better educated than most Meghwals. Haroon is a young man who studied for two years in Bible school, then taught for the Pentecostals for a few years until they closed the school. He is now making hats but is open to Christian service. Pray for wisdom to know how his gifts can be used.
  
  Christmas day we had a noon service and dinner with our one woman evangelist, Jamna, the widow of the first Meghwal believer. Many of her family of five daughters, two sons and numerous grandchildren were gathered for a joyous celebration. These are among the few second-generation Meghwal believers. Being raised from childhood with Christian teaching, they know their Bibles better and often show greater maturity. The heart patient Resham is married to one of the grandsons. She came in spite of having quite a fever that day.
  
  Christmas night we joined a gathering at Lazar’s village, made up of his six brothers and their families as well as inquirers and believers from several nearby villages. Aziz, the brother who runs away, now seems happy and stable and is learning to read, memorizing verses, and getting ready for baptism. They thoughtfully arranged for us to get a good night’s sleep while they watched Christian films until 3:00 a.m.

• December 26 we went to a Saraiki Meghwal village in the desert where a literacy center is now meeting. Learning to read is awakening enthusiasm for spiritual truths. Our generator broke down so we couldn’t show films. However the CD of new Saraiki hymns that was recorded last month kept everyone spellbound. They are so excited to have hymns in their own language and sung tribal style.
• Praise that our car will be completely overhauled and many parts replaced during January while we are in Thailand. Unknown to us, the McBanes spread the word that our 1986 Toyota needed attention. To our great surprise we received several generous gifts that are making this possible. It will be in the hands of an expert mechanic who has worked faithfully in the past. We are very grateful!

Prayer items

Pray for George and Gail McBane who are participating in an orientation program with the PC(USA) most of January. They are grateful that most of the personal support they need has been pledged. They are in need of work funds to keep the ministry going out here. Pray too for satisfactory housing here in Rahim. The tenants in the house they expected to move into in February have now filed a court case against the landlord for evicting them, even though they haven’t paid rent for years. Court cases can drag on indefinitely. Pray this one will miraculously be settled soon or that another satisfactory house will be found.

Pray for the following programs planned for January:

• January 20-22 - Group 1 for inquirers and new believers will study Jacob’s early life. Pray for prepared hearts and for the evangelists who will be fully responsible for the program in our absence.
• January 29-31- Workers’ meeting to prepare for programs in February. We hope to be back for this.

May Jesus be very real to you throughout 2004.

In Christ,

Fred and Margie Stock

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 198