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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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Chinese (Traditional) - 中文（繁體) | French - Français
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Semawa of Indonesia

The Semawa of Indonesia, numbering approximately 470,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are described as an ethnolinguistic community of Indonesia They are an Indigenous people, with Sumbawa / Semawa as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Bali-Sasak people cluster of the Malay Peoples. Their primary religion is Sunni Islam. They primarily speak Sumbawa.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Indonesia
People Cluster: Bali-Sasak
Primary Language(s): Sumbawa (smw)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 470,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity
People Group ID: PG022776
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Pray for the Semawa of Indonesia

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

82%
%

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Sumbawa
Language Family: Austronesian

100%
%

Media Resources in Sumbawa:

Films:

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Provided by the Jesus Film Project

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Bible Resources in Sumbawa:

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Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Sumbawa bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 1), 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.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Semawa:
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

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Semawa 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.

Next steps for the Semawa:
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

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Semawa 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 Semawa:
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 Semawa of Indonesia

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
readPsalm 10:17-18

Pray that God, in accordance with His good character, will give justice to those who are oppressed by sin and that they will know that His offer of salvation is for everyone.

And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
read1 John 4:21

Pray that the good news of God's love will reach everyone in this people group, and that His love will compel them to love others as Christ has loved us.

And God is able to make all grace about to you, so that having sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
read2 Corinthians 9:8

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will see that God provides for their needs and be content in His provision so that they may excel in every good work.

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
readJohn 1:35-36

Pray for those God sends to cross cultures to share the gospel, that they might faithfully share the good news of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Sumbawa Across Countries (ROP3 - 109602) 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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