Last year, when I gave my testimony to the Seek cohort, I noted that reading the Bible from cover to cover, over and over again, was a spiritual discipline that I learned from a young age. This caught Charlotte’s attention and she decided that she was old enough to read the entire Bible. So most…
Tag: Scripture
Reflections on Political Violence
The 48 hours around my birthday were intense this year. In Myanmar, there were widespread non-violent demonstrations and general labor strikes protesting the February 2021 coup d’état. The military junta responded with brutal force. They turned guns and grenades against the peaceful protests. They forced Doctors and Teachers to go to work at gunpoint. Doctors…
Pray for South Korea
Last night around 10:30PM the President of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law. This decree prohibited any political activities including the National Assembly, and suspended freedom of the press along with many other citizen rights. The South Korean military mobilized, with military vehicles in the street and nearly three hundred soldiers entering the…
MC USA calls for a day of praying and fasting during elections
Mennonite Church USA has called for a day of praying and fasting around the U.S. Elections on Monday, November 4th. We are currently participating from Cambodia – where it is Monday already – as Crystal and I set aside the moments opened to us by fasting for prayer. Personally, I am praying that God’s transformative…
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…
Let the meditation of my heart
After my Father died I went through a cycle of depression and anger. I wasn’t angry at God or even what had happened, I was just angry in general. My first internal reaction to most interactions was negative. I held on to uncharitable thoughts and petty grudges for no reasons. I knew this was a…
Elijah, Highs and Lows
When I’m low I often think about the prophet Elijah. Specifically, how he lived for three years on the run while drought and famine plagued the land, then how he confronted King Ahab and challenged 450 Prophets of Baal to a public contest on Mount Carmel. There, in front of a crowd of witnesses, Elijah’s…
25 years later, Prey Veng is landmine-free.
Last year, a new sign went up on the Prey Veng Waterfront declaring that the province was officially mine-free. Prey Veng is the third most populous province in Cambodia but lacks an urban center with the population spread among rural villages. The fighting in Cambodia came to end twenty-five years ago when the final Khmer…
Charlotte’s First Bible
The church I am a member of, Plains Mennonite in Hatfield, PA, has a tradition of giving every child entering first grade their first Bible, in anticipation of them learning how to read. Charlotte missed this tradition as we came to Cambodia during kindergarten an I did not give it much thought as she continues…
Visiting Sokhim’s Vegetable Garden
During my visit to Kratie in January 2023, I meet with a poor farmer named Sokhim who lives along the Mekong river in Kratie province. She is a recent widow whose husband passed away after a lengthy illness leaving her to raise five children on her own. Sokhim’s husband was building a new house for the…