February 1 - Flowing to Unwatered Lands

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.