Dear friends and supporters,
This year, our team’s dream to harness the power of business for community development grew bigger and we decided to stick our hands to the plow. Through this newsletter, we hope you can understand our heart behind the projects and prayerfully consider supporting the business projects. Without the help of the saints, we can only go this far. Partner us in seeing these projects come to fruition!
Why start business projects?
Firstly, we want to generate funds for our ministry expenses. At the same time, we want to create employment opportunities for youths and adults in the at-risk community that we reach. Lastly, we want to develop future redemptive entrepreneurs for the body of Christ. We believe that strong Christian businesses can play an instrumental role in building up the church of Thailand!
How do we pioneer these business projects?
- We ideate a few business ideas that are aligned with the interests and passion of our team members and are feasible in helping us reach the 3 objectives mentioned above
- We go through a 2-month market and product research process to understand the feasibility of our business ideas and develop our business plan
- We test our products and engage in conversations with our target groups to understand what are their pain points
- We pray every step of the way and invite God to speak into each step of our decision making and planning
What are the current projects?
1. Urban Mushroom Farming
Monree’s parents are bi-vocational pastors in the mountains, and they run an oyster mushroom farm to earn an income for their family. As Monree was praying about a business project to start, God spoke to him to bring oyster mushroom farming to an urban setting. This is when we began researching about oyster mushrooms and testing it out at our community center.
After our product testing, we have a vision to start micro oyster mushroom farms in the homes of the families we serve, and create business opportunities for them.
2. Urban Hydroponics
Tawan has always felt that God was giving him an interest in hydroponics. He has a passion in clean food and also agriculture. We are excited to see how we can not only bring revenue, but also bless our community with healthy food.
There’s a simple salad bar in the local market nearby but no one can afford it. Instead, the cheaper food option is instant noodles and fried dough. As we pray as a team, we also feel God nudging us to invest into the health of our community.
3. Vintage Clothing
Chai has a passion in vintage fashion, especially in t-shirts from the 1980s and 1990s, and we discovered that it’s sub-culture on a whole new level in today’s generation. There’s a huge group of Gen Z Thais who are going back to vintage fashion, like punk rock t-shirts and high socks.
Not only was there a great demand for vintage clothing amongst the young generation, we see that this is a good platform to reach youths, and understand their world. Together with this project, we are also praying about starting a 2nd-hand clothing shop that can provide affordable, good condition clothing for our community, and be a gathering space for the mothers and youths that we reach out to.
4. Handmade Flowers
Pear loves handicraft and flowers, and had just recently learnt how to make handmade flowers. She was excited to see how handmade flowers can bring the community together and create a redemptive business around it.
During one of our adult cell group sessions, one of our new believers saw the flowers that Pear made and her eyes lighted up. We told her that these flowers were made by our BDR staff, and that she can learn how to do it with us if she is interested. She was so excited that replied, “Can I learn now?!” Seeing their enthusiasm, we envision involving the adult cell group in the production process of the flowers.
Funds needed per project
We are trusting God to raise 2,000 SGD per project as a seed fund to be used for developing our products, operating expenses, and marketing costs. We have tested the feasibility of these projects over the past 4 months and they have proven to be viable and have great potential to our financial and ministry objectives. By giving to the seed fund, you are partnering us in kick-starting these projects and inject life into our community through Christian businesses. We are excited to see this happen!
Ways To Give
If you are keen to give, please send us a message to let us know of your gift. You can reach out to us via WhatsApp by clicking this link.
