Reblog: Finding My Seat at the Table

I wanted to share a blog post by Kiron Mateti that was posted by Mennonite Church USA. Kiron is a member of Plains Mennonite Church and his wife, Rachel, actually went to the same Christian school as my youngest brother Tim for awhile. I love how he writes about going from multicultural to intercultural. It’s…

Monarchs of Asia

In December 2021 I spotted some rather familiar looking caterpillars on a Crown Flower plant that was growing at the corner on the end of our street. Crown Flower, or Calotropis Gigantea, is a regional variant of Milkweed and, like it’s North American cousin, is popular among a certain regal species of butterfly. Crown Flower…

A Cambodian connection at the Mennonite Heritage Center

We have a number of connections with the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, Pennsylvania. The Heritage Center is a museum and library dedicated to preserving and sharing the stories of Mennonite faith and life in eastern Pennsylvania. The connection continued even after we came to Cambodia in 2019. The fraktur prints that we present to…

Mearda Maternity Clinic and Susu Birthing

In the past, MCC Cambodia parents who were expecting a new child would travel to Thailand and deliver the baby there. I hadn’t thought about it until some MCC alumni asked and we realized that Caleb is likely the first “MCC baby” to be born in Cambodia. I asked Pou Cheang and Ming Ramy, who…

One Week of Caleb Daniel

Even when we lived in Pennsylvania we were far from most of our family. So, for Charlotte and Catherine, I did weekly Google photo albums up to 52 weeks. Then, since we already had the photos all together, I printed a photobook for the girls and the grandparents. I thought about sharing the weekly albums…

How the girls are doing

In October 2021, we had a dangerous miscarriage – a complete molar pregnancy. This is when the mother’s chromosomes are missing from the egg and the cells that would normally develop into the placenta develop into a molar growth instead. This can lead to tumors, cysts, a rare form of cancer, and necessitate a hysterectomy….

Introducing The Fifth C

This evening at 10:21 PM (Cambodia time) Caleb Daniel Conklin was born. At birth, he weighed 4 kg (8.8 lbs) and is 55 cm (21.6 in) tall. I’ll write a detailed account of the experience later. But it was short, intense, and painful labor and delivery. Crystal has some minor tearing but is doing well….

New National Staff

In October, MCC Cambodia said farewell to our PME Coordinator, Visal, and our Finance Officer, Ringsey. It would have been hard to lose either of these senior national staff, but it was especially difficult to lose both of them the same month so soon after the catastrophic medical emergency on the team. I mentioned them…

Interview with Ratt Morn, a farmer

Transcribed by Imm Sokea, MCC Cambodia Connecting Peoples CoordinatorPhotos by Isaac Alderfer, 2022-2023 SALT participant at ODOV My name is Rath Morn. When I was a child living with my parents, there were two seasons – dry season and rainy season. There were no changes within the seasons unlike nowadays. I was able to support…

Almost time for the Baby

Last night Crystal started having intense contractions – distinct from the usual braxton hicks contractions – and we thought it was time. So we quickly prepared everything, borrowed the MCC truck, and loaded up to leave. We were worried because Crystal and I still have this respiratory infection. Labor is hard enough when you can…