Rev. Laura Beli - Meza, S.Th, M.Pd, as the Chair of the Betania Menbang Congregation in Lawahing Village, had a dream. She envisioned a church that not only preached but also actively contributed to the well-being of its community, particularly by providing nutritious food like vegetables to Sunday school children, the elderly, widows, and widowers. However, to turn this dream into reality, experience and expertise in gardening were needed, especially when working with even small plots of land.

One day, Pdt. Laura met Rano Adu, the YTLM – Alor Branch Manager at Lawahing Village, who was there to socialize their programs, including vegetable gardening and egg-laying chickens. Rev. Laura saw this as a golden opportunity to fulfill her dream; bring fresh, nutritious food to her congregation. She discussed her concerns with the church council, as many members had to travel a long distance to Kalabahi to access vegetables. The church council supported the idea of partnering with YTLM to start a vegetable garden on a piece of land generously donated by one of the church members.

The congregation, under Rev. Laura's leadership, worked together to create the garden, constructing six raised beds for planting spinach, water spinach, long beans, and bitter melon. They were overjoyed when they saw their crops flourishing. In March 2025, Rev. Laura received the exciting news that YTLM would provide 30 egg-laying chickens to support the church's nutritional goals. Despite the challenge of building a chicken coop in just one day, the congregation was filled with joy and gratitude for the support they had received, especially since YTLM also provided feed for the chickens for five months.

Thanks to these efforts, the church has been able to serve nutritious meals to Sunday school children on three occasions, to the elderly twice, and once to orphans and presbyters. A total of 40 children and their family have benefitted from the vegetables and eggs. For many children in the Menbang congregation, having eggs as part of their diet is a new experience. In addition to serving the congregation, the garden's produce and eggs are sold to local residents. The income generated from these sales has been used to support the church's ongoing needs, including buying fertilizer and chicken feed once YTLM's contributions end in August. By July 2025, the church had earned over Rp. 2 million from these sales.

“On behalf of Menbang Congregation, I would like to expressed my heartfelt gratitude to YTLM Alor Branch for their ongoing support in providing ideas, equipment, fertilizer, and feed, which enabled us to bring our dream to life”. I hope through this partnership, the community has not only addressed its immediate nutritional needs but has also gained the foundation for a sustainable, self-supporting initiative for the future said Rev Laura Meza, S.Th, M.Pd”.