On January 15, 2020, David and Sieglinde Toews of Paraguay connected with our staff in the Winnipeg office. While the weather outside was frightful, the conversation inside was delightful. Temperature in their hometown of Schoental on this day reached +40°C. Temperature in Winnipeg on this day went down to -29°C. It took Sieglinde over an hour to take off her parka.
(Left) Sieglinde Toews visits with Nicole Duerksen (Spanish ministry) during coffee break.
(Right) Eric Boorman interviews David Toews for a social media video.
David and Sieglinde are the founders of “Exalta Jesús” (Exalt Jesus), a media ministry located on their home property in Schoental, Paraguay. Based on the philosophy that people should not have to learn another language to worship God, the “Exalta Jesús” studio is regularly used to record worship music for the various language groups living in the Chaco region.
While David oversees the overall work of “Exalta Jesús”, his personal focus is to provide worship music in Low German for all generations. To date, in partnership with Square One, he has released over 125 worship songs through “Song of the Week”. The songs are produced in both audio and video, and released on multiple platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. WhatsApp is the most popular, with viewers and listeners from Siberia to Canada to Argentina, and every other place where Low German-speakers can be found.
Julio and Regine Jordan worked with David and Sieglinde in Bolivia. Now they regularly travel to Paraguay to film and edit for “Song of the Week”. The songs are recorded in batches; then released one per week.
David and Sieglinde first partnered with Square One in 2013 when David’s hit song, “Ekj Ran und Jaew Nich Opp” (I Run and Don’t Give Up) became the theme song for ”Ekj Ran”, a talk show-style radio and video program hosted and produced by David in Bolivia until 2014. At the same time, Sieglinde produced a children’s program for Square One called “Wuat’s Dit?” (What’s This?) that explored God’s creation from a scientific perspective.
In 2015, David and Sieglinde moved to Paraguay. Eduard and Heidi Giesbrecht now produce “Ekj Ran” from their home studio in Bolivia. They continue to work with Julio and Regine.