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…
2025 Asia Peace Practitioners Research Conference
The day after returning from itineration in the US and Canada I hopped an early bus to Siem Reap to attend the 2025 Asian Peace Practitioners Research Conference (PPRC). The PPRC is designed for peace practitioners, advocates, researchers, and anyone committed to peace in Asia to come together and discuss important topics in peacebuilding in…
Two New Positions with MCC Cambodia & Myanmar
Three years go fast. We’re once again looking for people to join our team to support incredible partners who are doing inspiring work in Cambodia and Myanmar. This time around we have two open Partner Advisor positions. Both positions will accompany and strengthen the capacity of local MCC partners in the areas that where they’ve…