Ecuador. World Factbook, 2005

Elam Stauffer, a former missionary in Nicaragua, started the Misión Evangélica Menonita en Ecuador in 1980 in the city of Guayaquil under the auspices of the Rosedale Mennonite Missions (Conservative Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities) of Ohio. In 1987 the Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Ecuatoriana was formed. The mission also has a ministry to drug addicts and students. The mission helped flood victims in the city of Manta in 1983. As a result a congregation was born. In 1987 it had 60 members and more than 125 people attending. A preventive health program and a student center are additional ministries of the mission in Manta.

The German Language Service of Radio Station HCJB, also called The Voice of the Andes, in Quito was begun in 1953 by Canadian missionaries David and Anne Nightingale. They were sent out and supported by the Mennonite Brethren Board of Missions which staffed and supported the German service of HCJB for the first 30 years. In 1987 HCJB broadcast seven half-hour programs daily on short wave in German to Europe and the southern part of South America. The content of the broadcasts is biblical, evangelistic, cultural and informative. More than 14,500 responses came from German-speaking listeners in 1986.       

In 2003 there were six congregations with 700 members.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 256-257. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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