Saturday, May 18, 2019

Updated Country Profile - Tuvalu

Click here to access the updated Reaching the Nations country profile for Tuvalu. With a mere 11,000 inhabitants, Tuvalu has had a Church presence since 1985 and is assigned to the Fiji Suva Mission. Moderate membership growth has occurred since the late 2000s as Church membership increased from 131 in 2008 to 268 in 2018. Also, there were eleven young adults who served full-time missions at the same time from the only branch in the country as of the mid-2010s. See below for the Future Prospects section of the article:

Moderate membership growth since the late 2000s and a significant increase in the number of young adults who serve full-time missions are positive developments that may indicate a breakthrough reaching the Tuvaluan population. Time will tell whether new converts and returned missionaries will remain active, increased membership growth will be sustained, and additional congregations will be organized as greater numbers of local priesthood leaders are trained. Restricting the number of full-time missionaries to a single companionship may be in the best interests of maintaining local member involvement in missionary work and leadership until additional congregations are organized.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

When I was in primary as a child one of the counselors in the primary presidency had a husband from Tuvalu. Or was it Vanuatu. I'm not sure.

Eduardo said...

It's hard to be sure with all the Unknowns out there. Maybe it was Nauru or Palau?
The 10 year growth on Tuvalu looks impressive. Does the country face ocean rise threats like some Pacific Islands? I suppose I should read the linked article.

Eduardo said...

Yep, looks as though Tuvaluans have some contingency plans for sea rise. I wonder if there are engineering tricks that can help store water and potentially stave off the water rise? The largest single thing in the world and its expansion is a formidable opponent.

John Pack Lambert said...

I'm the one who posted as unknow before. I know it was either Tuvalu or Vanuatu. On further thought, I am pretty sure it was Vanuatu.

I have to admit I am unconvinced the ocean is going to rise anywhere near enough to threaten anywhere in the next 50 years.

John Pack Lambert said...

Here is a blog post I wrote about the functioning of the Church at the local level. I need to figure out how to explain some of these issues clearly in fewer words. http://memberoftherestoredcofjcmichigan.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-structure-of-church-of-jesus-christ.html

John Pack Lambert said...

This blog http://memberoftherestoredcofjcmichigan.blogspot.com/2019/05/will-they-now-believe-we-are-serious-2.html deals with changes to the name of the Church. I am hoping to get some comments on my post.

twinnumerouno said...

The Wikipedia article on Tuvalu says that some islands are shrinking as ocean levels shift, but more of them are actually gaining land.

I didn't really realize the country had such a low population. A teen fiction series I really enjoyed, the Michael Vey series by Richard Paul Evans, about some kids who got electrical powers after an incident in the California hospital where they were born, was partially set in Tuvalu. In the 5th book in the series, the corporation responsible for the electrical accident, led by an evil man who wants to take over the world, attacks and takes over the nation of Tuvalu, and renames all of the islands. The "electric kids" then come in the last two books of the 7 book series, free prisoners, organize a resistance and finally manage to defeat the bad guys.

James Anderson said...

We do have the scriptures which talk of some of the physical signs of the last days. One of them is the seas 'heaving behond its bounds'/

The usual interpretation is things like tsunami, or other waves caused by storms, and hurricane storm surges. But there could be one other. A synonym for 'heave' is 'rise'. Insert 'rise' where you see 'heave' in these passages and it may make sense that something like sea level rise might well be a sign of the times.

That is just my own opinion, take it for what it is worth.

James Anderson said...

The origins of mormon.org, the 'I'm a Mormon' campaign, and some related things go some time back.

First there waas the old childrens song, one that has not appeared in childrens songbooks that I know of for some time, 'A Mormon Boy', quoted several times and at least once in general conference by President Benson.

In 1990, President Hinckley gave, in General Conference', a talk entitled 'Mormon Means 'More Good', based upon a statement by Joseph Smith. My opinion, but that may have been the basis for a lot of mormon.org and the campaigns.

But President Nelson did a complete about-face, through revelation. And he indicated Sunday in Australia the things he gave in Hawaii, Samoa, and just then in Australia, were 'dictated' to him by the Lord, he had asked the Lord what he should give. There was a Q&A after that devotional, and the Church News has accounts of all three addresses.

Now the term 'dictate' here is like someone dictating a business letter to a secretary, a practice much more common decades ago than it is now, I trained for that using tapes to simulate how that worked.