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.

 

Back in Laos--and feeling blessed!

Last time I was in Laos I left in kind of a hurry. Don't know what came over me, but something just felt so oppressive. I had to get out of here. I guess I was still carrying some baggage from our time here, maybe a bit of anger about how we had been treated, at how our lives had been disrupted after so many years of pouring our lives into the people and problems here.

This time it's different. Feeling once again that God is at work here (of course he never stopped) and that the last chapter for us, as far as Laos is concerned, is not yet written. I am here with two twenty-somethings--the children of good friends of ours. They are wondering what God wants them to do with their lives. So I have the joy of showing them parts of this little country, of introducing them to some great work going on here, of giving them a window on the issues and opportunities of this place. This is great!

One great blessing has been to see how they agricultural machinery and equipment we worked so hard to bring into Laos is once again being used to bless the people of this place. A good Lao friend of ours bought the equipment from us and has transported it to an area outside of Vientiane where it is part of an evolving plan and growing vision to set up grain harvesting centers in many of the poorest parts of Laos. So, once again the grain bins are full of corn. Once again farmers are growing for the market. Once again committed people are being placed in places where they can be salt and light.

This does my heart good. I feel good.

Kristina & Erik Amundsen with Iona Rogers

The few grain bins we had have now proliferated! There's a great story here.

A Shot of Encouragement

"So, why did You bring us back to this small town on the Mekong--out of the main stream and far from parts and needed supplies?"  This is a question I have asked God many times as we have faced difficulties and problems these past two years...

Well, the main reason, we felt, was so that we could be here for needy people from across the river--believers and villagers, farmers and friends.  This week that reason was once again borne out as one of our friends showed up with two of his family members in need of medical attention.  We were able to help them get settled into a provincial hospital where tests were done and medicines prescribed.  This morning I took them to the border where they returned home.

Last night we talked and prayed.  And then again this morning.  We laughed and talked and prayed some more.  We talked about our friend's 6 months in prison.  We laughed at his mother-in-law's persistence and stubborn-ness--at how she bothered the prison officials and begged for our friend's release, at how she, a simple villager who hardly speaks Lao went all the way to the vice-governor to get the shackles removed from her son-in-law's ankles..

What a shot in the arm!  I saw pictures of Christmas celebrations in seven villages.  I heard reports of former persecutors coming to those celebrations, of changes of heart.  I gently asked if this or that group of believers was still meeting--afraid that I might be disappointed.  But in every case they were still meeting!  They have grown.  Yes, some have fallen away and there has been discouragement.  But as I read in Psalm 135 this morning, I was able to assure them that "the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants."  Just like that persistent widow in Luke 18 who finally gets justice from a corrupt judge, we can rest assured that God hears and understands our every need--including our need for a shot of encouragement every now and then!  

     

Finding Our Growing Edges

 

Many churches in the U.S. have found new direction with the help of John Wenrich and the Covenant's Department of Congregational Vitality.  After hearing John speak at the Covenant Annual Meeting this past July, our hope was that with his help we could also find new vitality and passion, as Asian Covenant missionaries, in the work God has given us.

As well, there has been another issue which has repeatedly bubbled to the surface as we have traveled and visited and observed missionaries in many different settings--that of "Cross-Cultural Partnerships."  Almost all of us are involved in partnerships with national churches and friends.  Some of those have been good partnerships filled with mutuality, love, and respect.  But all of us have at times experienced dis-functional partnerships.  We asked Mary Lederleitner, a Wycliffe researcher and consultant to speak from her book of the same name.      

Worship time at the retreat--Carl Groot, Lillian Dwigh, Grace Shim, Tim Johnson

So, last weekend we met in a beautiful setting in Cha-Am, Thailand where John and Mary led us though much relevant material.  Through small-group discussions, questions from the floor, and a lot of time just to talk outside the meetings, the 50+ missionaries who were there shared how they have been challenged and blessed through that time.  Ruthie and I felt the retreat went better than we had dared dream and hope.  We're thankful for these times of reflection, fellowship, and retreat which the Covenant makes possible every 3 years.    

A Prisoner is Set Free

The last time I saw "AD" he was standing by the Mekong River over 13 years ago!  As a Communist Party member and a former district governor, he was a leader in his ethnic minority.  When he came to faith in 1998 he began to actively share his faith in the many villages he visited.  Many found Christ, including his own family.   

Just a few weeks after I met him he was arrested.  Within a short period of time was convicted of "treason" and sentenced to 15 years in prison.  For all of the years we worked in FUF Co. we prayed for this family; when their house burned down we were able to help them re-build.   

Life in prison was harsh and we had reports at various times that his health was failing.  Two of the other Christians arrested with him died in prison.  Many times during the years "AD" was told he would be released from prison if he just signed a statement renouncing his faith--something he refused to do.   

Right around Christmas this past year I received a call from his wife.  "AD" would be released soon, she said, if she bought a goat and some cases of beer and put on a party for the officials.  She bought the goat and waited.  As had happened many times before, this was another cruel trick.  Days and weeks slipped by.  We, and many concerned brothers and sisters around the world, waited.

Finally, at the start of this month we received a call to say he AD was home and free!  We rejoice in this news!  We're thankful for this testimony of patience in long-suffering, of faith and perserverance.                 

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.