This paper explores the scope of the short-term mission movement and calls on missiologists to place this movement at the center of research, missiological reflection, and classroom instruction. It reviews research related to two questions: What has been the impact of short-term missions on the recruitment and support of career missionaries? How does participation in short-term missions abroad affect short-term mission participants' relations inter-ethnically at home? he short-term mission (STM) movement is rapidly transforming the ways in which churches from wealthier regions of the world are engaging in global T mission. This merits careful attention.' The Size of the Short-Term Missions MovementThe latest Protestant Mission Handbook (Welliver and Northcutt 2004: 13) tracks data on the U.S. personnel of 690 mission agencies. The chart on the following page employs this data to compare the numbers of long-term missionaries (defined as being "overseas" more than 4 years) with the numbers of short-term missionaries (overseas from 2 weeks to 1 year). These numbers show the trend, but d o not document the full scope of the phenomenon. Catholics are not included and scores of organizations specializing in short-term Robert J. Priest (PhD, Anthropology) is professor of mission and intercultural studies and director of the PhD program in intercultural studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is co-editor of the book This Side of Heaven: Race, Ethnicity, and Christian Faith (Oxford, 2006). His published work appears in various volumes and journals, such as "Missionary Positions: Christian, Modernist, Postmodernist" in Current Anthropology 42:29-68. He is currently researching Peruvian experiences and perspectives on visiting short-term missionaries.Terry Dischinger (PhD student) formerly served for seven years as country director for the Evangelical Free Church of America International Mission in Ukraine, where he hosted and worked with scores of visiting short-term missionaries. Terry is currently the pastor of equipping at Winnetka Bible Church. His dissertation research is focused on the impact of short-term missions on the acquisition of intercultural skills and on ethnocentrism.Rev. Steven Rasmussen (PhD candidate) has trained ministers at Lake Victoria Christian College, Mwanza, Tanzania since 1995. He is founding director of Training East African Ministers. He has been a pastor and a short-term missionary.C. M. Brown has extensive cross-cultural experience in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and is conducting dissertation research on partnerships between congregations in the Ukraine and congregations in the USA.

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Against earlier predictions, witch accusations are proliferating and flourishing in many modern, urban, and Christian environments. And they are taking new forms. One dramatic change involves who is accused, with children now often the prime suspects when misfortunes occur. Another dramatic change relates to who is consulted when witch suspicions are present. Rather than non-Christian diviners or traditional healers, many now consult Christian pastors and prophets for help in identifying witches and dealing with them. Based on a survey of 713 pastoral leaders in Kinshasa from all major church traditions, and on supplemental qualitative research, this report 1) explores the profile of accused children, 2) identifies what these children are accused of, 3) identifies what sorts of evidence are used to establish the guilt of the accused child, and 4) considers the consequences to the child of being labeled a witch. Furthermore, this report explores what it is that church leaders believe, teach, and practice in relationship to child-witch allegations—considering the role of church tradition and theological education on their patterns of understanding and engagement. Specifically, we identify and examine two broad paradigms widely present in Kinshasa churches—a “witch diagnosis and deliverance paradigm” and a “child protection paradigm.” We consider some grassroots strategies of transformative engagement engaged in by l’Équipe Pastorale auprès des Enfants en Détresse [EPED] leaders, and end by inviting African theological and pastoral leaders into a conversation about the impact of theological understandings, congregational discourses, spiritual disciplines, and pastoral practices on the well-being and flourishing of vulnerable children.

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