Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Sunsets are beautiful this time of year.
Every night just before sunset I can be found out walking with the uncles and aunties in our neighborhood. During this time I build relationships, learn about Thai customs, listen to stories about the way things used to be and experience life with the “villagers” (people in our neighborhood). Last night Uncle Somboon rattled off John 3:16 in perfect Thai. I stared at him with my mouth open. Without pausing for a breath he went on to say he’d gone to a Christian school when he was a kid but he never understood why he was forced to memorize verses all the time. Who, he wondered, was God? Why did he have to send his son to die? What good would believing that do?
Ultimately, Uncle Somboon concluded, all religions teach the same principles. They provide social controls, keep people in line and prevent chaos. Insights like those Uncle Somboon provides here can help us present the gospel more clearly. We need to start at the beginning and patiently teach through the foundational elements first, building on a firm foundation of truth before presenting a truth nugget like John 3:16. If we fail to do this the meaning will be lost and presenting an unclear gospel will reinforce misconceptions and cement preconceived ideas.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
A local mechanic respects his ancestors, the unseen spirits, a host of gods and Buddha before beginning his day.
A “worldview”, simply put, is everything you believe to be true about yourself, your relationship to the world around you and what happens to you when you die. Everyone has one. Your worldview will continue develop over the course of your entire life, shaping the choices you make, the religion you follow and how you prepare for whatever you think happens when you die.
If Sharon and I are to be effective ministers of the gospel here in Thailand we’ll have to constantly be tuned into what’s going on beneath the surface. Can you tell anything about the worldview of the man in the picture above? What’s he thinking? How does he view people who don’t do this? What will happen if he forgets to respect these unseen beings each morning? Who or what is watching or noticing him doing it?
We’re not studying this from a simple anthropological point of view. We have a very specific goal in mind: to reach people with the life-giving message we’ve been entrusted with as followers of Christ. If we don’t understand the starting point we will be unable to guide our friends from a wrong worldview to a worldview that lines up with the truth found in God’s word. Pray for us as we spend the next days, weeks and months digging into worldview in depth.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, June 16th, 2011
Incidentally, we’re in an organization with other people in it. People we like. Unfortunately because we live in very different parts of a large city we rarely have occasion to see each other (Chiang Mai has a metropolitan population of over a million). Thankfully we have problems to bring us together. Saturday our language helper went up a mountain for a week of fasting, prayer, and reading. No language sessions for a week?
My first phone call was to our national culture and language acquisition coordinator Janna. She told me that Kruu Phaylin, who teaches Anthony and Emilie, could probably fit us in. At first we were nervous… but take a look at this face. Who could possibly stay nervous long? (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, April 18th, 2011
Ric and Sharon Bruce
Recently someone on Facebook asked us, “I’m sure that you have written about it, but what is your ministry over in Thailand?” Her question made me realize we probably don’t reiterate this important point often enough. Or at the very least we can’t say it too many times. Here’s the scoop:
We left the United States six months ago to plant churches in Thailand with New Tribes Mission. Before leaving we dedicated five years of our lives to training with New Tribes, preparing our hearts and sharing our vision all over the US. Currently we live in Chiang Mai learning Thailand’s national language and and adjusting to its unique culture. Our plan is to (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, March 14th, 2011
We thought it may be helpful to provide you with a short paragraph updating you about our financial situation here in Thailand. As has always been the case, we rely on donations from you, our partners in this work, to continue ministering and serving here in Thailand.
After ten months of partnership development in the US we arrived here in Thailand with more than enough to cover our initial moving expenses and to keep us going here. Over fifty individuals, churches and foundations have chosen to support this ministry through regular monthly giving totaling 74% of our NTM recommended support level. Fortunately many generous people have chosen to give special gifts to our ministry allowing us to continue the work God has called us to here. Our one ongoing need from our partnership development time is money for a car. So far we’ve received $3,000 dollars for this $10,000 project. If you’d like to be a part of the team providing for this need financially please visit our give page here. God bless and thank-you.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, March 7th, 2011
We spent this past weekend in Northeast Thailand visiting friends in our organization… and potential future ministry locations. Our friends were kind enough to show us around the village they live in where we enjoyed the warm hospitality of the people.
Northeast Thailand has a unique charm to it that just seems to beg to be painted. So some of the pictures Sharon and I took this weekend I’ve converted to colored line drawings for your enjoyment. More to come this week on our trip there so stay tuned. If you’d like to see the pictures a bit bigger right click them and select “view image.”
The services will involve a brief explanation of our ministry, prayer for our first term on the field and a brief time of fellowship with us afterward. Enjoy this video from friends in Thailand welcoming us to the field even if you can’t make the services:
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, September 17th, 2010
We received word from our field leadership at 3:30 AM this morning that our “authorization letters” have arrived from Bangkok. Now we’re playing another waiting game for a little number- called a telex number- that we’re praying will arrive early next week. We will keep you posted. Our visas really haven’t “arrived” until that number comes in and we take the next step – a trip to Chicago.
After the final piece of paperwork comes in we’ll take a road trip to the embassy in Chicago and spend the night while they process our paperwork and stamp our passports. We will THEN buy tickets. Quite a process! We appreciate your prayers that nothing will go wrong with this final step and that we’ll have a departure date soon.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, September 13th, 2010
Although there are no vaccinations 100% required for Thailand there are a few our Center for Disease Control strongly recommends. After sitting through a 45 minute presentation and reading a huge packet on all the ways we could die in Thailand we ended up with:
Oral Typhoid, Influenza, and a TB test for both of us.
Sharon got: Polio Booster and Hep A.
So that’s the damage. A few pokes in the arm, 2.5 hours at the CDC and a strong urge to suddenly douse ourselves in insect repellent.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, July 30th, 2010
Our July newsletter is packed with information, praises, prayer requests and our heartfelt thanks for all God has done. We thank each of your for your partnership, love and support.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, July 16th, 2010
This month marks the third consecutive year I’ve updated this blog regularly with news, prayer requests, pictures, and important highlights from our ministry. During our first year over 2,000 people visited this website to learn about our ministry! Here’s a trip down memory lane for those of you who’ve been following this blog for a long time and a quick history for new friends. My top twenty posts of all time:
Thank-you so much for your interest and support over the years. I hope you enjoyed reviewing a few of the incredible things God has accomplished in our lives through you.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, June 28th, 2010
Every day NTM.org rolls out new articles about tribal missions around the world. Today, the work God accomplished at the Big Ticket Festival is on display on the main page! Take the jump on over to http://www.ntm.org/news/11064 to check out the article, which was partly based on my blog posts from last week. Thanks guys!
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, June 26th, 2010
People at the Festival are convinced Josiah is a real tribesman. Here are some questions they are asking:
- How long has he been in the United States?
- Does he like being here?
- Where do you keep him?
- Is he going through culture shock?
- Does he miss his family?
- How did you get him here?
- Is he on a tourist visa?
- Has he had McDonalds?
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, June 25th, 2010
Today marked the first official day of the festival. Hundreds of people will remember it as the day they experienced tribal missions for the first time. Some came back three times, eager to learn more.
Josiah, who grew up in Papua New Guinea, is my partner. Because he is acting like a tribal person he has to wake up early and endure over an hour of makeup and costume prep before he’s ready for visitors. My job is to act as a guide as people visit him in his hut, which we’ve set up inside our tent at the festival. Josiah speaks only a New Guinean language called Kaulong inside the hut.
I model culturally appropriate behavior and help the guests with words and phrases if they get stuck. The visitors have the simple objective of getting four words in Kaulong: hammock, banana, tree, and pot. I try to push each small group of visitors that comes through to get outside their comfort zone and to engage Josiah in a conversation. Some groups need a lot of help to overcome shyness and some are so eager they offend Josiah’s tribal sensibilities. People leave completely different, amazed that 2500 people groups have yet to hear the Good News. It’s cool. Please pray for clarity, unity on our team, and changed lives.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Next week I’ll be going up to Gaylord, Michigan to represent NTM at the Big Ticket Festival, a three day Christian music extravaganza. Our goal is pretty simple: to inform, to excite and to educate anyone who will listen about how THEY can be involved in tribal evangelism. Myself and several gentlemen from New Tribes Bible Institute in Jackson will be donning tribal gear for skits and explaining several aspects of our unique work such as: language barriers, cultural barriers, and geographical barriers to the gospel’s advance in the most remote parts of the globe.
Please pray this opportunity would be fruitful and that God would be working the lives of those who visit our “tribal experience.”
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
Below you will find a financial update filling you in on our latest monthly support and special start-up cost fund levels. If the page does not load please visit: http://issuu.com/ricbruce/docs/financial_update
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
That title looks like something you’d find on a missionary’s website, right? This Sunday Sharon and I had the unique opportunity to share our ministry with about 200 kids at our home church in Lansing. It was a lot of fun to show them some authentic artifacts, video clips, and pictures from our journey up until this point. But honestly they blessed us far more than we could have blessed them. They prayed for us, asked great questions and thought about where God might be leading them on their journey.
I love their little prayers: “Dear Jesus please keep Ric and Sharon safe as they drive… or… fly…. to…” Other kids, “Thailand! Thailand!” Kid: “Thailand.”
Precious. Please pray some of the kids would be touched by our presentation and that a seed for missions would be planted in their lives. Thanks.
We wanted to share a few success stories with you from the past week. This time of partnership development can be discouraging unless you celebrate and look back on the details.
During the past week we’ve:
- Confimed five meetings for next week.
- Called 20 people we care about to set up meetings.
- Added four new individuals to our financial team.
- Crested the 40% mark in our financial support.
- Added 20 to our mailing list.
- Designed and printed May’s Newsletter.
- Met with three three families/individuals to explain our ministry.
We are praising the Lord for new friends and supporters, opportunities to share, and time to spend with family.
Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand 
We received word from our field leadership at 3:30 AM this morning that our “authorization letters” have arrived from Bangkok. Now we’re playing another waiting game for a little number- called a telex number- that we’re praying will arrive early next week. We will keep you posted. Our visas really haven’t “arrived” until that number comes in and we take the next step – a trip to Chicago.
Next week I’ll be going up to Gaylord, Michigan to represent NTM at the 
That title looks like something you’d find on a missionary’s website, right? This Sunday Sharon and I had the unique opportunity to share our ministry with about 200 kids at our home church in Lansing. It was a lot of fun to show them some authentic artifacts, video clips, and pictures from our journey up until this point. But honestly they blessed us far more than we could have blessed them. They prayed for us, asked great questions and thought about where God might be leading them on their journey.
