Partnership Overview

Noi Boonruen and his wife Sudarat are ethnic Thai mission partners who have started new churches in Sap Udom, Hosangchai and Supanburi. They are also discipling small groups of believers in other villages in Central Thailand. Noi is very active in teaching new converts how to share their testimony with their relatives, and helping them start new groups in places that don’t have any churches. Noi has a small stall that sells ornamental fish to partially support himself. However, this has not provided enough income for the family since they have three children at school and university. 

Noi came to us with a plan to start a frog farm which would enable him to support his family and allow him to continue church-planting without needing outside support. It is a very viable income-generation project that will result in this family being totally self-supporting. They have done a small “proof of concept” trial where they raised a small number of frogs, and they found the frogs could be sold to restaurants and cafes for a good profit. Frogs raised to maturity will generally be sold wholesale to allow time to be devoted to ministry.

Building of four enclosures was virtually completed when a tropical storm largely destroyed the buildings.  Noi rebuilt the structures himself and was able to raise the first round of frogs to a saleable age after which the floods in late 2011 hit.  Most of the frogs were lost to the flooding (and the entire property under about 2 metres of water) but the concrete pens and food (stored in the rafters of the fish shop) were preserved. 

These two incidents of flooding have held up this project but Noi and Sue remain determined to rebuild. 

History of Partnership

Bright Hope World has partnered with World Outreach in Thailand since 2001 (Good News Team, Top Kids, Heart of Mercy) and in 2010 started financially supporting three church planters (THA01e) associated with the Thailand Evangelism and Mission Centre.  In dialoguing with Lorraine Deirck regarding this, the discussion was held as to whether there was some sort of income generation project we could introduce to enable church planters to support themselves. 

Initially mushroom farming was commenced (THA01d) but frog farming is now proving to be another viable option.

Beneficiaries

The initial pilot programme will directly benefit Noi Boonruen, his wife Sudarat and their family.

What We Like About The Partnership

In a similar way to the existing mushroom farm model used by other church planters in Thailand, the frog farm is a way to resource Thai leaders to support themselves and their ministry.

Initial indications are that the farm will be a viable project that will allow the Thai workers to financially sustain themselves in the long term, free up time for ministry and also interact in practical ways in their local community. 

Key People

Noi and Sudarat Boonruen

Both Noi and Sue are involved in the ministry. They have two daughters and a son, all still at school. They are passionate about getting involved in their local community, and while the massive flooding caused widespread problems it also brought the local people together.

They have a passion for their community and reaching people within it. Even with their home flooded and continual setbacks they remain positive that things can go forward and have been actively engaging with their neighbours and making the most of the opportunities that have presented themselves.

Vision And Annual Strategy

Noi and Sue plan to develop the frog farm to the point where it can sustain them and their family as they seek to develop the local church and community. In 2012 they expect to be able to rebuild the farm using money saved, and begin to produce frogs which will mostly be sold wholesale.

There is sufficient land available to expand operations and also to build a simple church for local believers to meet in. 

Annual Budget

The initial start-up budget of US$3,300 includes funds to:
1) Clear land and materials to build concrete-block pens to hold the frogs
2) Irrigation system
3) Initial supply of good quality breeding frogs and food for 6 months