Misconception: We’re going to be living the high life

I really like the idea of having a Monthly Misconception spotlight because frequently a lot of people will express and have similar questions and concerns. It is important when people are honest and bring these questions and concerns to light. It’s a great opportunity to thoughtfully and prayerfully correct false assumptions, whether those false assumptions are other peoples or our own. I am confident that others have similar questions or concerns and either don’t want to ask or don’t have the chance to ask us personally, so my hope is that this monthly spotlight will answer some questions and encourage people to come to us with others. So let’s do this. 

Love that this photo is complicated AND similar to the layout of Paris

First Misconception: We’re going to be living the high life in France

A lot of people look through our finance post or the finance page in our ministry overview and they kind of gasp or sometimes laugh out loud. We need to raise close to $8,000 in ongoing monthly support in order to live in France and start new communities of believers there. Instantly, a lot of people multiply this figure by 12 and think… these kids are going to be living on $96,000 a year, that’s close to -or- more than what I make. We understand the shock, we experienced a similar reaction when first seeing these figures. But what we learned, and what you need to realize, is that it's not that simple. 

Out of the $8,000 we need to raise each month, Ryan and I will actually be living on around 3,250 euro per month (similar to what we live on in dollars now actually). And considering we are hoping to be living in Paris, probably in a modest two bedroom apartment, rent could realistically be around 1,500–2,000 euro per month. Some of you may be concerned about this now, how will we live on this in one of the most expensive cities in the world? The answer is simple, we will aim to live simply and responsibly. 

The other question you may be wondering now is, what happens to the rest of the money? Well, a lot actually. 

• First a small chunk is set aside for the currency conversion from dollars to euros (this is changing almost daily and a complicated matter in itself, we'll just leave it at that for now) 
• A substantial chunk goes to cover our health insurance (both in the U.S. and in France so we’re covered both places) 
• A small chunk is put into a separate account for our retirement someday (I'm very thankful World Team requires us to do this)  
• Another small chunk is set aside for ministry expenses above and beyond our basic living expenses (this helps us better serve the French whether we’re hosting them in our home, purchasing bibles or other resources for them, etc)
• And lastly another chunk (14.5%) goes back to World Team, our sending organization, so they can continue to support and train missionaries like us

So that is pretty much it. If you still have questions, both Ryan and I are happy to talk about it more. We want to be as open and humble as possible with you about our finances and continually express our thankfulness for the many financial partners we have. Ryan wrote a series a while ago about why we raise financial support and why we believe it's a biblical thing to do, I won’t re-hash that but you are welcome to check that out if you haven't yet.