It has been a while since I have commented on the situation between the Dollar and Euro.  Since I have been in Spain, we have seen a range from 1.24 to 1.60 against the Euro.  So what does all this mean and how does this affect the missionaries in Europe.   

Every missionary who works outside of the US in a country that doesn’t use the Dollar has to exchange their money into the countries currency.  Each country has an exchange rate of how many dollars it takes to exchange into the currency of that country.  There are places where you will get more currency for the dollar and there are places where you get less currency for the dollar.   

In our case, we exchange dollars into Euros.  As I write this post, the exchange is 1 Euro to 1.30 dollars.  So what does that mean?  Also, one of the main factors when looking at currency exchange is also the purchasing power of the currency and how it compares to the your domestic currency.  For example, how does the cost of milk here in Spain compare to the cost of milk in the States.  If we were to make the currency even 1 Euro for 1 Dollar, then we would see that it is more expensive to buy milk here then it is in the States.  Basically, things cost more here then they do in the States.  So when we add an exchange to that, the expense is even greater.  So what does it mean to have an exchange of 1 Euro to 1.30 Dollars?  

The easiest way I can think of how to explain it is like this:

When I pull out 100 Euros, it cost me $130.  Imagine that you were going to pull out $100 out of an ATM.  It would be like the ATM charging you a $30 fee, just to pull out $100.  So for every $100 you pull out, you get charged a $30 fee; you loose $30 and only get $100 to spend.  So multiply that by 10.  If you were to pull out 1000 Euro, it would cost you $1,300.  So you would be charged $300 as a fee to pull out $1,000.  That adds up each month.  

To be honest, it has been a relief to only have to exchange at 1.30.  We were here at it’s all time high of 1.60.  So for every 100 that we pulled out, we were basically charged a $60 fee.  Pretty wild.  

In recent months, we have seen a strong comeback posed by the dollar.  Many analysts believe the dollar will continue to strengthen and even come even with the Euro.  As always, we will trust in the Lord and not in the dollar and we will pray that God will sustain us and keep us on the field to do a work for Him!