After learning of the needs of the East Timor Mission, Sr Martha Barat had the idea of getting some donation tins for people to take home as a modern equivalent of the “self-denial box.”
The self-denial box was an initiative created by Seventh-day Adventists in the 1800s to raise money for missions. Members would have a self-denial box in their homes. Any time they were able to add spare change to it, they would. Sometimes this would mean doing without something that they were going to buy, and putting the money in the box instead, hence the “self-denial” part.
With a supply of donation tins secured, a label was printed with instructions on how to reach the web site for the East Timor Mission. The tins were spread all over Australia, and families took them home to have their own “self-denial box” experiment.
The tins that were distributed in Melbourne were collected by the Maranatha Church in late September, just before Luke and Anda Phillips returned to Timor. The contents of tins returned plus the donation box in the church foyer was counted by young volunteers and found to be $1,859.45. What a success!
While on the way back to Timor, Sr Anda informed us that with other direct donations, including bank transfers, a total of $16,439.72 had been raised for the East Timor Mission.
The work in East Timor is ongoing, and development of the property is still in need of funds. Please keep the mission in your prayers, and remember that work when you decide where to give your offerings.
You can follow the progress of the work in Timor at their blog site: https://fromtimor.com/