February 2019 Update Video

Praying for the Church in Angola

Aaron with our friend and colleague Rev. Eduardo Sassa,

director of development for the Evangelical Church of Angola.

There is an old Angolan proverb that says friendship is forged in the journey. Over the past sixty-one years, Canadian Baptists have walked a long road of friendship and partnership with our Christian brethren of the Evangelical Church of Angola/ Igreja Evangélica de Angola (IEA). 

We had the joy of spending time today catching up on the joint ministries of Canadian Baptists and the IEA with development director, Eduardo Sassa. In particular, the IEA is thankful for the support of CBM that is providing the assistance of Dr. José da Silva in strengthening pastoral education with our partner. 

"Training people is the greatest thing one partner can do to empower another," shared Eduardo. "Not only interacting with students, but José has also been interacting and helping other lecturers and pastors. His presentations and sessions have been of great value.”

Along with strengthening education and health facilities in Angola, the IEA is venturing in new mission among the people of Namibia. Already they have established two mission churches among young people in this neighbouring country. 

Please join us in praying for the IEA and for their ministries in Angola and Namibia. We give thanks for the legacy of friendship and love that has been built over these past decades. Thank you for your support and faithful prayers for the work of CBM in Africa.

"To be sure that your friend is a friend, you must go with him on a journey,travel with him day and night, go with him near and far."

Angolan Proverb

Rev. Augusto and Sidónia, IEA missionaries to Namibia

The Sweet Refrain

Meeting with UCLF leadership in Kampala, Uganda.

This past week, Aaron and Andre have been traveling together in Rwanda and Uganda to meet with our CBM team and partners as we launch a new year of ministries. 

It has been encouraging to see Andre step confidently into his new role as deputy team leader. He has been instrumental in both helping the AEBR's new director of development and by working with Gato and the leadership of UCLF to position CBM in the most effective way to contribute to the peacebuilding needs in Uganda.

Please remember Andre and his family in your prayers as they adjust to the new level of responsibility and the travel demands of giving leadership to CBM's ministries across Africa. We especially pray for health and safety as he serves in difficult areas.

Gato Munyamasoko and Andre in Kampala, Uganda

Along with praying for the dramatic shift in Andre's responsibilities, we remember our colleagues Gato and Anne Marie who are establishing a new life for their family and ministry in Uganda. During our time together this past week, Gato shared an interesting perspective on God's calling.

“It is the refrain of my life, to serve as a missionary,” shared Gato. “As a young man, I was moving from village to village, house to house, sharing the Gospel. And then I moved to teach in the school. And then I was ministering again. And then administering a school. And back to serve the church. And then CBM. And then the role as legal representative [of the AEBR]. And now I have returned. It is God’s calling, it does not let you go. It is the refrain, it keeps coming back and we all must listen and follow.”

As we pray for Gato and Anne Marie, we also remember their children. Please pray for their daughter Ruth who has returned to Rwanda for studies. As a family, they have decided to have Ruth complete her last three years of high school in Rwanda in the same community as her aunt. 

We also pray for our local partner, UCLF, as they will be confirming their new executive director in the coming weeks. 

Andre with the AEBR's new director of development, Ernestine Kamarora.

In Rwanda, we have witnessed amazing progress in the AEBR, which will be bringing major reforms before its general assembly on February 14, 2019. Most of the changes are intended to radically enhance the governance of denomination, but there is one change in particular that stands out. The AEBR leadership is calling the denomination to embrace the ordination of women. 

If the vote is successful there are already about ten theologically trained women leaders prepared to go through the ordination process this year. This movement towards recognizing the equality of all people in Christ is rippling throughout our African partners. God’s calling is a sweet refrain indeed!

Rev. Emmanuel Ndagijimana with Laura Lee and Darrell Bustin

in the construction site of the new AEBR guesthouse in Kigali.

Finally, we are thrilled to welcome Carla Nelson as the newest member of the CBM Africa team. We are praying for Carla as she prepares to join us for the next Africa Leadership Exchange in March 2019 and for her support of multiple education and training programs here. 

It was Carla and her husband, Gary Nelson, who first welcomed us into CBM back in 2004 and 2005.  Since that time, they have been great friends, supporters, and encouragers to us both. Seeing the Lord leading Carla into this new role with our African partners is such a gift.

Carla Nelson greeting teachers 

at the ABC college in Mitaboni, Kenya

Welcoming Carla Nelson

Dr. Carla Nelson joins the CBM Africa Team

Earlier this month, our dear friend Carla Nelson officially joined the CBM Africa Team as Canadian Baptist Ministries' new Senior Associate -- Africa Liaison & Education Specialist. Based in Canada, Carla will be working closely with Africa partners and team. Carla's first visit in her new official capacity will be in March 2019.

We are all excited to be working closely with Carla who brings such joy for our African ministries and love for the people whom she has served with over decades of contributing to CBM's work. Our team and partners are also very grateful for her help as she will be bringing her experience and high level of expertise to strengthen training and education programs.

You can read more about Carla's appointment here.

May 2018 in Machakos, Kenya

Finding peace in unsettling times

As word of the terrorist attack in the Riverside community of Nairobi reached us yesterday afternoon, we began to check in with family, friends, and staff members in the city.

Many here in Nairobi have had an unsettling feeling that another terror attack was coming. The tension has been there -- quiet, raw, and strained. The El Shabab network has been active in Somalia, we've heard story after story of the terror and conflict that have continued to boil in our neighboring country. The rhetoric of vengeance and death has not stopped.

I was up early this morning reading and praying in the quiet of our home. You can hear helicopters and low flying planes circle the city. People are alert.

The attack in Riverside is not yet over. Families are still desperate for news of loved ones still inside. People are giving blood, praying, and standing watch.

I am thankful for the beauty of Africa, for the resilient faith and kind-hearted people whom we have come to know and love. And the more I think about friends whom we have come to know and serve within Kenya and throughout this region, the more I am reminded that their hopes and aspirations are not unlike my own. They are tired of conflict, they are weary from violence, and they yearn for peace.

And yet here we are once again. Another attack. Another senseless loss of lives. More black smoke staining the sky above us.

As we live in the brokenness of this world, the good news of our faith is not that we get to escape the suffering and unrest. The good news is that God enters the brokenness to bring redemption, life, and hope. These unsettling feelings are a sign that the world is not yet as it should be. That we were created for a life that in Christ is now and not yet.

Our friend Sam Chaise shared a wonderful article this morning that quoted author and pastor Erwin McManus who expresses this idea in a profound way:

"Why is it that we long for a world without violence? We have never known a world without it. Why do we yearn for a world where there is no hunger? We have never known such a world, Why are we desperate for a world with no death and suffering? We have only ever known pain. Our ideals are the phantom pain of the soul."

Please join us in praying for Kenya. For the first responders, the security forces, the doctors, the nurses, and the countless families who did not sleep last night for the concern for loved ones. We pray for peace that comes from Christ alone.

2019 A Year of Bridging

The Standard Gauge Railway 

stretching from Nairobi to Mombasa, Kenya

We begin 2019 with great anticipation for all that the Lord is doing among our colleagues, partners, and our family. This will be a year of great change for us all.

Over the past weekend, we traveled by train to the coast with our family. The five-hour journey cuts through the Nairobi National Park and the massive Tsavo National Park. Along the way, we saw hundreds of elephants coated in the red clay of Tsavo. It was our last opportunity to visit the Bahari Beach Hotel where we have been vacationing since Ava was only a baby. Over the years the Bahari staff have come to know our children by name, watching them grow up as they played in the pool and build castles on the beach. Living in Africa has provided us so many wonderful opportunities to explore and share in adventures with our kids, but there are also traditions and places that we have continued to return to over and over again.

Such shared experiences, people, and places are among the anchors that we have established in our lives. In order for a bridge to work, there need to be anchor points that allow the bridge to connect people from one place to another. 

We are thankful for the anchor points that God has blessed us with here in Kenya: Our family, good friends, an amazing school, a church fellowship, our pets, special places that we keep returning to, our campfire... And as we prepare to cross the bridge of 2019 we are grateful for the new anchor points that are being formed already as we prepare for our new life and ministry in Nova Scotia.

In the same way, God is at work here among our CBM Africa team and partners. Even though we cannot see the end of the road before us, we trust in the fact that God is already there. He is at the beginning and the destination of all things. Or in the words of the book of Hebrews:

"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure..." Hebrews 6:19

A giraffe joins the skyline of Nairobi, seen from the National Park.

In Prayer

Please join us in praying for this year of bridging, for our family, for the ministry of CBM in Africa, and for the people we work with.


For our Family

We certainly appreciate you remembering our children as they enter their final semester at Rosslyn Academy and prepare for the transition to Canada.

We especially think of Emma and her friends that will be graduating from high school in May. These next months are a time of final decisions for those who are awaiting acceptance and scholarships for colleges and universities.

We pray for good homes for two of our three pets that will be remaining in Kenya.

We also covet your prayers as we seek to purchase a home, car, and all the practical necessities of life that we'll need in our new roles at the Bridgewater Baptist Church. We are very excited to join this community where we will begin to serve on July 1, 2019. We continue to pray for our congregation and for the people of Lunenburg County.

For our CBM Africa Team and Partners

We give thanks that our colleagues Gato and Anne Marie successfully moved to Uganda this past week with their children and that they have found a safe and comfortable rental home in Kampala. We pray that they are able to form new friendships and that the Lord will lead them to a welcoming church family in their area.

Erica is currently working with the ACC&S that will be assuming the administrative work in Kenya that we have been coordinating through the Wordeed International NGO that we had established several years ago. Please remember her in your prayers as she completes the requirements for closing down the NGO and helping CBM to transition the operations here to our team and partners.

We pray for the upcoming Africa Leadership Exchange that we will be hosting in Nairobi with leaders from four of our partners. Please join us in praying for the faculty of the next ALE including Dr. Ken Bellous, Dr. Carla Nelson, Dr. Julius Karanja Kimani, Dr. Darrell Bustin, Dr. Jonathan Mills, and Aaron. We pray for the preparations that are already well underway in this important capacity building initiative. We also continue to remember Jonathan who is coordinating this project. We are so thankful for his passion and expertise in the area of governance.


For the People with whom we Work

Please continue to pray for the Democratic Republic of Congo as they struggle through the aftermath of the December 2018 national election. We pray for peace as other countries are putting pressure for the political parties to come to a power-sharing agreement out of the contested election.

We especially remember the people of North Kivu who continue to be gripped by the Ebola outbreak and insecurity. We uphold our church partners and friends that are ministering at this crucial time.

Finally, please join us in continued prays for South Sudan. The UNHCR is currently concerned for 4.66 million people both internally displaced and living as refugees in the region. The map below is the most recent published figures of the displacement of people from South Sudan after five years of civil war and conflict which has taken the lives of 400,000 people.

We pray for our partner church that CBM is helping to deliver relief and minister to people who are turning to their churches for support and spiritual care.

To learn more about the situation in South Sudan, please see this in-depth report by IRIN.