EGBF November Update

We have successfully made our first test batch of baby food in the factory! This monumental event happened on November 23, 2015. The day started out looking doubtful as to whether we would be able to accomplish this goal, with electricity still not hooked up at the factory, no staff on site and a Chinese film crew trailing Michael everywhere he went. But we praise the Lord that by 5pm that evening, after seeing Father accomplish several little miracles along the way we were sitting in the boardroom of the office building, taste testing Eleanor's Garden Baby food straight from the pouch.

Last time we wrote, we talked of the continuing struggles with our contractor. We are so very thankful for the way the Father provided resolution to this conflict! Once the disagreement was settled, we got the factory up and running and ready for testing. Prior to our first full on day of making test pouches of baby food, we were working a lot with our retort machine, running heat distribution tests to make sure all pouches of baby food will be fully sterilized. This involved writing several emails back and forth to our thermal processing coach getting advice on how to stabilize our thermocouples in the pouches and so forth. We continue to be thankful for the patient outside help we receive on this journey. These ongoing tests had put a strain on our temporary electricity, causing a wire to melt and us to be out of electricity until our permanent high voltage electricity was installed, something the electric company seemed in no hurry to hook up.

But we saw firsthand how faithful Father is, the electricians came first thing in the morning and by 1pm on the afternoon of the 23rd we started to peel and chop carrots with local Uyghur ladies. These test batch runs are important for our learning the heating profile of our different thicknesses of baby food, and how they need to be handled in our equipment, but they are also a great time for us to be informally interviewing ladies, and seeing how they work and respond to instruction. We are so thankful for some of the women God has already brought to our door. They were quick to understand, ready to work, listened to instruction, and did it all with a film camera in their face. We look forward to being able to hire some of them in the future for long term employment.

This first batch of baby food production will be forever remembered and captured. The same week we hit this goal, Michael was being interviewed by a national TV crew for a series about life on the Silk Road. The camera team was able to capture moments of him at the green houses talking to vegetable growers, accompany him to an official government office to sign off on our hiring of another American staff member, and of course get shots of carrots being delivered, peeled and turned into puree during our first day. As soon as the program is complete we will send you a link.

We are also starting to get information together for our company website. If any of you have experience in web design and would be able to act as a coach or consultant we would love to be in touch with you.

There is still a lot of testing ahead of us, but we have officially moved from the construction phase to the beginning of the testing phase. It is a huge moment for EGBF that the factory is beginning to fulfill its purpose of making quality baby food. Please join us in rejoicing in God's grace to have brought us this far!

Thanks again,
Eleanor's Garden Baby Food Team