I Think God Could Deflate the Euro

Our Hungary team is busy writing their support letters for this summer, except for one vital piece of information - overall cost. One of our contacts at Christian Associates and I talked earlier this week about some estimated costs and frankly, the cost estimate has left me in a funk. The gist is that the American dollar continues to decline in value in Europe - one American dollar buys less and less. I realize it's not that big of a deal in the overall scheme of my life - we have quite a few friends serving in Europe for a lifetime and for them, it's exponentially worse. Even so, it's got me second guessing this summer's plan.

On one hand, even though the cost per person is significantly higher, we've also got a larger team and therefore a bigger pool of people that are potentially interested in supporting the team. Every year, we get more and more kids on teams and this year is also reflective of that growth. On the other hand, funding is not infinite, there are only so many dollars out there. Or are there? And we've got three summer teams this summer, two to Europe. Budget-wise, this summer looks like double last summer - that's not exactly spare change.

In the end though, and I said this to a few people last year too, part of this whole deal is trying to do something so risky that it will only work when God comes through. If we could do it on our own, we would be short cutting this experience of risk and faith, and it wouldn't be worth it. So, it's with these ideas in my head and that pit in my stomach that we move forward. For those of you that might feel compelled to pray for our teams and/or give, contact me and I'll make sure we get you all the information.

I'm sure this won't be the last of those I'm-going-to-throw-up feelings. We haven't bought any plane tickets yet...