In this life we’re living there are certain verses that come up again and again. One of them is Hebrews 12:1.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Hebrews 12:1

Some times call for more endurance than others. It has been a sprint since we returned from home leave. Responding to crisis and caring for the team are some of our core responsibilities. So the medical emergency on the team took priority even before we arrived back in Cambodia. But the world doesn’t stop spinning when there’s a crisis and I wanted to share some of the things we’ve been occupied with.

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I rarely write about one of our most important relationships we’re responsible for in Cambodia – MCC’s relationship with the Royal Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Last year we renewed our Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Rural Development. This provides us with three years authorization to continue working with our local partners. We submit regular reports on our work to Ministry of Rural Development and the Council for the Development of Cambodia. I also regularly participate in Ministry of Rural Development meetings.

This year our Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is up for renewal. This provides us with three years authorization to operate as a foreign organization and to bring foreign personnel into the country on courtesy visas. The renewal request, which clocked in at over 200 pages, needed to be submitted soon after we arrived back in Cambodia and was something we were working on while working to ensure that Disha received the best care possible.

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I shared the new class of YAMEN and SALT participants in an earlier post. They arrived the same week that Disha was able to be transported back to specialized long term care in India. The Connecting Peoples Coordinator, Clivia, is the primary point person for the YAMEN/SALT participants but we play a large role in their orientation as well.

I usually lead a walking tour of Phnom Penh that starts along the railroad tracks near the Royal University of Phnom Penh and a session on the history of MCC in Cambodia. This year I also lead a session on Mennonites, Mennonite Central Committee, and Mennonite World Conference as part of the regional YAMEN orientation. Crystal leads sessions on personal safety/security and sexual harassment/racism. I usually do a general program introduction as well but this year our Peace Coordinators conducted this training.

We also held a Meet & Greet for our Host Families so that the YAMEN/SALT participants and host families could get to know each other before the move-in date. In the past we would always meet with the host families at the year but, after the last three years, decided it was better to front end the time together. This also gives the host families a chance to learn from and meet each other.

We also usually try to come along on first visits to the partner placements and host the new SALT/YAMENers several times at our house. We found that most YAMEN/SALT participants benefit from a lot of interaction early on and are independent by halfway through their terms. Crystal does a lot of one on one orientation during this time as well, focusing in on anyone who seems to be struggling and needs some extra accompaniment. This year I took our SALT participant living in Prey Veng out and provided a orientation on countryside life, but I’ll make a separate post on that later.

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We have two Connecting Peoples Coordinators, one is Cambodian and one is a expatriate. Sokea, our Cambodian Connecting Peoples Coordinator, was engaged in January and is planning to move to the US as soon as her engagement Visa is issued by the US government. This could happen in six weeks or six months, we really don’t know. The last communication they heard is that the US government has a backlog of Visa applications due to the pandemic and is still working through them.

We thought that Sokea would be the next national staff to leave MCC but were aware that our PME Coordinator, Visal, was looking for a more academic position. We were aware because he asked us to give him a recommendation earlier this year. So it wasn’t a surprise when a few weeks ago Visal let us know that he had accepted a position at the Ministry of Economy and Finance starting at the end of October. We have really appreciated working with Visal since 2019, especially during the pandemic, but it was always clear that his passions leaned towards research and we had already made some plans around recruiting someone after him.

It was a surprise when our Finance and Compliance Officer, Ringsey, let us know on Thursday that she would be leaving MCC to work at Fauna and Flora International starting in mid-October. Ringsey is the longest serving program/administrative staff at MCC Cambodia, having been working here for ten years, and has been the heart of the team since we arrived in 2019. She was recruited by my good friend Amara, who left MCC when she moved back to her homeland to get married, and has been a wonderful person to work with.

While we were surprised that Ringsey was leaving now – I thought that she might leave one day but it turns out that day is now – her longevity is unusual as MCC Cambodia has only had one program/administrative staff stay longer than her. This was Seiha, who stayed with MCC Cambodia for 13 years. Most other program/administrative staff have only stayed with MCC Cambodia for 3-5 years. Other MCC country programs – like Laos, Vietnam, and India – have staff who stay for decades but only support staff have stayed that long with MCC Cambodia. One of the past Reps told me that they saw this turnover as part of development. MCC Cambodia builds up the capacity of it’s national staff and then they move on to the “big” NGOs where they have higher salaries and more influence.

In any case, recruiting national staff suddenly leapt to the top of our to-do list! We are also recruiting for service workers but I’ll sharing a post about that tomorrow.