Local Missions or Foreign Missions???

I read this article yesterday and it got me thinking. Should we be encouraging people to give more of their time and money to foreign missions or to local missions? If you look no further than the title of that article, you would assume that the author is strictly promoting local missions, to the exclusion of foreign missions. However, toward the end of the article, the author does seem to advocate a balance between the two, and I'm glad for that. It seems like, in many areas of life, when people promote one side or another, the best solution is often to pursue BOTH, not either/or. If all Christians stopped assisting the radically impoverished peoples around the world, the level of global devastation would skyrocket. Yet, a lot of times, it's easier for a person to help "those folks over there," rather than open our eyes to the suffering that's happening just around the corner. I think sometimes local suffering makes us feel more guilty. Or, maybe in some cases, we're even judgmental of people who are suffering in this country and we're not as inclined to help. But, comparing my foreign missions experiences to my U.S. mission experiences, I still have to say that the poorest of the poor in this country do not even come CLOSE to suffering to the degree that people do in 3rd world countries. So, again....we need to help both.