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GEOGRAPHY

Area 3,521 sq.km. Five island archipelagos and 118 islands – (Society, Tuamotu, Marquesas, Austral and Gambier) in south-central Pacific. Tahiti is the largest island at 1,042 sq.km. and is where over 80% live.

Capital Papeete 139,000. Urbanites 60%.

PEOPLES

Polynesian 68.5%. Speaking 7 distinct languages, largest: Tahitian 100,000; Tuamotuan 18,000; Tubuaian 10,000; Marquesan(2) 10,000; Mangarevan 2,000.

Mixed Race 15.1%. Polynesian, European, Chinese.

European 11.6%. Administrators, military, etc.

Chinese 3%. Mainly traders.

Other 1.8%.

Literacy 95%. Official languages French and Tahitian. All languages 9. Languages with Scriptures 3Bi 1NT 2por.

ECONOMY

Tourism, aid and the French military are the main sources of income, but the wealth generated has not benefited all. The suspension, then ending, of nuclear testing is having a big effect on the economy. Unemployment 15% (unofficially nearer 50%). Income/person $14,910 (47.5% of USA).

POLITICS

French colony in 1880, Overseas Territory in 1957, increased autonomy since 1977 but with representation in the Senate and Assembly in Paris. The controversial use of Mururoa Atoll for testing nuclear weapons provoked international opposition and fuelled the Tahitian independence movement.

RELIGION

There is complete religious freedom, but society is increasingly materialistic and secular.

Missionaries from French Polynesia
P,I,A 6 in 2 agencies.

Missionaries to French Polynesia
P,I,A 30 in 6 agencies from 8 countries: France 9.

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Challenges for Prayer

1 Tahiti is a paradise gone tragically wrong. Once a Christian nation that sent missionaries all over the Pacific, Tahiti is now being debased by promiscuity (over 60% illegitimate births), prostitution, alcoholism, drug abuse and the breakdown of family life. Young people are frustrated and seeking answers in their confusion, but where are the fervent messengers of the gospel? No longer do Tahitian missionaries leave for other lands as they once did.

2 Those with a vital personal faith are now rare. As a result, there is a reversion to the bondage of pagan occultism and a multiplication of syncretistic and foreign sects, especially two forms of Mormonism. Pray for a spiritual revolution to take place among the many nominal Catholic and Protestant Christians. Those who migrate from rural areas to Papeete are usually lost to the Church.

3 Nearly half the population belong to the LMS-planted ECP. Liberal theology is predominant and evangelical believers are few. The ECP is in serious decline, its credibility is low because of well-publicized misuse of funds and court cases. Splits and defections have reduced its percentage and influence. Pray for a moving of the Spirit of God to bring this church back to its first love, as in the early 19^th Century.

4 The evangelical witness is very small and largely confined to two Assemblies of God and some charismatic groups. About a third of Catholics are charismatic and are also influential. Evangelical agencies found elsewhere in the Anglophone Pacific have neglected the Francophone territories. In contrast two varieties of Mormonism have thrived for over 150 years in these islands. There is no Evangelical Fellowship – a great need.

5 The less-evangelized– almost all adhere to a form of Christianity, but many are without a clear gospel witness:

a) The outer island groups are largely Catholic with little evangelical presence. The Marquesans, Mangarevans and Tuamotuans cannot easily understand the related Tahitian, and have little of the Bible in their languages.

b) The Chinese are 4% Protestant and 4% Catholic and largely secular.

c) The French community lives a life apart, having minimal contact with any church.

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