also today: Dominica

Answers to Prayer

1 Evangelical growth came relatively late, but took off in the 1970s and continued through the '90s as Evangelicals strove to multiply churches and take the gospel to 1 million Dominicans by 2000

Challenges for Prayer

1 Columbus' importation of sugar cane has been the source of 500 years of wealth and misery

2 Religious freedom is not yet an issue completely resolved for non-Catholics

3 The major challenges confronting Christians are:

a) Retention of those converted

b) Development of Christian ethics for Christian involvement in a society where corruption, crime and promiscuity are rampant

c) Cultivation of a missions vision despite pervasive poverty

4 Leadership for the churches is a constant challenge

5 The large Haitian under-class has been the most responsive of all

6 The less evangelized

a) The unchurched majority is nominally Christian but occultism is widespread, pervasive and strong

b) The middle and upper classes have relatively fewer Evangelicals

c) Youth

d) The Chinese, who have only two congregations of believers

also today: Dominica

Geography

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Area 48,443 sq.km. The eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, shared with Haiti.

Population (2000) 8,495,338 +1.66%AGR

Capital Santo Domingo 3,601,000.

Peoples

Hispanic 85%; Haitian 14%; Other 1%.

Literacy 82%. Official language Spanish. All languages 3. Languages with Scriptures 2Bi.

Economy

Growth in the early 1970s has been replaced by devastating decline prompted by world recessions, a bloated bureaucracy and a corrupt government spending freely on costly prestige projects. HDI 0.726; 88^th/174. Public debt 28% of GNP. Income/person $1,600 (6% of USA).

Politics

Independence achieved four times – twice from Spain (1821/65), once from Haiti (1844) and once from the USA (1924)! Thirty years of repressive dictatorship ended in 1961, but instability and civil war prevailed until 1966.

Religion

Catholicism is the state religion and the Church jealously guards its privileged political and economic clout.

Churches in Dominican Republic

Missionaries from Dominican Republic

72 in 9 agencies to 8 countries

Missionaries to Dominican Republic

283 in 50 agencies from 11 countries

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