Finally!
Paul Mok stands in front of our new stainless steel 'shaker box'.
For 21 years we have been using, patching, and constantly repairing the same old worn-out rice mill. The beast has been slowly bleeding us out for a generation! It was so worn out when we got it, that the engine would not run. We figure it was built around 1980 with used components from Vietnam.
We bought it from the owner, who was dying of AIDS back in 2001, disassembled it, and moved it to Balang. Why? Because we were getting so cheated by the Chinese rice millers. We'd buy rice as we needed it back then. It would be cheap at harvest, then the millers would raise the price every month until the next harvest. I called all our pastors together and told them, "Go spy out the land and find me a place that is so isolated that there is nothing but rice for twenty kilometers". They came back in about one month, "We've found the perfect place. It takes you about an hour to get there by motor bike from the main road, but there is a road that ox carts can travel and move rice. When you get there, all you see is rice in every direction. The closest village is 18 kilometers away, it's called, ‘Balang’ “.
I went to inspected it and it was everything I had hoped it would be. Farmers had to cart their rice to the main road to sell it. We bought two hectares along the cart path, and I began to move in the rice mill. I received a donated building from Dave McCracken in Fort Morgan, Colorado, and money for a new 300 metric ton grain bin and dryer from Warm Blankets in Chicago. I bought the equipment from a friend who sold it in Marengo, Illinois, and we were in business!
After a year or so, some dairy farmers from California came through and asked me, "Why don't you raise your own rice?" I replied, "Because we have no land." They bought our first 50 hectares, and the rest is history. Now we have 400 hectares and attempt to raise multiple crops, but we were still stuck with the same dilapidated rice mill. Finally, in June 2022, it just died!
Paul Mok, our FCOP Farm Manager, who's been running the operation up there for 11 years said, "I think I can build a new one out of stainless steel that will last a lifetime." I replied, "We have no money!" He just smiled and questioned, "Pa, where's your faith?" We started in step-by-step. Now, three months later, and multiple generous donors and some unpaid bills, we are ready to start it up Finally!! We’re thankful to each one of you that gave to make this dream a reality.
[nggallery id=1994]