BOX ELDER, SD – The Hold the Rope Summit will take place at the Box Elder Events Center Oct. 1 through Oct. 3.

This will mark the first time the event is being held in South Dakota.

Hold the Rope Summit is a fresh take on the long-standing STEER, Inc. Missions Conference. Founded in 1957, STEER, Inc. is a non-denominational Christian global missionary support organization that currently supports 89-member mission organizations. 

The Hold the Rope Summit offers an engaging, immersive experience designed to inspire and connect. Attendees will hear from a lineup of powerful speakers who bring real-world insight, challenge, and encouragement, while also having meaningful opportunities to personally connect with STEER, Inc. missionaries and ministry partners.

“Our hope for the conference is that for those that attend will encouraged, inspired, and challenged in their faith,” Beau Bendigo, Executive Director, STEER, Inc., said. “We hope that they will then go make a difference in their communities, city, and the world.”

Through conversations, shared stories, and time for reflection, the summit creates space to deepen understanding of missions, build lasting relationships, and walk away both encouraged and equipped to keep holding the rope.

Hold the Rope Summit draws its name from William Carey (1761–1834), a missionary to India. On an emotional farewell before departing for India in 1793, Carey famously said to his dear friend Andrew Fuller, “I will go down into the pit, if you will hold the ropes.” Fuller’s unwavering reply was, “Whilst we lived, we should never let go the rope.”

This analogy of holding the rope became emblematic of the collaborative effort between those who send and those who go, with the rope symbolizing their lifeline.

The phrase captures the shared responsibility of missions: as some are called to go, others are called to faithfully sustain them through prayer and financial support.