SULAWESI

Challenges for Prayer

1 Sulawesi is a patchwork of ethnic groups and of varied response to the missionary religions of Islam and Christianity

a) The seven Minahasa peoples of Manado (850,000)

b) The Sanghir and Talaud islanders (210,000)

c) The Toraja (1.6 million with eight languages and 30 dialects)

2 Less-reached peoples are numerous, but in most of the larger groups there are small Christian minorities

a) The Bugis (3.8m) and Makassar (2.2m)

b) The Muslim Gorontalo (1m), numerous smaller Muslim-animist peoples scattered around the north, and the Bungku-Mori Toraja of the southeast, where animistic practices are more prevalent

3 Bible translation is an enormous unfinished task

4 Pray for peace and calm in Central Sulawesi following violent confrontations between religions

MALUKU

Challenges for Prayer

1 A terrible period of violence followed by 'ethnic cleansing' of Christians by Muslims has afflicted these islands

2 The Maluku Protestant Church, founded in 1605, is Asia's oldest Protestant denomination

3 The less evangelized for prayer:

a) Muslim peoples

b) Many island communities in South Maluku are nominally Christian, but little evidence of faith remains

4 Bible translation is a great challenge

Geography - Sulawesi

Area 191,800 sq.km.

Population 15,020,000 in four provinces

Peoples - Sulawesi

Major peoples: Bugi, Makassar, Minahasa, Gorontalo, Toraja, Sanghir.

Religion - Sulawesi

Muslim 75.3%; Christian 16.4% (Protestant 16%, Catholic 0.4%); Traditional ethnic 6%; Hindu 2%; Buddhist 0.3%.

Geography - Maluku

Area 77,871 sq.km.

Population 3,168,000

Peoples - Maluku

128 1anguage groups

Religion - Maluku

Muslim 59%; Christian 40.5% (Protestant 35.3%, Catholic 5.2%); Hindu 0.14%; Buddhist 0.05%; Other 0.4%.

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