Katherine Parker in Nepal

Saturday afternoon, March 15, 2008, I returned to Phnom Penh from four days in the field (my seventh week in-country), where Mr. Leng Thy (my CHAD program colleague) and I met with seven churches. I found the week's experience both sobering in the challenges and exciting in the prospects. Here are some pictures and my immediate reflections upon return to the city. Cambodia is a country still visibly struggling to rebuild community trust, stability and self-sustenance after many years of civil war and foreign occupation. There is a strong sense in the poorest parts of the country of needing "relief" and looking to the West for that relief. For individuals who are Christian in this predominantly Buddhist country, there is sometimes a disquieting hope that since "now we are Christians ... you should provide for us." However, the urgent solicitation of Western relief, on whatever rationale seems promising, is not limited to the growing Christian communities. A...

See the March/April 2008 edition of NEW WORLD OUTLOOK to read the story Toward Sustainable Development in Cambodia by Rev. Dr. James L. Gulley.

This last week I seem to have finally found a routine! I catch a tuktuk into work with Erica, an individual volunteer-in-mission at the dump-site orphanages. We join in morning devotions with the other staff and the young men who are studying mechanics for three months with the "Faith Engines" youth employment training program. Then I spend an hour studying Khmer with Jantein. Office work still feels like orientation as I work with Mr. Thy to streamline the process for receiving and processing project proposals. We have been making more trips to visit existing agric- and micro-enterprise groups. We are also planning for two big 2-day workshops in March on Wholistic Development (particularly using local resources for small projects) for the Kandal and Kampang Chhnang districts, and I am getting ready for some workshops on water quality and sanitation with a local church and a pastor group. This month we were also blessed by a Volunteers-In-Mission Team from the Louisiana Conf...

I arrived safe and sound in Phnom Penh during the Lunar New Year celebration, which was going on everywhere, including at the Independence Monument just one block from my hotel. The dragon dancers came to my hotel on Sunday. Almost immediately, I was plunged into a workshop about the organization and direction of CHAD (Community Health & Agriculture Development), where I will work as an Agriculture Development Advisor. We had 31 participants including District Superintendents and pastors (top) who are members of the Social Concerns Committee. My first week, I also headed to the rural countryside. Here's a church in the Kampong Chhnang Provence with a well and hand pump in front, reminding me of my time in Ghana where I tested well water. I've brought my water testing mobile lab with me to continue that work here. Rev. Ean Houn (left) invited us for lunch in the cool breeze of his traditional stilt house. We visited the church of Pastor Soeung Sopenh and saw the new cement ...

This is just a quick note about what’s happening with me as I enter the final two weeks of my preparations for going to Cambodia. I head from the family home here in Mill Valley to the San Francisco airport on Saturday evening, February 2. I will take an Eva Airways flight that leaves about midnight and travels through Taipei to arrive about noon in Phnom Penh on Monday, February 4, approximately 21 hours after departure. When I returned to the States from Ghana last June, I almost immediately commenced work on my application for a position as a career missionary with the United Methodist Church. By mid September I was in upper New York State for orientation and on Oct. 9, 2007, I was officially commissioned by the General Board of Global Ministries. My first assignment (nominally for three years) is as an agriculture development advisor attached to the Methodist Mission in Phnom Penh. I will be part of the effort there known as CHAD, for Community Health and Agriculture ...

Lots of wonderful and exciting changes have been happening in my life. On October 6 I celebrated the 90th birthday of my Grandma Janet (actual date October 13) with our extended family. I also celebrated the marriage of my good friends Brian & Erin. On the 7th, I was commended by my home congregation, Mt. Tamalpais UMC, to the General Board of Global Ministries of the UMC, and then celebrated the 80th birthday of my Grandma Gretchen and met my newest cousin. We also celebrated my sister Janet's 19th birthday (on October 8th). On October 9th I was commissioned as a Global Missionary (standard support) of the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) of the United Methodist Church. I have been assigned as the Agriculture & Community Development Adviser for the Methodist Mission in Cambodia. I hope to move to Cambodia in January 2008 and begin language study. On the 10th I turned 30! Today I presented my research proposal to my supervisory committee and the graduate commi...

How does the time slip by? I just changed my ticket yesterday to stay an extra month, so now I am set to leave on 15 June. I'll be back in California in time for ACS and Kwade's wedding. Maybe over the summer I'll get the rest of my pictures posted, or maybe not, my photo albums from Japan have not changed since I left ARI. Anyways, it has been good.