How can Gospel for Asia support a native missionary evangelist for so much less per year than a Western missionary?
There is a vast difference between living at the same level as an Asian family, as native evangelists do, and living at even a modest Western standard. In most of the nations where we support local missionaries, they are able to survive on two to four dollars a day. In most cases, this is approximately the same per capita income of the people to whom they minister. A Western missionary, however, is faced with many additional costs. These include international air transportation, the cost of shipping possessions to the field, language schools, special English-language schools for children, and Western-style housing. Native missionaries, on the other hand, live in villages on the same economic level as others in the community whom they are seeking to reach for Christ. The Western missionary is also faced with passport,visa and other legal expenses, donor-communication costs, extra medical care, import duties, and requirements to pay taxes in his home country. The cost of food can be very
