# If you were to live in another country, what would it be?



## danmpem (Jun 22, 2008)

And why?

This isn't for vacationing for the rest of your life; I mean this to be a situation in which you would be living in real life. Now, as to whether that means raising a family, preaching, working, or something else, I'll let you decide.


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## danmpem (Jun 22, 2008)

Blah! Would a mod please adjust the title to compensate for my typo error? Please insert the word "you" as you feel necessary.

Thank you.


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## Semper Fidelis (Jun 22, 2008)

America. I miss it. 

Actually, I wouldn't mind living in Okinawa again. Great place for a family. Very safe.


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## Herald (Jun 22, 2008)

Someone would have to shanghai me to move me out of the States. If they were successful in doing so I would want to be taken to one of the British Virgin Islands so I can become a boat person and slip back into the country.


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## Herald (Jun 22, 2008)

Okay, a serious answer. Australia. If I couldn't live here that is where I would live.


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## Puritan Sailor (Jun 22, 2008)

North Jersey Baptist said:


> Okay, a serious answer. Australia. If I couldn't live here that is where I would live.



 or New Zealand. But America is my #1 preference despite all her flaws. It would take alot to move me anywhere else, like a divine commission


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## Stephen L Smith (Jun 22, 2008)

Puritan Sailor said:


> New Zealand.



Amen. We are now the land of the America's cup!!


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## Stephen L Smith (Jun 22, 2008)

North Jersey Baptist said:


> Okay, a serious answer. Australia. If I couldn't live here that is where I would live.



Are you kidding? New Zealand has much more scenery and has the All Blacks. One of your country men told me that NZ has the best of the world's best scenery jammed packed into one Island (she was talking about the South Island which is the most beautiful NZ Island)


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## Stephen L Smith (Jun 22, 2008)

Scotland, "land of my fathers". But it would be too hard to leave paradise


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## Abd_Yesua_alMasih (Jun 22, 2008)

I would live in the United States. I would then be able to join the military there. If not in the military then I should go somewhere with more social welfare like the UK or Europe.


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## Herald (Jun 22, 2008)

> then I should go somewhere with more social welfare


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## Abd_Yesua_alMasih (Jun 22, 2008)

Hate it but love to live under it. Call me a hypocrite I know...


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## AV1611 (Jun 22, 2008)

Stephen L Smith said:


> "land of my fathers"



That would be Wales then!


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## Pergamum (Jun 22, 2008)

If I could LIVE there and live there PEACEFULLY I would choose Saudi, Brunei or the hidden kingdom of Bhutan. But access is sort of a problem right now.....

I would love to vacation in New Zealand, Ausralia and back in the US.

My number one choice right now is the beautiful country of Indonesia.


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## AV1611 (Jun 22, 2008)

New Zealand for me I think. Good scenery, excellent rugby, fewer people....


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jun 22, 2008)

http://www.puritanboard.com/f24/if-you-had-pick-one-place-live-9269/


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## Herald (Jun 22, 2008)

I have a found spot in my heart for Scotland but I wouldn't look good in a kilt.


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## Puritan Sailor (Jun 22, 2008)

Stephen L Smith said:


> Puritan Sailor said:
> 
> 
> > New Zealand.
> ...



Its also the land of Middle Earth


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Jun 22, 2008)

Germany or Ireland


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## Theoretical (Jun 22, 2008)

Ireland or Eastern Europe.


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## gene_mingo (Jun 22, 2008)

Ireland, but if I could get the USA to recognize Howland as a sovereign nation I would live there.


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## Ivan (Jun 22, 2008)

Even with the problems we have I'd choose to stay in the USA. But if I had to choose another country these would be some possibilities: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, I suppose anywhere in the UK...maybe a few others. 

My problem is this: I want to benefits of a city while living in an isolated area. Hard to pull off.


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## ColdSilverMoon (Jun 22, 2008)

I don't think I will ever want to leave the US, but if I must, I would choose England, Scotland, or Italy.


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## servantofmosthigh (Jun 22, 2008)

I've lived in many places across the world. Some have been the most beautiful geographically (Hawaii) and others have been the most heinous geographically (Ft. Polk, LA). And what I've discovered is that the best place to live is not the beauty of the geography, but the relationships you have developed. My choice to live is where I am surrounded with all my friends and family.


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## beej6 (Jun 22, 2008)

Despite their political climate, I'd probably choose Canada since I'd still work in the US potentially. If that's equivocating then I'd probably choose a British Isle for the language factor. This all assumes I could find a compatible church, of course.


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## py3ak (Jun 22, 2008)

Panama.


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## Quickened (Jun 22, 2008)

Ireland hands down! 

Or anywhere Asian because i love Asian food!


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## JonathanHunt (Jun 22, 2008)

Sydney, Australia. Although certain parts of the USA would be very tempting.


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## Mushroom (Jun 22, 2008)

> or the hidden kingdom of Bhutan


Yep, my first choice, but impossible, so...


> Panama.


In the mountains. Nothing better than mountains in the tropics.

Or maybe the Philippines. Baguio is beautiful.


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## Dwimble (Jun 22, 2008)

We would move to China. We adopted our daughter from there last year, and we went back for the entire month of March this year to visit an orphanage and begin learning the language.

Our tentative plan is to go back for at least a month every year starting in 2010 (Lord willing). We don't know what God has for us there...we don't have any desire or "burden" to be missionaries in the traditional sense (i.e. church-planting, evangelizing, or the like). But, the desire to help the orphaned children there is too great to deny that it is God's calling for us to do so.


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## Stephen L Smith (Jun 22, 2008)

Ivan said:


> My problem is this: I want to benefits of a city while living in an isolated area. Hard to pull off.



Try Christchurch or Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand


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## danmpem (Jun 22, 2008)

Abd_Yesua_alMasih said:


> I would live in the United States. I would then be able to join the military there. If not in the military then I should go somewhere with more social welfare like the UK or Europe.



Same here.


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## Zenas (Jun 22, 2008)

Ireland or Scotland. 

Good people, good beer, good scenery, simple life.


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## PuritanCovenanter (Jun 22, 2008)

I would like to know what Geneva is like before I make my final call.


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## DMcFadden (Jun 22, 2008)

If I had to leave California and move to a foreign country, it would probably be the midwest section of the USA (I *do* need a passport for that don't I?).


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## servantofmosthigh (Jun 22, 2008)

DMcFadden said:


> If I had to leave California and move to a foreign country, it would probably be the midwest section of the USA (I *do* need a passport for that don't I?).



Well, you can sneak across the border patrols easily and not get caught, unless you're a wanted criminal. In which case, everyone will want you to stay in California.


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## Ivan (Jun 22, 2008)

Stephen L Smith said:


> Ivan said:
> 
> 
> > My problem is this: I want to benefits of a city while living in an isolated area. Hard to pull off.
> ...



Is there a church there for me to pastor?


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## Davidius (Jun 22, 2008)

Switzerland


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## swilson (Jun 22, 2008)

Actually....if all my family and friends disappeared off the planet...(not a rapture reference)...I would move to another country...either Japan, or the French-England-Spain type of country.


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## Devin (Jun 22, 2008)

Either Scotland or Australia for me. I think I'd enjoy the rainy weather of Scotland more though.


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## danmpem (Jun 22, 2008)

Davidius said:


> Switzerland



Oh, yeah...


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## DMcFadden (Jun 22, 2008)

North Jersey Baptist said:


> I have a found spot in my heart for Scotland but I wouldn't look good in a kilt.


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## DMcFadden (Jun 22, 2008)

PuritanCovenanter said:


> I would like to know what Geneva is like before I make my final call.



Geneva is a historian's paradise, full of rich Reformation history. The Calvin stuff alone could keep you busy. It is also situated on one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. Unlike Basel, however, it is VERY French and quite expensive. The sticker shock compared to Basel and Bavaria was pretty stiff a few years back when I was there.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jun 22, 2008)

DMcFadden said:


> PuritanCovenanter said:
> 
> 
> > I would like to know what Geneva is like before I make my final call.
> ...



 It is the home of Calvinus beer, the Librairie Droz, and the International Museum of the Reformation among other things.



> _Originally posted by Draught Horse_
> 
> And "Calvin would spend his private moments on Lake Geneva and read scripture while drinking red wine"
> 
> Is that not paradise on earth?


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## Semper Fidelis (Jun 22, 2008)

DMcFadden said:


> If I had to leave California and move to a foreign country, it would probably be the midwest section of the USA (I *do* need a passport for that don't I?).



You don't need a passport _yet_. Give it a couple more generations given the demographic changes there.


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## Stephen L Smith (Jun 23, 2008)

Ivan said:


> Stephen L Smith said:
> 
> 
> > Ivan said:
> ...



If you are a Reformed Baptist, there are no churches with vacant pulpits, but there definitely are church planting opportunities.

If you are a paedobaptist, the Reformed Churches of NZ have pulpit vacancies in both cities (the Reformed Church is a sister church of the OPC).


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## ChristopherPaul (Jun 23, 2008)

Davidius said:


> Switzerland



From the June 2008 E-newsletter from Greenville Seminary:



> An Introduction to My Work by Simone Buob
> Hello, my name is Simone Buob. I would like to introduce myself to you and tell you about my work at GPTS. I was born and raised in the German speaking part of Switzerland and lived there pretty much all my life.
> 
> The question that I am asked the most is, “Why did you come to to Greenville, SC?” To answer that question, I need to reach a little bit further back in time. I attended a teacher’s training college in Switzerland. The training lasted six years. The fifth year was set aside for different internships. My fourth internship brought me, in the spring of 2001, to a sheep and pig farm near Christchurch, New Zealand. The farmers there, Paul and Sally Davey, were used by God to introduce me to his mighty word. After having spent 3 months with daily Bible readings and long evening discussions, *it was hard to return to a country like Switzerland, which is completely deserted when it comes to the Reformed Faith. Presbyterian churches are unknown; Zwingli and Calvin have been forgotten*.



Sad to hear....


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## JBaldwin (Jun 23, 2008)

I would choose the USA, but I wouldn't mind an occasional sojourn to New Zealand.


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## BJClark (Jun 23, 2008)

danmpem;



> This isn't for vacationing for the rest of your life; I mean this to be a situation in which you would be living in real life. Now, as to whether that means raising a family, preaching, working, or something else, I'll let you decide.



In all honesty, I don't know where I would want to live. No matter where we would choose to live in the world there are problems.

I wouldn't want to live under Muslim rule, and I wouldn't want a Socialist/Marxist government, even though that is the direction America seems to be going these days..

Maybe Antarctica, granted it is one of the coldest places on earth, but with the 'global warming' it is supposed to be heating up pretty fast causing the ice to melt and things to warm up..

There would be no new language to learn, unless I could learn to speak penguin or polar bear, and I could build a green house to help grow some veggies to eat..


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## PresReformed (Jun 23, 2008)

Brazil


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## danmpem (Jun 23, 2008)

BJClark said:


> danmpem;
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Why don't the polar bears eat the penguins?


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## Zenas (Jun 23, 2008)

I hear NZ is gorgeous. I would like to visit there one day.


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## BJClark (Jun 23, 2008)

danmpem;



> Why don't the polar bears eat the penguins?



Don't know, too hairy? To slippery? Not enough meat to make it worth their while?


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## Zenas (Jun 23, 2008)

Penguins are poisonous.


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## BJClark (Jun 23, 2008)

Zenas;



> Penguins are poisonous.



hmmm..the true answer is..



> The reason they don't is because polar bears and penguins live a long distance apart. Polar bears live in Arctic regions of North America, Europe and Asia, whereas penguins live in the southern hemisphere. Some books imply that all penguins live in Antarctica. This is not true - in fact, only two species (the Adelie and emperor penguins) breed on Antarctica. Several species of penguins live around South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand and the Galapagos penguins live on the Galapgos islands (surprise!), which are on the equator. This is still a long way from the Arctic.
> 
> The problem about polar bears and penguins relates to many Christmas cards etc, which show polar animals living together, when, in fact, they don't.




Interesting though that a sea lion, cat, ferret and certain birds are their predators..


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## Jen (Jun 23, 2008)

I would live in Switzerland, because I miss my family and it'd be easy to live there since all I have to do is renew my passport, find a place to live, and stop by the police station to tell them I'm there. The Berner Oberland is beautiful, and even though the dialect is very difficult, I wouldn't mind settling there.

The state of the Church in Switzerland is indeed quite tragic. One of my cousins is married to a man who works as a youth minister in the state church in Winterthur (by Zurich) -- they have four pastors, two are believers, two aren't, openly (they see their church as a mission field). Meanwhile, her Mum has gotten sucked into the prosperity gospel trap, and her grandparents (who are faithful believers, though strongly dispensational) attend a church that basically preaches on nothing but the end times because there wasn't anything better around when they moved (they moved from Wallis, which is a Catholic canton [in the German part of the French part of Switzerland] to Bern). Not that you could guess all of this from a peek into a Christian bookstore -- the one we went to in Thun actually had more works by Reformed authors than the Christian bookstore in Sacramento.

On the brighter side, one of my uncle's childhood friends became a Christian some years ago, and his family attends one of the free churches -- while it's pretty charismatic and totally built around the Willow Creek-model, he himself reads and likes Jonathan Edwards, which was probably the most encouraging thing I heard the two weeks I was there (back in April).

If, by the way, anyone knows of good theological resources translated into German (and how to get them!), could you please let me know? We want to get some books into the hands of our cousins.

Scotland, because the climate is absolutely as close to perfection as we can get. Actually, I would like to marry someone who wants to go to Scotland to plant a Reformed Baptist church there.

Or Australia, because I miss it a great deal, even though I'm not really a big fan of the climate at all (actually, I think the West Coast is the best part of the U.S. because we're the only coastal area to not have intolerable humidity).

Or even Canada, specifically British Columbia, because I have friends there and BC is gorgeous and I want to live some place with a better climate than California.


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## Kim G (Jun 23, 2008)

*South Korea*. I spend two months there in the summer 2004 and my hubbie and I are considering moving there to teach English. Beautiful city, Seoul, friendly people, taxes at only 4%, and I love the culture (and the FOOD).

I also spent time on a mountain-top in Cameroon. It was absolutely gorgeous. But I have a (very irrational) fear of spiders and it was only by the grace of God that I slept at night knowing what bugs were around me.


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## danmpem (Jun 23, 2008)

BJClark said:


> Zenas;
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Ding ding ding!!!


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## ahavah7 (Jun 23, 2008)

soth korea. lived there for about three years. enjoyed everthing but the traffic.


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## Poimen (Jun 23, 2008)

Switzerland would definitely be part of my top 5 along with New Zealand, Finland, Sweden and Norway. 

I lived six non-consecutive years in the United States and might want to go back if I could move (back) to Washington State, Oregon, or perhaps in Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine. 

In reality though this world that our God has made is so beautiful I think I could be satisfied living almost anywhere (as long as I had a beautiful wife with red curly hair and six+ kids -hey how did that get in there?).


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## Kim G (Jun 23, 2008)

ahavah7 said:


> soth korea. lived there for about three years. enjoyed everthing but the traffic.



I always took the subway, so I didn't have to deal with traffic. *whew*


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## ahavah7 (Jun 23, 2008)

Kim G said:


> ahavah7 said:
> 
> 
> > soth korea. lived there for about three years. enjoyed everthing but the traffic.
> ...



I was always impressed with their mass transit system. Maybe that's because I didn't use it much.


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## sastark (Jun 23, 2008)

Zambia. 

And also, am I the only one to mention an African country so far (or did I just miss the others)?


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## MrMerlin777 (Jun 23, 2008)

Scotland or Ireland


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## Kim G (Jun 23, 2008)

sastark said:


> Zambia.
> 
> And also, am I the only one to mention an African country so far (or did I just miss the others)?



I mentioned Cameroon as one choice (in the beautiful mountains of Sabga). . . as long as someone removes the spiders from my living quarters!


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## xint (Jun 24, 2008)

If I had to go anywhere, I'd move back to Malta instantly!
I know the language, I have a lot of connections and friends there..


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## VictorBravo (Jun 24, 2008)

Central France, somewhere near Le Massif Central. On a wheat and barley farm with a few dairy cows to keep the weeds down.

Mostly because I think France needs more Confessional cowboys, and I like the rural culture there.

But as my old teacher Richard Hugo said, "what thou lovest best remains American." I doubt I'd move from my fair country.


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