Pastor's Note - August 3 
Last weekend, Maggie and I went down to Hillsboro for the Mennonite Brethren (MB) Southern District conference – a gathering of pastors and leaders from our district within our denomination. Side note: CBC members are always welcome and able to attend these conferences. In no particular order, here are a few observations from my time there. 1) It was great to have Shaun and Beth LePage attend the conference. I think it was a good introduction for them to the MB family. 2) I’m feeling generally enthused about Tabor College. David Janzen, who will be joining us at CBC in a couple weeks, seems to be doing good work as the President of Tabor. 3) It’s both encouraging and interesting to see the number of Ethiopian and Congolese churches joining our USMB family. God seems to be doing something significant there. 4) One Congolese pastor who now ministers in Ohio was raised MB in the Congo, as Mennonite Brethren missionaries evangelized in the Congo around 100 years ago, and left a heritage of Christian faithfulness there. Cool story of the gospel coming around full-circle. 5) It is a joy to continue to build relationships with faithful pastors and churches in our district. I’m genuinely encouraged by the fellow pastors in our district. 6) Some of the older members will note that these conferences used to be much bigger. We are a smaller group now. I wonder why that is, and if/how that trend can be reversed. 7) Another Congolese pastor remarked that he feels a call to bring gospel witness to the United States. I think there are number of Christians in Africa who see the United States, and the church in the US, as having lost its way. 8) We are heading into a bit of transition, as Don Morris (USMB Executive Director) and Tim Sullivan (Southern District Minister) retire in the next year or so. There will be opportunities for new leaders to emerge. 9) The folks from MB Foundation, who granted us a loan for the building project, send their blessings! They were happy to hear of our progress. 10) As I mentioned, I enjoyed building relationships with our broader family. I would encourage anyone to join next time around!