Scheduled Presenters Currently Include
Dr. Robert J. Wuthnow
Short-Term Missions and the Global Reach of American Christianity
Robert Wuthnow is Andlinger Professor of Social Sciences, Director of the Center for the Study of Religion, and Chair of the Sociology Department at Princeton University. He is the author of numerous articles and books about American religion and culture, including America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity, published in 2005, and After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion. His new book, Boundless Faith: The Global Outreach of American Churches, examines international missions, short-term mission trips, faith-based humanitarian and relief assistance, and the role of faith in attitudes toward American foreign policy.
Rev. Oscar Muriu
Short-term MIssions from a Kenyan Pastor's Perspective
Rev. Oscar Muriu has been the pastor of Nairobi Chapel since January 1991. He received a BS (Zoology) from the University of Delhi (India) and an MDiv from NEGST(Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology). He is a great speaker/pastor who has ministered throughout Africa and in Europe, North America, Australia and India. He became a Christian in 1983 and shortly afterwards felt a call to become a pastor. His personal mission conviction draws from Psalm 71:18 “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.” He feels his primary calling is to raise up a legacy of leaders, especially African leaders, for the church of Christ worldwide. His heart’s desire is to see the African church rise up to its place and calling in the work of missions alongside its worldwide brothers, and to make its own unique contribution to the task of missions. He is married to Beatrice Wambui, who serves as the Children’s Pastor at Nairobi Chapel. Together they have 4 daughters. Nairobi Chapel has an attendance of 1,600 adults and 400 children on an average Sunday. The Chapel has planted many churches over the years as well as several ministries among the poor including 2 medical clinics, HIV-AIDS work, a ministry that seeks to house and educate young at-risk girls and boys who live on the streets of Nairobi.
Dr. Miriam Adeney
What We Can Learn from China: Short-term Missions in the Dragon Kingdom
Miriam Adeney teaches on five continents, with special focus on Southeast Asia. A professor at Seattle Pacific University, she speaks widely at colleges, conferences, and churches. Her forthcoming book Kingdom Without Borders: The Untold Story Of Global Christianity (InterVarsity Press) will join her previous books Daughters of Islam: Building Bridges With Muslim Women, God’s Foreign Policy: Practical Ways to Help the World’s Poor, How to Write: A Christian Writer’s Guide, and A Time for Risking: Priorities for Women. As the incoming President of the American Society of Missiology, Miriam wrestles with current missiological issues. Her many publications on short term missions extend from "McMissions," an early editorial in Christianity Today to "The Myth of the Blank Slate: A Checklist for Short Term Missions" in Effective Management in Short-Term Missions: Doing it Right! , edited by Robert Priest in 2009.
Rev. Robert Guerrero
Short-Term Missions: "Benefactors" or Kingdom Builders
Born in New York (1963) and raised in Dominican Republic, I came to know Christ as Lord and Saviour at the age of 17. I hold a BA from Moody Bible Institute. I served in an urban community Church in Chicago and was part of a church plant in the Hispanic part of town, where I served as teaching pastor until I returned to Dominican Republic in 1992. In 1995 my wife (Damaris) and I sensed God’s calling to plant a church in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo (Iglesia Comunitaria Cristiana) following a holistic ministry model and focusing in reaching the unchurched. By God’s grace we have grown to over 500 attendees and have been able to develop several programs that serve our community, such as a homeless ministry, a community gym, street children’s ministry, preschool, micro-finance, among others. Our Church has been greatly blessed by serving teams from partner Churches from the US, such as Willow Creek Community Church and Christ Church of Oakbrook (Illinois). I am also one of the founding members of Del Camino Network for Integral Mission in Latin America (www.delcaminoconnection.org). This movement seeks to promote the practice of Integral Mission at the local Church level by gathering practitioners and “best practices” as models that inspire and teach, as well as promoting empowering partneships with Churches in developed countries.
Dr. Kara E. Powell
Dr. Kara E. Powell is the Executive Director of the Fuller Youth Institute (FYI) and a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary (see www.fulleryouthinstitute.org). The mission of FYI is to translate research into resources that transform youth and family ministry. She completed her PhD in Practical Theology from Fuller Seminary with a focus on Pastoral Role Expectations in 2000, an MDiv from Bethel Theological Seminary in 1994, and a BA degree with Honors from Stanford University in 1991. In addition to her roles at Fuller Seminary, Kara currently volunteers in student ministries at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena. She is the author of Deep Leadership (2008), Deep Justice in a Broken World (along with Chap Clark, 2008), Deep Ministry in a Shallow World (along with Chap Clark, 2006), Good Sex Youth Ministry Curriculum (along with Jim Hancock, 2001, rev 2009), and Help! I’m a Woman in Youth Ministry (2004).
Dr. Robert Priest
At Play in the Fields of the Lord?: How Research on Short-Term Missions Helps Short-Term Mission Leaders Respond Appropriately to Criticisms
Robert J. Priest is professor of mission and intercultural studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He holds the PhD in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. Among his more recent publications is the 2007 book, This Side of Heaven: Race, Ethnicity and Christian Faith (Oxford U. Press), co-edited with Alvaro Nieves. In recent years he has done extensive research on short-term missions and published his findings in several journal articles and several book chapters. He has also worked with many of his doctoral students and supervised their own research and publications on short-term missions. His most recent publication is the 2008 book he organized and edited: Effective Engagement in Short-Term Missions: Doing It Right! (published by William Carey), which is the single best20collection of essays and research reports on short-term missions currently available.
Dr. Kersten Bayt Priest
North American Christian women’s short-term mission carework and resource brokering
Kersten Bayt Priest is assistant professor of sociology at Wheaton College. She holds an M.A. in anthropology and a Ph.D. in sociology (Loyola University). Her research has focused on globalization, identities, religion, congregational studies and women’s care work in short-term missions. She has conducted field research (and published) on interracial relations in South Carolina, new immigrant religion in Chicago, and short-term missions in Peru, South Africa and the Dominican Republic. With her family, she has tackled diverse research projects, and is pleased that two of her children – and several of her students – have seriously pursued the field of sociology.
Ron Barber
Listening to the Hosts: What Japanese Are Saying About Their Experiences with STM
Ron Barber has been a church planter in Japan since 1988 and currently serves as ministry initiative coordinator for TEAM Japan. He has been involved with STM as the facilitator of church to church partnerships between congregations in Japan and the US. He holds a Masters of Divinity and is a PhD candidate at Trinity International University where his research is focused on the experience and perspectives of Japanese hosts who serve as culture brokers for STM from North America.
Dr. Martin H. Eitzen
Football vs. Soccer in the STM Movement: A Latin American Invitation
Martín Hartwig Eitzen is currently the director of the Instituto Bíblico Asunción, which is part of the Universidad Evangélica del Paraguay. Being Paraguayan with immigration background (his grandparents came from Russia), the cross-cultural dynamics always fascinated him. After finishing school in Paraguay, he spent 5 years studying in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and 5 years in the USA, where he finished an MA in NT at MBBS in Fresno, CA and made his Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies at TIU. He is married to Betty and together they have 3 soccer crazy boys.
Dr. Brian Howell
More Than Tourism, Pilgrimage and Mission: Toward an Anthropology of Short-Term Mission
Brian M. Howell is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Wheaton College, in Wheaton, Illinois. He is the author of Christianity in the Local Context: Southern Baptists in the Philippines (Palgrave 2008) and the co-editor of the forthcoming Power and Identity in the Global Church (WCL 2009). In addition to his work on World Christianity, he has published on race in U.S. Christianity and the Christian perspective in cultural anthropology. He is currently working on a book manuscript on the phenomenon of Short-Term Missions. Some of this research has already appeared in the Journal of Communication and Religion (“Evangelical Pilgrimage: The Language of Short Term Mission,” co-authored with Rachel Dorr) and The International Bulletin of Missionary Research (“Missions to Nowhere: Putting Short Term Missions in Context”).
Dr. Laura Montgomery
More Than Good Intentions: The "Right Stuff" for Short-Term Medical Missions
Dr. Laura M. Montgomery is a professor of anthropology at Westmont College where she also serves as chair of the Department of Sociology-Anthropology. She received a B.A. with high honor from Wheaton College where she majored in anthropology and completed a certificate in Human Needs and Global Resources. She graduated from Michigan State University with a M.A. and a Ph.D. in anthropology. She has done fieldwork in Mexico and Guatemala and travelled extensively in Central America, Europe, and Asia. She teaches courses on cultural anthropology, peoples and cultures of Latin America, food systems, gender and sex roles, social research methods, and applied anthropology. She also does cross-cultural training for study abroad programs, missions teams, and health professionals and has taught cross-cultural communications courses. She is one of pioneer scholars of short-term missions. Dr. Montgomery has published articles on agricultural change and economic policy in Mexico, gender and higher education in the United States, and short-term medical missions in Latin America. In addition to her teaching and scholarly publications, she co-developed Westmont in Mexico, an innovative, semester-long study abroad program located in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico.
Dr. Kurt Ver Beek
Different Soils and Different Seeds: Review of Research on STM and Study Abroad
Kurt Ver Beek is a professor of sociology for Calvin College. He lives with his family in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and directs a Calvin off-campus semster there. Ver Beek has a Ph.D. In Development Sociology from Cornell University, and did his dissertation fieldwork among Honduras' Lenca Indians. He has published a number of articles and contributed book chapters on service learning, short-term missions, Hondruas' "maquila industry," and Christians and justice. He and his wife, Jo ann Van Engen, are founding members of the Honduran, Christian, justice and human rights organization "la Asociación para una Sociedad mas Justa (ASI)."
Dr. Hunter Farrell
From STM to Global Discipleship: A Peruvian Case Study
Hunter Farrell served as a mission worker in the Congo and Peru for 15 years, teaching New Testament and mission at two seminaries and working in Christian community organizing. Over a ten year period in Peru, Hunter and his wife, Ruth, received dozens of STM groups and worked with U.S. congregations in their STM training and follow-up and with Peruvian partners in receiving and sending STM groups. Since 2007, he has served as Director of World Mission for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Hunter earned his M.Div. in Cross-Cultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, the Diplôme d’études approfondies in religious anthropology from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, and the Ph.D. in anthropology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. His dissertation studied the relationship between culture and violence in a Peruvian Andean community. His greatest teachers have been the Congolese and Peruvian Christians with whom he worked. Hunter’s articles on short-term mission, a Peruvian faith-based campaign for environmental justice, and mission have been published in The Latin American Journal of Theology, Christianity Today, EarthFirst Journal, and several Presbyterian publications. Hunter is a Presbyterian minister and he and Ruth have three children. They live in Louisville, KY.
Dr. Pat Townsend
There and Back Again: Short-term Medical Missions
Pat Townsend is author of two college textbooks Environmental Anthropology and (with her University of Buffalo colleague Ann McElroy) Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective. She received her Ph. D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan. In addition to college teaching, she has had a variety of experiences as an applied anthropologist, including short term mission experiences with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, evaluation research in the health services of Papua New Guinea, and directing a refugee resettlement agency. Her recent research has concerned the environmental impact of mining and toxic wastes. She is a Presbyterian elder who was commissioned as lay pastor in the Presbytery of Western New York.
Dr. Rick Richardson
Short-Term Missions and the Megachurch: A Quantitative Study of the Outcomes of Involvement in Compassion Projects
Rick is Associate Professor at Wheaton College and the Director of the Masters in Evangelism and Leadership. Rick is also an Associate evangelist and former National Coordinator for Evangelism with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Rick is also an ordained Anglican priest, and served for three years as Pastor of Evangelism and Small Groups. He consults widely with churches on evangelism and healing and racial reconciliation. Rick earned his M.Div. from Northern Baptist Seminary and his PHD in Intercultural Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Rick has written four books, including Evangelism Outside the Box and Reimagining Evangelism. Rick seeks to bring together his passions for evangelism, prayer and racial reconciliation in order to cast vision and equip an emerging postmodern generation in ministry for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Rick’s dissertation was on the impact of urban short term projects on participants and hosts, and has had articles on short term mission published in books and journals.
Dr. Steve Offutt
Quick Stops on the Global Circuit: How El Salvadoran and South African Churches Participate in the Short Term Missions Movement
Steve Offutt is currently an instructor at Boston University’s School of Theology and occasionally teaches at Eastern University’s School for Leadership & Development. He received his M.A. in international relations (SAIS-Johns Hopkins University) and his PhD in sociology (Boston University). In considering the impact of the stm movement, Offutt draws on his recent dissertation research, which compared the national evangelical communities of El Salvador and South Africa, and five years of work experience in an international context. As the head of World Relief’s El Salvador office, he hosted mission teams that came to participate in the NGO’s partnerships with local churches. He did the same in his role as Assistant to the President of African Enterprise, a South African faith based organization involved in reconciliation and leadership issues.
Don & Cherilyn Johnson
Integrating Member-Care into Effective Short-Term Mission
Don Johnson earned his BA and first MA from Columbia International University. Since 1987 he has been a missionary with SEND International. After 11 years in Alaska working in missionary radio and short-term missions, Don transferred to the SEND home office in Farmington, MI. Currently he serves as the assistant director of SEND’s short-term missions department. He also serves on the steering committee of the Fellowship of Short-Term Mission Leaders and was instrumental in helping SEND achieve membership in the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Missions. In 2006 he received an MBA from Liberty University. His responsibilities with SEND also include campus representation and recruitment, and serving as the crisis spokesperson for SEND’s US office.
Cherilyn Johnson earned an AA in Bible from Columbia International University, a BLA in communications from the University of Alaska Southeast, and an MA in counseling from Spring Arbor University in Michigan. She received her limited license as a professional counselor in July 2008. Currently she is in private practice through Sparrow’s Nest Christian Counseling while she works toward full licensure. She is a freelance proofreader for Penguin Press, the Michigan School of Professional Psychology, and various others. She and Don share a burden for quality missionary member care.
Dr. Laura Widstrom
Service Learning in the Workcamp Experience
Dr. Laura Widstrom has served as Director of Youth and Children’s Ministries at Christ United Methodist Church in Rockford, IL for 12 years. During that time, she has also been responsible for directing their workcamp ministry and leading camps for youth, adults, and families locally, regionally, and overseas. Desiring that workcamp ministry be recognized as more than a glorified vacation, Laura did her dissertation research on this topic. She enjoys pushing the boundaries of traditional learning contexts in the church and creating unique spaces for the Holy Spirit to enter in.
Dr. James R. Thomas
Short-Term Missions and Global Peacemaking
James R. Thomas is Associate Professor of Church and Ministry, Director of African American Studies, and Instructor of Missions at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, South Carolina. He holds graduated degrees from Christ Seminary-SEMINEX, the City University of New York, Union Seminary of New York, the University of Minnesota (PhD) and Bank Street College of Education. He is a reservist with Christian Peacemaker Teams and is scheduled to travel with a team to Colombia, South America in July, 09. Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is an international organization set up to support teams of peace workers in conflict areas around the globe. CPT has its roots in the historic peace churches of North America, and its four supporting denominations are the Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Church Canada, Church of the Brethren, and Friends United Meeting. It is also sponsored by several Christian groups. Although it is a Christian-based organization, CPT does not engage in any type of missionary activity. While CPTers have chosen to follow Jesus Christ, CPT does not proselytize. The group works to stop violence. CPT sends teams to Colombia, Iraq, the West Bank, the United States-Mexico border, and Kenora, Ontario, Canada. Christian Peacemaker Teams are supported by over 150 reservists who spend two weeks to two months a year on location.
Mr. Eric Iverson
One cross at a time: The Mission Agency's role in Building the Missional Church
Eric is a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He lives there with his wife Judy, their children Hope and Isaiah Justice. Eric Iverson is a twenty-four year urban youth ministry veteran, and a product of urban youth ministry who is currently serving as the Multicultural Integrity Director for the short-term youth missions organization, YouthWorks. YouthWorks, a Christian organization that exposes over 38,000 youth and adults to missions and service on a weeklong experience during the summer at over 75 different sites around North America. Eric consults, teaches, and trains nationally around issues of poverty, race, justice, and mulit-ethnic youth ministry. One of his focuses is to assist YouthWorks and other short-term organizations to do justice among and for the people that they serve, and avoid the potential for a “drive-by” missions’ mentality among Christians today. Eric served for 12 years at his home church, Park Avenue Methodist; leading summer ministry teams, leading trips all over the North America, and as the Youth Director
Dr. Murray Decker
Toward the Integration of Mission Formation and Spiritual Formation in Short Term Missions: A Taxonomy for the Assessment of Maturity
Murray Decker, Ph.D. serves as Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies at Biola University's Cook School of Intercultural Studies. His current research and writing interests fall within the intersection of Christian Spiritual Formation and Missions.
Dr. Lisa LaGeorge (PhD cand.)
Significant Learning: Educational Methodologies in STM Training
Joined The Master’s College in 1998. Prior to coming to TMC, Lisa spent five years involved in cross-cultural youth ministry in Alaska. She has traveled in over 30 countries to encourage cross-cultural workers, provide teacher training workshops, and supervise student teachers. In addition to teaching undergraduate classes in ESL and Intercultural Studies, Lisa trains and administers cross-cultural vocational student trips. She also manages recruitment and community development for over 100 international students and Third Culture Kids at The Master's College. Her research includes the topics of cross-cultural teaching methodologies, historical missionary biographies, and Third Culture Kid adjustment. She is rarely without a book, loves to cook, and enjoys opening her home for global gatherings.
Dr. Dave Sanders
Consuming Missions: Rethinking Almost Everything to Move from Missio Tourism to Becoming Fully Captivated by God's Work in the World
After 23 years on the Young Life staff, 15 of which were spent in Europe conducting youth ministry to teens of military personnel on NATO bases, Dave is currently an Associate Professor of Christian Ministries at Judson University in Elgin, IL. While in Europe, Dave guided multiple mission service projects into Africa and former Eastern Bloc countries with groups of 40-650 people where God taught the team a lot of lessons about intercultural missions. In addition to youth ministry courses, Dave also teaches Missions and Evangelism as well as Intercultural ministry Studies at Judson. Dave and Debbie have been married 34 years and have two daughters; Raine 22, Becca 25, and son-in-law, William Wood.
Prof. Bill Weber and Dr. Donovan Weber (PhD Cand)
Service Learning in Higher Education as a Lens for Analyzing Short-term Missions Planned and Organized by Evangelical Campus MInisters: Results from a National Survey*
*Funded in part by the American College Personnel Association Educational Leadership Foundation
Bill Weber is Professor of Practical Ministries at Cincinnati Bible Serminary. As a former missionary to Johannesburg, South Africa, he was involved in hosting short-term mission trips (STM) for nearly twelve years. For the past seventeen years he has taught urban and inter-cultural ministry. While teaching in the area of missions he has been involved in both sending and leading STM teams.
Donovan Weber is a PhD Candidate in Educational Leadership at Miami University, Oxford, OH. He grew up as an MK (missionary kid) in Johannesburg, South Africa. Afer earning a Masters degree in New Testament Studies, he worked for five years in student affairs, particularly with international students, at Cincinnati Christian University. He has led and participated in STM to various countries.
Asst. Prof Jenny Collins
The Standards of Excellence in STM and Best Practices for International Service Learning Programs and Partnerships
Jenny Collins is the Director of the Lighthouse International Service Learning program and an Assistant Professor of Missions at Taylor University, Upland, Indiana. She has been involved in short-term missions for 17 years and has served on the national committee for the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Missions (www.stmstandards.org) since its inception. She has regularly taught three missions courses at Taylor University and has authored “Short-Term Missions: Maximizing for Long-Term Impact” in Overcoming the World Missions Crisis (Kregel, 2001). Jenny has served on and chaired two church mission committees. She earned her BS at Taylor University and her MAR from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and has completed other graduate courses at Jerusalem University College and Taylor University. She and her husband J.D. live in Hartford City, IN.
Dr. Jim Dekker
Room for Refinement: Thinking Through Adolescent Capacites and the Impact of STM's and Service Projects
Dr. Jim Dekker has worked with youth in the Christian community in a wide variety of capacities for more than 20 years. Jim holds a Bachelors in theology, a Masters in Christian Education and a Ph.D. from Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School where he studied the operational definition of respect among adolescents and their teachers. Jim spends time studying youth ministry and the areas of adolescent culture, adolescent development, and family dynamics. Jim is the Associate Professor of Youth Ministry and Co-director for the Center for Youth Ministry Studies at North Park University and Seminary.
Mr. Frederic Gluck
Short Term Missions and the Groaning Creation: How Creation Care Present Unique Opportunities for Expanding the Reach of and Participation in Short-Term Local and Global Missions
Fredric B. Gluck is the Program and Staff Support Manager for Care of Creation, a non-profit organization with the goal of "Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation". He has worked for Care of Creation since 2007 and currently supports programs in Kenya and the USA. With an academic degree in Computer Science from the University of California and a career that spans marketing, technical support and retail, Fredric has merged his fascination with technology with a love for and deep concern for God's creation. He and his wife have participated in many short-term missions projects that have built over 15 churches around the United States. It was partially from a concern of how these projects, both during and after construction, effect God's creation both on a local and global level that led him to his current focus on caring for creation.
Dr. Gil H Odendaal
Sustainable Solutions: Mobilizing and Deploying STMs for Meaningful Participation in Global South Church Initiated Wholistic Development
Gil Odendaal, Ph.D., D.Min. Odendaal serves as the Global Director for the HIV/AIDS Initiative with Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California ,and as an adjunct professor in the School of Intercultural Studies at Biola University. He has thirty years of ministry experience as missionary, pastor, educator, and leader. For the past 10 years he has progressively immersed himself in the fight against HIV and AIDS, especially in the African context and the mobilizing of Short term mission teams to empower the efforts of churches in the Global South. He is a researcher and practitioner with deep experience and knowledge gained through hands-on involvement and doctoral research in the battle against AIDS with expertise in the pedagogical, cultural and theological aspects pertaining to the pandemic. As Field Director for the Western Rwanda HIV/AIDS Healthcare Initiative, he is implementing a program designed to mobilize the Church with the help of short term mission teams.
Prior to accepting his current position, Gil served as Regional Coordinator for Africa with LifeWind (formerly Medical Ambassadors International) where he provided leadership to more than 600 Community
Development Trainers and 9,000 Community development Volunteers. He also served as Regional Coordinator for Russia and Eastern Europe for a period of two years. He has a proven track record for developing and implementing strategic plans for long- and short-term transnational community development projects on global and regional scale. This includes implementing and managing wholistic community development globally as well as recruiting, mentoring and managing diverse and
multi-cultural staff.
Deeply committed to unleash the untapped human resources latent in the church worldwide and to see health equity become a reality in the southern countries, Gil trains and mobilizes Short Term medical
professionals, leaders and PEACE team members of Saddleback Church to serve the physical and spiritual needs of the global community who are infected or affected by HIV. He has developed innovative programs, projects and campaigns that empower the local church globally toward education, prevention, treatment and care for the infected and affected utilizing the PEACE PLAN strategy in the local church.
Dr. Michael Soderling
Can Short Term HRM's (Health Related Missions) Really Have a Long-Term Impact on the Health of the Poor?
After ten years working as an OB/GYN physician in a large multi-speciality group, God called Dr. Soderling and his family to serve in Guatemala in 2001. His career path was radically changed after attending a workshop entitled "Building A HealthCare System," taught by Dr Dan Fountain at the Peeke School of Missions in Bristol, Tennessee in 2004. In December of 2008, Dr. Soderling received his MBA degree in International Development from Hope International University where he now co-teaches a class on primary healthcare. He has been deeply involved in and written two papers for the Best Practices in Short Term Health Care Missions project. Dr. Soderling has also participated as a speaker at the Fuller West Coast Health Care Conference and at the Global Missions Health Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.
Dr. Nicholas Comninellis
Equipping Healthcare Professionals for Effective Short-Term Medical Missions
Nicholas Comninellis, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Community & Family Medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and founder of the INMED, the Institute for International Medicine. INMED is a non-profit educational organization that trains the next generation of medical missionaries, offering supervised clinical study in with experienced preceptors in twenty developing nations, complemented by online and in class academic study in international medicine. INMED also hosts the Exploring Medical Missions Conferences. For complete information please visit http://inmed.us. Dr. Comninellis has a diploma in tropical medicine from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He is board certified in both preventive medicine and family medicine, and is author of numerous scientific articles, and six books on contemporary issues, including Where Do I Go From Here? Making The Right Decisions In Life (New Leaf Press, 2002).
Mr. David Armstrong
What Patterns are Revealed by 1 Million Mission Trip Searches?
As Director of Agency Services for the website www.ShortTermMissions.com, David Armstrong monitors the 1000+ opportunities offered by 102 mission organizations and US outreach ministries, plus the more than one million searches done over the last 8 years for mission trips. This provides a unique picture of the STM world.
Following four years at Dallas Theological Seminary, David Armstrong served 20 years with OC International in Colombia and Guatemala training pastors and lay leaders. Feeling most at home with the practitioner side of mission trips, he received and hosted teams and individuals in Central America as well as later training and sending teams from the US. Working the last 7 years with the Standards of Excellence in Short Term Missions has broadened his exposure to the many mission organizations, Christian Colleges and churches who send out short-term teams.
Dr. Bob Yoder
Short Term work for Long Term Change: An Early History of SWAP, DOOR, and Group Venture
Bob Yoder is Campus Minister and Assistant Professor & Director of Youth Ministry at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana. He holds a D.Min. in practical theology from Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, an M.Div. with a focus in Biblical Studies from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, and B.S. in biology from Eastern Mennonite University. Though most of Bob's doctoral work focused on pastoral care and faith formation of adolescent youth, particularly exploring the role of biblical lament, he also engaged in original research on the history of youth ministry in the Mennonite Church. As part of the ongoing historical work, Bob served as a faculty mentor in Goshen College's summer Maple Scholars program where a faculty member and one to two students work together on research. So far, Bob has mentored four students in deepening an understanding of the history of Mennonite youth ministry and he anticipates this work being published in about two years. Bob is an ordained pastor in Mennonite Church USA and has worked in congregation, conference, camp, and college ministry settings, and serves as a frequent speaker and lecturer in a variety of ministry settings. Bob is married to Pamela Yoder, an associate pastor in Mennonite Church USA, and they have two young children, Josiah and Mira. Rev. Dr. Sue Dickson, Assistant Professor of Religion at Ashland University in Ohio, has been involved in the STM movement for thirty years. She teaches in the area of Practical Theology including courses in Mission, World Christianity, Bible, World Religions, Youth Ministry, and Christian Education. Recently, she designed and is leading a program of cultural proficiency and Missio Dei Discipleship Trips at Ashland. She is an ordained PC(USA) minister, and has served the PC(USA) at local, regional and national levels as a pastor, missionary, and in social justice work. Before coming to Ashland, she served in Central America and for the past fourteen years, has lived and served on the U.S. Mexico border.
Rev. Dr. Sue Dickson
Taking Short-Term Mission to the Next Level: Increasing Cultural Proficiency