First Sabbath Offering for World Missions

Do you want Jesus to come soon? He tells us how that can happen: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14).

We are to take the gospel to the entire world, yet “how little has been done in comparison with the great work before us! Angels of God are moving upon the minds of the people, and preparing them to receive the warning. Missionaries are needed in fields that have yet been scarcely entered. New fields are constantly opening.”—Evangelism, pp. 408, 409.

Where are some of these new fields? New missions recently opened include Central Africa, Sudan, Lesoto, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Benin—plus Côte d’Ivoire, which already has baptized members. Currently, the General Conference is helping with the salaries of pastors and Bible workers in 85 missions worldwide. How much does this cost? In 2021, US$647,000 was sent for this purpose. How much did we receive in offerings for it? US$132,826. (That is the honest picture and you can see it is not sustainable!)

Dear brothers and sisters, this is reality. The missions need everyone’s support—and much more of it. Do you want to see the message go to new places? It can happen if we increase our giving to the world missions fund.

“As new fields are opened, the calls for means are constantly increasing. If ever we needed to exercise economy, it is now. . . . A cent seems like a trifle, but a hundred cents make a dollar, and rightly spent may be the means of saving a soul from death. If all the means which has been wasted by our own people in self-gratification had been devoted to the cause of God, there would be no empty treasuries, and missions could be established in all parts of the world.”—Counsels on Stewardship, pp. 290, 291.

Please, dear brothers and sisters, when the First Sabbath Offering is gathered for world missions, remember souls in darkness and give generously, that new areas may receive the present truth. “Our church members should feel a deep interest in home and foreign missions. Great blessings will come to them as they make self-sacrificing efforts to plant the standard of truth in new territory.”—Christian Service, p. 184.

May the Lord abundantly bless the gifts and the givers!

Your brethren from the General Conference