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25th October 2009 |
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Population of 20 million with 35 people per sq. km. The world’s 4th largest island, 1,600 km long in the Indian Ocean 600 km off the coast of Mozambique in Africa. Subsistence agricultural economy, yet not producing enough rice to feed all. Slash-and-burn farming has destroyed vast areas of forest and caused bad erosion.
47% are Christian and 45% Traditional Ethnic. There is now religious freedom, but the power of the old Malagasy folk religion remains pervasive. The four mainline churches have great influence and through the National Council of Churches pressure the government to restrict visas for missionaries associated with evangelical groups. Church growth increased in the 1990s in the midst of political and natural disasters. The Lutheran Church gained 300,000 new converts in 1995. Pentecostal and charismatic congregations have multiplied.
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The Protestant Church has had a glorious history of faith despite persecution from heathen rulers and harassment from the French Catholic colonial authorities. It grew from 5,000 in 1861 to one million in 1900. There have been significant revival movements within the larger churches in 1895, 1941, 1948, and during the 1980s. Their emphasis on healing and exorcism has led to conversions and full churches in some areas. May this movement continue to grow and be grounded in Scripture. | |