Based on the number of emails in my inbox yesterday, it looks like I definitely missed out on a popular day to communicate with supporters, by NOT sending out a Giving Tuesday communication! It did remind me about this blog post that I've been meaning to write, though.
At last count, our family has 90 households and six church congregations financially supporting our work in Kapsowar. But what does "support" mean? Where does that money go? All of our support comes through Serge (www.serge.org) and the Great Commission Fund (www.gcfcanada.com). Every month, money is distributed from our account at Serge to pay our salaries, social security, health insurance, retirement contributions, and child education expenses. Other monthly expenses that are covered include our rent and utilities, salary for our house helper, and administrative fees for Serge, which include things like Member Care (the team of people that make sure we're staying physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy while we're overseas), administration of our account and website, education support, help with other details of living abroad. We also submit receipts for one-time expenses. These can include things like travel to and from Kenya, conferences that we attend, support we provide to co-workers, patients, or other local community people (for example, medical treatments or counseling expenses), supplies for our places of work, or tea and snacks for our weekly Bible study. Our visa expenses, and my medical licenses (US and Kenyan) and continuing medical education fees are also covered. Pretty much anything that is associated with our ministry (work at the hospital or theology school) or an additional expense that comes with living abroad is covered, in addition to costs associated with travel to raise funds or visit supporters.
That seems like a pretty comprehensive list, so you might wonder what our support-raised funds DON'T cover! Well, on a daily basis, we pay for our own food and any recreational interests. When we travel for fun or vacation, we pay for those expenses too. We own our own car here in Kapsowar, so we pay any vehicle-related expenses (although if we're traveling for a ministry-related reason, we would be able to claim that mileage). If we're making major improvements to our house because of where we live (for example, repairing our solar power panels because our grid power is unreliable) we get reimbursed for that, but if we're just buying something for our home because we like it - like upgrading our bed and mosquito net a few months ago - we pay for that kind of stuff. And of course clothes, books, household supplies, everyday living type of stuff we pay for ourselves.
Thanks so much to those of you who generously give to support our work here in Kenya. If you are interested in knowing more about that work, please email me or leave a note in the comments, and I'll be happy to add you to our newsletters!
