The CENTA Foundation is a registered non-profit Ecuadorian training center dedicated to empowering the indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. We encourage indigenous people to lead the way in creating positive change within their own communities and finding their true identities in Christ. We seek to empower the indigenous leaders to be catalysts for Godly change in their local churches and communities.

But church leaders in these remote villages lack biblical training and fellowship with other leaders. CENTA owns a 10-acre facility in Shell, Ecuador, equipped with lodging and training facilities that provide an excellent location for spiritual and technical training. Unfortunately, getting to and from their villages demands days of difficult trail and canoe travel. The only other option is a flight with Mission Aviation Fellowship. This reduces travel time to minutes, but costs more than these subsistence agriculturalists can afford.

Problem: Indigenous in Ecuador’s small, isolated jungle villages lack fellowship and encouragement. Respected church leaders never interact due to travel, financial hardships, and lack of adequate facilities for large gatherings.

Activity: Waorani church leaders feel that it is critical to continue with another conference this year in order to grow the momentum that began in 2024. We expect at least 300-400 folks from even more villages in 2025.

Relevance: In December of 2024 we organized and hosted a Waorani Bible Conference. Around 200 people from across the 6,000 square mile territory traveled to the CENTA grounds in Shell and attended the 3-day conference. The focus was on encouraging new worship songs to be written in their own musical style and language as a follow up to a scripture songwriting workshop CENTA facilitated in July 2024 with an expert in this field who guided the process of writing scripture-based worship songs in their native languages. A secondary goal of the December conference was to share testimonies from the older generation to encourage the youth. Out of that December conference, six people came to the Lord, four new worship songs were written, and 25 Waorani leaders stepped forward saying, “We have space! We’ve never had a conference in which we were the leaders doing the teaching. This was the first time. We have space to lead and share the Lord with our own people. Now we need to plan to reach out to our own people for 2025.”

Waorani leaders believe that it is very important to continue with another conference. Five years ago, we founded a Waorani mother-tongue church service. This service is held at the CENTA facility where around 60+ people continue meeting weekly. The town of Shell is a destination for jungle residents. Waorani who visit have shared that having this service gives them courage to continue on back home and allows for fellowship across families from various Waorani villages.

Impact: To continue mobilizing the Waorani believers to lead their own tribe.

Cost: