In my previous article I attempted to explain the different approaches taken by the governments of Canada and the United States in regards to sending charitable funds abroad. I ended that article by promising to write a future blog detailing the arrangements the SDACC has in place to legally spend abroad the officially collected mission offerings and the percentage of the tithe earmarked for spending outside of Canada.

Church policy stipulates that the mission offerings and 16% of the tithe should be used to help with the global work of the Adventist Church. According to the Canadian Income Tax Act (ITA), a Canadian charity is not allowed to send dollars abroad to fund the activities of a foreign charity; however, Canadian charities are permitted to do their own charitable works abroad as long as they can prove that they direct, control, and monitor the project.

To satisfy the ITA requirement that the SDACC carry out its own charitable activities abroad, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada (SDACC) has entered into an agreement with the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (GC) in Silver Spring, Maryland, to annually pool resources to operate a charitable program. This program is called the General Conference-Canadian Joint Ministries Organization (JMO for short).

The operation of this joint venture is governed by the General Conference-Canadian Joint Ministries Agreement drafted by legal counsel. In compliance with the Agreement, a six-member management committee, with three members from the SDACC and three from the GC, plans, budgets, controls, and monitors the annually approved joint ministries.

The JMO is administered directly from the GC office building and includes the following programs: the employment of missionaries, satellite evangelism through the Adventist Television Network and the Hope Channel, Adventist World Radio programming, a Graduate Scholarship Fund that is an attempt to ensure that Adventist schools of higher learning have qualified candidates to fill teaching positions, advanced education programs through Andrews University and Loma Linda University, and language translation work for Ellen G. White publications.

Our Canadian church members can be pleased that with their mission offerings and 16% of their tithe donations, they are making a valuable contribution to the global work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.