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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Sea Dayak of Malaysia

The Sea Dayak of Malaysia, numbering approximately 676,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an ethnolinguistic community of Malaysia (Sarawak) and can also be known as Sarawak Tribal - Iban, Iban. They are an Indigenous people, in the Borneo-Kalimantan people cluster of the Malay Peoples affinity bloc. Their primary religion is Ethnoreligion. They primarily speak Iban.

Iban in Brunei photo
Photo courtesy of Joshua Project. Photo Source: Anne Roberts - Flickr Anne Roberts - Flickr Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Asian Pacific Peoples
Country: Malaysia
People Cluster: Borneo-Kalimantan
Primary Language(s): Iban (iba)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 676,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG009325

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Pray for the Sea Dayak of Malaysia

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Iban
Language Family: Austronesian

%
Iban Speakers

Media Resources in Iban:

Films:

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Iban:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Iban bible resources at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Next steps for the Sea Dayak

The Sea Dayak 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 Sea Dayak

The Sea Dayak 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 Sea Dayak

The Sea Dayak 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 Sea Dayak of Malaysia

Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!
readPsalm 30:10

Pray that people in the depths of despair and suffering and living outside of relationship with Christ will cry out to the Lord and find help, peace, and joy in Him.

And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.
readZechariah 2:11

Pray that many will take refuge in the Lord and be His people who share the good news of salvation in Jesus with others.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
read1 Corinthians 3:7

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will be unified in making disciples and be used by God to further His kingdom near and far.

And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you.
readLuke 10:6

Pray that, as people come to faith in Christ and want to share it with others, they will be welcomed into homes and received well so that they can share message of hope with many people.

Iban 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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