I’m excited to share that Oscar Suarez has arrived in Cambodia and has started his term of service with MCC Cambodia as our next International Seek Facilitator.

Oscar is a Mennonite from Colombia. He spent 11-months teaching at a school in Ohio, USA as part of MCC’s IVEP program and previously worked as a Music Teacher at the Mennonite School in Bogotá.

In his interview Oscar shared that he sometimes compares the Anabaptist faith to the coffee plant. He explained that Colombia is well known for its coffee and that this is a source of national pride, but, actually, the coffee plant originated in Ethiopia. Just as coffee has spread around the world and now has many local varieties, so too has Christianity and Anabaptism. Celebrating and exploring the diversity of Christianity/Anabaptism can be like sampling coffee from different regions and learning from those experiences. We are all different but we can appreciate and learn from each other.

Oscar has been an Anabaptist youth leader for several years. This has included facilitating youth groups in his home church, volunteering with youth engagement programs in vulnerable communities, and serving as the National Youth Network Coordinator for Iglesia Menonita de Colombia (Mennonite Church Colombia). In this role Oscar has facilitated National and Regional (Latin America) Youth Gatherings. Oscar also coordinated the Global Youth Summit for Mennonite World Conference Assembly 2022 in Indonesia. He has had a broad range of multicultural experience and engagement with Anabaptist young adults from a variety of contexts.

Oscar is a Conscientious Objector to War in Colombia – a country that does recognize that right – and has run peace workshops for young adults under MCC Colombia partner Justapaz. He has a deep understanding of Anabaptist values and practiced Conflict Transformation on a daily basis in his role as a Teacher.

Oscar will be joining Thida, our Cambodian Seek Facilitator, in running Seek cohorts in 2025 and 2026. After that MCC will evaluate the Seek program and decide if they want us to continue hosting Seek, if they want to move it to another country, or if they will retire the program.

Please pray for Oscar as he transitions to a new country and culture. And offer some prayers of gratitude for his gifts and willingness to serve with MCC Cambodia to build up the global church through Seek.