So, in order to do this job of taking the precious message of the gospel to those who have never heard, we have to raise support. Unfortunately most majority world countries don’t have super applicable job positions for us expatriates, not to mention the fact that if we were to work another job (aside from what we are there to do) it would take us MUCH longer to accomplish our ministry goals. Maybe this is obvious-maybe not.
Anyway, often people are confused as to why doing this job costs so much money to do. (After all, it’s not like we have malls and restaurants to waste money at in the middle of the jungle!) So where does all the money go? Instead of giving you our usual short answer, we thought we would offer a bit more of the reasons why.
First of all, NTM missionaries are required to raise 100% of their own support. Thankfully, 100% of all contributions which are given to our ministry go directly to us (no mission organization overhead), with the exception of a small credit card fee, should donors use credit cards to donate.
Now, on to our budget breakdown!
The following expenses are just a few of the things we need to pay for monthly:
- Insurances: Health, Life, Evacuation, etc.
- Retirement: Mandatory. 🙂
- Taxes: Social Security, Federal (that’s right… we still pay US taxes!)
- Travel: Mostly saving for flights for future travel to and from PNG, as well as in country travel
- Savings: for our move to village, equipment replacement when necessary, filing paperwork periodically, other emergencies
- Housing: rent when we live at the Center and of course, building a house when we move out to the bush
- Food: No explanation needed. 🙂
- Future: sometime down the road we have to begin to plan for Jude’s education
As you can see, there is a lot that goes into all of this! Admittedly it is not easy or fun for us to explain to very shocked and confused people why these expenses are so necessary-but they are. These are just the plain facts of what it takes to get the gospel to those who are isolated from it.
But think about it in this way, is there any price too high to pay to take the message of everlasting life to people? We don’t think so. If places like McDonald’s and Taco Bell can survive a bad economy then there is no reason we can’t continue to bring the bread of LIFE to those who are starving for it. God will provide for you and for us to get this job done. We can trust Him!
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