Financial situation
We are very grateful to all our supporters who make it possible for us to live and minister in Japan. For a few reasons, our support need has increased this year and we would like to make you aware and ask for your prayer. 1) Moving to Kanto means we have to pay more for rent. Our rent will increase by about R3500 per month. It’s not ideal and we tried finding cheaper apartments but the reality is that rent in Kanto is expensive and because of being foreigners our options are limited. 2) Along with rent, our ministry expenses are going up by about R1000 per month. This is because travelling in Kanto is more expensive than Sapporo and a big part of our ministry will include travelling to meet with people and attend events. 3) This month we received letters from the local authorities that by law we have to pay a Japanese pension. We already pay pension in South Africa but it seems that Japan has become strict in demanding all workers, including foreigners, pay this. We have no desire for a Japanese pension since the is no guarantee that we will even benefit from it but it seems unlikely that we can escape this without breaking the law. Instead of seeing this as a personal pension, it should actually be regarded as a tax which we may or may not get a portion back from. Japan has been struggling with an ageing population which negatively impacts the economy. Therefore, they have become very strict and serious in collecting these payments. Unfortunately, there is a very high possibility that we will have to pay about R2000 per month towards a pension that we don’t want with no guarantee of any benefit.
OMF has been very kind and flexible so there is no need to panic 😊 However we really value your prayers and wanted to give full disclosure of the situation.
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