It was nearly 20 years ago when I visited the country of Chad. I flew from Washington to Paris and I caught a direct Air France flight straight to N'Djamena.

I went to many places in Chad and I was quickly reminded of the vital importance of water, half the country is desert, but water is precious everywhere. And I'll never forget meeting a man who had been waiting months and months for baptism, but there was just no water.

When I got to Chad, kind church members welcomed me like I was a long lost family member, everywhere, they told me how happy they were that their world church hadn't forgotten them. I didn't know much about the country, but I did know it was poor, not just uncomfortably poor, but kind of how are we going to survive tomorrow? Kind of poor. More than 80 percent of the population existed below the poverty line and life expectancy was less than 48 years.

I think it's fair to say that 20 years ago, most Adventists living in America or Europe or Australia or wherever hadn't given a whole lot of thought to the country of Chad? In fact, even today, many of us would probably have trouble even locating it on a map.

And yet I found a mission office in the capital, N'Djamena. I found vibrant churches and companies. I found schools filled with beautiful children and even a small hospital. And there was a large group of dedicated sacrificial global mission pioneers who were planting new groups of believers around the country.

I found a church in Chad which, like the rest of the country, was desperately poor. But here's my point. The church was alive. It was active. It was witnessing. They had projects and programs. They were making a difference in their community. And how did that happen? Well, it was through the work of the Holy Spirit and through church members around the world who had faithfully given their tithes and mission offerings, not knowing where each dollar would necessarily end up. Thanks to the church's system of tithes and offerings, mission in Chad had been funded by church members around the world who knew nothing about mission in Chad. I got to thinking about the old expression,

"the squeaky wheel gets the grease." Roughly translated, it means that whoever makes the most noise, they're the ones who get the most funding. And sometimes in our church, it's the big wheel organizations with the most interesting pictures, the most compelling video, the most heart touching stories that get the big donations. They get the grease, so to speak, the funding. And that's great insofar as it goes.

But what do we do about those parts of the world or those people groups who can't or don't squeak, so to speak? What do we do?

Just ignore them? The church's system of regular and systematic offerings, what the Stewardship Ministry calls "promise" is just like a river. Every time we give our mission offerings, we're adding water to a life-giving river that flows through often parched lands, bringing life and hope.

We're helping the church grow not only locally, but also in areas we may not have even heard of. We're helping missionaries we may never meet. We're building schools and clinics we'll probably never visit. We're helping plant churches. We may never worship in, but we're bringing life to the church's mission.

I don't know what every drop of water in this river does or where it goes, but I see the results and they're beautiful.

Psalm 104 says, "He sends the springs into the valleys. They flow among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. By them, the birds of the heavens have their home. They sing among the branches.

We have the privilege of helping church members see that their offerings are like a life giving Mission River flowing through often parched lands. This river makes it possible for missionaries to be placed all around the world. It helps the church's educational and medical and humanitarian ministries and so much more. The past few years, we've seen millions of people give their hearts to Jesus and join the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Thousands of new congregations have been started. How do we care for the nurture of these new believers? How do we provide resources and materials that they need? How do we provide ongoing pastoral care, Life-giving mission offerings given regularly and systematically helped sustain and grow new work around the world. And that's what the church is all about.