Now to your question. As you seem to imply, most Protestant mission agencies put their emphasis on evangelism, teaching, or help for the suffering. "Working for people's rights" is a laudable goal, but is complicated in a cross-cultural context. The "foreigner" is a "guest," in the host culture, and therefore viewed by those of the establishment (who may be seen as limiting people's rights) as behaving in an inappropriate manner, and as such are often either expelled or even jailed.

However, there is a history of foreigners who have sought to stand by the poor and oppressed in ways that are appreciated. One example that comes to mind is that of the New Zealander, Viv Grigg, who decided to live with the poor in the slums of Manila and having come to know their needs first hand researched government programs that he could bring to bear on their situation of which the people were unaware. This is not so much "peoples' rights" but certainly was a great help to these people who had had no one to look out for them.

The entity that I know of which is particularly concerned for the whole subject of "peace making, social justice, and human rights," and have a history of promoting these themes is The Mennonite Central Committee (e-mail: MailBox@mcc.org), working in about 200 countries.

They include in their purpose statement: "…to demonstrate God's love by working among people suffering from poverty, conflict, oppression, and natural disaster." Give them a try.

Thanks for your concern for peoples' rights, David, but don't forget as well the even deeper need of freedom from sin which only Jesus can give through the Gospel.

Jack