Missionaries bristle at the suggestion that they are putting their kids in danger.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

NINARUMI, Peru _ They come from the Atlanta suburbs, from the badlands of Wyoming and from the broad American heartland. From every corner of North America, hundreds of men and women have turned their backs on the worldly life to preach the gospel in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.

Here in the jungles that line the headwaters of the Amazon River system, they battle mosquitoes, malaria and searing heat to minister to a people whose lives are not far removed from those described in the Bible. Stories of fishermen casting their nets or Noah's Ark and the great flood have a familiar ring to river dwellers whose next meal depends on a good catch and the floods that nourish the jungle ecosystem.

When the Peruvian air force shot down a small Cessna on April 20, killing American missionary Veronica "Roni" Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter Charity, a rare international spotlight was turned on the little-known world of modern missionaries.

While being shot out of the sky is extreme, the fact is that dangers confront all missionaries, and it has caused some to question why people would subject their young children to such a harsh environment.

The answer, in a word, is faith.

"At the age of 13, I knew I wanted to be a missionary," said Roni Bowers' testimonial of why she became a missionary, which was read during her memorial service last Friday night.

"You just know that it's what you are supposed to do. In your innermost being, you just know that's your purpose in life, and you follow that purpose," explained Michael Dempsey, 55, a Pentecostal minister from Athens, Ga.