Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
Just heard these two from our teacher. They are full of Thai humor and culture.
A new Christian goes on an evangelism trip with his pastor up a mountain. After the pastor has explained the gospel to an unbelieving family he asks this new Christian to pray for the residents of the house they’re in and to bless the message he’s just shared. The new Christian obediently closes his eyes and repeats the things the pastor asked him to pray for but he can’t remember how to end so he just begins the whole prayer all over again but still can’t remember. Finally after a few rounds of this he leans over and asks the pastor, “Who was that guy again?”
“Jesus” the pastor answers.
“Oh yeah. In JESUS name we pray, Amen.”
Another time the same pastor asked an older gentlemen to pray and bless the food they were about to eat.
“Okay, let’s all bow our heads and close our eyes” the man began. Everyone gathered around the food, folded their hands and closed their eyes. Five seconds went by. Then ten. Still no prayer was uttered. Everyone began looking around and a few people caught a glimpse of the man running full tilt out of the room.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
On Monday we had an informal cooking lesson from a few of our good friends. We learned to cook a fish dish, a shrimp dish and a pork dish… three of our favorites. Here are a few pictures. Go to our web album to see all of them.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, November 27th, 2011
November is one of our favorite months in Thailand for a few reasons: it’s beginning to get cooler at night, it’s almost Christmas and Loi Krathong. Loi Krathong is one of our favorite Thai holidays. People let hundreds of these lanterns float into the sky. Here’s a video of us adding to the chaos:
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
Loi Krathong (sometimes referred to as the “Festival of Lights”) here in Chiang Mai is a sight to behold. There’s more culture in town this time of year than you can shake a stick at. On the agenda are several things that people who saw last year’s pictures will remember: releasing thousands of lanterns into the sky, floating small boats down the river and cultural parades. The only difference is that this year we can speak some Thai, know what’s going on and we know where the good parking spots are. The slightly better camera helps too. Check out the photos so far embedded below or on our Picasa web albums.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, October 28th, 2011
Two events from October stand out in my mind: a baptism of new believers at our Chiang Mai fellowship and a trip up a mountain. During the mountain trip my friend Ben and I had the chance to experience eating grub worms. Hilarity ensued. The baptism was memorable for a completely different reason… our first baptism of many we hope. I took videos of both events so you could experience the lighter side of our lives in full color:
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, September 26th, 2011
Thailand has already gotten enough rain this year as far as everyone we know is concerned. It should be lightening up this time of year getting ready for the “cold season” but so far there have been few signs of improvement. We make the best of it on our motorcycle. Just have to watch out for the big puddles and make sure you stay visible. Here’s a picture from our lives tonight:
Under all that plastic is a big computer bag, a purse and a package from the US.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
Tribal missions
Sharon and I are reaching unreached tribes with the gospel!
Actually we’ve learned that ministry is all about is relationships. We’ve been humbled by the welcome our Thai friends have given us. The time we spend with our friends here in the culture has continued to increase as our language ability increases and our level of comfort grows. Please continue to pray these relationships would continue to grow and blossom. They are not only crucial for an understanding of language and culture they will be the foundation of our work for years to come.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, July 8th, 2011
What did I just say
Eight months of learning Thai has been a humbling experience. Not only is the tone of your voice crucial for proper pronunciation the length of your vowels will also change the meaning of words. So you if you say “khao” with a high and falling tone it’s a different word than “khao with a scooping tone. If you say the wrong one you’re still communicating… but not what you intended to say.
In layman’s terms that means Thai is really hard to speak naturally. Here are a few of the statements we’ve made accidentally:
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
Lassie?
So what do you do? You’re a family of three, including Fluffy, but you’ve only got a bicycle with an engine in it… er scooter. No problem. He rides shotgun. Or is he driving here?
I actually saw the dog get up on this thing. The couple hopped on the bike first and the dog waited patiently looking back and forth at their faces for permission to board. The guy nodded and the dog climbed up like a kid on a jungle gym. I think he checked his teeth in the mirror before plopping his rear down and panting approvingly. Off they went.
Here’s a gallery of other angles and motorcycle-related pictures: (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
Thai food is awesome
We’re so grateful to live in a country with amazing food. Some dishes tested our resolve but after a few tries our tolerance for spiciness, bitter flavors and different textures have been pushed to the limits and stretched. Eating more rice to cut down on the amount of other food we eat has resulted in some heath benefits as I discussed last week.
This post just covers the food we ate in the last 24 hours but we ate some of our favorite dishes. Just so you know… it will be difficult to find these dishes at your local Thai restaurant unless it specifically sells Northern Thai food. Chiang Mai food is quite different from southern Thailand food for example. Yesterday we had:(more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, May 23rd, 2011
Give this photo a caption in the comments.
What would you think about if you were a lizard with a brain the size of a peanut? Sharon and I often try to imagine the dozens of lizards we see every day thinking about something semi-human. Like this one we saw today seemed to be spying on us and listening in on our conversation. Sometimes they seem to be guarding something important, digging for treasure or even making small talk with friends. This lizard was in a bush staring at us without moving a muscle. What in the world does a lizard have to do in a bush? You decide.
Take a look at this guy and tell us what the photo caption photo should be. What’s he/she thinking? Let us know in the comments. Below is the full photo: (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, May 12th, 2011
Not real bag contents
It appears someone stole our cameras and passports today. We got talking to some really nice people on a songthau and I forgot my camera bag on it. I realized I’d left it in about five minutes, took the next available bus and tracked down the driver back at the conference center. He said an elderly man had gotten off a different truck, saw my bag and volunteered to walk the bag over to the lost and found by the main desk.
As you can guess, the bag with expensive DSLR camera equipment and our passports never made it to lost and found. (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
Every single night we hear a nocturnal male Tokay gecko making his “tookay” call and occasionally we hear him crashing around our house somewhere. Today we got to see him for the first time and he’s HUGE. The pictures embedded on our website show him in all his blueish-gray orange polka-dotted glory. For reference we measured the screen hinge he’s near and it’s an inch and a half long. (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, April 21st, 2011
We have more pictures from the Lawa wedding we attended this week embedded on our website. These ones are from my camera wing-man: our Thai teacher, “older brother” and friend (which is a weird combination here). If you’re a picture fanatic and have to see absolutely every single picture we post you can see them all on Picasa. (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, January 24th, 2011
This video trailer of our first three months in Thailand has a bunch of really random things in it… a trip up a mountain, waterfalls, and a silk factory. Click the video below or watch it on Youtube if you don’t see it here.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, December 7th, 2010
We haven’t had time to sit down and write out what we did this weekend but we’ve posted some pictures of a trip we took this weekend to a village near Chiang Rai. It was a lot of fun and it reminded us of why we’re here: to see the light of the gospel spread to every part of Thailand. Pray with us this will become a reality. We will post more pictures and video in the coming days.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, November 28th, 2010
We’ve spent the last two Thanksgiving days in Arizona with Ric’s grandparents. This year we knew we’d be on our own and we expected to eat burgers instead of turkey with our friends Kevin and Emily. If we couldn’t have turkey we’d at least enjoy American food.
At least that’s what we thought. When we walked into the burger joint Thanksgiving night we were told by the owner they were only serving Thanksgiving dinner. He asked if we’d made reservations. We said no. Fortunately just as we came a table cleared and the owner was able to seat us for the all you can eat turkey and ham dinner. Amazing.
The Duke's Chiang Mai Thanksgiving Menu
Hungry.
Turkey smothered in gravy
Stuffing, Green been casserole and mashed potatoes
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, October 29th, 2010
Here are a few pictures of a church barbecue we went to tonight. Quite delicious! Here we eat pretty much every piece of the cow so if you think you’re seeing a cut of meat you wouldn’t get at the grocery store back home you’re probably right. Check out all the pictures here. These are just samples:
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, September 25th, 2010
What is this mess of wires? Well, that’s our new home phone from Vonage! Some of you may have heard of this service and some haven’t.
It’s great: Free calls. To Thailand. To us. From you. OR Free calls. From Thailand. From us. To you.
It will be a great way to keep in touch, share our lives and keep you involved. The best part: It will be Ric’s cell phone number. Just keep it in your cell phone or address book and call us when you get the urge to hear our voices. Keep in mind that Thailand is exactly 12 hours from Eastern Standard time most of the year and that we won’t be answering during the middle of the night. Leave us a voice mail anytime, however, and we’ll be happy to call you back.
If you need our number send us an email at ricandsharon@gmail.com
Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand 
Loi Krathong (sometimes referred to as the “Festival of Lights”) here in Chiang Mai is a sight to behold. There’s more culture in town this time of year than you can shake a stick at. On the agenda are several things that people who saw 
Two events from October stand out in my mind: a baptism of new believers at our Chiang Mai fellowship and a trip up a mountain. During the mountain trip my friend Ben and I had the chance to experience eating grub worms. Hilarity ensued. The baptism was memorable for a completely different reason… our first baptism of many we hope. I took videos of both events so you could experience the lighter side of our lives in full color:
Every single night we hear a nocturnal male 
What is this mess of wires? Well, that’s our new home phone from Vonage! Some of you may have heard of this service and some haven’t.
Life as a Lizard
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, May 23rd, 2011Give this photo a caption in the comments.
What would you think about if you were a lizard with a brain the size of a peanut? Sharon and I often try to imagine the dozens of lizards we see every day thinking about something semi-human. Like this one we saw today seemed to be spying on us and listening in on our conversation. Sometimes they seem to be guarding something important, digging for treasure or even making small talk with friends. This lizard was in a bush staring at us without moving a muscle. What in the world does a lizard have to do in a bush? You decide.
Take a look at this guy and tell us what the photo caption photo should be. What’s he/she thinking? Let us know in the comments. Below is the full photo: (more…)
Tags: comment, contest, lizard, lizard in a bush, photo caption, picture, spying, thinking, tiny brain
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