Missionaries sense danger

Some of the dozens of overseas missionaries from Indiana say they recognize the danger they face by being a target for those who want to harm Americans.\nThey also, however, say they feel a greater calling to do God's work.\nBob Carter, a 47-year-old doctor who grew up in Carmel as the son of a Quaker minister, is working as a surgeon at a hospital in the African nation of Zambia.\nSince the Dec. 30 killing of three American Christian missionaries in Yemen, Carter and his wife, Hope, try to focus on the reasons why they and their four children -- now ages 11 to 18 -- went to Africa for their missionary work.\nWhen asked whether he worried about the safety of his children, Bob Carter said: "My answer should be, 'We're worried about them all the time,' but that isn't true. We feel they're under the care of the Lord."\nNo official number of missionaries from Indiana is kept, but the hundreds of Hoosiers serving around the world include about 80 from Greenwood-based OMS International, 70 from Roman Catholic dioceses and 45 from World Gospel Mission in Marion.\nIndiana Bible College in Indianapolis has a program to prepare students specifically for missionary work. Tom O'Daniel, the college's executive vice president, said interest did not appear to have been affected by the threat of violence.\n"From what we see about our students, there's been no fallout from the violence," he told The Indianapolis Star for a story Monday. "It might affect their parents more."\nAndrew Pace is one of those concerned parents, with his son, James, studying at the school to become a missionary.\n"Anywhere he's overseas, we'll always be concerned as parents for his safety," Pace said. "But we have to let him do what he feels is best and hope for the best."\nMark Myers of Greenwood said he sensed danger while working in Paraguay during 2001. Unaware that Myers spoke Spanish, local residents of that South American country made threatening remarks about the United States.\n"They praised Osama," Mark Myers said. "It was very, very uncomfortable."\nBeing a missionary requires a great personal commitment, said Dennis Johnson, the vice president of field ministries for the Marion-based World Gospel Mission.\n"To be a missionary and serve effectively requires that the person going senses a definite direction from God to be there," Johnson said.