Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand
We’re out of the hospital! It was an amazing experience really… but we’re glad it’s over. Here are some pictures of our experiences. Enjoy.
Us
Waiting for surgery
View from our hospital room
Our language helper visiting.
What the Dr. did.
Up close and personal.
Breakfast.
They just wheeled me into my room after two hours of surgery. Apparently it was successful? I am still alive and do not have too much pain at this point. Immediatelya after surgery the doctr went home so we will have to talk with him in the morning about how things went and what my recovery will look like. We will keep you posted.
Today we went into the hospital for an MRI, had it read by a doctor and went to see a specialist. The verdict was unanimous: the knee needs reconstructive surgery. The ACL is completely gone and the meniscus is partly damaged. We won’t know exactly what is needed until it’s opened up and the doctor begins probing. Surgery is scheduled for Sunday. There are a few things you can be praying for:
He seems very knowledgeableThanks guys! We know you are praying and we will always continue to keep you posted right here. Blessings in Him, Ric and Sharon
Sharon took some pictures on our culture and language outing today. We visited a Wat, or temple with our language helper and one of his friends. Below you’ll find Sharon’s slideshow. Click here to see the pictures on our Picasa Web Albums. Click here to listen to our language helper explain what we did today (unfortunately you’ll have to download the file to hear it).
Below you’ll find a picture slideshow of our first days in Thailand, the airplane ride over and our time at church today. We’re exhausted to be honest but so happy to be here. We’ve been doing so much in these first days and field orientation starts tomorrow morning. Yikes. Thank-you all for your love and support. We’ll check in again soon.
Well, we’ve arrived. Finally! We were greeted at the airport by a veritable gaggle (a pride?) of veteran missionaries and new Thai friends welcoming us to our new home. They’d even all pitched in together to buy us some groceries! Wow. They whisked us off to our new home, introduced us to the landlady and took us for a walk around the neighborhood. We feel blessed to work with a team of people who care.
Sharon and Janna - our main contact helping us settle into our new home!
Overall our trip went really well. It was long, of course, but very smooth. Probably the most stressful thing was wrangling the 300 pounds of baggage we’d packed from place to place. We were also carrying way too much weight in our carry-ons trying to avoid overage charges for our checked bags. My back hurts form carrying about sixty pounds of stuff everywhere we went. Well, we’re exhausted. Praying we don’t wake up early (as is the tendency for people with jet lag).
We’re in Bangkok and waiting for our flight to Chiang Mai! We were able to sleep a lot on our seven hour flight into the country, which is what we were praying for! Continue praying the rest of our flight goes well and that we’ll get all our luggage to the next leg okay. A few of our plastic totes were pretty beat up but the luggage straps and the locks kept our stuff from exploding all over the place. Here are some photos of our trip over:
Hello everybody-
Just a note to let you know we are over half way there! Our first two flights went well and we are waiting to board the leg to Bangkok. Please pray we will be able to sleep on this leg, as it is now night-time in Thailand. We are encouraged and feeling great as we lOok forward to our new adventure tomorrow. Thanks a lot for the comments, prayers and emails! Keep them coming! -Ric and Sharon
If you’re reading this soon after we posted it we’re probably somewhere over the Atlantic on our way to Thailand. Since it’s half-way around the world you can really go either way. We picked the cheapest at the time.
Basically, here’s the deal for at least a few days. Please pray for us. We have a lot of adjustments: friends to meet, new foods to try, and a foreign language to pick up. We appreciate your comments, concern and notes. Please forgive us if we’re a bit tardy in replying to them while we get on our feet. We love you all! -Ric and Sharon
Below you’ll find a picture slideshow of our time at Trinity Church on Sunday. We had six minutes in the service to explain our ministry, show pictures of Thailand and describe our journey into missions. The response was absolutely incredible. After the services nearly 50 new people signed up to receive our updates from Thailand! We talked to hundreds of people interested in learning more or in expressing their support and love.
Thank-you Trinity Church. You guys rock!
Yesterday we took a second four+ hour trip down to Chicago to pick up our completed visas and made the four hour trip home a few hours later. While we were there we saw a lot of the city. Check out our pictures from Chicago:
I really don’t have anything to say about the harvest but I have this cool picture of rice being harvested in Thailand so I figured I had to throw it on the blog. Let me know what you think of the picture in the comments below. Or if you have comments on “the harvest” go ahead and put those in the comments. Well since I’ve taken the time to explain all that I guess I’ll say a few things.
Reaping a harvest requires patience. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” I hate waiting. Through our delayed visa situation, however, I’m learning patience and to “wait on the Lord.” The Lord is not slow, as I understand slowness. He’s just patient.
Just because our visas haven’t arrived doesn’t mean we’ve been sitting around. Quite the opposite. We’re moving forward as if we’re leaving by the first week in October. We’re still buying a few last-minute supplies, saying goodbyes to friends and family and planning a few last-minute meetings.
Our focus is starting to shift more and more to Thailand. We’ve been corresponding with Kevin and Emily often to see how they’re adjusting and if there’s anything they need, didn’t bring, wish they had, etc. Our field leadership has been filling us in on the details of our initial days in the country and helping us learn more about our new home.
It may sound weird that we’re packing up already… but it takes a long time! Each of these four blue totes will be stuffed with things we need to start a new life in Thailand. Imagine getting your entire house into these totes! Pray our visas will come soon so the totes don’t become our temporary shelter from Michigan’s fall weather too (joke).
It’s beginning to hit us. Not because we have our visas yet or because we have plane tickets or even because we’ve been learning very much Thai. We know we’re headed to Thailand soon because we’re really, really busy. This past week we took a short vacation with family, attended a leadership summit, and had meetings with key members of our support team. It’s been exhilarating.
The second morning of the leadership summit I listened to a sermon on Numbers 11 by Jeff Manion, Senior Pastor of Ada Bible Church in Ada, MI. The message focused on whining, specifically on the time Moses had an emotional breakdown in the desert leading the children of Israel. He complained that he could not carry the burden of the people anymore. I love the dialogue:
11 “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? 12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? 13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”
16 The LORD said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. 17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.
It’s not that I’ve had an emotional breakdown but I can definitely relate to Moses here. I often feel overwhelmed by the task of global evangelism. Have I given birth to lost Tribal people?
Just like God provided 70 elders for Moses, God has provided supporters, leadership teams, small groups and churches to help carry our burden. Each person that gets involved contributes a unique gift that we can leverage and learn from as we embark. Thank-you. We couldn’t do it without you.
It’s amazing how God works. Our May update included a list of special gifts that would be a blessing as we move to Thailand this fall. One important item was a work computer to house our many recordings, pictures, and video we’ll be taking during language learning.
A great friend and supporter answered the call giving us her old computer, a docking station, and a wonderful laptop case. The computer is a Dell Latitude D610 with a 1.88 Ghz processor, 1 Gb of RAM, an 80 Gb hard drive and the very latest Windows and Office suite installed on it. For those who don’t speak computer: it’s a great work horse. We’ll use it until it falls apart.
Below are some pictures from our time in Traverse City, Michigan. We enjoyed a brief get-away there to mark our birthdays (Sharon’s is June 10 and mine is June 27). It will probably be our last opportunity before we head to Thailand.
Sharon cleaning the house after we moved out.
We’ve moved! That’s probably the biggest thing we accomplished in the past week. We put all our worldly possessions in three piles: garage sale, Thailand, and storage. We are now only using the “Thailand” pile. The other two are gone. Moving to Thailand feels a lot more real!
We’re essentially living out of suitcases in my parent’s house. We’re not exactly suffering, though. We have a fully furnished apartment above their garage with our own bathroom and a great view. The neighbors are okay too. Thank-you very much for your prayers and concern.
NTM’s official statement:
The recent upheaval in Thailand is having minimal impact on New Tribes Mission’s ministries there.
NTM missionaries plant churches in rural locations and no unrest has occurred in those areas. At this time, NTM has no missionaries stationed in Bangkok, where most of the activities have taken place.
Recently, however, unrest has spread to some provincial capitals. These include Chiang Mai, where NTM has personnel who support the work of missionaries in rural villages. NTM’s personnel in Chiang Mai are taking increased precautions and this has caused some disruption in their daily routines.
New Tribes Mission will continue to monitor the situation from inside and outside the country, and will take appropriate actions to minimize risk to its missionaries in Thailand.
Please pray for peace for the people of Thailand, for their sakes and so that the Gospel may go forward unhindered.
The brush pile
We continue our series of odd job highlights with a chainsaw massacre… of trees. It’s a manly feeling to cut down trees but it’s also sad that Michigan has been so devastated by the emerald ash borer. I guess it keeps me in a part-time job to earn extra money!
For those who’ve been following our emergency fund we’re happy to let you know that our side jobs have fully funded a savings account set aside just for emergencies with $500. We feel much better knowing we have a bit of money set aside in case something goes wrong that we were not expecting and we are hoping to add more to it soon!
Here’s our latest update letter, which is more like a statement then a letter.
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| Letters from Home |
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