The Seventh-day Adventist Church is known around the world
for its mission outreach.
And your mission offerings are the workhorse of these efforts.
These offerings do the heavy lifting and foundation laying,
the repair and renovation of the basic structure
of the Church's work around the world.
Without the mission offerings,
all the other structures and systems built upon it could crumble.
Your mission offerings are like a life-giving river
with tributaries flowing around the world,
carrying refreshing water to mission fields.
Sometimes we want to give to a specific project
or to put our offerings towards something special
that stirs our hearts.
We see the results. We feel satisfied.
Giving to the mission offering may not be as glamorous as giving to a specific,
well-advertised project or program.
But wait! If it weren’t for mission offering to sustain them,
these projects would never happen.
So what happens to our tithes and offerings?
Well, when we return 10% of our income as tithe to God,
the Adventist Church uses it to support pastors and evangelists,
as well as some teachers and other workers involved in spreading the gospel.
On the front lines of mission, tithe is not used to fund orphanages,
schools, or health programs,
and it doesn’t cover miscellaneous operational expenses either.
The mission offering does this!
You see, our mission offerings fund what can’t be funded through tithe.
So when mission giving falls, then work gets cut back worldwide.
Mission projects falter. The movement stutters.
None of us want this to happen.
So our mission offerings help ensure
that mission work operates continuously around the world.
Want to see how our giving impacts people around the globe?
Mission 360º TV programs, Mission Spotlight,
and the Mission quarterlies offer regular updates
on mission around the world.
These stories take you to dozens of countries
to see what Adventists are doing in places
you may have never even heard of.
And what about the 13th Sabbath Offering,
which began in 1912?
For many years, this offering was an overflow offering.
A budget was set to fund the mission program,
and once that money was raised, any extra, the overflow,
was used to support a special project chosen for that quarter.
However, during a recession in the 1970s, there was no overflow offering.
So church leaders voted to always send 25% of the offering
collected on the 13th Sabbath to support specific projects
for each division on a rotational basis.
Through your 13th Sabbath Offerings you have helped build schools,
dormitories, hospitals, clinics, and church buildings,
launched mission boats, and set up lamb-shelters,
printing presses, universities and more--
altogether, more than a thousand projects.
And because tithe money can’t be used for buildings,
the 13th Sabbath Offering has frequently been used
for construction projects.
All of this could have never happened without the Holy Spirit’s leading
and your regular, faithful support of the mission offerings.
We encourage you to join Adventists everywhere
to prayerfully consider what you can do
to keep a faithful river of mission offerings,
bringing life-giving water to mission fields around the world.