"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On 3 Oct 2006 18:57:24 -0700, wrote:

His parents are missionaries in Panama.

This always fascinates me.

With all the social problems we have in this country which could use a
good dose of old time religion, why do missionaries have to go to
another country to help and do good works? Why not the Bronx or East
LA or American Indian country? Why Central America or anywhere else
for that matter?

It's like adopting Asian babies - I don't get that either. There are
lots of kids here in the states, in particular older ones, that can
use good parenting and a good home, yet people insist on adopting
Korean, Chinese and East Asian Indian children. What's the point?

I just don't get it.

I don't know about these missionaries in particular, but I do know a little
about the Southern Baptist Church Mission program. It is divided into 2
parts, a Foreign Mission Board and a North American Mission Board. the NAMB
has just over 2900 full time missionaries and about 2400 long-term ( 4
months to 2 years, these people are self-funded) missionaries working here
in the US.

Once again I cannot speak for anyone else, but I (and my local church)
believe we are instructed to do good works everywhere, since I cannot run
off to a foreign country on a regular basis (although I have been able to go
to a couple on a 1-2 week basis) I/we can help send others. We also do a
lot of work locally as well as elsewhere here in the southeast. Here is a
link with a little info if you are interested.

http://tinyurl.com/qvlf2

As for the adoption issue, I agree. I work with 2 people however who have
adopted children from other countries. In both cases, the issue was the
large amount of red tape involved in trying to adopt here in the US. They
both said the issue was not money as it was the same or slightly more due to
travel etc.