Friday, March 12, 2010

Where Have All the Men Gone?

Ok, not looking for one myself, no!  Sticking to the one I have.

But I just got back from a trip, and I enjoyed it.  Still, as I traveled and met different people, I was struck again by the strange fact that the mission field seems to be populated primarily by married couples and single women.  Ok, I did meet one or two men working there, but that is about all.  I'm counting married men out because by default in a marriage, there is one man and one woman, so that balances each other out.  But other than that, there are primarily women out on the mission field.

Is that true where you are?  Why?  Where are all the men? 

Someone told me that there are more women than men in the world and that is why.  I don't buy that.  Sorry.  That would account for a slightly higher ratio, but not this skewed.

What are we doing to our men that makes them not listen to the call to go? 

It saddens me.  It also puzzles me.  It also challenges me.  I am a mother of three boys.  How will I raise them?  How can I raise them so that they follow what God wants in their lives?  What are we doing with our boys that is different that our girls?  Women are out there; where are the men?

Any thoughts?

4 comments:

Sarah DeSalvo said...

Yes, it's the same where we are, too. Let's see... just within our mission, about 3 or 4 single women and one single guy. The single guy is probably getting married this summer (he's in his mid-40's!) One of the other islands (still our mission) had at least 2 single guys. One of which just got married, and one of whom is marrying one of the single women on our island! :-)

I think the men tend to get married earlier, and not go overseas when they're single, for some reason. And it seems like the ones who do go overseas when they're single tend to be snatched up pretty quickly by all those single women missionaries! I honestly don't know why the disparity between the sexes overseas. Overall, in the US, do you think there are more single women in their 30s than single men? I just have no idea!

Alan & Beth McManus said...

On our field, most of the men who came down single have since found wonderful believing wives who followed their husbands into the mission. Very few remain single past the first term. On the other hand, the few single women missionaries who have married, have usually left the mission to be with their husbands in whatever work he does.

Carrie said...

In our mission, it balance out fairly well. However, in all our churches, there are more women than men.

Anonymous said...

I've heard that there are 7 single women to every single man in my organization, that is consistent with where I serve. To top it all off, two of the three single men here have committed to lifetime celibacy, so they don't count! : )

When I was in college, a friend and I were both planning to be missionaries. Talking about it one day, she said that she couldn't be a missionary if she were a man, because a man's role is to provide for his family.

Hmmm.