13th Sabbath Offering for East Central Africa
At the beginning of a new quarter, it’s time to plan for our 13th Sabbath offering which will go to the East Central African Division. In this post you will find some patterns for making 13th-Sabbath offering boxes for your family or for your whole church. 
“The Adventist Church is built on mission. Our commission comes from Christ, who told us to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” Mark 16:15, NIV. Sharing God’s love around the world is like a vehicle. It needs fuel to propel it. Our mission offerings are the fuel that propels almost every aspect of outreach. Without that fuel, our best efforts are hampered. The church is united by its call to support mission. But few of us know exactly what the mission offering does, where it comes from, or where it goes. Our offerings support frontline evangelism in unentered countries as well as in teeming cities. They help build and sustain schools, establish churches, and help produce literature for distribution in hundreds of languages. In short, our mission offerings do everything our tithes can’t do. In addition, the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering allows us to give to specific projects that grow the church in tangible ways…” (am.adventistmission.org)
As a ministry, Sabbath School Net is made possible by volunteers whose deepest desire is to see members study, share and grow as they feast daily on the great love story that is the Bible. Not everyone has the same privileges we have, and that is where Adventist Missions comes in.
Regular Mission Offerings vs 13th Sabbath Offerings
Regular mission offerings are usually taken up in Sabbath School classes, and they are listed on your tithe envelopes. These voluntary offerings go into a general fund that supports Seventh-day Adventist mission projects throughout the world. Our support is crucial to keep this work going.- 13th Sabbath offerings go directly to specific projects each quarter. Do you know to which projects this quarter’s offerings are going? Has your area of the world ever received a 13th Sabbath offering?
The specific projects to which 13th Sabbath offerings are dedicated are listed on the back of the quarterly. To gain some understanding of what is going on in other areas of the world, you can watch Mission Spotlight . You can choose the appropriate quarter and appropriate video and watch the video for the month at Mission 360 video
Many are happy to give a hearty ‘Amen!’ to the mission reports that come to us in various ways. But when it comes time for the 13th Sabbath offering, does our giving reflect the desire to support these projects through the quarter? Do we even give it a thought until we hear the announcement on the day that the 13th Sabbath offering will be taken up?
Sadly, some churches do not even announce the 13th Sabbath offering, and the opportunity for this special offering passes by unnoticed. And we end up giving just whatever we have – which is whatever we normally prepare for any given Sabbath.
It’s exciting to think of how much more Adventist Mission could do if we just planned to support them. Download and print your copy of the Mission Offering box today and share it with your church members this coming Sabbath.
13th-Sabbath Offering Boxes Downloads
These first 2 images are designed to fit around Pringles or similar containers or on the sides of tissue boxes. The original box designs are also included as requested last quarter.
To print, after you have saved the images to your hard drive, do the following:
- In Windows Explorer, right click on the file & select Preview
- Click Control P to print
- Remove the tick in the box that says “Fit Picture to Frame” and
- Print.
It will then print to the maximum size of your paper that your printer will print.
The larger 2 images should wrap nicely around a Pringles (or equivalent) container while the sheet with two images will wrap around the smaller Pringles container or tissue box/equivalent.
Notes from the designer of the offering box to answer a few objections
- This project has nothing to do with the General Conference. They do not produce the offering box and nor do they have any input into it. I have made both the GC & Adventist Mission teams aware of it but they have given no response. It is a personal project I started about 8 or 9 years ago for which updates are being requested by church members around the world.
- The gorilla is one of God’s beautiful creatures we can choose to admire, rather than taking offense. It a sad fact that Satan – as he has done with the rainbow, the Sabbath and many other things – has perverted perception of one of God’s creatures so that even Adventists are offended.
- There were no racist motives, contrary to what some have suggested.
- Our children love to see the animals on their offering boxes and they will remain.
- As I have mentioned, the original Adobe Indesign files are available for download for people wishing to change designs or translate. You will need to message me.
- For the sake of a minority who are likely to spread their discontent and disparaging remarks to others in the church and bring them down as well, I have removed the offending gorilla image. Please be aware however that we are living in decidedly last days and should you be so easily offended at such a small thing, there are greater trials awaiting.
Robbie Noordzy
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I heartily endorse any 13th Sabbath offering program. In the church that I attend, the 13th Sabbath Mission programs are nearly non, existent. That is a shame and hopefully this will soon change with some encouragement. When I was young we would hear stories from missionaries like Eric B Hare that were always intriguing. Missions were always a major endeavor. Like I said you get my vote.
Am I mistaken, or is that a Gorilla on the cover of the Mission Story Book? If so, why?
The 13th Sabbath offering is slated to go to projects in East Central Africa, the home of gorillas. Thus the gorilla is used as an icon for the region.
I also had an unfavorable reaction to the gorilla. I am a firm supporter of missions and 13th Sabbath as well as the environment and conservation. I like the box idea. But when I contribute to missions, I hope to be supporting bringing the gospel to people through evangelistic methods (direct, institutional, health, teaching, farming, medical,prison ministry, etc.). So I expect to see people &/or Christian symbols &/or institutions &/or evangelism in action representing regions not animals. By the way, will we see animals representing European, Asian, and North American regions or just African regions?
inge,
i usually appreciate your views, but for this i say NO, BIG NO.
East central africa-home of gorillas? not people. do you mean there is no people who are living in ECA?
America is a home of......, Europe is a hope of .... etc.
it is not the first time we have the 13 offerings and mission magazine, we normally see good picture of people, and we like them.Not gorillas...
i can see the sign of racial discrimination here
Faustine, I am very sorry that you are offended. Please see the reply of the designer of the offering box. I believe that should answer most of your concerns. Please note that we are completely independent from the GC Sabbath School Department, and this offering box design is a special feature we are bringing to those who would like a convenient way to remember to save for the 13th Sabbath offering. If you live in East Central Africa, your projects will receive more money because of this offering box.
No one is suggesting that Africa is populated only by lions, giraffes and gorillas, just because these exotic animals are featured on the mission offering box, any more than representing North America by a buffalo, a grizzly bear and a porcupine would suggest that North America is inhabited only by buffaloes, grizzly bears and porcupines. The mission magazines have plenty of pictures of people, but this is not the mission magazine. It is an offering box designed to encourage saving money for the 13th Sabbath offering, and it is designed to appeal particularly to children as well as adults.
Inge, thanks for understanding and deep elaboration.
i can see the author has removed the gorilla's pictures in his design.
he has shown a great humbleness- the real Christianity...
Eddie, this isn't the Mission Story Book. It's simply an offering box tool to encourage greater giving towards the 13th Sabbath. Taking a 5 second look at the Adventist Mission site I don't see any animals on any of the covers there. Read on my friend for the reason.
Florence, if there's one thing I understand in this world there are people going to be upset no matter what you do. Regarding your concerns...
- there is nothing to suggest that these offerings are suddenly going to any kind of wildlife conservation program. The projects & locations are clearly outlined in the design.
- if you click on my name (up the top under the heading) you can find my last 2 offering boxes where I introduced animals into the design. South America has a toucan. For the South Pacific I have a kiwi, koala, emu, sea turtle & bird of paradise. Here there is also a giraffe & lion. You can be reassured that depending on where the offering project is there will be something from that region. I will make an exception in the case of animals that might suitably portray Satan... horned goats & snakes might not be entirely appropriate.
- apart from the fact that there's not a whole lot of room for all the things you would like; they don't translate well to the smaller designs; animals are easily recognizable by location and the biggest reason why I put animals on the designs is for the kids. The kids in our church love them and for that simple reason they are staying.
(Eddie if people are going to be offended by the gorilla there is a very simple solution, don't print it. You have 2 other perfectly good designs using the lion & giraffe.)
I have made ample allowance for people such as yourself who may like the concept but not fully appreciate the design or who may also need it in a different language. The last paragraph above has a link to my site where you can download my original Adobe Indesign file and make changes to your hearts content.
If neither you or anyone you know has the program, simply find a picture you would like & consider appropriate and get it to me & I will be more than happy to do a design up especially for you Florence.
Robbie, thank you for your explanation.It helps me understand & be more accepting of the illustrations. Thanks.
Thank you. May God bless your efforts Robbie. I will download the mission box designs.
Sincerely speaking, i too was seriously offended by that picture of a gorilla. Pardon me if i'm wrong, but i have a feeling; that it is simply because it is Africa.
Thank you Robbie,
for taking the personal voluntary time and effort into creating a reminder for us to support our God-ordained task of taking mission to the world of people. All the animals in this world were created by God and are beautiful and useful in their own purposeful way.
It is the deceitful Satan that convinces us otherwise.
Godbless us today, Mrs A Stolz, Norfolk Island, home of the iconic and indigenous Norfolk Island Pine Tree -also a beautiful God-given creation.
As a Sabbath School teacher the animals only represent only part of the region. As teachers we explain that just the home they live in or other expects of the region.
Robbie, Thank you for taking the time to create this. I'm thrilled with whatever animal goes on this design as long as it's native to E. Central Africa. Kids and adults love stories of animals and missions. Would you be able to design this so it will fold into a house or church? I work at a place that can print on paper up to 36" wide. I would like to make a big house or church for my church lobby.
No problems Cason. Hopefully there's no offence caused by this design.
Are you able to convert this design so it can be folded into a house or church? Like you done is previous quarters.
I am wanting to print it on a 36 inch wide format printer. Set it up in my church lobby.
Already done, posted above & emailed you as well the same day you last requested it.
Do you want something different?