Update from Tino and Nelda Villarroel

Recent Events

Activities

2024 has kept us busy in our ministry that we love - evangelism, discipleship, and service. 

After we were dismissed from the Bible faculty, we wasted no time and continued our call to the Lord's service. The Lord opened doors for us on the mission field. During 2024 we were working in new fields, such as evangelising in Mennonite colonies, military barracks, schools, and peasant communities in the Chaco, border with Paraguay and Argentina.

We were involved with the army on the Paraguayan border, where we preached with positive results and we continued with basic discipleship because soldiers are assigned to other barracks and new ones come. That is our challenge, on Saturday and Sundays we will be with them, sharing God's love. 

Also, about 208 kms from Villamontes there is a rural school with 75 students and 5 teachers where we also preached and discipled. We are frequenting this place more because the parents of the students asked us not to abandon it. We have a commitment to return in 2025. We are praying to get school supplies for them.

In the Mennonite colonies we are also teaching them how to deal with the themes of grace, doctrine of the church, fruit of the Holy Spirit. Another door for the gospel has also opened in another Mennonite colony. They asked me to give my testimony for 10 minutes and I used the time for a Bible lesson mixed with testimony. Then they gave me another 10 minutes.

This week it was very rainy, and we stayed in the Tiguipa gap to attend a new play in a place called Taiguati. We had many children who shared some sweets. The work here is done by three families including Brother Juan Carlos Rivas. He was a worker in Yacuiba, but because of things that are happening in the churches, the new generation discards the older ones. This brother came to help us in the mission field of the Chaco. The Lord provided 4 hectares of land in Tiguipa and he was encouraged to work there to support some of the ministry. He had no electricity and no water in his house. We don't know how, but we managed to get water and electricity although we need a plastic tank to store the water.

The other family is Brother Teófilo Vega: we have been working with this brother for about 46 years. He is known in the ministry, and he is the one who supports the workforce.

Personal 

We, Tino and Nelda, are already 74 years old, with 40 years of complete service for the Lord. We move forward because we do not want to fail the one who called us and takes care of us every day. We have gone through many hard trials, health, ministry, family, and also economic but we do not complain. The Lord always provides to share with those who also suffer, we also share our scarcity.

Some brothers and sisters give us chicken, eggs, meat which we sell to cover ministry expenses. You also send us your offerings, and we also use it for those purposes, you are part of everything we do. We thank God our father for the church in New Zealand.

We still live on the farm because we don't have my house. I sold my house and a truck that I had to work on and invested it in this place, so I do not have anything but a 1998 car. That takes me to the countryside because I can no longer walk much. I had surgery on my spine, and I did not look well. Nelda is still alive even with a blocked arterial valve. 

Comments

This is how the Lord uses us. Thank the Lord that one door closes and thousands open. We are well convinced that we are doing what the Lord has for us at this time. We want to thank you for your support in prayer and also with your offerings that are fully used for evangelization on the mission field. Thanks a lot.

Do not grow weary in doing good (Galatians 6:9-10). Today is harvest time.

We appreciate that you are a part of this humble work. The Lord of the harvest will return abundantly; in heaven they will enjoy it. 

His fellow servants
Tino and Nelda