This one day conference, led by Dr. Robert Priest (TEDS), focused on the themes of Short-term Mission and Mission in the Hispanic and Latin American World.   With at least 1.6 million US church members traveling abroad on short-term mission trips each year, there is a pressing need to think through how best to carry out "short-term missions."  And with 43 million Hispanics within the US (more than the total population of Canada), and millions more in neighboring countries, it is essential that the North American Church reflect carefully on "mission in the Hispanic and Latin American World."

     286 professors, pastors, students and missionaries representing at least 21 churches, 21 mission organizations, and 20 schools, participated in this one day conference.  There were three different language tracks: English, Korean, and Spanish.  Throughout the day presentations were made simultaneously in five rooms, one in which all presentations were made in Spanish and another in Korean.  One of the English language rooms was focused solely on mission to the Hispanic world.  The day concluded with a combined session in which Peter Cha, Jule Martinez, David Ngaruiya, Myunghee Lee, How Chuang Chua, and Jim Plueddemann reported on the presentations made in each language track.

     There were a wide variety of presentations related to short-term mission (STM) dealing with issues such as reaching urban professionals through STM, defining STM in relation to the glocal mission of the church, communication and respect between STM teams and their hosts, medical STM, STM from the perspectives of local receiving pastors, EFL and STM, the impact of STM on Bible college students, and STM and intercultural internships, among others. Presentations regarding mission in the Hispanic world addressed the issues of Hispanic assimilation, building social capital, the missional identity of Hispanic-American congregations in the U.S., research to help Hispanics in the U.S., evangelizing future Latin American thinkers, and doing Latino theology.