WEST LESSER SUNDA ISLANDS ( NUSA TENGGARA BARAT )

Challenges for Prayer

1 These staunchly Muslim islands are some of the least evangelized in Indonesia

2 Unreached peoples:

a) Despite ongoing efforts for the past 10+ years to reach them, the three major indigenous people groups remain unreached

b) The Hindu Bali people

3 Two small churches, founded by CMA in the 1940s in the area of Bima, have approximately 100 believers but struggle to survive, as many young people convert to Islam in order to get married

4 Scriptures are being translated into the Sasak and Bima languages

EAST LESSER SUNDA ISLANDS ( NUSA TENGGARA TIMOR )

Challenges for Prayer

1 Flores is 90% Catholic but is steeped in pagan and idolatrous rituals sometimes involving snake worship

2 Sumba, an island long known for its animism and resistance to the gospel, saw a movement of the Spirit in the late 1980s, with Protestants doubling from 75,000 to 160,000 in five years

3 West Timor:

a) There was a great outpouring of the Spirit in 1965-8

b) The wide-scale killing and destruction which followed East Timor's (Timor Lorosae) vote to become independent of Indonesia resulted in a number of refugee camps holding thousands of destitute people in West Timor

c) Sawu people on Sawu Island and West Timor (100,000) are 80% animist

d) The Ambenu Timor and Belu Tetun in West Timor are largely nominal Catholics and few are Evangelicals

4 The lack of Scriptures for the languages of the two Lesser Sunda Provinces is a major reason for nominalism, unchallenged witchcraft, and lack of progress for the gospel

Geography - West Lesser Sunda Islands ( Nusa Tenggara Barat )

Area 20,177 sq.km.

Population 3,086,000

Peoples - West Lesser Sunda Islands ( Nusa Tenggara Barat )

Major peoples: Sasak, Sumbawa, Bima.

Religion - West Lesser Sunda Islands ( Nusa Tenggara Barat )

Muslim 96%; Hindu 3.3%; Buddhist 0.5%; Christian 0.2% (Protestant 0.1%, Catholic 0.1%).

Geography - East Lesser Sunda Islands ( Nusa Tenggara Timor )

Area 47,876 sq.km.

Population 3,908,000.

Peoples - East Lesser Sunda Islands ( Nusa Tenggara Timor )

Major peoples: Timor, Manggarai, Solar, Lio, Rote, Sikka, Sumba.

Religion - East Lesser Sunda Islands ( Nusa Tenggara Timor )

Christian 82.8% (Catholic 51.2%, Protestant 31.6%); Muslim 8.5%; Hindu 0.2%; Traditional ethnic 8.5%.

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