Katherine Parker in Nepal

It is a blessing for me to have the opportunity to work in Cambodia. There are so many compassionate folks who are interested in helping with the work here. We are sustained by the prayers of many people around the world. And the financial support is what allows us to continue to serve folks. I have also come to appreciate the provocative questions that folks ask me. Especially when they challenge the approach we take. This kind of dialogue really helps me to analyze how we engage in this ministry and how we could do better. Lots of folks have asked how they can be in partnership with us here. There are lots of ways, especially the prayers, financial support, and questions. However, sometimes folks would like a project they can do in their home congregation. Projects are great because they can be used as an activity to engage a group of folks in your congregation and serve as a learning experience for how and why we are in mission. For this reason, my colleagues and I here in Cambodia ...

Some exciting news! The MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the MOH (Ministry of Health) for CHAD (Community Health and Agricultural Development) was finally signed this week. This is great news as it will allow us to accept volunteer medical teams to come and work in Cambodia with much less hassle than before. Irene (our community health nurse/missionary from Zimbabwe) has done all of the hard work getting this through, and I have learned a lot about government relations watching her work. You can support our health-care ministry with a financial contribution . In the Cambodia Daily this morning was a reprint of a New York Times opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof called Where Sweatshops are a Dream . If you didn't catch this or some of his earlier pieces on sex-trafficking in Cambodia, I highly recommend them. One of my fellow missionaries, Clara from Bangladesh, is working to help provide enrichment programing at an orphanage that is working with the population that Kristo...

Sam Oeurn, assistant pastor from Spien Church, stopped by our office today to share about his new business. He has just purchased a school he named LTS (Language and Technology School). He wanted to know if we would come and participate in the ceremony to welcome students for the new semester. It was a novel request for me, but as Oeurn shared more about his vision for his church and for Cambodia it became clear. Oeurn's dream is three fold: 1) that folks will have the knowledge for a better life, 2) that folks will have the resources to accomplish their dreams, and 3) that the church will have good leadership. It is big investment for Oeurn, a young man in his 30s, to buy and run this 10-teacher school with 250 students. (There have been 50 new students in the last month since he took over operations!) I know that he prayed a lot before taking this step. But I understand that his vision is big and that he doesn't see this as running just another school in Cambodia. He sees it...