Taiwan
From Missiopedia
Contents |
[edit] Geography
[edit] Location
- Also known as Formosa (from Portuguese (Ilha) Formosa, meaning “beautiful island,” Taiwan is located in East Asia off the coast of mainland China, southwest of the main islands of Japan but directly west of the end of Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and north-northwest of the Philippines. It is bound to the east by the Pacific Ocean, to the south by the South China Sea and the Luzon Strait, to the west by the Taiwan Strait, and to the north by the East China Sea. Taiwan is officially administered as Taiwan Province of the Republic of China. When Taiwan has talked about becoming independent China has threatened military action.
[edit] Climate
[edit] Natural Resources
[edit] Demographics
[edit] Peoples
- Taiwanese (including Hakka) 84%
- Mainland Chinese 14%
- Taiwan Indigenous 2%
[edit] Languages
[edit] Provinces
- The Cities of Taiwan
[edit] Life
- Praise God for political survival and economic growth despite Mainland China's threats and propaganda.
[edit] Economy
- Taiwan’s foreign workforce: 336,985 (2007)
- Indonesian: 79,650 (23.6%)
- Filipino: 91,995 (27.3%)
- Thai: 93,673 (27.8%)
- Vietnamese: 71,618 (21.2%)
[edit] Government
- Pray for the new President and new government. The presidential elections were held on 22 March 2008 and a new government took office on 20 May 2008.
[edit] Religion
- Chinese religions 43.2%, Other 25.7%, Buddhism 25%, Christianity 6.1%. The constitution provides for freedom of religion and authorities generally respected this right in practice. There is no state religion. Most of the population follows a Chinese religion, which is usually a mix of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.
[edit] Islam
[edit] Buddhism
- Most Taiwanese mix Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism into an organic whole. Buddhists number about 25% or 5.6 million but Buddhism heavily influences most of the population. Buddhism is growing. Since 1980,Tantric Buddhism, esoteric practices and teachings developed between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD in India and subsequently developed in Tibet and other regions, has become increasingly popular in Taiwan. Exiled Tibetan monks have come to Taiwan, rapidly attracting large followings and thereby exercising a significant effect on Taiwan’s religious culture.
[edit] Christianity
- The Christians have the freedom to worship. May this continue to aid their brothers in China and may the Christians pray passionately for them and the struggles they face.
- Christian growth, though slow, resumed in the 1990s after 30 years of stagnation.
- Operation World notes Taiwan remains the only major Han Chinese population where a spiritual breakthrough has yet to come.
[edit] History
[edit] Churches
- Many rural churches in Taiwan don’t have a pastor. May more Christians able to be trained and be released to serve these churches.
[edit] Church and State Relations
[edit] Mission and Church Planting
- July 2007 at the Youth Missions Conference attended 1,400 students. Follow-up is needed.
- There are over a million young people in colleges or universities across Taiwan. Pray that during this critical time in their lives they would explore what Christianity really means and meet with the living God.
- The WEC team has two church plants among the Hakka Chinese - one in the city of Taichung and one up-country in San Wan. They also recruit Taiwanese into world mission.
- Pray for the training of local believers to work in the churches and for these Hakka believers to have a world vision.
- Pray for the ongoing survey work that will make clearer to the team which Hakka areas are most needy in terms of evangelism and church planting ministry.
- Pray that Christians throughout Taiwan will be challenged with a passion for the lost, both in Taiwan and cross-culturally.
