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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Waray-Waray of Philippines

The Waray-Waray of Philippines, numbering approximately 3,865,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are an ethnolinguistic community of the Philippines and can also be known as Waray, Samaren-o. They are an Indigenous people, in the Filipino, Central people cluster of the Malay Peoples affinity bloc. Their primary religion is Christianity - Folk Catholicism. They primarily speak Waray-Waray.

Photo courtesy of Joshua Project. Photo Source: Bridget Summers

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Asian Pacific Peoples
Country: Philippines
People Cluster: Filipino, Central
Primary Language(s): Waray-Waray (war)
Primary Religion(s): Christianity - Folk Catholicism
Population: 3,865,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity
People Group ID: PG007806

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Pray for the Waray-Waray of Philippines

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Christianity - Folk Catholicism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

%
Christianity - Folk Catho… Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Waray-Waray
Language Family: Austronesian

%
Waray-Waray Speakers

Media Resources in Waray-Waray:

Films:

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Waray-Waray:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

View all resources

Next steps for the Waray-Waray

The Waray-Waray 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 Waray-Waray

The Waray-Waray 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 Waray-Waray

The Waray-Waray 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 Waray-Waray of Philippines

"...And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold." As he said these things, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
readLuke 8:8

Pray that the seeds of truth will take root in the hearts of those who are far from Jesus and that He will lead them from darkness to light.

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed"
readGalatians 3:8

Ask the Lord to fulfill His promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed by advancing the gospel to every people group who has yet to receive it.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
readRomans 8:15

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will remember the God who has given them freedom from fear so that they will trust Him completely as their good Father who meets all their needs.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
readJohn 1:9-10

Pray for those God might send to share the gospel here. Ask that they will grow closer to Jesus and be compelled to share His good news with people who don't know it.

Waray-Waray reported in the following countries (ROP3):

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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