Mission. Missionaries. What pictures do these words produce in your mind? Thanks to my mom who kept me supplied with a semi-endless stream of mission story books when I was a kid, my mind is flooded with mental images of pith-helmet clad pioneers, courageous women, incredible challenges, and dangers all around. In my mind's eye I see Hudson Taylor walking the byways of China dressed in the flowing robe of a Chinese teacher. I see Adonirum Judson in Burma, David Livingstone in Africa, William Carey in India, and many more. And in more recent times I see J. N. Andrews and his two children leaving for Europe as the first official SDA missionaries, the Westphals, Stahls, and Davises bringing Adventism to Central and South America, the retired seaman, Abram LaRue, blazing the trail to Eastern Asia, and of course, the well-loved "Dr. Rabbit"—Eric B. Hare who labored in Burma.

As SDA Christians entering the twenty-first century, we need to realize we have received an incredible mission heritage. We stand on the shoulders of thousands of men and women who accepted Jesus' challenge to "go into all the world." They heard. They went. And their efforts were blessed.

As we at the Institute of World Mission have worked on the preparation of this revision of Passport to Mission, the training manual especially prepared for short-term missionaries, it has been with the prayer you and others will be better prepared to follow in the footsteps of those missionary giants of the past—building on their successes, and learning from their struggles.

And now as you begin your journey through this course, I pray that God will pour out his Holy Spirit on you and enable you to grasp the reality of what is ahead of you—the joy, the adventure, the challenge.

Go with God!

Pat Gustin, Director

Institute of World Mission