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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Burgher of Sri Lanka

The Burgher of Sri Lanka, numbering approximately 45,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Eurasian ethnic group in Sri Lanka descended from Dutch, British and other European men who settled in Sri Lanka and intermarried with Sri Lankan women. They are an Indigenous people, in the South Asian Christian people cluster of the South Asian Peoples affinity bloc. Their primary religion is Christianity - Roman Catholicism. They primarily speak Indo-Portuguese.

Burgher in Sri Lanka photo
Photo courtesy of Joshua Project. Photo Source: Anonymous

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: South Asian Peoples
Country: Sri Lanka
People Cluster: South Asian Christian
Primary Language(s): Indo-Portuguese (idb)
Primary Religion(s): Christianity - Roman Catholicism
Population: 45,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG006434

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Christianity - Roman Catholicism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

%
Christianity - Roman Cath… Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Indo-Portuguese
Language Family: Creole

%
Indo-Portuguese Speakers

Media Resources in Indo-Portuguese:

Films:

No entries found for: Indo-Portuguese(idb). Help build some!

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

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Bible Resources in Indo-Portuguese:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Indo-Portuguese bible resources at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Next steps for the Burgher

The Burgher are Unengaged and Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Next steps for the Burgher

The Burgher are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

Next steps for the Burgher

The Burgher 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.

Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Burgher of Sri Lanka

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
readIsaiah 59:2

Pray that those who are separated from God will turn to Him in humility and repentance, seeking His forgiveness and the restoration of a right relationship with their Heavenly Father.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
readLamentations 3:23-23

Pray that they will have hope in the Lord, knowing that His compassions never fails and that His mercies are new every morning.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
readPhilippians 2:5-7

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will imitate His humility in all they do.

Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD!
readPsalm 134:1

Pray that God will raise up believers among them who are in awe of Him and that, in service to Him, they will share the gospel with others so that they too may bless the Lord!

Burgher (ROP3 - 111732) reported in the following countries:

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 Definitions page.

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