Katherine Parker in Nepal

Plastic Christmas trees with glittery ornaments have been popular in the shops of Phnom Penh this December, but the anticipation and bustling preparations are distinctly missing. For me, listening to Handel’s Messiah and reading the lectionary every morning with my housemates has helped bring some definition to Advent here in the tropics. It is the harvest season in Cambodia, and the rice fields have turned that lovely gold that glows in the dusk as the wind brings the weary workers home. But, there is also a somberness this year since so many fields were destroyed with the flooding . Thanks to donations from around the world, the Methodist Mission in Cambodia was able to distribute relief packages to more than 1000 families in November and this week again to nearly 800 more families in the impacted regions. About 10% of the farmers in the communities where we work have re-planted fields with dry-season rice, if they have sufficient access to water. There is a story from Mr. Thy on ou...

Sometimes I get asked if I ever get homesick and usually my answer is no. But today I was reading an article (online) in the New York Times Home & Garden section about shopping for bathroom fixtures and it made me feel nostalgic for the summer when I helped to remodel the bathroom at my parent's house. I remember shopping with my mom to select the fixtures. Life in Cambodia is quite good. I have running water almost all the time. It is room temperature, which is sometimes warm and sometimes cool, but I don't mind not being able to adjust the temp at the tap. Previously, we lost water pressure every morning, but now we've got a system for switching to the water tank during that period, so no problems there anymore. I even have a faucet fixture that I can push open and closed since I dislike turning faucets. So what is it that I miss? Polished chrome. Construction is all low quality here. My faucet is often leaking and was rusted and unattractive within a few mon...

I don't think there is such a thing as a typical day for anyone working in community development, but since I get the question a lot, I though I would start to periodically write about my day (or at least the interesting ones). Here is what I did on Wednesday October 19. 5:30 am - wake up in my apartment in Phnom Penh and check emails. 6:45 am - still a bit sleepy, I stumble downstairs and over to my neighbor's apartment where we have our morning "bible club." My neighbors include 2 other missionaries (from the USA and from India) who are professors at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and my best friend Heng (also our landlady). We are reading through Luke right now. 7:10 am - hoping that the water pressure is back (it often drops off between 6:30 and 7:30am), I head back upstairs to shower and eat breakfast. 8:00 am - I'm heading out for 3 days in the province (country-side), so I pack an overnight bag, charge my phone and my battery lamp (n...

I just got back from a three day visit to a remote part of Kampong Speu province... actually one of the few "mountain" regions of the country. It was a lovely visit and the countryside is just gorgeous. This is the third month for us to be working with a new cluster of churches in this region. And so, on this visit I traveled out to actually meet with community members at their village - rather than just with church leaders at a central location for the cluster. One of the joys of meeting people in their home place is finding out small ways that individuals are living out their Christian service to their community. As is true for church members in the US and around the world, people of faith in Cambodia are active in their communities and partnering with various local initiatives to improve lives. Many church members are very active in health care ministry, especially accompanying neighbors to the local clinic or farther afield to the provincial referral hospital. CHAD pr...

Flood damage update. I've received several emails with questions and concerns about recent flood damage here in Cambodia. Thanks! I am fine, but there has been quite a bit of damage especially to many rice fields that were so close to being ready to harvest. Daneth Him just went up to visit Kampong Chhnang yesterday to assess the extent of damage to communities we work with there (the link is to her facebook page where she posted pictures). The flood levels have not been as high as during the typhoon in 2009, but the water has been very slow to recede, which is why the crop damage has been extensive. The Social Concerns Committee (SCC) of the Methodist Church in Cambodia (MMC) has already distributed some funds for immediate food aid to about 1150 families in 55 villages (in 9 provinces) who have lost their harvest, but this is still just a drop in the bucket so to say. The water festival has been canceled by the government this year in order to use those funds also to provide r...

One of my joys is working with Rev. Hong Phally as a co-facilitator of the Mobilizing the Church bible study for churches in Kampong Speu. She is an amazing young pastor (just 4 years younger than me) and I have learned a lot from her. While traveling to churches I hear bits about the other successful ministry activities with children that she has helped organize, and I wanted to share a bit about that here. At the time we started working together two years ago, Phally was the Assistant District Superintendent for Kampong Speu and the chair of the Children's Committee for the Methodist Mission (Church) in Cambodia (MMC). Her committee had an annual budget of $100, but the committed pastors on this committee used their own meager resources to meet together and travel periodically to facilitate a "Children's Fellowship" at various churches around the country. A children's fellowship is the Cambodian equivalent of Vacation Bible School (VBS); it is a one day e...

I'm not much of a birthday person, but one of the joys of being a missionary with the United Methodist Church is that my name is listed in the United Methodist Women's Prayer Calendar. Every year about this time I get emails and cards from amazing people who are passionate and committed to supporting the mission of our church around the world. It is very inspiring to me to know that so many people are praying for the ministry and in particular for their prayers for me at this time. I hope that others also have ways to know that, in their work for the Kingdom, they are supported by this great cloud of witness. I am grateful for the many birthday greetings and prayers that came to me through facebook, emails and cards. Many people asked if I did anything special for my birthday. In one email I wrote, "I had a lovely birthday tea with my housemates and some friends which included tea sandwiches with whole wheat bread (a treat since we mostly eat rice and the most available br...

I was really humbled about 2 weeks ago when I went to visit with a new cluster of churches in the hills near Kirirom (Kampong Speu province). I got the truck stuck in the mud and it was the one where the 4 wheel drive is busted, so I couldn't get it out on my own. This was only my second time to meet with these folks so they didn't really know me yet nor I them, but they got straight to work pulling out hoes to try and dig out the stuck wheel and machete to cut branches to try and get some traction, all to no avail. Finally someone went off by moto and came back with a winch which they tied to a small papaya tree and took turns cranking until they had pulled the truck out. I was humbled by the entire experience but not least because one of the most active men out there digging out the tires was an amputee who had lost his leg in the war. This man is now the leader of the men's group at his nearby church and quite a charismatic guy. While I am still just ge...

I continue to be overwhelmed by the rapid pace of change in Cambodia. I missed driving my normal route to the office for a week and next thing I knew they had paved the road in front of the Cambodia Methodist Bible College (CMBS) - how did I miss this? I almost got stuck in a pile of dirt on my way to Srei Som Pong church two months ago and during my following monthly visit there were another 5km of blacktop - cutting down my travel time by about 15 minutes! Of course, it is rainy season now and I still managed to get the truck stuck 3 times last month, oh well - good thing for 4-wheel drive and helpful church members. And there are new challenges. For example, power outages are more frequent in Phnom Penh  as the load on the grid outpaces the ability to predict and ramp up delivery. Likewise, the less predictable global weather patterns were reflected in droughts last year; this year many farmers in the north (near Siem Reap and Kampong Thom) are facing difficulty from...

August is "Annual Conference" season in Cambodia. In the Methodist tradition we gather all together once a year to share (report) on how it has been going, to think together about the future, to worship and praise together, and to recognize new leaders in the church through ordination. This year I was honored to serve again as the recording secretary for English language during conference session and also to compile all of the reports for the Conference Journal. The bulk of the work for the Journal fell to the CHAD office staff, Vannak, who spent the entirety of August (including several weekends) translating reports. My work was really only a week or two of getting all the formatting adjusted, margins set, headers and footers and descriptors, etc. laid out for the 180 page book. It involved two all night sessions this year making last minute corrections and I still managed to not get the corrections to the BOOM report into the early edition printed for the pre-conference m...

Last week we had a wonderful visit from a delegation of the Finland Annual Conference (Swedish speaking) of United Methodist Church (aka Methodist Church Finland). It was a young volunteer from Finland, Pontus Fred, who seven years ago thought that we needed to have an agricultural development component of the ministry here and secured the original funding for a Rural Agricultural Development program from their mission board. The CHAD program has grown in those seven years, merging with the health ministries, formation of the Social Concerns Committee, taking on a larger community development and outreach role. The Methodist Church Finland has been a vital partner, and supportive in our goal to localize the development ministries as an authentic expression of the emerging church in Cambodia to reach out to its neighbors in life affirming ways. Therefore, it was a joy to have the delegation visit us for an evaluation. We looked at several successful projects, as well ...

One of my responsibilities in the CHAD program is to monitor and support ongoing project groups.  Sometimes these visits are a headache as we negotiate why the group acted in contradiction to the by-laws that they themselves wrote.  Sometimes there are surprises and joy when a group moves beyond project limitations to use the resources to reach out and meet real needs in their community. Last January when Mrs. Sophal and I stopped at the Raksmey church in Kampong Thom province to audit the records of the rice-bank, we didn't know what we would find.  There are provisions in most of the by-laws, especially for rice-banks, to account for loss and other costs.  Rain can creep in or rodents can get at a bag or a particular family just can't repay this year.  Typically if the loss is less than 10% we assess the situation, but don't give them too a hard time.  So we wanted to know what was going on when this group in Raksmey was down by 500kg....

My heart goes out, as I'm sure yours does, to the people of Japan and all those around the Pacific Rim that have been affected by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. I have been reading updates from friends and staff at the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) who are located just 130km from the nuclear plants. They have been reaching out with food and spiritual aid both to people in the immediate area effected by the quake and to evacuees who are showing up in their town. ARI is very close to my heart and has also been very supportive of the mission in Cambodia. One of our young staff members, Ms. Daneth, spent last year there as a participant and I am so inspired by her transformation and excitement to serve her people as well as the new skills she has developed since she has returned home. ARI will be delaying the start of this training term, probably by a month, as we all watch the unfolding nuclear crisis and as they clean up all of the earthquake damage to the school and ...

Anne, Great timing on your email. Thanks! I've been thinking about writing an update for the last few weeks and feeling guilty about not getting the earlier email to you, but I just haven't quite sat down to put my reflections into words. I've been doing some annual planning this last week and I decided to set aside Tuesdays to attend a bible study in the morning and then to do some writing and reflection in the afternoon. I know it will be hard to commit to this schedule because it is very seductive to schedule meetings or field visits or just to catch up with various crisis paperwork (I probably only made it to bible study 50% of the time last year at best), but I am going to try to take this time and do better with my communications this year. Last Tuesday I was at the beach in Kep because I took 4 day get away with my friend who was visiting from New Zealand and then today my bible study group was canceled so I almost jumped right into wor...