Last month we celebrated Charlotte’s 8th birthday in isolation. All four of us had COVID-19 at the time but, fortunately, the birthday girl had the mildest symptoms of the four of us. She had been hoping for a birthday party with her friends from school but, while disappointed, was completely understanding of the situation. At…
Author: Charles
Earl Shutt
I haven’t shared the story of how I became Mennonite here (and I won’t be now) but the course of my life was changed profoundly by attending Fairfield Mennonite Church while in High School. Suffice to say, I wouldn’t be with Mennonite Central Committee or in Cambodia now if not for that congregation’s influence. As…
Prayer for Peace, from Cambodia to Ukraine
Monika, from Cambodia, served in Ukraine with MCC’s YAMEN program from 2019 to 2020. I shared some of her social media posts in an earlier post and I wanted to follow-up by sharing her prayer for peace. The Lord of peace, the Lord of love, I kneel here, crying and pleading, waiting for the miracles…
Ukraine and Colonialization
This week, I’ve been thinking back to a conversation I had during our MCC orientation in 2019. This occurred during a session on colonialism. The facilitator split the participants into two groups based on their skintone – people of color were to discuss the legacy of being colonized and white people were to discuss the…
War, Peace, and YAMEN.
A joint initiative of Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite World Conference, the Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network (YAMEN) is a year-long Christian service opportunity for young adults from outside the U.S. and Canada. This cross cultural exchange sends young adults between developing countries, where they live with a local host family, attend a local church,…
COVID-19 finally got us Two Years and a Month Later
The first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Cambodia on January 27th, 2020. It’s been a long two years of caution, disruption, and uncertainty. As leaders here, we’ve tried to walk the line between modeling appropriate precautions and being calm and reassuring. This month, for the first time in a over a year, we started…
Chhin Ya’s Garden and Fishpond
In rural Mesang district, Prey Veng province Mennonite Central Committee partner Organization to Develop Our Villages (ODOV) supports rural Agricultural Cooperatives across 90 villages in adapting sustainable agriculture practices, healthy food preparation, conflict resolution, gender and domestic violence prevention, and organizational capacity. In a recent interview, one farmer told ODOV about how life has changed in her…
Action Alert: Stand up against violence in Myanmar (Burma)
I wanted to share this action alert from the MCC advocacy office in Washington, DC. This line of advocacy is the one supported by our partners in Myanmar and, while the results are uncertain given Russian/Chinese support for the military coup, the fruit of witnessing for peace and justice often appears in unexpected ways. Please…
The Soul Nourishment Show
Tune in to Family FM 99.5 at 1PM Monday through Friday to listen to the Soul Nourishment Show featuring Neema Atieno. Family FM 99.5 is a ministry of MCC partner Voice of Love Cambodia. Neema is a participant in MCC’s YAMEN exchange program from Kenya and is currently serving with Voice of Love Cambodia as…
Several Vaccinations this week
This week Crystal and I received our first COVID-19 booster shot. We could have gotten it back in August but decided to wait until it had been six months since our initial dose. It ended up taking longer than that because we were vaccinated by the Military, not the Ministry of Health, and had some…