I crack myself up sometimes. But really, lots of people do ask what I'm planning on doing with the financial support that I'm raising right now. I think that's a great question.
If you've been here before, you know that I'm responsible for raising 100% of my total salary, ministry expenses, benefits, insurance, and administrative costs by finding a team of partners who will give one time or monthly. There are no central funds through CCCI--everything I will do in Sweden is made possible by each dollar of support from this team.
With that in mind, I’ve created a snapshot of how your financial support makes living and ministering possible in Uppsala. This is in no way an exhaustive list, but it does cover some of the basic categories of my financial needs:
Giving Regularly
- $20 / month :: 3 weeks of meeting with one student once a week for coffee (in Swedish, taking fika) and building a relationship of trust in order to share the gospel.
- $50 / month :: one roundtrip train ticket to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden and the nearest city to Uppsala—a hotbed of social activity and chances for evangelism
- $100 / month :: covers internet, TV, phone and other communications costs so that I can stay in touch with my team of partners
- $250 / month :: helps pay for approximately 2/3 of the average food and/or meal cost per month – an essential for healthy physical (as well as spiritual) growth!
- $500 / month :: helps pay half of one average month’s rent for a youth hostel apartment for one person living with others
- $1000 / month :: helps fund social security, benefits, emergency evacuation, and other administrative costs
- $20 :: buys one lunch with a student for fellowship, encouragement, and training
- $50 :: puts a copy of an illustrated, contemporary Swedish language Bible into one student’s hands
- $100 :: buys a month’s worth of bus passes to get around Uppsala City and University
- $250 :: pays for essential supplies (paper, printing, materials) for one focus group geared around hearing what matters most to Swedish students
- $500 :: pays for a part of the flight to the CCCI Christmas Conference
- $1000 :: pays for visa and other travel related fees so that I can legally work in Sweden
- $5000 :: covers the cost of one one-way ticket from the US to Sweden for either departure in Fall 2008 or return in Summer 2009
1 comment:
A friend referred me to your page. Do you know that you can get a round-trip for under $1500 for August to next June? And you can change the return date on it for only a few hundred? (the tickets are valid as that 1 round-trip if you just return within 365 days). It seems to me that your budget is planned way high. Just a suggestion (I stayed in Finland for a semester). If you want to talk any more, you can email me (playintherain03@yahoo.com). If you've already raised over 10% of that budget, you probably have enough to go over there already and live for that year. Why stay in hostels when you can rent apartments for much cheaper?! Hostels at $1000 usd/month, and a month's rent would be likely less than half that-especially since it's a university town. It's also much easier to get a student visa than a work visa (hard to get hired there), and tuition is next-to-nothing at a lot of Unis in Europe (it was actually free in Finland). Sorry, but your budget baffles me. I want you to be successful, but for the $10,000 you estimate in airfare you can bring an awful lot of people clean water, or put 20 families in homes in Honduras, just for example. You can't justify cutting a budget of that magnitude so high if you know there's a better way. There are ways to do this economically, and if you're asking for others' money, make it count! There are ways to live cheaply even in Scandinavia, and if you get a job you can sustain yourself. Don't plan a year-long trip like a vacation- it's just expensive. I strongly urge you to do as much as you can to make this affordable- especially if you're asking for others' money. Then take the extra and give it to the poor, and then your benefactors' gifts of faith can be multiplied. Remember the parable of the coins given to servants? God wants us to be wise with money! Even proverbs commends a woman who is wise with money. Please reform your budget, I think a lot of people want to see you be successful. Peace be with you. Write if you want.
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