Wellington & Anna Chimbo
Wellington grew up in Misahualli, a small jungle town in Ecuador, where his love for the Lord and for missions took root early. He served in his parish, helped with the youth group, and traveled to remote Kichwa villages for catechesis with a religious sister—and later with a priest, providing music for Mass. In 2019, during a visit to Peru for his brother’s wedding, he was invited to serve with missionaries from Family Missions Company. After several months of service, he returned in 2020 to join Robert and Tami Erisman and their family, serving faithfully throughout the pandemic and Peru’s months-long quarantine. When The Francis Institute was incorporated in March 2022, Wellington became its first missionary.
Anna is from St. Johns, Michigan. She worked in her parish and in diocesan young adult ministry before experiencing a call to foreign missions after a 2018 trip to Mexico City. Through prayer and discernment, she joined Family Missions Company in 2019 and was sent to Peru in 2020.
Anna and Wellington met while serving in Peru in 2020. They began dating in 2023 and were married in Ecuador in 2024. They now live in Tena, a city of about 30,000 in the Amazon Rainforest. They have two children in heaven and are joyfully expecting a baby in September 2026.
Their ministry centers on community, family, and supporting the Kichwa people in Misahualli, where poverty is widespread. They assist with basic needs such as food, medicine, and access to medical care. Several times a week, they accompany a priest to remote Kichwa communities for Mass, where Wellington sings and plays guitar. Wellington also mentors young men through soccer, building relationships and sharing the faith. Together, they strive to model a strong, Christ-centered marriage in a culture deeply affected by family brokenness.
Wellington dreams of forming a youth organization that helps young people encounter Christ, discover their vocation, and learn to live as missionary disciples. He longs to guide youth along the path of truth, trusting Jesus’ words in John 8:32: “the truth will set you free.”
Anna’s desire is to help people know their true identity in Christ and receive His healing love through ministry and inner-healing prayer, shaped by her training with the St. John Paul II Healing Center. She longs to meet people through incarnational evangelization, meeting them where they are in their lives, and with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, recognizing how the Lord wishes to encounter and care for them.
Together, Wellington and Anna serve with joy, simplicity, and deep love for the people of the Amazon—bringing Christ’s presence to families, youth, and the poor.
