In August 1904, a man stepped ashore on the Ecuadorian coast carrying books and a stubborn conviction. Thomas Davis was a colporteur, a seller of religious books, and he was the first to bring the Adventist message to a country that had never known that faith. It took three years to see the first baptism.
From that lone seed grew everything that followed: churches in Quito and Guayaquil, a whole Union and, decades later, thousands of children and teenagers marching with scarves around their necks. In 2024, Ecuador gathered the largest Campori in its history.
This is the story of how the Pathfinders, called Conquistadores in the Spanish-speaking world, put down deep roots along the equator. A story of yellow fever, of courage, and of campfires that still burn.
A colporteur and a suitcase of books
In August 1904, Thomas Davis set foot on Ecuadorian soil with no backing from any large organization. He was a colporteur: he traveled selling books with biblical content and talking about the faith with whoever opened the door. In a country of strong Catholic tradition, that took tact and plenty of patience.
The work paid off slowly. Only in 1907 did Davis see the first Ecuadorian accept baptism, C.E. Yépez, who later rendered important services to the young church. One convert in three years may seem like little, but it was the first stone of everything that followed.
Davis was not alone in this approach. Since 1891, the Adventist church had sent colporteurs as a spearhead into South America, and they were already spreading the message across Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. Ecuador entered that map through the hand of a book seller who traveled on foot.
Quito, 1912: the first church and the price the pioneers paid
In early 1911, Pastor Wheeler baptized in Guayaquil the second Ecuadorian convert, Julio Espinoza, a native of Machala. The cities of the coast and the highlands were beginning to respond.
The milestone came on June 15, 1912. On that Sabbath, a few months after the arrival of the Peruvian César López and Pastor Santiago Mangold, who came from Argentina, the first Adventist church in Ecuador was organized in Quito, with eight members. Eight names who decided to keep the Sabbath in a capital that had barely heard of it.
The achievement came at a steep cost. At the end of 1912, Mangold's wife died of yellow fever; he still tried to carry on from Guayaquil and, in 1914, ended up returning to Argentina with his children. Tropical diseases took the lives of several pioneers who came to plant the faith in Ecuador, among them Susana, Thomas Davis's wife, who died in 1907 in the city of Ambato. Every church from that era carries, in silence, the memory of those who could not withstand the climate.
From an isolated mission to the Ecuadorian Union
Over the course of the twentieth century, those scattered groups stopped being loose dots on the map and became a network. The church organized regional missions and fields to nurture the growth, and Ecuador came to have its own administration within the South American structure.
Today the entire country is coordinated by the Unión Ecuatoriana, the Ecuadorian Union, with fields like the North Ecuadorian Mission caring for specific regions. It is this structure that organizes churches, schools and, of course, the clubs for children and teenagers.
The organization works in layers. The local club is part of a field, mission or conference, which answers to a Union, which is part of the South American Division, the SAD. Ecuador takes its place in that tree alongside Brazil, Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.
Read alsoThe Pathfinders in ColombiaThe club arrives in Ecuador
The Pathfinder Club as a worldwide organization has roots in the 1930s and was made official by the church in 1950. In Ecuador, though, the story began later, and it carries a name attached to it: Robert Holbrook.
In 1973, Pastor Holbrook arrived in Guayaquil as Youth director with a clear task, to develop the Pathfinder ministry in the country. He taught how to found a club, gave leadership courses and guided the first groups in the Honors. The following year, in 1974, Eben Ezer was born, the first Ecuadorian Pathfinder Club, founded in Guayaquil with him present.
In the Spanish-speaking world, the club is called Conquistadores. It is the same movement that in Brazil we call Desbravadores: the same age range of 10 to 15, the same Honors, Classes, camps and the same discipline of faith and service.
Campori Valientes 2024: the biggest of them all
From October 31 to November 4, 2024, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas became the capital of the Ecuadorian Pathfinders. More than seven thousand of them set up camp for the Campori Valientes, organized by the Unión Ecuatoriana. It was the largest event of its kind in the country's history.
The numbers are striking. There were 244 clubs gathered, coming from provinces all over Ecuador, from the Galápagos Islands to the mainland. Over the course of the days, the campori recorded 222 baptisms, an unprecedented mark for the country, and invested 208 new leaders, ready to run clubs and Units.
Courage, there, did not stay locked in the theme. The participants donated 361 units of blood, turning faith into concrete service for hospitals in the region. It is the kind of gesture that sums up the club: camping, learning, singing at the campfire and, in the same breath, serving others. If the club in your city also organizes community actions, you already know what I mean.
What 'Valiente' means in practice
The campori's name was not chosen by chance. 'Valientes' means the brave, the courageous, and it echoes one of the most repeated promises in the clubs: 'Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go' (Joshua 1:9, NIV).
Courage in the club is rarely movie-style heroism. It is waking up early at camp in the cold, tying a knot that holds up a whole tent, facing the long hike without complaining and helping the one who fell behind. They are small acts of bravery that build character.
There is also the courage to decide. For many of those 222 young people baptized at the campori, saying yes to the faith in front of thousands of people was the bravest act of their lives up to that point. No one is required to go through this. The club welcomes those who are still thinking and walks alongside those who choose to move forward.
Ecuador on the world map of the movement
The distance covered is striking. From a single colporteur in 1904 to 244 clubs gathered at a single campori in 2024, Ecuador built a story that stands alongside those of its larger neighbors.
On the world map, the country is part of the South American Division, the same one that brings together Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. And that division is only a piece of a movement that exists in many countries, with millions of Pathfinders marching with the same scarf and the same ideals.
From the mist of Quito to the heat of Guayaquil, from the Galápagos to the volcanoes of the Andes, each Ecuadorian club is a chapter of the same story. When you tighten the scarf around your neck, in Ecuador or in Brazil, you join a chain that began with people willing to cross the sea for the sake of a conviction.