Ogan People Group Profile

“I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11, ESV).

Most of the 150,000 Ogan people live in Southern Sumatra along the Ogan River. They are an agrarian people. The three principal crops that employ most of this people group are rice, palm oil, rubber and sugar. Each Ogan village has a strong individual identity. They often have distinct stories about the origin of the village and how they became Muslim in that area. They all follow Islamic education and do similar ceremonies to preserve Ogan customs and culture.

The Ogan have followed Sunni Shafi’i Islam since the 16th century. They have blended these beliefs with Sufi Islamic ideas. Their social and spiritual life consists of activities such as religious feasts, birth celebrations, harvest celebrations, and ceremonies to ward off disaster. People often gather to share Islamic prayer readings in the village mosques or in mushollas. A musholla is a designated place of prayer found in homes and businesses.

The Ogan also do prayer ceremonies to the spirits of their ancestors to seek protection and wisdom. They have strong beliefs about various spirits that live in specific places such as trees, graveyards or rocks or in special items such as ceremonial knives or rings.

There is no indigenous church, but there are a few hundred believers among the Ogan.

Pray that:

Believers living along the Ogan River will be bold to share the Gospel.

God’s Spirit will bind the spiritual powers that keep the Ogan blinded to the Gospel.

God will send His Holy Spirit to hover over the Ogan people to convict them of both sin and righteousness.

Just as the Ogan work towards harvest every year that God will send spiritual laborers to work towards a spiritual harvest among the Ogan.

Believers will not be afraid of the places and items that are believed to have spiritual power, but will stand in the authority of Christ and demonstrate the power of the Gospel among the Ogan.

Believers will be led to people of peace among the Ogan.

Entire Ogan families and villages will come to faith and recline at the table of Abraham.