80% of the world’s evangelical Christians live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Over the last 50 years, God’s church has grown exponentially in these areas.

These regions have tremendous mission sending potential to help bring the gospel to unreached peoples, but they currently send only 20% of the world’s cross-cultural missionaries!

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Total Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges to UPGs

Regional Access to UPGs

Religious Freedom

Prosperity

Current Sending Abroad

Mobilization Potential

Custom Mobilization Potential

Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges

Strategic Access

Religious Freedoms

Current Sending

This infographic provides a visual score for seven data points ranked on a 0 to 100 scale. Faded icons show scores for other countries on the mobilization index. See below for actual scores and country-specific insights.

ADDITION

FINANCIAL DEPENDENCY

INACCESSIBLE

LIMITED MISSION FORCE

DISTANT AND FOREIGN MISSION FIELD

THE WORLD IS THE MISSION FIELD

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Evangelical Growth Despite Governmental Concerns

Ecuador is currently home to 1,200,000 evangelicals, making up only 8% of the population. The country has seen great religious growth in the past decade. The number of religious groups registered in the last ten years has increased from approximately 2,000 to an estimated 3,560. [[1]] Today, the evangelical church in Ecuador is increasing at 6.6%, compared to that of Catholicism at .09%; evangelicalism is on its way to being a religious majority in Ecuador. [[2]]
Due to its rich Catholic roots, Ecuador was not religiously tolerant of Protestantism until the late 1800s. It was not until an 1897 amendment to the constitution that it was accepted for political leaders not to be Catholic and for all denominations to be tolerated by the state. [[2]]
Since then, evangelical groups have grown in size, though there has been recent concern from evangelicals considering governmental regulation on how Christians can teach their children in a manner consistent with their beliefs on topics such as religion, gender, and others. This concern has caused many evangelical groups to not register with the government, meaning there is likely more evangelical growth in Ecuador than we have data for. [[1]]

Cultural Neighbors to Many UPG Nations

Ecuador has an average Median Cultural Distance of 15.3 with a very high number of cultural similarities to the 30 unreached people group nations on the Mobilization Index. Ecuador's closest cultural neighbors are Libya, Bangladesh, China, and Nigeria, all within 7.5 points of cultural distance from Ecuador.
There are an additional 6 countries that are within 10 median points away. Of Ecuador's closest cultural neighbors, most are either majority Muslim, are countries located in the Middle East, or have significant Muslim populations. It is great news that Ecuador is so culturally similar to China and India, both of which are countries with extremely high UPG populations.&nbsp;
Ecuador has a culture founded on Power Distances and Community. [[3]] Ecuadorian culture highly values the idea that members of a society do not all have the same power, but each plays different roles and holds different degrees of authority. This plays into their strong value of community, as the strength and health of the whole group are valued far above that of the individual. These are both cultural values that are shared with the Arab world.&nbsp;
Ecuador's missionaries are uniquely positioned to build cultural bridges with the hundreds of millions of Muslims in need of Jesus Christ. Could these bridges lead to opportunities to build strategic gospel-carrying movements in the unreached Arab world?

Geographic Distance but Cultural Advantages to Advancing the Gospel

Ecuador scores very low on the Regional Access to the unreached, with access to only 700 unreached in-country and 814,000 regionally. We must still remember that Ecuador is most culturally poised to reach the 1.8 billion Muslims in unreached people groups who are thousands of miles away. Ecuador's low geographic access to unreached peoples could hinder mission mobilization efforts to raise up the church's passion for the nations.&nbsp;
Although geographically distant from the Muslim world, there are still low numbers of unreached peoples within Ecuador, in the Amazon, the Andes, and various surrounding regions.&nbsp;
In this region, many of the UPGs still practice ethnic religions. For example, the Shuar of Ecuador, numbering 89,500, are still unreached. They are part of the Amazon people cluster within the Latin Caribbean Americans. [[4]] Ethnic people groups like this offer a great opportunity to the Ecuadorian evangelicals to make the name of Christ known among all people without leaving their region!
Would you pray with us that laborers from Ecuador would be mobilized to this harvest and not let their geographic distance from the unreached be a barrier to their sending?

A Rise in Evangelicalism and Religious Freedoms

According to Pew Research, Ecuador has a low level of religious restrictions and hostilities, with a score of 1.6. [[5]] With only 5 countries on the Mobilization Index with lower scores, Ecuador is one of the most religiously free countries on our list!&nbsp;
In the last century, there have been increasing freedoms in religious tolerance through the government slowly moving away from Catholicism. [[2]]
Mission mobilization and other Christian ministries are free to promote and carry out their work as they see fit. Praise the Lord!

Rising Prosperity, in Contrast to its Neighbors

Ranked at 85, Ecuador scores moderately compared to other Mobilization Index countries ranked on the Legatum Prosperity Index. [[6]] Compared to the other 22 Latin American countries, Ecuador ranks 15th in Prosperity.&nbsp;
Ecuador scores highest in Natural Environment and Health, with its lowest scores being in Social Capital and Enterprise Conditions.
The nation's overall Prosperity has risen 11 ranks in the past decade, showing an overall growth in economic health and financial stability, contrasting with the general downward trend in Latin America.&nbsp;
In the face of a general prosperity deficit, Ecuador's uptick in economic Prosperity is positively impacting its financial sending capacity. If the economy continues this upward trend, its missionary sending capability will continue to grow and perhaps become a powerful sending force! Pray to the Lord of the harvest to raise up people who will send laborers into His harvest field!

An Increase in Sending Could Reach the Muslim World

Ecuador has roughly 150 missionaries, 80 serving in-country and 70 serving cross-culturally outside the country.&nbsp;
The Mobilization Index's prayer goal is to see 0.1% of every nation's evangelical church mobilized to the unreached.&nbsp;With 150 missionaries, only 0.0001% of the Ecuadorian evangelical church has been mobilized. If that number grew to 0.1% of the evangelical church, that would mean at least an additional 1,200 missionaries. Would you pray for a significant increase in senders and laborers?
With Ecuador's evangelicals uniquely and culturally positioned to reach many unreached peoples worldwide, namely those from Muslim backgrounds, imagine the Kingdom movements that could be in store for the next generation of Ecuadorian missionaries. Ask the Lord for more laborers to be sent out into the field.

High Potential Despite Growth Needed

Ecuador could see 1,200 new missionaries sent to the unreached if just 1 in every 1,000 evangelicals were mobilized. Ecuador's physical distance and low access to unreached people group nations could make mobilizing the church more difficult. But with greater awareness of their cultural similarities with the Arab world, Ecuadorian evangelicals have great potential to reach those who do not know the name of Jesus!
Ecuador lacks a culture of sending, as well as solid sending structures. This, coupled with a low generosity score of 18%, could likely result in missionaries facing obstacles in getting fully funded and sent to the unreached. [[7]] Ecuadorian missionaries would benefit from practical and biblically-based support-raising training. Mission mobilization that gives special attention to and casts vision for the role of sending is more important than ever before.&nbsp;
When considering the nation's cultural connection to the unreached Arab world, its economic prosperity growth, religious freedoms, and increasing evangelical church, we rank Ecuador's mobilization potential as Moderate.

Obstacles:
<ul>
<li>Ecuador lacks a culture of sending and the generosity required to support it. This could be a considerable obstacle to evangelicals, as generosity in support and a sending mindset is necessary to launch missionaries.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Ecuador's low geographic access to the unreached is potentially one of the country's most significant obstacles to reaching its full Mobilization Potential. &nbsp;</li>
</ul>
Opportunities:
<ul>
<li>The rapid growth of Ecuadorian evangelicals and their economic prosperity shows excellent promise for the future of missions!</li>
<li>Close cultural distance to many Muslim UPG nations can provide the spark needed for missions to the unreached to flourish.</li>
</ul>

Pray:
<ul>
<li>For laborers from Ecuador to be mobilized to the unreached harvest in the Muslim world.</li>
<li>For Ecuador to become a mission force, sending 0.1% of its church or thousands of new laborers!</li>
</ul>
Praise:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>The Ecuadorian church, though not without barriers, has the freedom to practice as they feel lead. Praise God for the few governmental restrictions on religion!</li>
<li>Praise the Lord of Provision for providing such cultural similarities between Ecuador and the many Muslim UPGs.</li>
</ul>

PEW religious restriction numbers Myanmar

Official Country Name:Republic of Ecuador

Population:17,374,000

Region:Latin America

Government:Presidential Representative Democracy

Official Languages:Spanish

Religious Demographics:Christian ±94%, Evangelical ±8%, Ethnoreligious ±1%, Non-religious ±4%

Ecuador