It is fair to ask why Mennonite Central Committee has programming on Jeju island. The heartbreaking truth is that Jeju, despite it’s current popularity as a tourist destination, holds a painful history of suffering, repression, and mass murder. After World War 2, many of the people living on Jeju island were deeply disappointed and troubled…
Category: Around Asia
Flowers of Jeju 2026
Earlier this month, over the Khmer New Year holiday, we had regional meetings on the island of Jeju in South Korea. We decided to stay a few days after to have a short family vacation. I’ll write more about our explorations later but I’ll start with another entry in my flower series. We enjoyed visiting Longwood…
Article: A Letter from Myanmar
I wanted to share this Canadian Mennonite article by Amos Chin President of Bible Missionary Church Mennonite, the Mennonite World Conference affiliated church in Myanmar. The original article can be found on the Canadian Mennonite website. BMC Mennonite is a partner of MCC in Myanmar. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do…
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…
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…
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…