The Global Mission Operations Committee last week approved more than half a million dollars to help fund some 170 projects to start new Seventh-day Adventist congregations around the world. Meeting at the Adventist Church’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, the committee approved projects in seven countries, although India was the main beneficiary.

“More than $400,000 will go directly to India to support complete church-planting packages,” says Daisy Orion, planning director for Global Mission. “Each of the nearly 90 Indian projects includes evangelistic resources, two Global Mission pioneers, land, and a new church building.”

Global Mission pioneers—lay people who volunteer to go into areas without an Adventist presence to start congregations—will also play key roles in projects funded in Cape Verde and Bulgaria.

“Global Mission pioneers have established the majority of new congregations around the world since 1993,” says Michael Ryan, director of Global Mission. “These volunteers work among their own people, so they understand the language and culture, and live at the same socio-economic level. In many parts of the world they have had tremendous success where for years the church has struggled to make an impact.”

Other countries to receive funding for Global Mission projects were the United States, Mozambique, the Ivory Coast and Ghana.

For more information about Global Mission visit www.global-mission.org.