Dave and Blanca Gifford, Daniel and Alexandra We are career missionaries with Christian Reformed World Missions, serving in Mexico City. I (Dave) am an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church and do leadership development. I teach three courses per semester at the Seminario Teológico Reformado de México, and serve as the faculty librarian of the seminary. I serve the Mexico field of our mission as Country Team Leader. And I serve the wider Spanish-speaking Christian community by helping organize training events for the Timothy Leadership Institute and by producing free Spanish web materials for Christians on the present website. My wife Blanca (Honduran-American) keeps our home functioning, keeps our finances in order and keeps our kids fed. She also organizes a Saturday morning kids club that shares the love and message of Jesus with the children who live near our church. We have two children, Daniel and Alexandra. Daniel was born in 1995 in Ecuador while we served there as church planters with SIM. Daniel is studying digital animation at a college here in Mexico City. Alexandra was born in 2000 in Michigan while I was studying at Calvin Theological Seminary. Alexandra studies at a bilingual private school here in Mexico City. We hope you enjoy our website, one of several ways that we try to keep our friends, family and supporters up-to-date on our lives and ministry. God bless you. The Giffords Somos misioneros con la Misión Mundial de la Iglesia Cristiana Reformada, sirviendo en el Distrito Federal de México. Yo (David) soy un pastor ordenado en la Iglesia Cristiana Reformada y trabajo en el área de desarrollo de liderazgo. Imparto tres materias por semestre en el Seminario Teológico Reformado de México, y sirvo como el bibliotecario de la facultad del seminario. Sirvo como Jefe del equipo de nuestros misioneros a nivel de México. Y sirvo un público más amplio con los talleres de capacitacióon que organizo para el Instituto Timoteo, y con los materiales gratuitos que ofrecemos en español en el presente sitio. Mi esposa Blanca (hondureña-americana) asegura que todo funcione en nuestro hogar, que nuestras finanzas estén en orden, y que nuestros hijos están alimentados. Ella también organiza un club infantil los sábados. El club comparte el amor y el mensaje de Jesucristo con los niños que viven cerca de nuestra iglesia. Tenemos dos hijos, Daniel y Alexandra. Daniel nació en 1995 en Ecuador mientras servíamos como plantadores de iglesias con la misión SIM. Daniel estudia animación digital en una universidad aquí en el DF. Alexandra nació en 2000 en Michigan mientras yo estudiaba en Calvin Theological Seminary. Alexandra estudia en una escuela privada aquí en el DF. Esperamos que nuestro sitio te sea de bendición. Es una de varias maneras en que intentamos informar a nuestros amigos, familiares y donantes acerca de nuestras vidas y ministerios. Que Dios te bendiga. La familia Gifford Presiona las ligas azules para abrir fichas. Presiona la X de una nota para regresar. We don't solicit financial gifts other than donations through our mission, above. But there are some who have indicated their desire to help in more personal ways, so we simply make these links available here for those who feel inspired to do so: We upload the photos we want to share to Flickr. Some are of our own life and ministry. Some are of Mexico and Mexico City. By clicking the following link you will find the sets or albums of photo by topics, with the most recent sets showing first. Prayer requests for December 2015 Praise the Lord for a relaxed, brief Field Council November 5-6, the fruit of many a missionary’s hard work on budgets in October by email. It was great to be with everyone again and have them in our home. Praise the Lord for a safe trip to Chiapas, where I attended COMUNI and the Reformed Presbyterian Church Synod. Praise for good ministry moments: Blanca’s kids club, my seminary classes, my preaching at Jesús el Salvador (JES) church, team leader stuff, and even some advances in RecursosGiffmex. Pray for our health: Alexandra continues to manage her dysautonomy, Blanca continues to deal with insomnia and soreness, Daniel has sensitivity to light that bothers his eyes constantly, and my sugar levels and sleep apnea go up and down, affecting my energy level from day to day, which is frustrating. Pray for Hermila, Christian, and Christian’s two girls, Fernanda and Ximena. They will all be baptized at JES church this Sunday, with Hermila and Christian also making profession of faith. Pray also for JES church as we have our congregational meeting this month, too. Pray for Enrique Miranda and his family, friends with whom I have worked in both the seminary and the church. He was forced out of Getsemani Coyoacan church this summer, and has requested his papers to leave the Reformed Presbyterian Church. After investigating other possibilities, he is planning to start his own independent church in his home this coming weekend. Pray for me as I am meeting with him later this week to urge him to consider other possibilities for his church plant. Continue to pray for the family of Dr. Gerald Nyenhuis to feel God’s strengthening as they mourn his passing. Pray that we have a great time in Hawaii December 21-31. We are celebrating Alexandra’s turning 15 last March, our 25th anniversary this January, Daniel’s birthday in January, Blanca and I starting a new decade of life in this year, and of course, the birth of our Lord and Savior. Blanca and I especially need a break and a getaway after a tiring autumn. The present site is powered by TiddlyWiki, an open source web application that creates a collection of notecards inside a webpage. I (Dave) have used TiddlyWiki and have been involved in the TiddlyWiki community since 2006 or so. Over the years I have created various adaptations of TiddlyWiki and the older TiddlyWiki classic. The present page provides links to my various concoctions of old. Word of warning: I am too busy with new responsibilities to dedicate much time anymore to the TiddlyWiki community, and I do not maintain any of these adaptations anymore. They are here for nostalgic reasons only, and in case members of the TiddlyWiki community wish to mine them for parts and ideas. Here are six ways you can help us: We don't solicit financial gifts other than donations through our mission, above. But there are some who have indicated their desire to help in more personal ways, so we simply make these links available here for those who feel inspired to do so: Click the blue links to open notes. Click the gray X at the top of a note to close it and work your way backwards.
Christian Reformed World Missions, Mexico City
Mexico City
México DF, 1 de marzo de 2015TiddlyWiki "5" Notestorm is a note-taking adaptation I created in 2014. In 2013 and 2014 I created tutorials TW5 mall and TiddlyQuickly to help users of the most recent version of TiddlyWiki. But TiddlyWiki evolved and improved so quickly that these became difficult to maintain, and I have since taken them down. Tobias Beer took the TW5 mall idea and greatly improved upon it with his site of solutions. TiddlyWiki classic resources Introducing TiddlyWiki is a presentation I put on slideshare.net to introduce TiddlyWiki classic. TiddlyWiki for the rest of us was a tutorial I created in simple language for non-developers. It has helped thousands of people over the years. TiddlyWiki in Action was a showcase I created with links and information about classic TiddlyWikis that others had created. The purpose was to help users see how TW has been used, to give them ideas for their own TWs. TiddlyVault was a topical catalogue of the plugins for TW classic that I had collected. This was a helpful tool at the time because plugins had been scattered across numerous sites and one had to really hunt around to find them. Braintags and NoteStorm for classic are the most recent note-taking adaptations I created for classic. I also created a productivity TW called TiddlyDu, and a TW database for personal libraries called BibblyWiki. Our seminary library still uses BibblyWiki. See our library database (in Spanish) here. 1. Donate You can donate to our regular support needs here Each year we seek to raise $300 for expenses for expenses related to Dave's seminary / leadership project. Each year we seek to raise $500 for expenses related to Blanca's children's ministries project. We are grateful that this project is now fully supported. By mail: Send a check to Christian Reformed World Missions, 1700 28th St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49508-1407, and note on the check which fund to direct it to: either "Giffords' regular support needs" or "Gifford vehicle, fund code WMLA 805663", "Children's project, fund code 808071", or "Seminary project, fund code 805072". 2. Pray for us We believe that what we do will only make a difference if God blesses it. So we ask for your prayers for us and for our ministry. We update our prayer requests and notes of praise each month. You can read our prayer requests here. Write to us to sign up to receive prayer letters at: dgifford@crcna.org. 3. Tell your friends and family about us We need an ever-expanding circle of people who will pray for us and/or support us. But it is hard for us to meet new people from Mexico or during a rushed home service. Would you be willing to go to bat for us? Let your friends and loved ones know about what we do. Tell them about the goodies on our site. And encourage them to consider supporting us by their prayers and support gifts. 4. Encourage us Email us at dgifford@crcna.org Comment on Dave's posts on Facebook 5. Visit us on a Service and Learning Team or as a volunteer We have requests from Mexican churches for construction teams, and we can accomodate prayer teams and evangelistic teams (Some knowledge of Spanish required for the latter). If you are interested in forming a team to visit Mexico City, please contact us directly, or contact Bill Thornburg, World Missions' Group Program Coordinator for Volunteer Ministries, at bthornburg@crcna.org 6. For family members and close friends only