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A. Introduction
Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world and its population is ranked fourth in the world with approximately 220 million people. The archipelago bridges two continents, Asia and Australia. Being a tropical zone, Indonesia has an average daytime temperature of 30oC and night-time temperature of 25oC. Indonesia has a total of 370 ethnic groups. The biggest groups are the Sundanese, Javanese, Madurese, Minangkabau, Batak, Manado, Sulawesi, Timorese, Irian and Chinese who forms 4% of the total population. There are more than 400 different local dialects and languages however Bahasa Indonesia is the official language. The archipelago is divided into three time zones.
Indonesia is a multicultural country with a variety of cultures and religious beliefs throughout more than 17.000 of the archipelagos. Nonetheless, the ancient religious laws still play a prominent part in the lives of the Indonesians.
B. Religion
There are 5 main religions in Indonesia; Islam 88%, Roman Catholic 2.9%, Protestantism 5.8%, Hinduism 2%, Buddhism 2%. Even though majority of the population are Muslims, Islam is not the national religion.
C. The development of the True Jesus Church
In 1939, the Truth was spread to Indonesia from Mainland China by Dn. Stephen Siaw. The first church was established at Jakarta in 1941. 30 June 1952 the True Jesus Church was officially registered with the government authorities. In 1984 Canaan Theological Seminary was established to train full-time preachers and religious education teachers at Canaan School. Early the Truth was preached amongst the Chinese (1939), and then to the Javanese (1969), the Dayak people (1988), the Ambonese (1991). Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit currently, there are 27 churches and 10 prayer houses, and there are 7,263 believers (as of 2018).
D. Gospel Field—School of Canaan
Thank the Lord for providing the great opportunity to Indonesia GA with funding in 1969 to be able to establish the School of Canaan. It is a public educational institution and has also served as the Gospel field for the True Jesus Church of Indonesia. At present, the School has set-up 6 locations providing up to high school level with about 4,383 students (as of 2018).
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