San Francisco, California – Olivet University students and staff joined over 400 members of the Golden Gate Theological Baptist Seminary (GGBTS) community for its annual Missions Conference from February 17-19. The aim of the yearly conference is to provide current and potential mission workers with a more thorough understanding of the spiritual dimension of missions.

This year's theme "The Holy Spirit in Missions" drew mission leaders from across the country, and particularly the Pacific seaboard. "We feel that the mission conference is an opportunity…to make missions a living reality for not only our Seminary family, but for students throughout the West Coast," explained Dr. William Wagner, Dean of Olivet Theological College & Seminary and GGBTS faculty member.

Indeed, since members of the Olivet University community first began attending the mission conference in 2005, the atmosphere of the gathering has assumed decidedly international proportions. Olivet students and staff members representing the nations of Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, as well as the United States attended the three-day mission conference, which included worship services interspersed with lectures and seminars on Golden Gate's Northern California campus, nearby San Francisco.

Professors, pastoral leaders, and missionaries were among the speakers featured at the conference, including Dr. Joseph Ray Tallman, who serves as Director of Middle East Missions at Olivet University and on the faculty of GGBTS. Their messages were painted with dramatic personal testimonies describing the Holy Spirit's power revealed in mission work – including stories of miraculous phenomena, rapid church growth and spectacular conversion experiences.

The gathering also featured a conference-wide prayer meeting on its final evening, during which the presence and power of the Holy Spirit sent a visible wave of awe through the crowd of participants.

"After the prayer meeting, I was approached by members of other faith communities attending the conference moved by the deep spirituality of the event," said one Olivet University student. "Not many missions' conferences so thoroughly integrate the intellectual and spiritual dimensions of missions."

The 2006 Missions Conference follows the success of last year's conference, with the theme "Spiritual Warfare." Golden Gate Missions Conferences are hosted by the David and Faith Kim School of Intercultural Studies of GBBTS.