Over the last few years Samantha and I have spent time discussing our future life and ministry. InnerCHANGE asks its staff to take a sabbatical every seventh year for spiritual rest and renewal. Our sabbatical will begin in mid-2011 and last for six months.
After sabbatical, our current plan is for our family to move to the United States so that Sam can pursue further studies to become a nurse practitioner. The study will begin in early 2012. We expect this study to take roughly 3 years.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Hungry for Justice
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled"
Earlier this week I spent two days with thirty community nonviolence activists from around Cambodia. In the evening of the first day I sat aside to read some Scripture. The passages I'm meditating on these days are the Sermons on the Mount, in Matthew and Luke, as well as Paul's version in Romans 12. I was surrounded by poor Cambodian farmers, fishing folk, foresters, day labourers, and villagers. Their homes, fishing grounds, forests, lakes and water ways are all under intense risk of destruction or appropriation. If anyone could be described as "poor in spirit", mourners, meek, seekers of righteousness (justice), builders of peace, and persecuted, these folk fit the bill. My eyes grew wide in awe as I sat amongst these blessed ones and watched Scripture come alive.Monday, April 26, 2010
Explaining Kampot
Here's a almost-short (16min) discussion by Chris on our work here in Kampot, Cambodia.
Chris in Kampot from Chris Bakerevens on Vimeo.
Monday, April 12, 2010
April 2010 #2
Dear friends and family,
Once again the year races off before I've worked it out and here we are ... Easter! ... and it's my first bi-monthly update for the year. Ouch!
Without too much detail, here are some of the highlights since the beginning of the year ...
Active Nonviolence Workshops
The Master's studies that Chris completed last year led him to look at ways in which outsiders (like us) can use nonviolent techniques to support at-risk communities seeking justice. This year he is taking up a number of opportunities to train in active nonviolence with key local and international organisations. Last week, he co-led a workshop on nonviolence with a friend who works for Servants Among Asia's Urban Poor. We had 14 participants from both Cambodian and expatriate organizations. By the end of the weekend everyone was begging for more. We've decided to continue as a monthly 'community of practice' and are planning regular times for training, reflection and story-telling
He has also been invited to co-write a workshop curriculum for community leaders throughout Cambodia in strategies for confronting land rights issues non-violently.
Cambodia continues to see the powerful abuse their powers and the poor and marginalised continue to feel the brunt of that abuse. The bright side is that there have been some key signs of mature nonviolent responses. Just last week a community in Kompong Speu used active nonviolent techniques to secure the release of imprisoned community leaders, and talks with the provincial governor. They are complaining that companies in adjacent land are encroaching on their land and no-one in the corridors of power have been willing to listen. Finally, they cut down trees to block a major highway, and the provincial governor finally decided to step in. So far the results have been positive.
Finally, Chris helped organise two weeks of workshops for Quaker peace activist John McConnell, who led workshops on meditation.
Community Connection
Chris has been struggling to connect with local communities facing land rights issues in Kampot. Some of the struggle is related to pressures that these communities are under particularly from the governor of Kampot not to resist the filling of their fishing grounds. Also, at the end of last year, the police detained and interrogated a British national who is a colleague of Chris's for five hours and have kept the local NGO that he works for under threat, making it very difficult for them to work with communities in Kampot. This has made it hard to know how to proceed in supporting these communities without bringing them negative attention from the authorities. However, Chris continues to support one community leader who is wanting support for a video project and a community newsletter.
There is a short video of Chris explaining some of this community support work, and a web-link may appear in the not-too-distant future.
Dey Krahom
At the end of last month, with the financial support of a great church back in Australia, members from the former Dey Krahom community attended a 3-day trauma healing workshop with an organisation called Ragamuffin. This was a great team effort with Licadho-Canada providing the community liaison, Ragamuffin the trauma healing skills and healing center, and InnerChange as a conduit for scant financial resources.
Peppercorns
One of the main drawbacks to life in the country side is the lack of school options for English-speaking kids. Well, it turns out that Kampot has a burgeoning foreign young-family-with-small-kids population and Samantha has been instrumental in forming a pre-school for our children, called Peppercorns. There are about 6 other families, with 10 kids in all. Peppercorns Preschool officially started yesterday - April 1st- in our living room!
Study
Samantha has recommenced studies. Her goal is to study as a Nurse Practitioner in the not-too-distant future, and she is required to complete some prerequisite courses ahead of time. Biology, Nutrition, Statistics ... this is quite a logistical challenge from rural Cambodia!
London
in March, Chris and 30 other team leaders from InnerChange traveled to London for the annual Leaders' Community. The London team hosted the event and helped us understand the interesting context of Tower Hamlets, a government housing estate in the East End, that was almost entirely obliterated in the Blitz. It is now home to a multicultural community, particularly Bengali families. The East End is also home to famous folk such as Captain Cook and William Booth (of the Salvation Army). Chris found it an inspiring time of learning about other teams and was able to share his learnings from Cambodia, particularly in the area of conflict transformation. He may fly back to London later this year to train new team leaders in conflict transformation, peacebuilding and nonviolence skills.
Team
Our team continues to reshape itself. The Allan family recently left for a three-month time of discernment in the US. And all of us have plans for Sabbatical over the next several years. Hayden is first up in October. The Hims family will take a turn from the middle of next year, then our family from the beginning of 2012.
We also have some very exciting times ahead. Heap has been in contact with the local prison and we hope to start a small prison ministry soon. Heap has been trained in mediation and counseling and plans to conduct conflict resolution training with the prisoners. We also have an intern arriving in May who may teach English with them.
Hayden will complete a massive story-teller project in a few weeks. He has spent the last 100 weeks training up story-tellers from around Cambodia to use oral teaching methods for discipleship and sharing the Gospel.
Jennifer and Heap are supporting a 13-year-old boy with severely deformed legs. They have secured some surgery for his legs and will support his recovery with physical therapy, and teach his family how to continue the therapy. This is a huge undertaking of personal attention to the poor and marginalised.
May 4-5 Chris is conducting a training on Culture and Conflict Sensitivity with the Cheas Ponleu staff he has travelled with for the past 4 years.
May 19-22 Chris will support a nonviolence training workshop with a local NGO
The end of May Chris is planning a second-round of the recent nonviolence workshop. As well as some advanced training for the 'community of practice'.
Sometime late May or early June, Matt Coombs, an intern from the HNGR program at Wheaton college, will begin a 6 month internship with the team in Kampot.
Sam is continuing her prerequisite studies. She is also continuing to support the Sunrise HIV/AIDS project. Later this year, they will be under-taking a re-visioning process to continue adjusting the changing nature of the AIDS epidemic in Cambodia.
Patrick and Isaac continue to attend Peppercorns Preschool (which meets at our house). We've been blessed with a lovely English preschool teacher named Claire who is putting a lot of effort into loving and serving a diverse group of kids (10 kids, 7 nationalities, aged 18 months to 5 years).
Chris will continue to work on the workshop curriculum, as well as write some overdue articles for his blog The Nonviolent Story (http://thenonviolentstory.blogspot.com), collect stories of nonviolence and continue to be a support to local Kampot communities.
Peace,
Chris Baker Evens
Once again the year races off before I've worked it out and here we are ... Easter! ... and it's my first bi-monthly update for the year. Ouch!
Without too much detail, here are some of the highlights since the beginning of the year ...
Active Nonviolence WorkshopsThe Master's studies that Chris completed last year led him to look at ways in which outsiders (like us) can use nonviolent techniques to support at-risk communities seeking justice. This year he is taking up a number of opportunities to train in active nonviolence with key local and international organisations. Last week, he co-led a workshop on nonviolence with a friend who works for Servants Among Asia's Urban Poor. We had 14 participants from both Cambodian and expatriate organizations. By the end of the weekend everyone was begging for more. We've decided to continue as a monthly 'community of practice' and are planning regular times for training, reflection and story-telling
He has also been invited to co-write a workshop curriculum for community leaders throughout Cambodia in strategies for confronting land rights issues non-violently.
Cambodia continues to see the powerful abuse their powers and the poor and marginalised continue to feel the brunt of that abuse. The bright side is that there have been some key signs of mature nonviolent responses. Just last week a community in Kompong Speu used active nonviolent techniques to secure the release of imprisoned community leaders, and talks with the provincial governor. They are complaining that companies in adjacent land are encroaching on their land and no-one in the corridors of power have been willing to listen. Finally, they cut down trees to block a major highway, and the provincial governor finally decided to step in. So far the results have been positive.
Finally, Chris helped organise two weeks of workshops for Quaker peace activist John McConnell, who led workshops on meditation.
Community ConnectionChris has been struggling to connect with local communities facing land rights issues in Kampot. Some of the struggle is related to pressures that these communities are under particularly from the governor of Kampot not to resist the filling of their fishing grounds. Also, at the end of last year, the police detained and interrogated a British national who is a colleague of Chris's for five hours and have kept the local NGO that he works for under threat, making it very difficult for them to work with communities in Kampot. This has made it hard to know how to proceed in supporting these communities without bringing them negative attention from the authorities. However, Chris continues to support one community leader who is wanting support for a video project and a community newsletter.
There is a short video of Chris explaining some of this community support work, and a web-link may appear in the not-too-distant future.
Dey KrahomAt the end of last month, with the financial support of a great church back in Australia, members from the former Dey Krahom community attended a 3-day trauma healing workshop with an organisation called Ragamuffin. This was a great team effort with Licadho-Canada providing the community liaison, Ragamuffin the trauma healing skills and healing center, and InnerChange as a conduit for scant financial resources.
Peppercorns
One of the main drawbacks to life in the country side is the lack of school options for English-speaking kids. Well, it turns out that Kampot has a burgeoning foreign young-family-with-small-kids population and Samantha has been instrumental in forming a pre-school for our children, called Peppercorns. There are about 6 other families, with 10 kids in all. Peppercorns Preschool officially started yesterday - April 1st- in our living room!
StudySamantha has recommenced studies. Her goal is to study as a Nurse Practitioner in the not-too-distant future, and she is required to complete some prerequisite courses ahead of time. Biology, Nutrition, Statistics ... this is quite a logistical challenge from rural Cambodia!
London
in March, Chris and 30 other team leaders from InnerChange traveled to London for the annual Leaders' Community. The London team hosted the event and helped us understand the interesting context of Tower Hamlets, a government housing estate in the East End, that was almost entirely obliterated in the Blitz. It is now home to a multicultural community, particularly Bengali families. The East End is also home to famous folk such as Captain Cook and William Booth (of the Salvation Army). Chris found it an inspiring time of learning about other teams and was able to share his learnings from Cambodia, particularly in the area of conflict transformation. He may fly back to London later this year to train new team leaders in conflict transformation, peacebuilding and nonviolence skills.
TeamOur team continues to reshape itself. The Allan family recently left for a three-month time of discernment in the US. And all of us have plans for Sabbatical over the next several years. Hayden is first up in October. The Hims family will take a turn from the middle of next year, then our family from the beginning of 2012.
We also have some very exciting times ahead. Heap has been in contact with the local prison and we hope to start a small prison ministry soon. Heap has been trained in mediation and counseling and plans to conduct conflict resolution training with the prisoners. We also have an intern arriving in May who may teach English with them.
Hayden will complete a massive story-teller project in a few weeks. He has spent the last 100 weeks training up story-tellers from around Cambodia to use oral teaching methods for discipleship and sharing the Gospel.
Jennifer and Heap are supporting a 13-year-old boy with severely deformed legs. They have secured some surgery for his legs and will support his recovery with physical therapy, and teach his family how to continue the therapy. This is a huge undertaking of personal attention to the poor and marginalised.
Upcoming
May 4-5 Chris is conducting a training on Culture and Conflict Sensitivity with the Cheas Ponleu staff he has travelled with for the past 4 years.
May 19-22 Chris will support a nonviolence training workshop with a local NGO
The end of May Chris is planning a second-round of the recent nonviolence workshop. As well as some advanced training for the 'community of practice'.
Sometime late May or early June, Matt Coombs, an intern from the HNGR program at Wheaton college, will begin a 6 month internship with the team in Kampot.
Sam is continuing her prerequisite studies. She is also continuing to support the Sunrise HIV/AIDS project. Later this year, they will be under-taking a re-visioning process to continue adjusting the changing nature of the AIDS epidemic in Cambodia.
Patrick and Isaac continue to attend Peppercorns Preschool (which meets at our house). We've been blessed with a lovely English preschool teacher named Claire who is putting a lot of effort into loving and serving a diverse group of kids (10 kids, 7 nationalities, aged 18 months to 5 years).
Chris will continue to work on the workshop curriculum, as well as write some overdue articles for his blog The Nonviolent Story (http://thenonviolentstory.blogspot.com), collect stories of nonviolence and continue to be a support to local Kampot communities.
Peace,
Chris Baker Evens
Thursday, April 1, 2010
April 2010 #1
The Last Two Weeks
What with Easter and Khmer New Year, there has been little time left for anything else. Two things that come to mind are:April 08, Kampong Samakki (means, Solidarity Crossing village).
This is an amazing Kampot community. In June 2008 the villagers marched through the streets of Kampot to demand the return of mangrove forests given over to wealthy business persons by the authorities. Amazingly, the land was returned to the villagers - actually, the governor simply held onto the land transfer documents and never gave them over to the "new" owners. More recently, a Cambodian phone company have been sniffing around the same area asking for people interested in selling their land to the phone company. No one is quite sure why the phone company needs land in quite that location, except as a front to the businessmen trying to access ownership to the mangrove forests. It might be something like if they buy up all the land surrounding the mangroves, who's going to stop them taking the mangroves, too? I led a short excursion down to the community for a German human rights organisation primarily concerned with food security and human rights. If the community lose access to the mangrove forest, they lose their fishing grounds, too.
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