Q: Dear Missionary Position,

Dear Missionary, we'd like to exchange our sponsor child for a newer one. Little Roberto has a certain pathos but our kids have grown tired of seeing his photo on the fridge. We'd like to move on to a cute Thai girl or something exotic from Indonesia. In fact, to maintain our family's excitement about missions we'd like to exchange our child annually. I'm wondering if any sponsor programs offer such "lease-exchange" options?

Ann LaFontaine, Hilton Head, S.C.

A: Dear Ann,

Congratulations on identifying a "trouble spot" in your family's missions support efforts. To spare people the tedium of a long-term commitment to one particular child, some sponsor programs do allow you to "return" or "exchange" your sponsor child. This is especially helpful when your sponsor child reaches adolescence and is no longer as cute as he or she once was. Indeed, some families employ a "trade 'em at twelve" strategy which seems to solve the problem.

But perhaps a better solution is to start a trading club with other sponsor parents. You may exchange sponsor children among yourselves the way you might swap playing cards. Lay the packets on a table, photos up, and make a fun family night of it. This keeps the sponsorship experience fresh for everyone, and if you manage it right the sponsor child doesn't need to know he or she has been traded.

I commend you for addressing your children's flagging interest in their sponsor child. Happy exchanging!

Mike Stewart, missionary to Ghana

?

IBD

It's a statement about how shallow some people are in this world. We have some of those people posting here.

Doing something noble for all the wrong reasons negates the primary action.

mirror mirror on the wall, sweetheart.

Hey patrice - it's my own personal stalker! By the way, I just realized that you are female - now I feel better. The guys that follow me around the cooler can be creepy.

Are you feeling a little troubled today?

By the way, I do feel a little shallow at times, but it's not me thinking, but a part of me.

Sadly, this happens in real life. People sponsor a child and then decide they don't look "poor enough" in the photo and want someone else. Little do they know that the same nice shirt is passed around an entire village so that the child can look his absolute best for the photo.

My thoughts exactly.

I'd rather be shallow than brain dead.

Besides, if I wasn't shallow, how in heck would I be abel to deal with you?

Now that was a highly mature and thoughtful come back. Surely you weren't talking to me because I am your lusty sole mate.

Would you stop looking at the mirror - I'm not mature, you are mature, but I'm lusty, and you - years ago, perhaps.