Last year we visited the Fellowship of Mennonite Churches in Taiwan to thank them for their generous donation to MCC’s earthquake response in Myanmar. While there we visited the Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, Taiwan and learned from the Hospital Chaplain that they had been joining mission trips to Myanmar. We shared that Mennonite Central…
Nipah Virus January 2026
As the Nipah Virus is in the news Crystal’s Uncle David Waltner-Toews recently shared a excerpt from his Book On Pandemics (Greystone Press, 2000) on his blog. I thought I would re-blog here as well since there have been a lot of questions and concerns about the Nipah Virus especially as we come into the…
Online Conflict Between Thailand and Cambodia
In 2023 Cambodia hosted the Southeast Asia Games for the first time. You can think of the SEA Games as a regional Olympics that – in addition to hosting well known international sports like Soccer – include Southeast Asian regional sports like Sepak Takraw, Ouk Chaktrang, Pencak Sila, and traditional boat races. The martial arts…
Christmas 2025 – Fear not here is your God
The past year has been filled with challenges and discouragements—injustice, oppression, war, and famine plague our world. Today Cambodia is facing it’s largest scale humanitarian crisis in decades, as border clashes with Thailand have escalated into a broader armed conflict. In Myanmar, the military regime continues to brutally oppress its people but will no doubt…
Intersections: Decolonizing Development – MCC India’s journey of local empowerment
The MCC Representatives to India, our friends and colleagues John and Deepti Bhattacharjee, wrote an article on Decolonizing Development for the Winter 2026 edition of Mennonite Central Committee’s Intersections: MCC theory and practice quarterly newsletter. I’m sharing the text of the article below. India achieved independence in 1947 after more than 200 years of British…
Song Pray’s Compost – a messy creative process
Last month we took a team from the Canadian Foodgrains Bank out to visit our Agricultural and Livelihoods project with long term MCC partner Organization To Develop Our Villages. We spent two days visiting ‘old’ farmers who are graduating from the project this year. These farmers were all living below the poverty line and going…
43rd Birthday
I turned Forty Three this month. After the sudden death of my Father in 2024 and my health emergency in 2025, I’m feeling very glad to be alive for another year. Not that I’m not always glad to be alive but sometimes – in all the day to day bustle – it can be easy…
Thanksgiving 2025
November was a busy month with many visitors, events, and tasks. Because of this we celebrated American Thanksgiving a little early this year on the Saturday before. This year welcomed MCC Alumni and long time regional Peace Educator Max Ediger, our Connecting Peoples Coordinator Minear, and the current class of SALT/YAMEN participants. Altogether they represented…
No coincidences with God – Experience of Service in Cambodia
Bell, the second YAMEN participant from Myanmar, is volunteering with one of our local partners, Mission DOVE, and was recently interviewed for their blog. I thought that I’d share her responses here as well. “My name is Bell, and I’m from Myanmar. I’m currently a volunteer teacher at Mission Dove, teaching Level 6 students. Even though…
Peace Club Explorative Visit Learning Tour
In August 2025, MCC India and MCC Bangladesh made an explorative visit to MCC Cambodia’s Peaceful Education in Rural Primary Schools program in Prey Veng province. This learning tour was intended to promote the mutual exchange of knowledge and to share the results of MCC Cambodia’s efforts to localize the Peace Club curriculum to the…