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Australia |
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Organized: 1885 Churches: 410 Members: 50,910 |
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Hong Kong
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Organized: 1949 Churches: 18 Members: 4,054 A British dependency from 1842-1997, Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China. Its 31-square-mile Hong Kong Island is the area's nucleus. Added to that are the three square miles of Kowloon Peninsula and the 355-square miles known as the New territories. Official languages are Cantonese Chinese and English. First of Asian areas to receive the gospel, Hong Kong-Pearl of the Orient-is a bridgehead to China. Church growth has been slow but consistent since Seventh-day Adventist literature was introduced. Home of the Chinese Union Mission, people are being reached through educational institutions, youth centers, and language schools, as well as the trademarked lifestyle program called NEWSTART®. Young people who come to know Jesus, in turn, reach out to other youth. Challenges to growth are traditional folk religions such as Buddhism, materialism, and lack of organized lay involvement. Seven out of ten members are under 30 years of age. |
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Philippines
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Organized: 1906 Churches: 4,035 Members: 923,589 Lying 500 miles off the southeast coast of Asia in an area of great tectonic instability, the Philippines form an archipelago about 1,100 miles north to south in a somewhat triangular form to include all its 7,107 islands. Phenomenal growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church began in the 1980's, though no one program is more important than another. Students from church-operated colleges and universities, academies, and elementary schools spend their summers in literature evangelism. Children and youth conduct evangelistic series. The Task Force program sends people into an un-entered area for a year or two to develop Bible study groups. They are trying to harness the potential of laypersons to finish the work in the only Christian nation in Southeast Asia, where Adventists are one of the largest Protestant denominations. |
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South Korea
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Organized: 1919 Churches: 686 Members: 173,951 Since much of its landscape is rugged terrain, most of South Korea's population is crowded into the few lowland areas. Christians outnumber Buddhists in this land whose traditional name means "Land of the Morning Calm." Though its recorded history begins in the first century BC, the Republic was founded in 1948. The first four Seventh-day Adventist churches were established within the first year after a Korean returned to his homeland having heard the Adventist message in Japan. For many years the country's president and diplomat families were cared for at the Seoul Sanitarium and Hospital, and lifestyle programs have contributed to national health. English Language Schools contribute to the baptism of 1,300 people each year. |
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Tanzania
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Organized: 1903 Churches: 1,387 Members: 288,590 This East African republic was created in 1964 by the union of Tanganyika with the Zanzibar and Pemba islands. One of the least urbanized African countries, Tanzania has 120 ethnic groups. Christianity and Islam each claim one-third of the population, but Islam dominates in Zanzibar, "The Isle of Cloves." Seventh-day Adventist Church growth has been steady since the first school was established. With the majority of members being 12 to 30 years of age, Tanzania faces many challenges: unemployment; lack of food, water, health care, and communication; illiteracy; and drug abuse. |
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United Kingdom
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Organized: 1902 Churches: 224 Members: 22,344 Great Britain (England, Scotland and its offshore islands, and Wales) and six counties of Northern Ireland make up the United Kingdom. Seventh-day Adventist growth has shown a steady increase since World War II, with average membership age below 45 years. Individuals have been honored for their ministries from a soup kitchen, a well-known astronomer at an Irish Observatory, and for the first Adventist judge in the United Kingdom. Roundelwood offers health programs in Scotland, and Adventist schools in both London and Birmingham annually baptize about 50 percent of their non-Adventist students. |
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