The Ibero-American Missions Handbook is the result of a cooperative effort involving scores of "informants" from all the countries of Ibero-America (Latin America, Spain and Portugal). The sending of North American Hispanics/Latinos (residents of the US or Canada whose mother tongue is Spanish or Portuguese) is also a significant phenomenon, and therefore that information has been included as well.

The Handbook is divided into 3 parts:

Here you will find the basic information about churches, denominational boards and missionary agencies which are involved in the sending of Ibero-American missionaries. Many times there exists in the sending of missionaries a cooperation between agencies, or between churches and agencies. In these cases we have listed the pertinent data regarding ALL those involved, but in the final totals we have made the necessary corrections to avoid multiple counting.

It is important to emphasize that our focus is "cross-cultural missionaries": those who cross an ethno-linguistic or cultural barrier in fulfillment of their missionary service. We have also counted as "cross-cultural" those missionaries who have crossed national boundaries.

Upon seeing the list of countries where our missionaries are serving, you will be impressed with the diversity of the countries and cultures of service. You will also see areas where there is a concentration of missionary activity (sometimes necessary, many times not) and areas where there is little or no missionary effort.

Here we have included the totals for all the data we have collected. Certainly God is doing MUCH more than what we have been able to catalog here. But through what we have collected it is possible to identify important trends which we have attempted to illustrate with the accompanying graphs and maps.

We believe that each missionary sent out represents a major victory for the Lord. Our motivation in compiling this information is to give to God the glory He deserves. We hope that this publication will serve to help potential missionaries in their search for an organization with which they can serve, missions executives in encouraging more missionary partnership, and the evangelical church as a whole as it fulfills the Lord’s commission.

The most updated version of this information can be found on the Comibam web site: www.comibam.org. Corrections and updates may be e-mailed to TedLimpic@xc.org.

Ted Limpic