One of Sony Pray’s cows grazes on a harvested rice field by a rice field that’s recently been fertilized with compost partially made from cow dung. We could call this the real circle of life? But I don’t think Disney will be making a musical about it. www.charlesconklin.com/4cambodia/20...

Once I fixed my gaze upon the brave and innocent. Now I was drawn to the thief-catcher.

MCC Cambodia is #recruiting for a Climate Solutions Partner Advisor. This position supports local partners in introducing, strengthening, & expanding climate solutions. mccglobal.my.salesforce-sites.com/recruit/fRec... Please share with anyone in your networks who may be interested/qualified.

In August we hosted an explorative trip from MCC India and MCC Bangladesh to our Peaceful Education program. This learning tour promoted the mutual exchange of knowledge and shared our approach to localizing MCC's Peace Club curriculum to the Asian context. www.charlesconklin.com/4cambodia/20...

Oscar Suárez, MCC Cambodia, and Sin Putheary, Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, at Day 2 of #IVCO2025 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. So many great connections and learnings.

ECPAT presenting on the distinction between volunteering and voluntourism at #IVCO2025, outlining the Child Protection and Safeguarding dangers. The session acknowledges that voluntourism isn't going to stop and offers practical guidelines on how voluntourism could be made better through regulation.

So good to hear Sujin Cha from KOICA talk about the structural barriers to international volunteering faced by people with disabilities at #IVCO2025.

The session on "Supporting Volunteers to Access Their Work - Responding to limits on Visas and Work Permits, and other Barriers" is about to begin at #IVCO2025. One of the timely and pressing challenges facing international volunteerism - important to come together to share and collaborate.

Singing "In Jesus Christ We Are One Family" during the 2025-2026 SALT/YAMEN Host Family gathering at Phnom Penh Mennonite Church.

The "Volunteering in challenging environments - Lived experiences from the field" session at #IVCO2025. Fantastic to hear directly from current and recent international volunteers.

MCC Cambodia International Seek Facilitator, Oscar Suarez, shares about MCC's exchange programs as part of a panel discussion on the International Exchange of Volunteers between Civil Society Organisations at #IVCO2025.

Registration yesterday at the 2025 Conference of International Volunteer Cooperation Organisations (#IVCO2025) in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

#IVCO2025 has officially commenced with Dr Bianca Fadel from @northumbriauni.bsky.social setting the scene - Respect, Kindness, Hope. Welcome to our speakers, delegates & new Bluesky community. #ForumStandards #VolunteeringInDevelopment #Volunteering

🌿 Do we claim nonviolence, nonresistance, active resistance or something else? Register by Aug. 20 to save $50. https://loom.ly/i4m3Ki4 #peace #justice #nonviolence #theology #seminary #shortcourse

About 300 Plain Mennonite youth and young adults gathered June 29 at Lime Rock Meetinghouse in Lancaster County, Pa., to hear teachings on Christian nonresistance.

In an era of division and splits impacting churches and conferences around the world, unification is coming to two congregations in southwest Germany.

Attending the 13th Asian Peace Practitioners Research Conference in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Glad to meet peacebuilders - some familiar, some new - from across the region at this complex moment.

Cluster munitions are deployed in Cambodia again. Lord have mercy. www.thaienquirer.com/55612/thai-a... There's been a generation of work to remove unexploded ordinance in Cambodia. Despite all of the good effort still the stories come every year of farmers & children being killed or crippled.

The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of Jesus’ teachings that amount to theological comfort food for many Anabaptists. Yet how do the teachings hit differently when, like Jesus, you’re sharing them with the marginalized?

Great to see Hello Cambodia 🇰🇭 in the kids section of the sanctuary at North Star Mennonite in Drake, Saskatchewan. Love this outreach from MCC.

Reading The Cat & the Toaster: Living System Ministry in a Technological Age by Douglas A. Hall with Judy Hall & Steve Daman. The call for a holistic approach to ministry brings to mind the full meaning of שׁלום.

I recently read The Upswing by Robert D. Putnam. It’s a fascinating, dense, and data grounded book - there's around a hundred pages of citations. I wrote some about what it has to say about isolation, solidarity, and religious groups. www.charlesconklin.com/4cambodia/20...

While we were in Hualien last month we visited the Taiwanese Mennonite New Dawn organization's chicken therapy program for adults with intellectual disabilities and autism. It was wonderful - I'll link the website but no English, it's all Traditional Chinese. www.newdawn.org.tw/List.aspx?mi...

Crystal sharing the sermon last Sunday at North Star Mennonite Church in Drake, Saskatchewan. It's good to be here again after three years. I had a good informal discussion with several Canadian Foodgrains Bank supporting farmers this morning.

In June we visited Hualien to thank the Taiwan Mennonite church for supporting MCC's earthquake response in Myanmar, share an update about the response, and learn about their work. Here's a report on the three Mennonite ministries we visited there. www.charlesconklin.com/4cambodia/20...

Mennonite World Conference has convened an inter-Anabaptist task force in response to a humanitarian crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after a major escalation of one of Africa’s longest conflicts.

Grace Building, Mercy Building, Peace Building, Faith Building. The wings at the Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, Taiwan - the largest Mennonite Hospital in the world. It originated as a MCC mountain mobile clinic program in 1948 with the hospital opening in 1956.

This is so important! Please read and think about sharing with those who need to hear it. anabaptistworld.org/my-friend-sc...

Crystal presenting a copy of the Anabaptist Community Bible to Dr. Harold Lu at the Meilun Mennonite Church in Hualien, Taiwan. Dr. Lu is a member of the Fellowship of Mennonite Churches in Taiwan steering committee.

Visiting the largest Mennonite Hospital in the world - the Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, Taiwan. Taking a photo by the Mennonite Historical Corridor with the Hospital Chaplain, Grace, who lead a medical mission to Myanmar following the earthquake earlier this year.

Last week I was honored to present Vietnam Mennonite Church President Huynh Dinh Nghia with a copy of the Anabaptist Community Bible. We were meeting to reestablish collaboration between MCC and VMC for the purpose of resuming Vietnamese Mennonite participation in MCC’s exchange programs.

Attending a church service at Phnom Penh Mennonite the Sunday after many Anabaptists gathered in Europe to celebrate the 500th anniversary (I stayed in Cambodia but one of our team, a Mennonite from Colombia, was able to attend).

Leading a session on Mennonite Approaches to Peacebuilding during a recent partner gathering.

Glad to see more acknowledgement of the strong Mennonite church in Taiwan. It's felt a little forgotten in previous decades but with Mennonite Mission Network returning and Anabaptist World featuring it hopefully folks will engage more with this wonderful part of our global community.

Breakfast of Kuyteav soup and Khmer Coffee.

Dr. Brenneman-Fullwood is fantastic. She was my Professor for Biblical Literature way back in the day.

Today marks the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism. We honor those who resisted church and state violence, rejecting corruption to embody Jesus’ radical way. They built communities of mutual care, economic sharing, and discipleship from below. May we learn from their courage today. #Anabaptism500

Last night the 2025 Seek discipleship cohort joined Phnom Penh Mennonite Church for fellowship and worship. This year's Seek cohort includes young Anabaptists from Colombia, Canada, Congo, and Kenya.

“True evangelical faith cannot lie dormant. It clothes the naked, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters the destitute, it serves those that harm it, It binds up that which is wounded, it seeks those who are lost, it becomes all things to all people.” Menno Simons

Standing outside of Fairfield Mennonite - the church where I became a Mennonite during High School - with Pastor Joyce - who baptized me. I wouldn't be who I am or where I am if not for her. Joyce and Earl are the reason I went to Bluffton and after graduation signed up for service with MCC.

Victor and Joyce finetune the camera angle for the video interview of a farmer in rural Mesang district about the impacts of a project supported by MCC's account at the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

"Staring at the shoreline Wishing for some hope The weight of empty fishing nets is more than twisted rope And underneath stern faces They wait with baited breath With broken hearts from hoping while casting out their nets See the figure on the shore" www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-CX...

YAMEN participant Samuel from South Sudan harvests rice the traditional way in rural Prey Veng province, Cambodia.

IVEP alumni Tevy presents at the Good News of Jesus Christ church in Phnom Penh.

Keeping with the advent season, one of my colleagues in South Korea shared part of Mary's song after the coup attempt. "He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly."

"One of MAG Laos’ first clearance teams formed in 1994 in collaboration with the Mennonite Central Committee and the Lao government."

And the application to renew MCC Cambodia's MoU with the Ministry of Rural Development is in. Almost two hundreds pages. Next year, it will be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and after that the Ministry of Social Affairs. I'm grateful for my predecessors who arranged MoU end dates on different years

Primary School Students in rural Cambodia engage in small group exercise during a Peace Club lesson on "Brainstorming". MCC Cambodia is partnered with the Provincial Department of Education to conduct Peace Clubs during the Life Skills class.