Christopher Tignor was approved as a Baptist Bible Fellowship missionary to Ecuador in September 1997. Lois was approved as a Baptist Bible Fellowship missionary to Ecuador in February 1999. Christopher graduated in 1994 from the missions course at Atlantic Baptist Bible College, Chester, Virginia. Lois completed her concentrated missions program from Louisiana Baptist Theological Seminary, Shreveport, Louisiana. Christopher served his internship at Landmark Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, where he was ordained in 1997. The Tignors have three daughters and two sons.
(From BBFI Missions Website)
From 7/15...
Dear Pastor and Church Family, June 2016
In our last letter, we poured out our hearts to you concerning our housing need. This has been one of the most challenging months physically and emotionally that we have experienced, but we have seen the Lord’s hand and can attest to His never-changing faithfulness.
Shortly after we wrote, the Lord showed us a temporary home for rent. This house was by far the nicest we had seen available within our budget range, and the owner is asking just fifty dollars more per month than we have been paying for rent. It is considerably smaller than the previous house, making for an interesting time of figuring out where to put all the furniture and household goods. (Our couch is presently stood up on end in the corner behind the front door. There is just nowhere to put it to be used.) The bedrooms are located on the second story, and while the trek up the winding staircase is a challenge for my (Chris’s) bad knee, I am managing all right. Many families of the church pitched in to assist us in moving into the new house and cleaning the old one in preparation for relinquishing it to the landlady.
During the upheaval of moving, Lois and two of our children came down with zika, a mosquito-borne virus. Thankfully, the symptoms of this disease are much milder than those of malaria, dengue, or chikungunya. They were uncomfortable for a few days, but were grateful that it was short-lived and that they were still able to be up and about. Several others in our church have also contracted the zika virus in the past month as well.
My family has not seen much of me this past month. I have been leaving the house before 7:00 in the morning and not getting home until after 8:00 at night, with occasional lightning-fast stops by the house during the day to pick up necessary tools or a quick meal. I have been working with the men of the church preparing a place for Sunday services to be held, since our new rental house has no place to accommodate a church service. Since I am the only one with a vehicle for carrying tools and materials, I am often driving for several hours each day. This rigorous pace has taken a toll on my health. I am not sleeping well (and consequently, neither is Lois), which opens the door for other health problems. I would greatly appreciate your prayers for God’s strength and healing, and the wisdom to know when it is okay if something does not get done.
We are still praying that if it be God’s will, we will be able to construct a home on the land that was purchased for this purpose. We know that when He wants it to happen, it will, for He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Thank you so much for praying with us for the supply of this need. Some churches have already given and we want to say a special thanks for your help. Offerings can be sent to the Baptist Bible Fellowship in care of Home Project #071. We so much appreciate your faithful prayers and sacrificial giving so that we can remain here sharing the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ with the precious people of Ecuador.
Serving the Lord in Portoviejo, Ecuador,
Chris & Lois Tignor
Children: Elisabeth, James, Grace, Christina, and Daniel
Also From 7/15...
Dear Pastor and Church Family, June 2016
The church in our house is going through a time of transition, and this is always stressful for any group. Thankfully, we have seen a willing spirit and a loving servant’s heart in so many of the faithful believers here. They have pulled together and pitched in to help our family in the past couple of months as we have been preparing to move to a new house.
We have had to erect a tent structure (three, actually—two for the main church “sanctuary” and one for the children’s Sunday school class) for services to be held on Sundays. We have put these up on one end of the property. Ideally, we would just rent a building or a store-front for services, but that requires an income much greater than we are seeing regularly coming into the church offerings.
The men of the church have willingly worked alongside me, sometimes laboring on the church tent structure late into the night after they have put in a full day’s work at their own jobs. They dug a deep hole and constructed two bathrooms above it for the use of the church people. (My dad said it sounded like the outhouses he used when he was a kid.) They cut and welded the tubing to make the framework of the tents, while the women pasted together the tarps for the roofs.
The effects of the April 16th earthquake in Ecuador are still being felt. Aftershocks still strike fear into people’s hearts, sending them scurrying out of their houses in terror. Many buildings have been torn down, while others require extensive repairs before they can again be habitable. People are open to talk about God and the Bible, as they are frightened of an uncertain future. When we got our telephone line switched from our old rental house to the new one, the telephone technician who came to the house eagerly accepted a New Testament and a gospel tract. Please pray that he will read them and that God will open his eyes to his need of the Savior.
It is encouraging to see the believers growing in their faith, especially the ones who we have seen faltering often in the past. Nexar was saved about nine years ago, but only in the past year or so has he really given the Lord the preeminence in his life. Since he lives outside the city and public transportation is scanty out there, I drive thirty minutes out to his house every Wednesday night and Sunday morning to pick him up for church. He has done a lot of the welding for the church tent structures, and is always happy to pitch in to help wherever there is a need. He brings his teenaged children to church whenever possible, and is praying for their spiritual lives. All of them made professions of faith at one time, but have not been living for the Lord. Nexar would appreciate your prayers for Moises, Santiago, and Marta.
As we gather to worship the Lord under the tent structure, with the chirping of birds accompanying the preaching and the occasional inquisitive chicken wandering through, I am reminded that the church is not an edifice, but a living organism made up of PEOPLE. As we sing praises to God in Spanish, we are joining in heart with you before the Throne of Grace. You are the reason we are able to continue here sharing God’s love. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your faithful support and prayers. May God bless you richly as you “keep on keeping on.”
Serving the Lord in Portoviejo, Ecuador,
Chris & Lois Tignor
Children: Elisabeth, James, Grace, Christina, and Daniel
FROM 6/15...
Dear Pastor and Church Family, May 2016
We want to thank all of you who have been supporting us in these difficult times. Your special gifts for the earthquake
relief effort have made a difference. Many people lost their homes, their jobs, and their hope. You have provided them
with food and water. You have ministered to them with the Word of God. I am reminded of the verse in Mark 9:41 “For
whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.” Since the 7.8 earthquake here in Ecuador on April 16th, we have been overwhelmed. The
stress of meeting the needs and organizing so many people is astronomical. I want to thank all of you for your prayers for me and my family. We have felt God moving and seen Him at work in many lives. Last Saturday, the church passed out over 80 New Testaments, and we were thrilled to see how people received God’s Word. Pray that lives will be changed. We are seeing some families return to church after years of absence. The Henry Vinces family, with their three children, are once again attending nearly every Sunday. Henry, who battled alcoholism for years, recently prayed to receive Christ, and wants to lead his family as a godly man. Nexar Cobeña is attending both Sundays and mid-week services, and is bringing along his teenagers. The Alfredo and Angela Zevallos family started to come to church several months ago. After expressing interest in seeing their newborn son presented to God (a common Catholic tradition that includes infant baptism), I asked if I could come to their house to talk over the situation. They received me with open arms. After talking and sharing the Gospel truth and the differences between religion and Salvation in Jesus Christ, they bowed their heads as a family and received Christ in the hearts. I was reminded of the Scripture in Acts 16:31: “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Several months have passed, and every Sunday we see the Zevallos family coming into church with their three daughters and infant son. This past Sunday we celebrated Children’s Day at the church with a special service where parents could come forward to consecrate their families to guide them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There were five families with infants in their arms to receive prayers for their families. This is an answer to your prayers and giving. This is why we are here in Ecuador—to try to make a difference. Without you, this family, and others like them, may never have heard the way of salvation. Praise God for His love and direction.
Serving the Lord in Portoviejo, Ecuador,
Chris & Lois Tignor
Children: Elisabeth, James, Grace, Christina, and Daniel
FROM 5/19...
Dear Pastor
Yes, we have to move and we have two months. Looking for a place to rent but have not found one yet. The center of town (downtown) had been totally closed down. The businesses and houses that were there have all left and are relocating. Over 100 blocks of homes and businesses are being relocated. Rent has gone up everywhere and we have not been able to find anything yet. We have a property with no buildings. We are thinking maybe to build but are looking at funds and feasibility. Church has no where to meet as well as it was meeting in our house. Trying to make some tents to put up. Need to install electricity on the property just got an estimate of $6,000. With electricity there can better equip for bathrooms and other needs. Have met with arquitecta and engineers about building a house. Have not gotten that cost yet.
Sorry about not writing sooner but have been working night and day for a month now without one days rest. Yesterday I was helping on of the church members put a new roof on. The tin roof that was 450 square feet was held up on one side by three posts and the other had one good post and two broken posts. It was ready to fall at any time. We were able to strengthen the posts and now he can work and hopefully support his family of six. Please pray for Henry and his family. This is one example of what I have been doing this month.
I need lots of prayer. I am trying to move forward as fast as I can get information and trying to economize as good stewards should. The men of the church are putting many hours in without pay and are working together for the most part. Yesterday had some confrontations due to different people's way of coping with stress or not. Sometimes it is difficult to get two to agree but I think things are going well for the most part. I really appreciate your prayers and all that you are doing to help. Tell your people we love them and that it we thank God for you.
Your missionary in Portoviejo Ecuador
Chris Tignor
FIRST UPDATE SENT TUESDAY EVENING (4/19)...
Yes, much prayer needed for wisdom and strength. Earthquake was 7.8 on the richer scale. We were able to get a generator for 800 dólares. We were without lights for several days.we are still trying to get water to drink and food to people in need. Markets have been closed due to structural damage and looting. The buildings all around town have collapsed. As of last night over a hundred dead in our town of Portoviejo. Over four hundred in the province of Manabi.
Chris Tignor
SECOND UPDATE SENT WEDNESDAY MORNING (4/20)...
It is now four thirty in y he morning. I am waiting outside of a water processing plant of an acquaintance to see if I can get water for some of the church people so that they and their families can have water to drink. On the large metal gate of the water distribution center is a large cardboard sign with Black magic marker words in Spanish. No hay agua, there is no water. The manager has been bombarded with people came ring for water. Over four hundred were lined up outside these doors yesterday. I talked with his relatives yesterday evening but have not been able to talk with the owner and so here I am. Waiting to see if possible I may be able to fill the twenty five gallon water jugs I have in the back of my pickup truck.
I do not know if you are getting my messages or not. We have no Internet services yet at our house. I tried for four hours last night or until midnight to send you three messages two of them with pictures so you could see a little of what is going on here in Ecuador. I am writing this letter on my telephone so if there are any errors I kindly ask you to forgive me as these are not ordinary circumstances. I am sorry and apologize I did not get out me sages sooner. Sunday after the earthquake Saturday night , we were without electricity. After trying to get out of the house for an hour, we were finally able to get through the fallen book cases and furniture of the house and through the broken glass to look at the garage. There were thirty thirty gallon green barrels that had been filled with water due to a water shortage that I had put in the garage for emergencies. These all had been overturned in the earthquake and were scattered around the garage area preventing our escape to the street. I looked further and saw beyond them that the concrete overhang that stood on the pillars guarding the entrance to the street. This protecting overhang which weighs probably half a ton had been sheared off the pillars by the force of the earthquake and had fallen outward toward the street. It had landed six inches from my pickup truck leaving the truck unscafed. If we had been able to leave the house during the earthquake chances are we would have been crushed when this fell down to the ground. We appreciate your prayers as always and want to thank you and praise God for his protecting hand. Things are difficult at this time just getting the basics to keep on. We are busy trying to witness and at the same times meet needs. Pray for wisdom strength and protection. Pray for those that have lost loved ones and for those that are still trapped in the rubbish of fallen buildings. My heart goes out to these people and their sufferings at this time. I hope this message may reach you. I am going to try to send it now before people awake in the hope that it may go through at this time. Later today the red will probably be blocked and I have only had one international call come through. There is no way to recharge phones at this time so when the money is spent of my phone bill plan I will be unable to communicate further until I can discover a new way. Not sure how much money I have left on my plan because that service has not been available so I am left to guess. Later after I try to get water I am leaving with two brothers from the church to see if we can get a large bag of rice to help people have food to eat. Much corruption and speculation among the people. Robbers are looting. Supplies of relief have been stormed by these gangsters. Older people and young who are not able to get out are sometimes without food. We are trying to reach these and help. Much more I can tell but at this point I am going to try to send this message as it is. I was trying to send messages for four hours last night but the service kept going out. We love you and thank you. God bless.
You servant in Ecuador
The Tignor family
THIRD UPDATE SENT THURSDAY MORNING (4/21)...
At this time we have distributed over one thousand liters of water to those in need. Cholera has broken out and is a major health concern. Lack of safe water is one of the problems after a major earthquake. Thank you so much for those who have already given to help and those who help is on the way.
I am able to get around $400 from the bank a day. What does this buy? Rice is being sold in town at a dollar a pound due to speculation. I travel two hours to buy is in bulk at 38 cents a pound to distribute. We have distributed 400 pounds of rice so people will not go hungry. Once again your help is making a difference. We have been focusing on major needs at this point. The children need milk to drink. We have bought some dried milk to distribute. Time or space will not allow me to share everything at this time, but all funds 100 percent is used to meet the needs of the people. Not one cent is used on overhead. People of the church after donating their time and resources to help. If you need or like receipts we will make them available to anyone. We are being responsible and ask for your prayers for wisdom and direction to use these funds. We do not take our responsibility lightly.
I still do not have Internet in my house. Everything is done on my telephone. During the day it is hard to contact die to volume of people and overs loading of the system. Please call before six a.m yes i am awake. Go to bed around midnight and get up at four a.m. To try to meet needs. Body is doing fairly well with four hours of sleep a night
Hundreds if not thousands of people in PortoViejo have lost everything. Last night we prayed at church and then left to minister. Jesus was always ministering to needs and there are great needs at this time. I rejoiced to see some of our church people in front of their houses yesterday in the street reading their bibles with their children at noon.
We delivered food to around a hundred people in one hour last night. The smiles and tears would touch your hearts. I know they did mine and the people of the church who were serving with me. One of these families was Alexi's sister and family from Manta. They are with her mother because they lost everything when their house fell on top of them. It took them an hour to wriggle our from under the wreckage. Their one year old son had a ugly scar on his face and cried in terror last night as we sought to meet their physical emotional and spiritual needs. Still remembering being trapped! This family had nothing but the clothes on their back literally. We are trying to give a ray of hope and light in the midst of darkness.
This is the latest newsletter sent in April from the Tignors...
Dear Pastor and Church Family, April 2016
As you have undoubtedly heard, our province of Manabí in Ecuador suffered a catastrophic 7.8 earthquake on April 16th. Although our house suffered only minor structural damage, everything was strewn around on the floors in chaotic heaps. Even with all of that, when we got bookcases set back upright and items placed back on shelves, we found relatively few items that were damaged or broken. We stand in awe of God’s merciful goodness to us. None of our family was injured, although we were considerably shaken up. (No pun intended.) We were without power and water for a couple of days, but internet service and phone service is still a little hectic. Messages will not send, or arrive in timely manner and calls are constantly not getting through. If you have been trying to contact us and have not been able to, we apologize. One of the more secure, but sometimes slower methods is by email. I am getting emails in the morning and at night and try to answer all of them at that time.
A drive through the city reveals a different story. Just a block away, houses were demolished. Some homes that are still standing have gaping holes in the walls. Most businesses in the center of town remain closed after a week. The smell of decay is suffocating; search and rescue teams, although working relentlessly under a merciless sun, are swiftly losing hope of still finding survivors under the rubble. Those who were rescued alive from the ruins now have no homes and no possessions other than the clothes on their backs. People are desperate for water and food; they are anguished for their children who do not understand where their home has gone and why they have so little to eat.
The need here is enormous. Through people’s generosity, we have been able to distribute several hundred pounds of rice, pasta, canned tuna, dried milk, vegetables, and other food items, as well as thousands of liters of purified water. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the need. We are praying that God will open the windows of heaven and provide the money for more supplies which we can then distribute, together with the message of Christ’s love for a lost and dying world. If the Lord should lay it on your heart to donate to this cause, the address is:
BBFI Missions Office, P.O. Box 802757, Kansas City, MO 64180-2757, Memo: Chris Tignor, Earthquake Relief
Shipping charges, customs delays and charges, and risk of theft make sending physical items an unfortunate impracticality, unless they are managed by some large relief organization. For our ministry, the best thing is for us to receive the funds and purchase food and supplies here. This will also stimulate the Ecuadorian economy, which will be at least a small help to this gallant, struggling country.
Your missionaries in Ecuador,
Chris and Lois Tignor
Elisabeth, James, Grace, Christina, and Daniel
AS THE EFFECTS OF THE DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKES IN ECUADOR CONTINUE TO UNFOLD, THE TIGNORS HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL IN SENDING UPDATES VIA TEXT AND EMAIL. PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR THEM AS WELL AS THE PEOPLE OF ECUADOR...