Answers to Prayer

1 The impact of the gospel on sections of the Quichua is a modern-day miracle

2 HCJB Radio, launched in 1931, was the first of the great Christian mission radio broadcasters

Challenges for Prayer

1 The country urgently needs an honest government that gives stability and peace, yet has the courage to tackle the serious economic and social problems that have held back real progress

2 The Catholic Church has seen its privileged position eroded and a recent rapid increase of evangelical and marginal groups

3 Political uncertainty, war and a series of natural and economic disasters over the past 20 years have broken down old feudal structures of State and Church and made Ecuadorians more receptive to the gospel

4 Ecuador's Evangelicals

5 Specific challenges for the Church:

a) Vision and growth to be maintained — some churches have lost their evangelistic zeal

b) Cultural sensitivity for Spanish-speaking Christians in ministry to the Amerindian

c) Integration of Quichua and Lowland Indians into the political, economic and spiritual life of the country

d) Improved availability and quality of pastoral training

e) More effective and appropriate ministry to children and young people

f) A maturing of the developing missions vision

6 Pioneer work among the small jungle tribes attracted worldwide attention in 1956 when one MAF, one GMU and three Brethren missionaries were killed by the primitive Waorani (Auca)

a) The neutralization of intense anti-missionary propaganda

b) The efforts by Indian believers to preserve their lands from irresponsible oil exploration

c) The maturing of the jungle churches

7 Bible translation and distribution

8 Missions

9 The less-evangelized:

a) The slum-dwellers of Quito and Guayaquil

b) The upper and middle classes who have been relatively unresponsive

c) University and school students

d) The Saraguro and Salasaca Quichua among whom OMS ministers have been less responsive

e) The 6,000 people living on the distant and barren Galapagos Islands

f) The provinces of Carchi (130,000 people with 8 churches) and Loja (361,000 people with only 9 churches)

g) The Chinese with one young church

10 Christian media

a) Radio

b) Back to the Bible in Spanish has become a mainstay for evangelical broadcasters producing local programmes

c) The JESUS film in Spanish has been widely aired on television as well as projected as a film

Geography

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Area 269,178 sq.km. Amazon jungle in the east, high Andean Sierra in the centre, fertile coastal plain on Pacific Coast.

Population (2000) 12,646,068 +1.99%AGR

Capital Quito 1.6 mill.

Peoples

Spanish-speaking 59%; Amerindian 40%; Other 1%.

Literacy 90%. Official language Spanish. All Languages 22. Languages with Scriptures 3Bi 9NT 4por 6w.i.p.

Economy

The main export commodities are oil, flowers, shrimp and bananas. HDI 0.747; 72^nd/174. Public debt 71% of GNP. Income/person $1,500 (5% of USA).

Politics

Independent from Spain in 1830.

Religion

The culture has been strongly moulded by Catholicism, so though there is freedom of religion, rural populations have not been so receptive to change.

Churches in Ecuador

Missionaries from Ecuador

117 in 20 agencies to 9 countries

Missionaries to Ecuador

924 in 88 agencies from 29 countries

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