A few weeks ago, I began another blog about cities around the world which do not have missionaries or a congregation of the Church in them. Almost every country in the world has many cities which remain unreached as in terms of missionary work. Even countries like Brazil (with over one million members and 27 missions) still have several cities with over 100,000 inhabitants without a branch or missionaries serving there! Much has yet to be done in order to bring the message of the Gospel across the world. The new blog can be found on the right side of the page, listed under "Other Church Growth Blogs."
On a different note, I have not yet received word concerning the dozen or so missionaries serving in the Republic of Georgia and whether they have been evacuated due to the Russian invasion. Georgia currently has two branches functioning in the capital city of Tbilisi. The country was opened to missionary work just back in the spring of 2006. I will provide updates once information becomes available.
3 comments:
My name is Richard Brown. I was one of the missionaries who was reassigned from the Yekaterinburg Russia mission to Armenia Yerevan Mission serving in Georgia back in April of 2006. As an update on Georgia. The missionaries were allowed back into the country in october of last year. We are now training 3 more missionaries in the MTC to join the ranks there, and the church is recovering from the affects of the war.
My comment includes all of the 150 largest cities in the world that to the best of my knowledge, scanning google map site of branch and ward locations, and research into places where the church does not for political reasons in certain countries publish the locations of wards and branches, e.g., PRC, KSA, Syria, others. I have included a few examples where there is a presence in a metro area, but there are no local country nationals, just expats or third-country nationals. I have searched were there is a working group, but have sometimes may not have been successful. Having traveled much I have visited study groups or branches in Baku, Dhaka, Riyadh, Dubai, Jedda, Damascus, Pune; some still exist other don't and others I don't know. I have tried to double checked and sometimes triple checked the 47 metro population areas, over 30% of the 150 largest cities where there is no the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints presence. At 3.2M people we have the number 149 of the world's largest metro areas, so these are all big cities. This number of people is almost equal to the entire population of the state of Utah just for comparative purposes. By country or religiously the largest groupings cover over 90% of the largest 150 metro population areas: predominately Moslem cities---17; India---13; PR China---12. The population figures are taken from 2021 where available.
Here is the list:
1. Dhaka---23.4M. 4th largest city in the world
2. Cairo---20.2M. 7th
3. Tehran---12.9M 25th
4. Pune, IN---10.8M 32nd
5. Ahmedabad, IN---9.1M 45th
6. Baghdad---8.6M
7. Surat, IN---8.1M
8. Chittagong---7.7M
9. Riyadh---7.6M
10. Foshan, CH---7.6M
11. Shenyang, CH---7.5M
12. Kabul---6.9M
13. Khartoum---6.8M
14. Harbin, CH---6.6M
15. Jidda---5.9M
16. Belhai, CH---5.9M
17. Yangoon---5.8M
18. Alexandria---5.6M
19. Jinan, CH---5.6M
20. Algiers---5.5M
21. Casablanca---5.2M
22. Urumqi, CH---4.8M
23. Jaipur, IN---4.7M
24. Kanpur, IN---4.4M
25. Kano---4.2M
26. Hefei, CH---4.2M
27. Shijiazhuang, CH---4.1M
28. Mashhad---4.1
29. Calicut, IN---4.0M
30. Kallumpuram, IN---4.0M
31. Kochi, IN---3.9M
32. Lucknow, IN---3.9M
33. Tangshan, CH---3.8M
34. Pyongyang---3.7M
35. Aleppo---3.6M
36. Changzhou, CH---3.6M
37. Patna, IN---3.6M
38. Bekasi---3.6M
39. Nanchang, CH---3.5M
40. Thissur, IN---3.5M
41. Dubai-Sharjah---3.4M
42. S'ana---3.3M
43. Damascus---3.3M
44. Nagpur, IN---3.2M
45. Wuxi, CH---3.2M
46. Bursa---3.2M
47. Indore, IN---3.1M
Given the church's strategy of starting out with large cities there is plenty to work on here. Additional given that 50% of the world's population is urban as of 2016 and will grow to 70% by 2050 there is added emphasis to open these large urban areas. That is hope. Having been to half of these cities on this list over my life, it would be great to meeting with fellow saints instead of studying alone on the Sabbath days, whether Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
If anyone has information of branches or wards in these cities. This information can change each years. I can remember going to church in Teheran in 1976, but not since 1980 has there been a church presence there.
Where is the other blog on this subject that you allude to? Thanks for the guidance.
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