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…
Category: Around Asia
Update from Hualien on Super Typhoon Ragasa
Last week Taiwan was struck by Super Typhoon Ragasa. In Hualien, where we visited Mennonite ministries in June, at least 18 people were killed, 300 injured, and more than 7000 were displaced. I wanted to share an update from the Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, Taiwan on their response to the disaster. Rain or shine,…
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…
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…
Komodo National Park
Earlier this month we attended regional meetings in Indonesia and decided to take a few additional days afterwards to fly to Flores island to visit Komodo National Park. It was an experience we never thought we’d be able to have and we decided to go for it when we realized we’d be a little over…
Caleb joining Mennonite Mission Network in Taiwan
No, not our little Caleb. Caleb Schrock-Hurst was the final SALT participant in Việt Nam before MCC Vietnam closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. He actually wrote the book on MCC Vietnam for the program’s 65th Anniversary. I met him when I traveled to Hanoi in January 2020 to attend an education conference and then we hosted…
Taiwan Earthquake Update from Mennonite Christian Hospital
Yesterday, a magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck Taiwan killing at least 9 people and injured more than 900 people. The quake was followed by over 100 aftershocks, further damaging infrastructure and buildings as well as causing landslides. I wanted to share an update on the earthquake from the Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, near the epicenter. This…
MCC Mistaken Identity
Acronyms are helpful for simplifying a name but they can lead to confusion. Last year, while we were in Nepal, I kept on coming across a message spraypainted along the streets, “No MCC. Go Back America.” I teased the MCC Representatives to Nepal about this – already knowing that it wasn’t our MCC – and…
Myanmar: Saying No To War
In October, the Three Brotherhood Alliance – a partnership of three armed ethnic groups in the north – launched an offensive campaign against the military junta that lead the coup in February 2021 (and which, to varying degrees, has been the dominant force in the country since taking power through a coup in 1962). The…
The year 2080
Every time we travel to Thailand I’m surprised by my phone’s date switching to the current year in the Buddhist Era. It’s still 2566 B.E (Buddhist Era) in Thailand until Songkran or Thai New Year. Songkran lines up with New Year celebrations in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, parts of northeast India, parts of Vietnam, parts…