The Saparua of Indonesia

The Saparua of Indonesia, numbering approximately 7,800 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are described as an ethnolinguistic community of Indonesia They are an Indigenous people, with Saparua as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Maluku-Central people cluster of the Malay Peoples. Their primary religion is Protestantism. They primarily speak Malay, Ambonese.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Saparua

Fast Facts*:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Indonesia
People Cluster: Maluku-Central
Primary Language(s): Malay, Ambonese (abs)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 7,800
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG022704
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Saparua of Indonesia

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

64%
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Malay, Ambonese
Language Family: Austronesian

100%
%
Malay, Ambonese Speakers

Media Resources in Malay, Ambonese:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Malay, Ambonese:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Malay, Ambonese bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Saparua are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Saparua:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Saparua of Indonesia

Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
readIsaiah 45:22

Pray for many lost people to turn to the Lord, finding forgiveness and salvation in Him, for He is the only way to true life and restoration.

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
readActs 6:7

Pray that the Word of God will be increasingly available to these people in ways they will resonate with so that all may have a chance to respond to the good news of Jesus Christ.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
readColossians 4:6

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, their speech will always be gracious and ready to answer for the hope which is within them.

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
readMatthew 9:37-38

Pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up believers to send out into His harvest field, which is ripe and ready.

Saparua Across Countries (ROP3 - 108695) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

*Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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