Praise that the Lord got me through a couple tough weeks where the mission put a lot of demands on me all at once.
Please pray for my progress on slow work of tranfsferring the seminary library database (the file corrupted, so I need to transfer the 5,828 entries into a new and safer file. I am now at 3200 entries). And thank the Lord for supporter Dave VanNoord, who helped make the process much easier. (Before you ask, there are reasons why I can’t just give this job to someone else…)
Praise God for a good Mexico field council Zoom this month, and pray that the Canchés will have a good finish to their time as full-timers with Resonate Mexico.
Please pray for upcoming meetings with the Reformed Presbyterian Church and the National Presbyterian Church.
Please pray for friends facing serious situations: in one day, we heard of someone who was attacked by someone who wanted to kill him, another person whose father committed suicide in front of his wife and his other son, and an RPC pastor who was hospitalized and whose lungs are in bad shape. (All asked not to share their names).
Please pray for our mission, Resonate Global Mission as it adapts to the anticipated drop in ministry shares this year, as churches move to a pledge system for ministry shares. And in a year of health and economic difficulties for supporters.
Please pray also that the leadership and guiding teams of the mission will provide good, balanced leadership.
Pray for spiritual revival, health, finances, relationships, and peace around the world. Pray the churches will do more to rise to the challenges that 2020 has brought upon us.
Please continue to pray for Blanca and Alexandra’s health, and a job for Daniel.
Thank the Lord for 17% of our support goal so far despite tough times for many. We are thankful to the Lord for faithful and sacrificial donors.
September 2020
Praise the Lord for…
…A good start to the new seminary semester online. I am teaching two courses: Gospels, and Hebrews to Revelation.
Some progress on Spanish resources this summer: A large file of resources on literary conventions in the New Testament, the Gospels course packet I mentioned last month, a separate site with information on each of the passages in the Gospels (our daughter Alexandra is helping me now on this one). Let me know if you would like links to these ‘under construction’ projects.
Health, finances and safety. We consider ourselves spoiled by God in that the pandemic and quarantine have not (at least not yet anyway) affected our health, finances or mental sanity.
Our Mexican friends Uri and Carmen, who raised support for Uri to study at Calvin Seminary in Michigan. They recently arrived there with their two children, and Uri is getting his feet wet in orientation. Please pray for them in their adjustments, and Uri’s studies. Our friend Monse is still waiting for her visa approval to study at Westminster in California this fall. She got a full scholarship.
Our housekeeper Elodia. We mentioned last month that she was diagnosed with COVID. But she never developed any symptoms, and tested negative.
Please pray…
For perseverance and fast progress for an unexpected project: last week I discovered that the file I had the seminary library database on was corrupted recently. I now have to transfer the almost 6,000 entries into a different and less vulnerable type of file, one by one. I am at about 1100 entries so far.
For my Sunday school lessons this month on habits – how to stop negative habits and build positive new ones.
For Pastor Oscar Molina in Zacatepec, Morelos. He almost died from COVID 4 months ago, and while he is recovering, he is still almost bedridden.
For my preparation for the Mexico field council later this month.
For church members who have family members with COVID or are suffering other complications of COVID’s effects on the economy: one member has her business furniture and effects in the church entrance because people tried to break into her beauty parlor at night.
Please continue to pray for Blanca’s health, Alexandra’s health, and Daniel’s job search.
Please continue to pray for our support level (slightly behind), the pandemic, the world economy, and the political problems in the US, Mexico and the rest of the world.
Please pray for the open position we have for someone to come to Mexico City. The family that was interested wrote today to tell me they have decided not to pursue the position further, due to factors that have to do their family at this point in time.
August 2020
Praise for good ministry moments, especially the workshop on Philippians Dave led in July over the course of three days with Daniela de la Rosa for the COMPA leadership formation encounter. Praise also for opportunities to preach in Michigan (by recorded sermon) and Mexico City (by live Zoom from Querétaro).
Praise for a nice visit to James and Barbarita Lee and their three children in Querétaro in late July.
Praise for the measure of health we have, but pray our energy level and mood swings during quarantine. Continue especially to pray for Alexandra and Blanca.
Praise for Blanca’s niece Elisa in Honduras, who gave birth to a baby boy, Carlos.
Please pray for our housekeeper, Elodia, who was diagnosed with COVID but has no symptoms.
Please pray for the start up of seminary classes in August and prep work for a Sunday School series on changing habits.
Please pray for the open position we have for someone to come to Mexico City. There is interest from at least one family.
Please pray for the economy of the US and Mexico, and for God to stop the spread of the coronavirus in both countries and the rest of the world.
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.