1. Cross-cultural Missionary: One who crosses a linguistic and/or cultural barrier in order to work in fulfillment of the Great Commission ("Go and make disciples of all peoples.") We also include those who have crossed geo-political borders (serving in another country).

2. Criteria used for this census: In order to insure uniformity in the data reported, we have have limited the census to count only ‘ibero-american cross-cultural missionaries’.

• Missionaries: Their purpose is to fulfill the Great Commission of “Go and make disciples of all nations (gr.: ethne). There is intentionality in the sending. Therefore:
• It is not just someone who was hired to work in another country
• Although short-term missionary trips can be very strategic, we have not counted those who are on short-term trips, nor those serving short-term (those who have the intention of returning to their country within one year).
• Ibero-american: citizens of one of the countries of Latin American, Spain or Portugal, or a Hispanic from the US. In the case of the US, we have defined a Hispanic as someone who us a US citizen and whose first (mother) language is Spanish or Portuguese.
• Cross-cultural: Someone who crosses a cultural or linguistic barrier. If they have crossed a national boundary to serve in another country, we are also counting them as cross-cultural. If someone is serving inside their own country, he could also be considered cross-cultural if he has crossed a cultural/linguistic barrier (e.g. working with an indigenous community inside their own country).

3.  Criteria not used for this census:

• Degrees of cultural distance: We recognize that there are degrees of cultural distance. The Brazilian in Peru might feel more cultural difference that the Argentine. But we have NOT sought to evaluate the degrees of cultural distance in this census. If a Mexican missionary is working with a Latino community in the United States, the cultural distance might be very little, nevertheless for this census such a missionary would be counted as cross-cultural.
• Source of financial support: We have seen much creativity in the way God has been providing financial support for ibero-american workers. We have not established the criterion that the financial support must come exclusively or even primarily from the sending (host) country of the missionary. In this census we have counted ‘tent-makers’ (bi-vocational) missionaries as well as those who have planted churches in their target field and are now being supported by that church that was planted.
• Type of ministry: We have not limited this census to evangelists/church planters. The Body of Christ reflects great diversity in it’s functions and His army as well. Included in this census are evangelists, disciplers/mentors, church planters, leaders of training institutes, translators, administrators and those who work with the chemically dependent.

4. Latin America: We considered as part of Latin America the following countries: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela. 5. Ibero-America: Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the hispanics/latinos of North America (United States and Canada). We have defined "hispanics/latinos" as those from North America for whom Spanish or Portuguese is their mother tongue. 6. Regions of the World: The regional divisions used in the counting of Ibero-American missionaries are shown in the accompanying map The data from Mexico, formally part of North America, was included with that of Central America.

7. Types of missionary organizations:

a. International Agency: It’s main headquarters is located in another country and the leadership of it’s in-country ministry is not national.
b. International Agency with national leadership: It’s main headquarters is located in another country, but the leadership of it’s in-country ministry is national.      (Example: OM in Brazil is under Brazilian leadership.)
c. Ibero-American Agency: Founded in the country and under national leadership
d. Denominational Board: The department of a denomination that is responsible for the sending of missionaries from that denomination.
e. Local Church: May send it’s missionaries in cooperation with an agency or denominational board, or may send its workers directly to the field
f. Inter-church Initiative: Various churches in a city or region who are working together to send a missionary
g. Missionary Training Center: An institution dedicated to training cross-cultural missionaries

8. Listing of Fields of Ministry: For reasons of security, the information relative to some fields has been omitted in order to protect the workers who minister there.

9. Base year: The data presented in this catalog is primarily from 2006. For Brazil, most of the data is from late 2005.

10. Corrections and updates may be sent to:

Ted Limpic/Research Department
COMIBAM Internacional
E-mail: TedLimpic@xc.org

11. An updated version of this information, as well as versions in Spanish and in Portuguese, may be found at the COMIBAM web site: www.comibam.org

12. Independent Missionaries: Sometimes we received confirmed information about Ibero-American cross-cultural missionaries, but we were unable to discover the organization (church, denominational board, agency) sending them. In some cases, but not all, these workers are serving independently (without official linkage to any sending body). In either case, we have listed those missionaries under the listing "Missionaries w/o Organizational Identification" under their sending countries.

13. The 10/40 Window: The region of the world, extending from North Africa to Asia (between the Northern latitudes of 10 and 40) where most of the world’s poor, unevangelized and unchurched live. This area has received a special focus over recent years due to the lack of missionaries working there.

14. Methodology: We have used questionnaires, emails, personal interviews and telephony to receive information from the various sending structures located throughout Ibero-america. We have made every effort to identify and correctly register every sending structure and to apply uniform criteria to the data in order to better understand what God is doing in the ibero-american missions movement.

15. The inter-relation between the catalog and the census: We have attempted to be faithful to the data which has been sent to us, publishing in the catalog all the information which was sent to us by each organization. If an organization has both cross-cultural workers and same-culture workers, we have reported both in the catalog. But since the specific focus of the census is ‘cross-cultural ibero-american missionaries’, we have only counted for the census those who met the criteria listed above.

16. Final observation: In spite of our best attempts, we recognize that there are many missionaries currently active on the field who simply have not ‘shown up on our radar’. They might be independent missionaries (not connected to any organization) or missionaries sent directly to the field without the intermediation of a mission agency. Therefore we recognize with humility and joy that God is doing much more than we have been able to capture through our research.