Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 24/04/2026February 2026 team photo. At that time MCC Cambodia & Myanmar had 33 team members of 14 nationalities from 4 continents representing 10 Anabaptist national conferences (not counting children). 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 13/04/2026Dr. SeongHan Kim, Mennonite Central Committee Representative to Northeast Asia, sharing about the history of Christianity in Korea during Asia regional meetings in Jeju. 041
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 09/04/2026ល្បែងវាយក្អម (Smash the Pot) at our Khmer New Year celebration. Happy 2570 everyone! 010
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 01/04/2026My son fanning the fire of a charcoal burner pot while grilling chicken for dinner. Instead of charcoal we were burning coconut waste briquettes - a more environmentally friendly alternative that also burns longer and more steadily. 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 26/03/2026My daughter saying hello to the grandmom of one of our YAMEN alumi while at the local market. 010
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 05/03/2026Wonderful to see the Mennonite Christian Hospital from Hualien, Taiwan meeting with Pastor Amos Chin from the Mennonite Bible Missionary Church in Myanmar to discuss medical missions and peace work. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 04/10/2025MCC 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. 010
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 16/09/2025Oscar 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. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 16/09/2025ECPAT 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. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 16/09/2025So good to hear Sujin Cha from KOICA talk about the structural barriers to international volunteering faced by people with disabilities at #IVCO2025. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 16/09/2025The 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. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 16/09/2025Singing "In Jesus Christ We Are One Family" during the 2025-2026 SALT/YAMEN Host Family gathering at Phnom Penh Mennonite Church. 010
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 16/09/2025The "Volunteering in challenging environments - Lived experiences from the field" session at #IVCO2025. Fantastic to hear directly from current and recent international volunteers. 010
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 15/09/2025MCC 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. 041
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 15/09/2025Registration yesterday at the 2025 Conference of International Volunteer Cooperation Organisations (#IVCO2025) in Siem Reap, Cambodia. 010
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 06/08/2025Attending 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. 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 08/07/2025Great to see Hello Cambodia 🇰🇭 in the kids section of the sanctuary at North Star Mennonite in Drake, Saskatchewan. Love this outreach from MCC. 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 08/07/2025Reading 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. 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 08/07/2025While 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... 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 08/07/2025Crystal 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. 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 07/07/2025Grace 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. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 02/07/2025Crystal 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. 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 28/06/2025Visiting 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. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 24/06/2025Last 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. 030
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 02/06/2025Attending 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). 050
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 17/03/2025Leading a session on Mennonite Approaches to Peacebuilding during a recent partner gathering. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 21/01/2025Last 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. 030
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 06/12/2024Standing 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. 050
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 06/12/2024Victor 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. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 06/12/2024YAMEN participant Samuel from South Sudan harvests rice the traditional way in rural Prey Veng province, Cambodia. 010
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 06/12/2024IVEP alumni Tevy presents at the Good News of Jesus Christ church in Phnom Penh. 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 05/12/2024Keeping 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." 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 05/12/2024And 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 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 05/12/2024Primary 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. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 03/12/2024Friends from Myanmar brought me a treat last week. I've started with Writings on Myanmar Eco-Theology and it's taking a harder line on "tyrannical anthropocentrism" than what I've seen from seminaries in the global North. Good so far, expect a eventual book review on the blog. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 03/12/2024The scarf I'm often wearing is a Krama, the national scarf of Cambodia and one of the symbols of the Khmer people. It is a farmer's scarf and one of the most useful pieces of clothing I've worn. While Krama come in many colors now, traditional Kramas were dyed a deep maroon with Mangosteen rind. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 03/12/2024In 2009 I took this photo of farmers transplanting rice in Pea Reang district, Prey Veng province, Cambodia. It was on the road from Prey Pnov out to visit the education project in Angkearhdei. 010
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 02/12/2024Taiwan, 1955. Crystal's grandmother, June Graber, explains the operation of the Taichung CCF Babies Home to Dr. Poling and Chaplain Foster during a tour of the sleeping wards. This came out of the medical work in Taiwan that began with MCC in 1948 that was transferred to Mission Board in 1956. 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 02/12/2024We've been living far from family. Last year, we decided to go home for the holidays so the grandparents could meet our third child. While we were there my Dad was diagnosed with cancer and he died two months later. This Thanksgiving, I'm so grateful that we had one last set of holidays with him. 020
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 02/12/2024After meal discussions on Thanksgiving were wide-ranging: Khmer Rouge accounts, Anabaptism's emphasis on service, Mennonite colonies on indigenous land (started with Pennsylvania, but Oscar shared about the current situation in Colombia), daily life in Cambodia, and the threat of regional war. 010
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 02/12/2024This year the after meal game was Skip Bo. Sorry Dutch Blitz fans, we do play other games together. Our YAMEN participant working at a children's home wanted to learn it so she could play with the kids. 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 02/12/2024We had a wonderful time hosting American Thanksgiving here in Phnom Penh. It was a time of good food, fellowship, and discussion. Altogether our guests represented ten nationalities. 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 29/11/2024MCC exchange program alumni, current participants, and future participants play giant Dutch Blitz as an ice breaker game before sharing about their multicultural experiences in small groups. 010
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 29/11/2024Three Colombians stand under a Frangipani/Plumeria tree - which is native to Colombia - in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Frangipani/Plumeria has religious significance across Southeast Asia and arrived in the region long ago, at least by the 9th century when it was engraved in stone in Indonesia. 100
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 29/11/2024There's nothing like a bowl of Kuy Teav (គុយទាវ) soup for breakfast on a "cold" morning (26° C). 010
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 29/11/2024Harvesting and threshing rice using traditional methods in Prey Veng province. It's a good opportunity for the short term volunteers to learn just how physically intensive rice farming is and to see how it relates to the Khmer culture. 000
Charles Conklin @charlesconklin.com · 28/11/2024Happy to connect with Harold Rudy of Veterinarians without Borders North America and Savoeurn Meang of Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontières yesterday to learn about the important work they have been doing on soil health with Agricultural Cooperatives in Preah Vihear province, Cambodia. 000