The Saraguro people, an indigenous group in southern Ecuador, are descendants of the Incas. Their culture retains Incan belief systems & spiritual practices. Among the 30,000 Saraguros, less than 1% are believers.  

For the past five years, SIM worker Abby has dedicated herself to serving this least reached people group. In her ministry, she works with local believers to make disciples, equipping them with the skills and resources to disciple others in their communities. She also leads the SIM Ecuador church planters team, which consists of eight units ministering to various least reached areas across Ecuador. 

Growing up in Sydney, Abby felt called to missions in South America. After completing Bible college in Brisbane, she was led to serve the unreached Saraguro people. Abby considers it a privilege to love and serve the Saraguros so that they can know Jesus for who He truly is. “They are an agricultural people group, very hard working, kind-hearted, and they will never send you away without a meal,” Abby said. “These are the people God has knit my heart to.” 

A key focus of Abby’s ministry involves sitting down with people she has built relationship with to read the Bible together. “Although this culture supposedly has the Bible, everything is so syncretized that they are far from knowing God as He truly is,” she explained. Abby has discovered that even among literate Saraguros, many feel they are not good enough to read the Bible for themselves and believe they must rely on a priest to do so. 

“I’ve been sitting down with the Saraguro people to just simply read the Bible, discuss basic comprehension questions and let them to voice what they see about God in the scriptures. This has been hugely freeing for them,” Abby shared. One church member, Polivio, is one of the believers that Abby and the local church have had the privilege of training.  

Polivio, initially frustrated by his inability to share his faith, was given basic discipleship tools and started facilitating a Bible study at home. As his confidence grew, he began sharing the Gospel in his hardware store, eventually discipling a group of men. When their pastor left for a year in 2023 for medical reasons, Polivio and Abby took on the responsibility of preaching for the first time. Over two years, Polivio transformed from a passive churchgoer, ashamed of not sharing the Gospel, into one of the church leaders. He is now actively discipling others and Abby hopes to see this transformation repeated with many more believers in Saraguro.  

“In the Saraguro region there are over 160 communities and I am currently the only mission worker here. The only way to reach this region is to see a movement of Saraguros reaching Saraguros with the Good News of Jesus Christ.” 

To spearhead this outreach, Abby will be working on with a local team to distribute an audio Bible in the Saraguros’ local language, Kichwa. “Praise God we have the complete written Bible in Kichwa! Since they are an oral culture, we want to distribute the Kichwa Bible on solar-powered radios,” Abby explained. While the New Testament is already recorded in Kichwa, the team will work on recording the Old Testament. “It’s an exciting initative because we will be working with local Kichwa speakers, most of whom aren’t believers yet. This opens up opportunities to discuss the Bible with them as they record it,” she added.  

GO: Do you have a heart to reach a least reached community with the Gospel? Get in touch with a Mission Mobiliser today to find out how you can serve with your gifts and skills. Visit sim.org.au/talktous.  

GIVE: Do you want to support SIM’s Mission Global Fund so more mission workers, like Abby, can make Jesus known in least reached communities? Visit sim.org.au/missionglobal.