Giving Tuesday - Get the Carpenters back to the Chota Valley

Will you help us to return?

We are the Carpenters, and we are planting churches among the unreached Afro Ecuadorians of the Chota Valley.

Afro-Ecuadorians make up about 10% of Ecuador’s population. Those who live in the area known as the Chota Valley in Northern Ecuador are an isolated people, with more than thirty communities scattered throughout the valley. They are an unreached people group (UPG), with less than 1% of this people group having received a true gospel witness and having made Jesus their Lord and Savior.

Most of the current population are the descendants of African slaves brought to the country by Jesuit priests to work the fields. The region is steeped in a mixture of African ancestral worship, Catholic teachings, and Caribbean worship practices. There is much confusion about who Jesus is and what it means to be a Christian. Beyond this spiritual darkness, there is also much poverty and despair. Many of the youth are either leaving the valley or have begun to join gangs or traffic drugs, as the valley is located very close to the Colombian border. These communities also have high levels of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.

It is estimated that 72% of Afro-Ecuadorian women experience abuse in their lives, and

more than 33% of women are pregnant by the age of 19.

The Lord has called us to make inroads and develop relationships in these communities. We have been working to disciple and teach existing believers who are hungry for God’s Word while also working to expand the reach of God’s kingdom throughout the valley. We have begun laying the groundwork for planting the Chota Valley Church (CVC), a network of small churches. Our goal is to plant small churches that learn to thrive within their local communities.