On March 22nd, I had a severe gall bladder attack that rendered me helpless and I was hospitalized for thirteen days. This happened while Crystal was in Canada with her mom during chemo. By the grace of God, the care of the community around us, and the quality medical care at the Japanese hospital in…
National Staff Retreat to Kampong Speu
In late February 2025 the MCC Cambodia & Myanmar team went on a one-day national staff retreat to a restaurant and garden in Kampong Speu province. This retreat is a special time of fellowship for the team as it’s the only regular time when the full MCC team spends time with our national staff’s family…
Q: What’s excited you about coming to lead an Anabaptist organization like MCC?
This month MCC Canada appointed a new Executive Director – Kenneth H. Kim – and recently MCC published a Q&A article with him so we could get to know him better. The full article is worth reading but I was particularly struck by his response to the final question. Q: What’s excited you about coming…
How are we impacted by the US foreign funding freeze?
A few people have reached out to ask how we have been affected by the US government foreign funding freeze and I thought it was worth writing about here. First, we were not directly affected. The vast majority of Mennonite Central Committee’s support comes from Anabaptist church bodies and congregations in the US and Canada,…
Growth, Change, and Expectations – A Year of Service in Cambodia
Garrett who joined the Seek cohort in 2024 and returned as a SALT participant for 2024-2025 recently wrote about his experiences volunteering with one of our local partners, Mission DOVE. My name is Garrett Walker and I came as an intern at YESIC/Dove in January until June 2024. I come to Cambodia from Manitoba, Canada to…
Article: New MCC staff gather from a patchwork of cultures
Last year our new International Seek Facilitator, Oscar Suárez, joined Mennonite Central Committee General Orientation in Akron, Pennsylvania. I’ve been meaning to share Oscar’s section from a MCC article about some of the people from around the world joined orientation. Please find it below and read the full article on the MCC website. Whether through…
What are we working on now?
As we come into 2025 I thought I’d write a quick overview of our main projects in Cambodia. There are also short term projects and collaborative work with peer organizations, but these are our main ongoing projects. In most countries around the world, Mennonite Central Committee works by accompanying local partners so I’ll outline our…
Anabaptism Began Five Hundred Years Ago
Five hundred years ago today a group of young believers gathered in the home of Anna Manz in Zurich, Switzerland. During the meeting Conrad Grebel baptized George Blaurock who then baptized the others. The attendants had been baptized as infants and their decision to be re-baptized as adults was a radical and illegal act that…
Cambodia Elephant Sanctuary
This December Crystal’s sister, Emily, is here visiting us in Cambodia. Last week we took her up to Siem Reap province and while we were there we visited the Cambodia Elephant Sanctuary. This is the smaller of the two Elephant sanctuaries in Siem Reap. Both sanctuaries are for rescued elephants who were used for labor…
The Discipline of Bible Reading
Last year, when I gave my testimony to the Seek cohort, I noted that reading the Bible from cover to cover, over and over again, was a spiritual discipline that I learned from a young age. This caught Charlotte’s attention and she decided that she was old enough to read the entire Bible. So most…