“It is my personal passion to proclaim the Kingdom of God to the world,” says Heriberto Ayala, Production Assistant at Square One. “I know that Square One is a great instrument to reach the unreached, and I want to contribute my knowledge to help make this a reality.”
Heriberto remembers listening to Encuentro and meeting Ernesto Pinto at a Conference of Communicators in Argentina in 2009. He did not imagine that he would one day work with Ernesto in Canada. Shown here (on the left) at a Spanish projects production meeting in 2019 with Ernesto, Grant Hoeppner and David Pinto.
As a kid in the Chaco, Paraguay, Heriberto loved listening to the radio. He dreamed of working in radio one day and, when he was 16, he took a one-year course in radio and television communications. He had to ride his bike 25 km each way to attend the class, but it was worth it.
Heriberto left home at age 18 and moved to a Mennonite colony for work. He became a Christian at an evangelistic meeting a short time later and felt called to serve God. He completed a BA in Theology in Asunción, Paraguay, doing his thesis paper on radio evangelism.
God led Heriberto into pastoral ministry, but also gave him opportunities to work at a radio station in live programming and as a reporter. One evening, he was live on air at the radio station when he received a note. It was from a listener who planned to commit suicide because his problems were too overwhelming. Heriberto called him and the listener responded, “I wrote to you, thinking, ‘if God has a plan for my life, Heriberto will call me.’ You did call, and so now I know God has something planned for me.”
After leaving Paraguay and moving to Winnipeg, Heriberto joined the Spanish media projects team at Square One in 2019 to edit the Spanish Realidad radio program hosted by Dr. Jorge Oscar Sanchez in California. Since then, Heriberto’s work has expanded to include technical production of some of our other Spanish media projects, as well as some guest spots as speaker and host. He is developing a podcast style program that he plans to produce for Encuentro.
From our archives...
Back in 2009, Heriberto had the opportunity to meet Jacob and Helen Funk, Square One's long-time Low German media producers. Jacob and Helen were in Paraguay to distribute Low German resources and to meet with audience members and radio stations when they stopped at the new radio station, Radio Loma Plata, where Heriberto's wife, Viola, was the program manager. At the time, Heriberto worked nearby at Radio ZP 30.
Heriberto (right) with his wife, Viola, and infant daughter,
and (left) Helen and Jacob.