Home, home on the mill

MVF is humming along.  We produced our one-millionth kilo of blended flour on March 20th.  Always there are glitches-like when we found clumps in our potassium chloride, one of the mineral additives we have purchased from a new supplier.  Not good!  Can't have clumps of salt in our food.  So, we closed down the whole production line and declared a sifting party-we don't have a machine for this. Hours later we had enough mineral additives for our next week's production.  When Wessel was satisfied, we were back in production!

 

Then there was the issue of cash flow.  On top of our standing orders, we received a large order from Burma.  Just a few days before I'd repaid loans, a month early.  Now we didn't have the funds to buy rice and soybean.  We were maxed out.  

But you know what? Someone was looking out for us.  We asked and a couple of our suppliers gave us a month of credit.  Now...our warehouse is bursting with flour, waiting for their vaunted logistics teams to get the shipments scheduled.  We've made our deadlines.  But our big customers are...well...cumbersome, slow to pay.  

Like Dr. Seuss's little turtle, Mac, we're at the bottom of the pile and we're squeaking.  "We're dyin' down here!"  Yurtle, the big Turtle up top, says he hears us.  But we're not so sure.  Stay tuned.  We feel a burp coming on.

 

Saved by a Good Scrubbing

Mekong Valley Foods Co., the small company we've been building the past couple years, was just taking off.  Orders were coming in, machines were humming, our 20 + new staff members had learned their jobs and begun to jell as a team.

It seemed like the significant milestones were flying by--we finished 2011 with more than $800,000 in sales and with several large orders which would keep us busy for much of 2012.  We made our first net profit on the year.   

But then one of neighbors complained repeatedly to local authorities about the roasted rice and soy odor coming from our mill.  He circulated a complaint in the neighborhood.  We stopped the mill and worked hard to eliminate the smell.  But still the phone calls came from our village head man.    

  

All new ventilation

The Scrubber

A series of meetings finally culminated in an agreement that we could continue producing until Jan. 15 after which we would need to close down the mill and fix the problem.

We finished our contracts on Jan. 13, two days before the deadline.  With the help of an industrial engineer from Bangkok, we had designed and ordered all new ventilation systems for the mill, the heart of which is an "Odor Scrubber".  I canceled a planned trip to the U.S. for leadership team meetings and worked with our male staff members to install all this new equipment.  

Wessel, in the meantime, concentrated on getting our administrative systems ready for our first HACCP renewal inspection, also pending.   

So, here are some of the many reasons we are rejoicing now!

• The scrubber actually works!  The smell is gone and our neighbor is quiet.
• We passed the HACCP certification for the second time, with only a few minor corrections needed.
• We managed to get back in production in time to meet our February deadlines for our major customers.
• A huge amount of pressure has been lifted!  Wessel and his family have taken a long-delayed, much-needed vacation.  Ruthie and I are enjoying some quieter days after a season of intense busy-ness!  

Thank you, Lord! 

With Progress.... Always Problems

We laid our hands on the ailing machine--and it was vibrating violently. There was no backup for this hammer mill in our production line, the machine that turns our Cheetos-like chunks of puffed soy and rice into fine flour. When it starts up it sounds like a jet engine, the old, 60's vintage fuel-guzzling kind.

Earlier, we had become concerned about the tremendous noise levels. So we set about building a room around this machine to contain the noise. To do that, we had the help, for about a month, of one of our board members from our FUF-Lao days. For many nights Dave Welander (Pomeroy Covenant Church, IA) and I worked after the mill shut down at 9 PM and the cleaning crew had done their work.

But when the vibrations started sending cracks all through the housing, we knew we had a major problem. So, Wessel managed to get a technician up from Bangkok and set about, with our young mechanics, tearing it apart. What they found was not pretty--ball bearings shredded, hammers worn and unbalanced. In the end, praise God, they were able replace all the worn parts and put it back together. Amazingly, the noise levels dropped by 20 decibels. Our screaming jet engine became a became a purring cat.

But now we faced a new problem. Our mill generates a fairly strong odor, not unlike popcorn. Several of the neighbors said they liked the smell at first, but after weeks of it-was there not something we could do? So we set about building a room in the back of the mill to contain the exhaust and filter out the smell.


That system is now in place and working fairly well. The smell is not gone, but is much improved. Visits to all our neighbors, bouquets of flowers and progress reports on the improvements we are making-all of these have helped with this issue.

Finally, about personnel issues: Don't you wish that people problems could be as easily solved as technical issues? Well, they can't..... So, we just said good-bye to two of our key Thai team-members. Their issues with other members of the team had been simmering for more than a year. But finally they decided it would be better to leave than continue. Ruthie and I were heart-broken. These were the people we hoped would manage the company. These were our good friends.

Such is life in the Kingdom, we're finding out. Often a struggle, often messy. But God can use all of that, and does. Meanwhile, we praise him for all the many answers to prayer-orders and work, new staff members (we're holding at about 30 employees), and the resources to see MVF Co. become a reality and blessing (a sweet aroma?) to those around it.

Vitamin fortification: sapping my energy!

Let me tell you about our little saga with Thailand's FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Since we returned to Thailand on February 7 we have been working to get permission from the FDA to import a vitamin and mineral fortification for the contract we won recently from a major international organization. Four times the documents have been rejected, four times they've been sent by overnight courier from the vitamin company in Germany.

When it comes to this kind of thing, every jot and tittle is important, apparently. The latest issue, requiring a re-do and re-send: we were told the product specification for Potassium Chloride needed to have the words "Test for Sodium...Negative Test". "Sodium...Passes Test" was not good enough! That's Thai bureaucracy. Then, the company in Germany, too has not been cooperative. They refused to change the wording. So we ended up with "Sodium...Negative Test."

Praise God. This morning they finally accepted all the documents and are waiting "for the big man upstairs" to sign... How long will that take? Normally it's 35 days. But we're praying for 3! This may seem like a small thing, but our whole food mill is lying quiet and still, waiting for the day it can begin to make food! Wessel and the team interviewed employees and got totally geared up a month ago. Then Pffttt the wind went out of our sails. Why is this happening this way? I'll let you know when I find out from the Man upstairs.

Good News from MVF!

On December 30th we received official word that our bid to produce Rice-Soy Blend for a major international customer was accepted. Thank God for this answer to months of prayer! Then, just this morning we received word that our team in Chiang Khong has cleared the final hurdle to HACCP certification--this is certification as a food factory that measures up to international standards. Wessel and our Thai team have been working long hours producing the documents, procedures, and tests that were needed. We are so thankful for the resources and prayers of so many of you which have made this possible. It is with hope and prayer and thanksgiving that we move into this new year. Pray that the food supplement we make will meet all standards and be a great source of nutrition for young children.

An Opening, A Ceremony

March 5 was the big day for our Opening Ceremony! Even though our mill was essentially finished back in December, we held off the ceremony until now. The head of our County (in Thailand it’s called an Amphur) came early and responded to our speeches with kind words and good wishes—he even praised our pastor for his words of admonition and blessing, saying that he wished all ceremonies by religious figures in Thailand could be as clearly communicated.

The day before, we called a halt to all construction activities (yes, we are still building!) so we could get the premises all spiffed up and the sign installed. After all that hard work, Yu and Uthai, the Thai-Hmong couple who have been such a God-send to us, asked if Yu could stay home since she was 9 months pregnant. Sure enough, the baby came that night.

We also had our annual meeting with the Thai Board of Shareholders, who had many good suggestions for the ceremony and other aspects of the work. Thank God for this dedicated group of people—and for enabling us to reach this milestone!

New Wrinkles in the Mill

Just before Christmas and the arrival of the CHIC group, we worked very hard to finish last details in the construction of the mill and make samples of the various products we hope to produce. All this was to meet a deadline for submitting bids to the Thai Burmese Border Consortium. I flew to Bangkok and turned in our bid and samples a few hours before the deadline. I also visited the World Food Program hoping they were in a buying mood.

With Wessel out of the loop ( for obvious reasons) I was more than a little stressed. After a couple of weeks we got word: our samples passed the lab tests for nutrition and sanitation quality, our price was right, but we did not have the licenses the Consortium requires of a food mill--GMP, Halal, HACCP. We had hoped they might overlook that fact since we are working hard on getting those licenses. Nothing doing. We were told we need to get those licenses before they will consider us. We were told, also, that the WFP has no plans, at present, to place any orders in this region.

Hmmph. Discouragement, deflation. But then, somewhere, one day in January, after Wessel's wedding, God lifted the blanket of gloom. I don't remember the exact date, but I remember the day: Suddenly, I knew it was going to be okay. God hasn't brought us this far to leave us hanging out here with a mill all ready to produce food but no orders to merit turning on those 100 horsepower motors.

So, that's where we are at: doggedly knocking things off the list of things we have to do to bring our mill up to international food standards--signs, SOP's (standard operating procedures), bathrooms, changing rooms, uniforms,etc. etc. Our official opening ceremony is scheduled for March 5. Hopefully, much of this will be done before then.

Wessel's Wedding

So, you know we have this great friend and colleague--who decided to get married at 42. For almost a year he and Ut have been patiently waiting for permission from the Lao government (well, not entirely patiently). We imagined permission might come through in August or September and the wedding might happen in November.



Not so--also, not surprising given our experience in Laos. Nevertheless, the day finally came and we had two beautiful weddings--a church wedding here in Thailand and a Lao-style wedding across the river. Almost a week apart, with hundreds invited here in Thailand, more than a thousand in Laos, this was a big event in our lives. Ruthie and I, Kevin and Ramona, all had big parts to play--preaching, translating, facilitating, fetching lost singers. What a lot of fun!

Progress at the MVF Food Mill

Meanwhile, things are really coming together at our food mill/factory. All the main pieces of machinery are now in place, freshly painted and re-furbished. Those sent out for re-tooling in Bangkok and elsewhere are back. And those pieces we duplicated (in order to increase the capacity) are also finished. What remains? All of the electrical wiring and a few of the connecting augers and bucket lifts going from one piece of machinery to the next. More photos are available at our photo albums link to the right.

Moving and Pouring

We Have Power!

It took about four times as long as what we were first told. But when the EGAT men-in-orange (technicians working for Thailand’s Electrical Generating Authority) finally tied our wires into the high power grid and one-by-one pushed the fuses into their sockets, we were grateful and more than a little relieved! We celebrated with a barbecue that night. Of course, it was not nearly the celebration we allowed ourselves in Laos when, after more than 12 years of living without electricity, we finally saw the lights come on and transformers begin to hum. But at least now the team of talented men from our sister-company in Laos who are helping us put the factory back together can begin cutting and welding some serious steel!