Have you ever climbed a mountain? I (Darrell) remember climbing mountains several times over the years. One of those experiences happened during my studies in New Zealand (1992-93). Matthew (a cousin of Laura Lee’s) and I climbed straight up the steep side of a mountain. It took some endurance, not just with the energy needed but also the constant battle with thorns, etc., all the way up. Yes, there was an easier path that we could have used, but that wasn’t the point. With each of my mountain climbing adventures, the satisfaction of reaching the top is still something I remember today. And it was even better because it was a shared experience.

Why am I talking about mountain climbing? Because last month, it felt like we finally made it to the top of a mountain – a climb that had begun two and a half years ago. In our last newsletter in March, we described this journey of developing a curriculum about the integration of our faith and our work. We wanted to take what we had been learning as the CBM Africa team and adapt it to the culture of East Africa so that our partners could make use of it if they were interested. Last December, working in partnership with Vennture (CBM’s initiative in integrating faith and work), we were able to host the Africa Vennture Conference. We introduced the curriculum, called Integral Mission in the Workplace, to representatives of our five East African partners and they all responded enthusiastically, expressing a desire to go through the full curriculum. So, in June, the idea became a reality as we met with teams from DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Sudan and went through the first half of the curriculum together. The summit of the mountain had been reached. It was exciting to see the participants learning and growing, grappling with new understandings of the church and how God views our work. We are grateful to God for helping us reach this point.

We look forward to the third week of October, when we will all gather once again to complete the second half of the curriculum. In the meantime, we want to share the celebrations with you through pictures which captured some of the wonderful moments of the conference.

If, like our African brothers and sisters, you are interested in learning more about how our faith meets our work, here is a good place to start: https://www.cbmin.org/vennture/. You can also find information on Facebook under http://facebook.com/vennture.ca.

• We are thankful for the opportunity we had to gather with our partners to learn together about how to integrate our faith with our work. A great effort was required by a lot of people to get to that point.
• In May, we enjoyed some special vacation time with family and friends in Canada.

• AEBR (Association of Baptist Churches of Rwanda), our partner here in Rwanda, has recently elected a new leader – Rev. Elisaphane. Please pray for him and the rest of the leadership as they go through this time of transition. 
• In July, we had a SENT team from Grande Prairie, AB here in Rwanda (the first SENT team to come since the start of COVID). We are praising the Lord that this door to ministry is open once again and pray that God would use the experience in mighty ways.

Thanks for continuing to be interested in and committed to what God is doing around the world.