YAMEN (Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network) and SALT (Serving And Learning Together) are 11-month-long immersive cross-cultural experiences for young Christians that build up the global church. Participants travel from their passport country to a new context where they live with a local host family, attend a local church, and volunteer at a local church or…
Webinar: Climate and Peace, Stories from around the World
Mennonite Central Committee, the Church of the Brethren, and the Friends Committee on National Legislation will be hosting a webinar on climate and peace. This is an opportunity to hear directly from people working around the world on how climate change is driving conflict within local communities and what work is being done to address…
ម្នាស់ | Pineapple
In 2021, I shared a post following the journey of a Mango from Flower to Fruit. I couldn’t quite go as in-depth here, because I don’t grow pineapple at my house, but I thought you might be interested in seeing a pineapple in it’s early stages followed by the same pineapple near harvest. I took…
Caleb joining Mennonite Mission Network in Taiwan
No, not our little Caleb. Caleb Schrock-Hurst was the final SALT participant in Việt Nam before MCC Vietnam closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. He actually wrote the book on MCC Vietnam for the program’s 65th Anniversary. I met him when I traveled to Hanoi in January 2020 to attend an education conference and then we hosted…
The Next International Seek Facilitator – Oscar Suarez
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…
Myanmar is no longer the most violent place in the world
In June 2024 the former MCC Cambodia & Myanmar Peace Coordinator, Audrey Thill, published an article in Foreign Policy on How Myanmar’s Wood Funds Its Brutal Military. It’s a fantastic article pulling back the curtain on the illicit economy driving conflict and deforestation. The article is on Myanmar but also looks at similar issues in…
Peace Clubs, Signing Agreements, and a Ministry of Presence
In March, MCC signed an agreement with the Prey Veng Department of Education to facilitate Peace Clubs during Primary School Life Skills classes and train Primary School Teachers on the operation of Peace Clubs. This agreement includes a sustainability plan with the Primary Schools gradually taking on more responsibility for the Peace Clubs and eventually…
Reflections on breaking relationship and breaking bread together
I’ve been reading a book by J. Nelson Kraybill titled Stuck Together: the Hope of Christian Witness in a Polarized World. It’s a very inspiring book that speaks to the kind of presence I personally believe Christianity should have in the world. Nelson writes from a lifetime of experience and seamlessly weaves together contemporary real…
5 years later
A couple of weeks ago I received a message from MCC Canada asking us to update our family photo. It was taken a little over five years ago during MCC Orientation in Akron, Pennsylvania. Catherine and Charlotte were so cute back then! It’s amazing how much they’ve grown up. Of course Caleb is the big…
ឆាសាច់គោជាមួយអង្រ្កង | Fried Beef with Red Tree Ants
Last week I was in Ba Phnom district for community meetings with the Primary Schools that are part of our Peace Club project and I was lucky enough to be treated to Fried Beef with Red Tree Ants. These are the same kind of ants that I wrote about before but this time they were…