Mission: Ecuador

This program is designed to enable and empower the local church to stand on its own... to help it mature and become, in turn, a body carrying out the great commission. In other words, our objective is to create disciples who will become missionaries, teachers, ministers, and disciplers who will multiply themselves through evangelism and discipleship.

2 Timothy 2:2 - And entrust what you heard me say in the presence of many others as witnesses to faithful people who will be competent to teach others as well.

For our first three years, For the first three years we worked with Candelaria Baptist church and some of its daughter churches, mainly centered around an indigenous community north of Quito called "Calderon". In 2006, we started our discipleship cycle over again in communities farther out, focusing on "Cayambe", an indigenous farming area, and in the mountains above the Cusubamba area. Both areas are much more remote and needy. In 2007, we weened ourselves from the first group of churches in the Calderon area, now only with limited involvement at "San Jose Alto", to concentrate exclusively on the Cusubamba and Cayambe areas. In 2008, we find ourselves in these same two areas and one new one: "La Victoria". See a full report for 2006 - 2008 a little farther down the page.

This program has the following major objectives:

* To train pastors and church leaders in outlying poor areas.

* To train the church body in basics such as evangelism and discipleship.

* To help create missionaries, teachers, and ministers from within the Ecuadorian church body.

* To identify specific needs, share these needs with the church body around the world, and address these needs. Needs such as :

- The lack of hymnals, bibles, Sunday school material, study books, and tracts.
- Specific training targeted at leaders of children, youth, women, men, families, or VBS.
- Literacy problems/solutions.
- Construction projects.

Addressing these needs:

One way of being involved is to "adopt a church". Your church group could provide the basic needs of one of these needy churches. For very little, you could get one of these churches "on its feet" with some basic materials, and provide a small amount of support for Sunday school literature every 3 to 6 months. Start a relationship with a church body here in Ecuador through prayer and providing some needed resources.

Another way is to actually come here with a short term mission team and work along side one of these churches and meet their needs. Take a look at our Short Term Misson Teams page to get an idea of what it would be like to come here and work with these beautiful people.

Providing a "pastor's library" of critical study books such as a bible dictionary, commentary, Study Bible, and concordance to each church is another way.

Sponsor a child at Chambitola, providing for their school needs. In the Indigenous farming community, many times the families decide between food on the table and educational needs of their children. You can bless one of these families that attend the church at chambitola by sponoring a child's educational needs for $20 per month. Please visit the webpage for further info.

We focused on three distinct areas:
One is in where we have been working for the last 2 1/2 years in discipleship with a mother church and a number of daughter churches. Over 2007 we gradually diminished our active discipleship to move on to other areas of need.

As a natural result of our discipleship, we have formed a group of Ecuadorian missionaries from these churches, and will begin a campaign of evangelism this next year in the villages above one of the daughter churches, "Linaje Escogido" church where the Gospel is not established at present. To establish this "outpost for the Gospel", God is putting together many things at the same time, all centered at and around Linaje Escogido church, an hour and a half outside the city and up in the mountains. We finished the church building, that has been in progress for 10 years. We are training the church members to be ready to disciple new converts. We are helping build up the church membership through programs for women, men, teens, and kids. We are training a team of Ecuadorian missionaries to work with the church to evangelize the lost in the next communities up this long and windy cobblestone road on a weekly basis in the coming year, starting with the very next pueblo, "Cangahua Pungo". Click here for a Special Report: Linaje Escogido .

The third area of focus is where we are starting our multi-year discipleship program anew, in the communities around "Cayambe", an indigenous farming area about 2 hours away. The Chambitola community, is in an area completely isolated, where farming is the way of life, and most people still speak "Quichua" at home instead of Spanish, and are simple and precious. New Life Baptist church is farther out, higher up, more remote than anything we've previously experienced. We have completed a 3 month course on "how to share your faith" with them already.

OUR WORK FOR 2008

We continue to focus on the Cusubamba area, up into the mountains about and hour and a half outside the city. There are no evangelical churches above "Linaje Escogido" church, our base of operations for that area. In early 2008 the former pastor resigned. Sixto Salcedo, Jose Perez, and I are leading this church back from the brink of disaster due to years of poor leadership. Slowly but surely, we are encouraging and teaching the congregation, and adding new members as we go along.

"Cangahua Pungo", and "Chaupiestancia" are the next two remote communities up the cobblestone road, and the leaders of both are aggressively opposed to the gospel. Here, our Ecuadorian missionary team is working weekly to spread the message of hope, with slow but steady success. We have number of believers and discipleship studies going on in "Cangahua Pungo" right now. There are a few believers from "Chaupiestancia" coming down to church on Sundays as well. Here is a hand drawn map of the area as well.

"Monte Serin Alto" is the third village up the cobblestone road and is at the peak of the mountain (11,700 ft). We had a Christmas outreach there with much success, seeing 15 or so people respond to the gospel. Discipleship is slow going as it is VERY remote and quite dangerous to get to... in the rainy season it is impossible for even a good 4 wheel drive vehicle. So we go as far as we can and drop the teaching team off, and they walk UP the mountain the rest of the way for about 45 minutes. The president and vice-president of the village are the principle students, and we hope to add more quickly. UPDATE May '08: This community has suddenly become closed to us, through the influence of the next village down the mountain, "Chaupiestancia", and extremely hostile community to the gospel. Please pray for our opportunity to reenter this area.

The Chambitola community, where "Nueva Vida" church resides, is still a big focus. We continue to encourage and help support the pastor, as well as teaching in the church. We are sponsoring their Sunday school teacher training (also for Linaje Escogido church) covering a new two year program created by a local missionary which will be more cost effective for them as well as being on their level of education. We also continue helping with resources, and Diego and I personally mentor the pastor, Pedro Tandayamo. We have also started a new idea to sponsor some of the church's children in regards to their school costs, as the families are as poor as you can possibly imagine. Go to:
http://www.rodbond.com/sponsor/Chambitola/sponsor_chambitola.html
or go to our home page listed below and click on "Sponsor a Child" if interested."La Victoria de Quinche" is our newest area of work, started over Christmas 2007. It is and area of tremendous persecution. We had our first bible study in late February with 15 - 20 people, less than a mile from "Quinche", the heart of the area that is aggressively opposing Evangelical Christian presence and bible teaching. There is no evangelical church or presence in this community. We meet in a grain shed, sitting on stumps, cans, boxes, and all sort of things for seats. The people are mainly middle class and of all ages... both men and women. The one thing they have in common was a hunger for the truth of God's word and a fearful existence in an abusive religious system. They share about being warned and threatened not to come see us. They share about being bullied into doing things in the name of religion that are not biblical. My partner, Freddy and I began a simple bible study that starts at "0" and they love it! This is a very delicate situation and we need your prayers for the continuation of our ministry to bring the truth of God's word to an oppressed people in the face of tremedous opposition.

My Partners in Ministry

It has always been my philosophy that Nationals can reach Nationals much better than we (North Americans) can, and should be involved as much as possible. The real backbone and success of our ministry, right after God in importance, are my national partners. Meet these wonderful men and women that God has put in my path to bless me.


From left:
Pastor Pablo Lincango. Although not officially a ministry partner, he has been critical to our ministry in developing contacts and relationships in the Indigenous community. He is the pastor at "San Jose Alto" BC.

Diego Leon. (pictured far right) Gifted teacher and wise couselor, and small group leader. Adult focus. He is the principle leader of the work in "Chambitola". His wife, Rebecca, has joined us in teaching women's small group discipleship in Chambitola.

Freddy Garcia. Gifted musician, and small group leader. He is a member of University Baptist Church with Diego. He is also a discipleship leader for children and youth, along with his wonderful wife, Sandy. He is also the principle teacher at "La Victoria".

José Panama is the latest addition to the team, and he is the co-leader of our Ecuadorian missionarygroup, evagelizing in the mountains above "Linaje Escogido church", where there is still persecution against the Gospel.

 

New Volunteers
We are excited to have a new group of volunteers going through training. They seem to be a wonderful group and we are looking forward to involving them in our work over the summer, as we are in dire need of more qualified laborers. September is the end of training and the trial period, so please be praying!