Published on Operation World (http://www.operationworld.org)
Feb 08: Pacific, The Church in the Pacific, Trends to Watch - Pacific
Pacific
World
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Geography
Area: 8,515,800 sq km6.3% of the world’s land surface. There are 25,000 islands scattered over 88 million sq km of ocean; this is larger than the combined areas of Africa, Asia and Europe. It comprises one continent (Australia), two large land masses (New Zealand and Papua New Guinea [PNG]) and 26 smaller island states and territories. The smallest territories are grouped with related states in the country section: Christmas Is, Cocos Is, Norfolk Is with Australia; Johnston Is, Midway Is, Wake Is with Guam; Niue, Pitcairn Is and Tokelau with Cook Islands.
Population: 35,838,336 Annual Growth: 1.30%
Urbanites: 70%
Peoples
Languages: 1,250Religion
Largest Religion: Christian| Religion | Pop % | Ann Gr | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christians | 26,526,812 | 74.02 | 0.9 |
| Evangelicals | 6,382,078 | 17.8 | 1.7 |
Answer to Prayer
The strength of Christianity in the Pacific. The Pacific was one of the first areas to be evangelized in the modern Protestant missionary era. By the end of the 19th Century, most of the Pacific region had become Christian through the sacrificial labours of early LMS, Methodist, Anglican and Pacific Islander missionaries. Missionary casualties were high through disease, violent death and cannibalism, but great people movements brought whole peoples and islands to Christianity.For an additional Answer to Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.
More Information
The Operation World book, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM provide far more information and fuel for prayer for the people of Pacific.The Church in the Pacific
Pacific
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Challenge for Prayer
Disciple-making is the key to the Pacific, a region that remains majority Christian. It was critical to past failings and will be crucial to future challenges. The inability to move beyond Christianization, and into making mature believers, is a large part of the Church’s decline in Australia and New Zealand and the reason for the vulnerability of the Church in the Pacific Islands. Pray for a mentality in the Church that places priority and focus rightly on shaping disciples.For an additional 6 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.
More Information
The Operation World book, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM provide far more information and fuel for prayer for the people of The Church in the Pacific.Trends to Watch - Pacific
Pacific
See Prayer Information
Challenge for Prayer
The health and viability of many isolated island communities are threatened by modernity and globalization, large-scale unemployment, heavy dependence on aid, isolation from health, education and modern consumer goods as well as prohibitive costs of inter-island travel. The replacement of a subsistence economy, driven by agriculture and fishing, with a cash economy pushes many men abroad to find work, generates a brain (and muscle) drain and introduces a changed diet that, in turn, intensifies already existing health issues.For an additional 3 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.
