Changed Times?

Ten years ago when I lived in Cusco for 7 & 1/2 months as a soltero (bachelor) it was very easy to get by on $1,000 a month. Actually that was more than enough. Most Peruvians get by on $200 a month or less.

Now as we are preparing to move to Trujillo with a family and working out our budget, it doesn’t seem so easy. We had a budget for 50K a year and thought it was plenty. Now after looking over it with our team, it seems it should be more like 75K a year. With all the one-time costs such as 4 airplane tickets and house furnishings and language school it really works out to our living expenses being only 39K a year. I still have a hard time adjusting to things costing so much in Peru. I suppose there is a big difference from living in Cusco with (in 2002) around 300,000 people and living in Trujillo (in 2010) with over 1,000,000 people and growing tremendously. The cost of living has definitely gone up.

All that to say that we are now around 60% of our support. Not far below but we do have more to raise. I trust that God will raise it up if it is necessary to get us there and if He wants us to go. He has raised up so much so far, I am confident He will raise up the rest and even more if it is needed. I do ask you to keep praying for us whether we have all the money needed or not. One thing we need is more people, families, and churches to commit to lift us up in prayer.

Our plan is still to leave for Peru in January, if our son is born in good health and the financial support is sufficient. We are now planning to move to Arequipa to start language school for three months and then move to Trujillo and start our two years of work with the ministry.