Last month I traveled to Prey Veng province to sign Peace Club agreements with two new rural Primary Schools. I’ve written about the importance of doing this in person before – our work is about more than tasks, it’s about relationships. Also, when I go to meet the people participating in our projects directly, I…
Our visit to Mennonite Ministries in Taiwan
In May, we received word that the Fellowship of Mennonite Churches in Taiwan had made a generous donation to MCC’s earthquake response in Myanmar. The church in Taiwan is no stranger to earthquakes having experienced their own 7.4 magnitude earthquake in 2024. We decided to extend our home leave layover in Taiwan by a few days so…
What The Upswing says about Society, Isolation, Solidarity, and the Church
Last year I joined a biweekly book club – organized by MCC alumni Mike Roberts – where each member leads a meeting by sharing on a book that they’ve found interesting or insightful. Recently I shared on The Upswing by Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett. The central thesis of The Upswing begins by arguing…
Sermon: God’s Work In Myanmar
In May, we received word that the Fellowship of Mennonite Churches in Taiwan had made a generous donation to MCC’s earthquake response in Myanmar. The church in Taiwan is no stranger to earthquakes having experienced their own 7.4 magnitude earthquake in 2024. We decided to extend our home leave layover in Taiwan by a few…
Meeting with Hội Thánh Mennonite Việt Nam
This week I traveled to Viêt Nam with Minear, our Connecting Peoples Coordinator, to meet with the Vietnam Mennonite Church (Hội Thánh Mennonite Việt Nam) at their General Office in Ho Chi Minh city. The purpose of our visit was to reestablish collaboration between MCC and VMC for the purpose of resuming Vietnamese Mennonite participation in…
Severe Gall Bladder Attack
On March 22nd, I had a severe gall bladder attack that rendered me helpless and I was hospitalized for thirteen days. This happened while Crystal was in Canada with her mom during chemo. By the grace of God, the care of the community around us, and the quality medical care at the Japanese hospital in…
National Staff Retreat to Kampong Speu
In late February 2025 the MCC Cambodia & Myanmar team went on a one-day national staff retreat to a restaurant and garden in Kampong Speu province. This retreat is a special time of fellowship for the team as it’s the only regular time when the full MCC team spends time with our national staff’s family…
Q: What’s excited you about coming to lead an Anabaptist organization like MCC?
This month MCC Canada appointed a new Executive Director – Kenneth H. Kim – and recently MCC published a Q&A article with him so we could get to know him better. The full article is worth reading but I was particularly struck by his response to the final question. Q: What’s excited you about coming…
How are we impacted by the US foreign funding freeze?
A few people have reached out to ask how we have been affected by the US government foreign funding freeze and I thought it was worth writing about here. First, we were not directly affected. The vast majority of Mennonite Central Committee’s support comes from Anabaptist church bodies and congregations in the US and Canada,…
Growth, Change, and Expectations – A Year of Service in Cambodia
Garrett who joined the Seek cohort in 2024 and returned as a SALT participant for 2024-2025 recently wrote about his experiences volunteering with one of our local partners, Mission DOVE. My name is Garrett Walker and I came as an intern at YESIC/Dove in January until June 2024. I come to Cambodia from Manitoba, Canada to…