Mission: Ecuador

Candelaria Baptist Church is 25 years old, and a fairly mature church body of 150 mainly indigenous people. It has 5 "daughter" churches and two "granddaughter" churches that it has planted over the years. It has had one pastor the entire time, Pedro Vasquez, a Godly man keenly interested in training up leaders and missionaries to carry out the "Great Commission".
All of the "Pastor and Leader" training classes for "Project: Great Commission" are held here.They offer discipleship programs throughout the week, and do community outreach as well.

Come to know the Church through photos:

"Candelaria" Baptist Church is in Calderón, a smaller community north of Quito (about 30 minutes) in a desert-like environment. It is in a rural setting, and in the shadow of 3 volcanos, including Cayambe. Most of the daughter churches are in this community.

Meet the pastor: Pedro Vasquez, (left) here talking with Joselito, my ministry partner.

They have a number of Sunday school rooms; adults meet in the sanctuary.

Church services are two hours long, with a fascinating mixture of indigenous people, some wearing traditional Quichua dress, and a dog or two.

Unlike most other indigenous churches, Candelaria has musical specials each Sunday, using native instruments as well as modern ones. They have a thriving music ministry and lots of young people.

In April of 2005, about 50 of the church members completed their 3 month training course on "how to share your testimony and the gospel", and had their graduation weekend "Campaña". See more about this program on the Outreach webpage. Photos from the outreach are below.

We had to deal with rain of Friday, but two large tents held most of the people, and a makeshift tent covered the equipment from getting wet.

Here are some photos of the setup, the neighborhood, the ladies getting the cooking fire going for the free coffee, and some of the characters that helped.

One of the men climbed the poles to put up the screen in his "Sunday" clothes!

Here, a layman shares his testimony, and a visiting church shares their music with the crowd.