The Missionary challenge

   Christian missionary Gary Black helps feed 2,000 orphans in an African country ravaged by the AIDS epidemic and a years-long drought.

   His biggest challenge, however, is not the physical hardships of living in Swaziland. It's how to overcome the effects of a variety of economic problems, most notably the decline in the buying power of the U.S. dollar abroad.

   Over the past few months, the dollar has fallen 10 percent against the rand, the Swaziland currency, - bringing the two-year drop to 25 percent. Last fall, Black's rent on a modest house in Swaziland jumped from $650 to $1,500. A car imported from Asia cost $9,000, but by the time it arrived, the ever-fluctuating exchange rate ballooned the cost to $13,000.

   "Overall, you have to adjust your budget to what the U.S. dollar is doing," said Black, a 41-year-old Colorado Springs resident whose wife, Lisa-Marie, and six children often join him on his international missions. "When the dollar is weak, there are many months when you are short and have to live by faith."

   About 40,000 other American Protestant missionaries worldwide have felt the same financial pinch in recent years. Since 2002, the U.S. dollar has lost about a quarter of its purchasing power in many countries, with the past 12 months being especially bad.

   But it's not just the dollar that's hurting the people who try to help the impoverished and spread the Gospel abroad. Rampant inflation in many countries, such as Russia, Guinea and Albania, has increased missionary expenses. Food prices in some countries have risen 50 percent since 2006, according to Compassion International, a Springs-based Christian organization that helps feed children worldwide. And because of the struggling U.S. economy, donations to missionaries haven't kept up with rising expenses. Local missionaries interviewed for this story were unwilling to share their most recent finances, although older records are available through the IRS, but all spoke of the same hardships: rising expenses and dwindling donations.

   One reason Black is back in Colorado Springs is to raise money to keep his mission in Swaziland operating. Black, a leader in the youth missionary organization World Race, is sending out support letters to donors, arranging to take potential donors overseas on information trips and working in Colorado Springs as a software salesman to generate income for future missions.

   "When the economy gets tight, people pull back in their missionary support," said Black, who hopes to be back in Swaziland in October.

   "That's why I'm digging deep out of my own pocket."

   Bob Fetherlin of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, an evangelical denomination based in Colorado Springs that oversees hundreds of missions in 81 countries, calls the stagnation of U.S. donations and rise of mission costs "the perfect storm."

   Fetherlin, Alliance vice president of international ministries, said the agency may send fewer missionaries abroad in 2009, and it needs to figure out new ways to motivate Americans to give.

   "We are forced into this due to current financial realities," Fetherlin said.

   "We can't do business as usual."

   Inflation and the dollar's 20 to 25 percent decline against the Russian ruble have also affected missionary work in Russia, said Matthew Monberg, chief operating officer of Children's Hope Chest in Colorado Springs.

   Children's Hope Chest, which sends 700 people abroad from 60 American churches, is cutting back on staffing and re-evaluating some of its Russian-orphanage programs because of funding challenges.

   "As cost of living becomes more expensive, we have been unable to help as many children," Monberg said.

   "Some of the programs may be too expensive to keep going."

   Missionary Cathy Urban pays $180 to fill the tank of her SUV in Guinea, West Africa, where she spreads the Gospel as a member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Rather than drive, some of the mission workers are walking with their Bibles to their destinations because of high gas prices, Urban said.

   But the price of gas isn't the only thing hobbling her efforts.

   Inflation and food scarcity have resulted in a dramatic increase in food costs in Guinea, Urban said.

   A sack of rice selling for $1 in 2002 now sells for $6, she said.

   Economic instability and political unrest in the African country mean missionaries are "on edge not knowing what will happen next," she said.

   For now, churches and mission agencies are examining their operations, looking for ways to increase fundraising and praying for those abroad to persevere in difficult times.

   Perseverance is not a problem for Urban.

   "My job," Urban said, "is to share God's love." 

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0367 or mark.barna@gazette.com