(USA) — Reuters is reporting that most U.S. charitable foundations are starting to feel the pinch of the economy’s abrupt slowdown. For agencies like Greater Europe Mission, the effect is compounded by what is called the ‘summer crunch’. GEM’s Director of Development and Communications, Paul Curnow. “The slowdown is obvious, it is having an impact on Greater Europe Mission and other ministries just like us. We’re seeing income down significantly and the number of gifts that people are sending in are down significantly. And of course, that impacts what we’re able to do in support of our missionaries.” Curnow says as funding goes down, the missionaries are forced to spend vital time raising support, which takes away from ministry. “We’re in 29 countries in Eastern and Western Europe. Most of those countries have less than one-percent of the population that are evangelical Christian. If we’re going to have an impact, we can’t spend more time raising funds, rather, we need to be able to send more people to the field to have a greater impact for Christ.”
