Missionaries with Resonate Global Mission in Mexico City
Prayer requests for this month
July 2020
Praise for 95% support from donations processed through June 23. We may even get a little closer to 100% by the end. Thank God for his grace, and for giving our ministry such generous supporters.
Praise that we and our friends were not affected by the earthquake.
Praise that we and our friends and family do not have COVID.
Praise that our son Daniel no longer needs a cane, and got a good report from his doctor.
Praise that ministry events in June went well: a student thesis defense, preaching on Colossians, a four week Bible study with COMPA leaders on Titus, and the continued preparation of new Spanish materials. Performance reviews and other team leader responsibilities are getting done on time, too.
Praise that I (Dave) was finally interviewed for my notetaking application, Stroll. The first interview date got postponed because the interviewer from London (Jeremy Ruston, the creator of TiddlyWiki) got COVID! Praise that he is now better. The interview is not yet on YouTube. Next month I will post the link.
Prayer for our health. Blanca, Alexandra and I have each had some very rough days, healthwise, in the last few weeks.
Prayer for events in July: preaching in English and Spanish, prep for the new seminary semester, another student thesis defense, prep of new Spanish materials, year end Resonate paperwork, and a 4.5 hour Bible study over three days on an epistle (TBD) for COMPA’s Leadership Formation Encounter, and a trip to see fellow Resonate missionaries James and Barbarita Lee and their kids at the end of the month.
Prayer for the world: for the people living in Hong Kong, for places where COVID cases are resurging or simply still on the rise, for racial tensions and political polarization, for the people affected financially by the pandemic. Not to mention all the usual items for prayer for the world. We feel, for now, physically sheltered from all this, but still feel psychologically assaulted by it all, on a daily basis. We can only imagine what people in the thick of things are going through.
June 2020
We give thanks for Blanca, who celebrated her birthday June 1!
We give thanks for health, financial support (currently at 90%), daily grace for living, for our ministry, which continues despite quarantining. Preaching once a month, leading a COMPA Bible study on Mondays, and my seminarians just survived their final exam.
We give thanks for Daniel’s recovery from his fall in April. He is down to using a cane, and is finishing up physical therapy. We give thanks that Alexandra is with us and is doing okay.
We give thanks for progress in web materials: my notetaking program Stroll got positive mentions in Youtube videos, and I got a lot of positive feedback on it by email, Twitter and the TiddlyWiki forum (see it at https://giffmex.org/stroll/stroll.html). I am making steady progress on my longterm, slow burn project on the Gospels in Spanish, and am adding almost daily to my English online notes, too. https://giffmex.org/publicdb/
We pray for grace and relief for the US, Mexico and the world. COVID, lockdowns, economic woes, racism, political rivalries, protests, news and social media turning into a shouting match of memes, the rush to ignore social distancing in beaches and other public places, uncertainty in places like Hong Kong. God have mercy on our world, and may this lead to repentance and spiritual conversion/renewal.
We pray and give thanks for Resonate staff, who have worked hard and have done a great job so far, navigating us through difficult times.
May 2020
We give thanks to God for health and safety from COVID-19. Our son Daniel’s fracture in a bone in his foot is healing nicely. (Daniel fell down some stairs a few weeks ago). My (Dave) stye (Spanish orzuelo) in my eye is almost done healing.
We give thanks that ministry continues, though from home by Zoom, WhatsApp and email: Preaching, leading Bible studies, teaching seminary classes, leading TLT sessions, acting as a reader for two student theses.
We give thanks that I was invited to lead a Bible study two afternoons as part of COMPA’s “virtual camp.”
Please pray for the kids who used to attend Kids club. The club is on hold, of course, until things settle down and it is safe to work with the children again.
Please pray for my latest project, a database on the Gospels in Spanish. It has barely begun, and I won’t be promoting it online until I get a lot further. I am dedicating an hour a day to this. See it at https://giffmex.org/html/evangelios/Bienvenido.html.
We give thanks for unexpected interest in TiddlyBlink, a notetaking tool I created early this year. A French social media influencer living in London with 10,000 subscribers fell in love with it, and has created a new wave of users. They are having a positive impact on the underlying software, TiddlyWiki, and a lot of people are suddenly following me and interacting with me on Twitter.
Please pray for Saq, who lives in Paris, and is helping me upgrade TiddlyBlink – soon to be renamed Stroll – in between his 12 hour shifts volunteering at the hospital to help with the COVID demand! See the under construction latest version at https://saqimtiaz.github.io/sq-tw/tiddlyblink.experiment.html
Praise that team leader responsibilities have reduced somewhat after the initial barrage of Zoom meetings and emails, allowing me to focus more on ministry and family.
We give thanks to God for the leadership and support staff at the CRCNA and Resonate Global Mission. They have been doing such an excellent job at managing all the chaotic and constant changes due to the pandemic.
We give thanks to God and to our supporters for our 85% support level at this time. May God bless and protect our supporters. We are on target to reach 100% by the end of June.
Pray for an end to the spread of the virus, for the economy, for the poor, for political cooperation instead of the constant political and interpersonal friction we keep seeing in the news and on social media.