The Quechua people are an Indigenous people in the Andes area of South America who speak the Quechua language, which includes various dialects. There are approximately 8 million Quechua people. They mainly live in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, with small pockets of people living in Argentina, Chile and Colombia.

The Quechuas are also descendants of the Incas, who once reigned in South America. After the Spanish Conquest, the Quechua became marginalized. They tend to live in more rural areas and often depend on farming for their sustenance. However, a large number of Quechua people also live in larger metropolitan areas.

The majority of Quechua people groups are considered least reached in that less than 4% of the population are evangelical Christians. People widely embrace traditional religious practices. The Quechua have also blended Christian beliefs into their practices, leading to a highly syncretistic belief system.

The Quechua also share a common spiritual belief system with other people in the Andean area. This includes a belief in Mother Earth, who grants fertility and to whom the people make offerings and sacrifices. Mountain spirits are also important to and venerated by the Quechua people.

The vision of the Quechua Initiative

We’re asking God for a growing and sustainable gospel movement among each of the Quechua tribal groups in South America in our generation.

1. Identify and resource Quechua leaders. This goal involves identifying Quechua leaders who God is raising up and coming alongside them to resource them so that they can accomplish their God-sized visions.
2. Develop teams who will serve among all the major Quechua people groups. This goal includes raising up teams, including Converge global workers and Quechua partners who will provide servant leadership among Quechua people groups with a population of over 50,000.
3. Provide training on church planting movements among evangelical Quechua leaders. This goal involves working with church planting partners, such as The Timothy Initiative, to train people to plant churches among the Quechua people so that they can be reached and grow.
4. Mobilize existing churches to raise up church planters to plant churches in their cultural group or a similar cultural group and help these churches become more outreach-/evangelistic-oriented.
5. Initiate community development projects so that Quechua people are cared about and loved holistically. These community development projects will serve as platforms for bettering the lives of Quechua people and will open doors to share the gospel with them.