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Mission histories point to the commitment of two women, GMU missionaries Julia Anderson and Ella Ozman, as critical in the eventual success of Quichua missions. In 1902, they moved to Ecuador's Chimborazo Province and began the first Protestant ministry to the Quichua. Ozman died of pneumonia the following year. But Anderson carried on alone, retiring in 1953. At the time she could count the number of Quichua converts on one hand.

Anderson translated a Quichua New Testament, published in 1954, and the first group of Quichua believers were baptized the following year. The first Quichua church was built in 1958, the first radio station in 1961.

The work among the GMU, now known in Ecuador as the Indigenous Evangelical Association of Chimborazo (AIIECH), took off in the early 1970s. Of an estimated 700 Quichua churches in Ecuador, 500 are AIIECH-related.

In 1913, CMA missionary Homer Chrisman established a mission station. The CMA likewise encountered great resistance to the gospel. "After over 50 years of missionary endeavor there were only 20 believers," says Mike Welty, a CMA missionary in Quito who spent eight years working with Quichua in Otavalo. After decades of concerted prayer beginning in 1970, now there are two dozen Quichua CMA churches, most led by nationals. Alliance missionaries continue to train leaders through Otavalo Bible Institute.

The Assemblies of God (AG), based in Springfield, Missouri, began working with the Quichua in Riobamba in 1992. A year ago, the first 15 students graduated from Quichua Bible School, the first Pentecostal Bible school for the Quichua in Ecuador.

Ultimately, Quichua will train their own people at the AG school. For now, instructors are whites from the United States and Spanish-speaking mestizos (mixed Spanish-Indian). Quichua must study with Spanish texts because materials are not available in Quichua. The students are all bilingual in order to work in Spanish-speaking Ecuador.

Carolyn Orr, who began translating Scriptures into Quichua in 1954 for Wycliffe Bible Translators, notes that there are eight Quichua dialects in Ecuador alone, five in the mountains and three in the jungle.

Complete Bibles are available only in two of the dialects. The dialects are dissimilar enough to be not understood by outsiders, especially for those who do not have a long history of a written language and for whom sixth grade is the average education level attained.

Before the Bible school in Riobamba opened, only half a dozen Quichua received training from the denomination's Bible schools in Quito and Guayaquil, both four hours away. There are now 31 Quichua AG congregations.

another critical element for the successful missionary outreach among the Quichua has been the willingness of the Quichua to accept responsibility for supporting themselves and responding to community needs.

But despite the spread of churches, the fledgling fellowships also have inherited a legacy of denominational division that began with the earliest missions activity in the region.

Pedro Guaman, 34, is a dairy farmer and one of the graduates of the AG Bible school's first class. He rode his motorcycle down 4,000 feet to Riobamba to attend classes. He is now pastor of two small churches in Chulcunag Alto and Puruay. Like all the Quichua pastors, Guaman works other jobs to make ends meet. "My wife didn't want me in the ministry, but I felt called," he says. "It's especially hard because of finances. But the Lord has touched my wife and she now helps me in the ministry."

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January 10 2000, Vol. 44, No. 1