by Brant Holladay, Editor/European Director

This is a question that pastors and church people are asking these days. The problems are real. I am trying to understand this myself. I have found some explanations that I want to share with you.

In the last four years or so the United States government has changed its economic philosophy. The dollar is no longer being supported in international trading. The upside of this policy has been that the U.S. trade deficit has narrowed. The U.S. still is importing more than it exports but the gap is narrowing. On Friday, October 12, 2007, I heard the news report that the trade deficit is the best it has been in seven months. That is very good news, BUT that is only part of the story.

The buying power of the dollar is weakened. Some say, for example, part of America’s solution is to buy from China, the Philippines, Mexico, Japan, Central and South America and from Europe. Now we are learning that products made in China often are below U.S. standards of safety. Will Americans ever again insist on buying American?

The present U.S. government policy to allow the dollar to freefall on the international markets has weakened the dollar worldwide. It used to be the most desirable currency in the world. It was strong, but not now. Some economists expect the European Community’s currency (Euro) to replace the dollar in the years ahead. No one knows for sure about this.

We might ask: in the last two or three years how has the change of American economic policy affected the missionary who lives overseas? ADVERSELY is the answer to this question! Right now missionaries in Europe, or Africa, and Japan are shaken badly. It is as if their wages have been cut no less than 30% in the last three or four years. Those who were receiving $30,000 now have to live on $20,000. That is a drastic cut that none of us could withstand. Who here could pay over $9.00 a gallon for gasoline?

This is why you will be seeing good missionaries coming back to raise extra support if they ever plan to continue their ministries overseas. Please listen to what they are saying. Try to understand their predicament and consider how you might be able to help missions in the 21st century.