Sharing Food Together

In the New Testament, we often see Jesus breaking bread to share with the disciples and others. There’s something powerful about sharing food in community. This week, Sokea from the MCC Phnom Penh office is out in Prey Veng at our field visit helping with some work and the Prey Veng team has been sending…

Impacts of climate change in Mondulkiri province

I wanted to share this story that was written by one of our YAMEN participants, Jacksha from Malawi, who is working with our local partner the Cambodian Rural Development Team (CRDT). She had a wonderful time traveling out to Mondulkiri province, which is in the northeast highlands, to meet with the farmer in the story…

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…

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,…

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…

2021 YAMEN Class

Over the last month we’ve been welcoming our new class of YAMEN participants from around the world. These young adults will be living in Cambodian host families and serving at local organizations for 11 months. The participants this year come from Malawi, South Korea, Kenya, and India. Two of the participants will be living in…

2021 Traditional Khmer Photoshoot

It’s becoming a tradition for us to join the ‘GSL’ team for a photoshoot in traditional Khmer clothing. GSL stands for Global Service Learning; it’s the department that our YAMEN and SALT exchange program fits under. Simeon Ndagijimana (YAMEN participant from Rwanda), Clivia Avila (Connecting Peoples Coordinator from Honduras), and Andrew Neufeld (SALT participant from…

Simeon from Rwanda

Late on Christmas Eve, our surprise last minute YAMEN participant arrived from Rwanda. Simeon was originally going to be in the Ukraine this year but could not go because of COVID-19 restrictions. Fortunately, we were able to get him a Visa to come to Cambodia. There was a harrowing moment when he missed a connecting…

Thanksgiving 2020

We celebrated Thanksgiving on the Saturday after Black Friday this year. It was a small gathering of MCC Cambodia expatriates. This included our services workers – Rory, Marcia, and Clivia – as well as our SALTers – Isabelle and Andy. We also invited Max Ediger a long time MCC alumni now living in Phnom Penh…

Summer 2020 General Update

I wanted to give you all a quick update before getting into more specific details. YAMEN Departures: In my last post I shared that Moudy, our volunteer from Indonesia, made it home safely. Last week Jonathan and Victor, our volunteers from Kenya, made it home safely. There were a lot of COVID-19 challenges to navigate…