Welcome to Réunion, a volcanic island in the Indian Ocean, 653 km (406 miles) east of Madagascar. The highest point is almost 3,048 m (10,000 ft) above sea level. The one active volcano—Piton de la Fournaise—has erupted several times in the past few years. Réunion is an overseas department and administrative region of France.

SIM has no missionaries in Reunion at the present time. Eight autonomous churches tracing their roots to AEF missionary work form a fellowship known as the Evangelical Churches of Reunion (EER). Reunion is part of the Region of Southern Africa (ROSA) administration.

Unreached People Groups

The largely unreached people are the Indians. No churches exist among the Hindu Tamils or Muslim Gujaratis.

History of Christianity

Following its colonization in 1653, the island was served by visiting priests and sometimes by ships' chaplains. In 1712, a Lazarist was appointed prefect. The modern era of Catholic missions in eastern Africa was initiated in 1817 with the arrival of sisters from the Congregation of St. Joseph of Clun.

Seventh-Day Adventists began a small work in 1936. Other groups are the Assemblies of God (France) and the Reformed Church.

African Evangelical Fellowship (AEF)/SIM missionaries first went to Réunion in 1970. At that time, no Protestant church existed except for a Pentecostal group. A small group of autonomous evangelical churches has resulted from the work of AEF/SIM and a number of other missions. The emphasis now is on local leadership.