The Foreign Mission Budget for 1908

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · May 14, 1908

The Foreign Mission Budget for 1908

THE progress of the third angel’s message should be the principal thing for which Seventh-day Adventists live, and the extension of the message in other lands the chiefest joy they find in this world. One can scarcely keep pace with the rapid growth and development of the work in these days. It is true that we have entered nearly every nation in the world, but in many of these countries we have made only a beginning in establishing the truth.

The call for means for the prosecution of the message is one of the truest tests concerning the development of the work. The budget for 1908 will undoubtedly surprise many of our people. At the late council of the General Conference Committee, the appropriations for the various mission fields in the world for the year 1908 were carefully considered. Each field with its needs was discussed at length. From these various mission fields the officers of the General Conference had already received estimates of their expenses for the year 1908. These estimates were laid before the council, and it was voted that appropriations should be made to the mission fields as follows:—

NAME	REQUIRED	APPROPRIATION
China mission	$26,800.00	$24,300.00
Australasian Union	27,001.71	8,500.00
Honolulu	1,200.00	1,200.00
India missions	19,883.00	15,590.00
Japan mission	9,745.10	8,790.00
Mexico mission	7,401.46	5,800.00
South African Union	22,916.00	20,000.00
West African mission	2,000.00	2,000.00
West Indian Union Conference	29,768.00	16,530.00
European field	37,700.00	10,000.00
British Educational Fund		2,000.00
Canadian Union Conference	8,748.00	5,040.00
West Canadian Union Conference	29,032.00	7,500.00
Riversdale Academy (W. Ind. Union Conf.)		4,000.00
South American Union Conference	25,000.00	15,000.00
West African School		1,500.00
Williamsdale Academy		1,800.00
Colon printing plant, building		2,500.00
Colon printing plant, equipment		1,500.00
Hayti church building		200.00
Scandinavian educational fund for Europe		2,000.00
Russian Union School		5,000.00
West Indian Union adjustment fund		674.00

Total for foreign fields, ........................ $247,195.27 Total amount to be raised in the United States for foreign fields, ........................ $161,424.00

Appropriations were made for the needy fields and various calls in the United States as follows:—

NAME	REQUIRED	APPROPRIATION
Southern Union Conference	$12,500.00	$9,000.00
Southeastern Union Conference	7,000.00	5,200.00
International Publishing Association, College View (Nebraska)		350.00
Southwestern Union Conference	6,310.00	4,600.00
Greater New York Conference		2,500.00
Chesapeake Conference		750.00
Shenandoah Academy (Virginia)		1,000.00
Danish-Norwegian work in America		1,000.00
Huntsville Industrial School		11,370.00
Jewish work in North America		1,000.00
Tents for work in needy conferences		520.00

Total required ........................ $25,810.00 Total for the United States ........................ $37,290.00 Total for foreign fields ........................ $161,424.00 Grand total of amount to be raised for all fields, ........................ $198,714.00

This makes the total appropriation required to be raised in the United States $198,714. The appropriation for 1907 was $135,868.03. It will thus be seen that we must raise for 1908 the sum of $62,845.97 in excess of what we raised last year.

One item of great interest in this appropriation is the amount of money that is already raised in the foreign fields for the support of our mission work. It will be noted that there is to be raised for the work in foreign fields, including the work in the South, the sum of $273,005.27, while the United States is asked to raise only $198,714. This shows that these mission fields are to raise $73,791.27 for their own work. This is more money than the General Conference ever raised for foreign fields until in the nineties. Thus we can plainly see that the mission fields themselves are raising more money to-day for the prosecution of our work in mission territory than was raised by the whole denomination