Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand Wat Phanan Choeng Ayutthaya
I really have no idea what’s going on in this video. I submit it as an example of one of the many things that happens at Chinese-Thai style temples in Thailand. I was told by someone I showed the video to that it has to do with the “San Jaow” or the guardian spirit and his spirit house following Chinese customs. If you do not see the video embedded below click here to see it on YouTube.
Tags: Ayutthaya, custom, spirit, temple, wat, Wat Phanan Choeng, worship
Remote Villages
Our friends shared some of their photos with us from a trip they took last month and I thought they would be good to post here for a wider audience. There are still some villages in Thailand lacking basic health services, sanitation, clean drinking water and other essentials. The good news is the Thai church is rising to the occasion and filling the need. The pictures speak for themselves:
None of these pictures are labelled for reuse.
Tags: access, basic needs, drinking water, health, Pictures, sanitaion, sanitation, services, Thai church, village
Holiday Letter
Our
Tags: christmas, festival, holiday, new year, snow in a can, thanks
Rafting
Went to a lake a few hours away from Chiang Mai to do what our Christian friends here like to do best: eat, worship and pray. Here are the pictures:
Latest Photos
Our latest photos were taken on two trips, one to a small zoo and one to a small flower garden. Check them out
Tags: animals, birds, crocodile, flowers, garden, latest, photos, zoo
Upcoming Home Assignment
This summer we’ll be in Michigan for a few months beginning in June. Our current plan is to come back to Chiang Mai sometime in October. Our primary purpose is to attend Sharon’s sister’s July wedding but we’re excited to reconnect with our churches, families and with you. We’ll let you know the exact dates later on but wanted to get an advance warning out there as a general announcement. Thanks and God bless.
Tags: church family, connect, home assignment, Michigan, supporters
Church Jokes
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.
Tags: bless, church, food, humor, joke, prayer, request, Thai
A Day in our Life
Our latest video, a series of time-lapse images of daily activities here.
Tags: Chiang Mai, daily life, photography, time-lapse
Happy New Year!
As Sharon and I think back on this past year we’re reminded that a year ago we couldn’t sound out a single word in the Thai script or even say a complete sentence in Thai that we hadn’t memorized first. We’re also hoping that a year from now will continue to see more and more improvement as we continue building relationships and digging into Thai culture. Thank-you for your help, support and prayers during this past year that have sustained us and kept us going down this path. We appreciate you all more than we can express in words. HAPPY NEW YEAR!! -Ric and Sharon
Tags: 2012, appreciation, new year, support, thanks
Cooking Class
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.
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| From Cooking Class |
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| From Cooking Class |
Tags: class, cooking, fish, food, friends, pork, shrimp, Thai
Latest Pics and Video
We’re always posting new stuff to our Picasa web albums and to our Youtube account too. Here are a few highlights lately:
Last night we went with some of our Karen friends to Hoi Geaow and sang a bunch of Karen Christmas songs with them-
Here are pictures on our Picasa account of our trip to Turtle Mountain, our church’s sister church. The bullet holes in the cross are a from an incident a few years ago where two men came onto the church property at night and blasted the church building several times to scare off the members.
Up, Up and Away is video we posted a while ago that no one really noticed. During November youths in Chiang Mai compete to make the biggest and best “Com Fai”s. Here are a few of the entries:
We have other albums online for you to check out like pictures of our time carolling here.
Tags: church, Com fai, competition, Doi Tao, Karen, media, Pictures, video
Joy to the World
This weekend we visited our Thai church’s sister church in Turtle Mountain (Doi Tao) Thailand. Though there are not many members the church was very warm and welcoming. It was a joy to join them for their annual Christmas celebration. Here they are singing Joy to the World in Thai.
Tags: celebration, christmas, Joy to the World, sing, Thai
General Update
(c) Norman Murphy
Life around this time of year is nuts. Whether it’s caroling all night, preparing special songs, or passing out tracts our friends hardly sleep this time of year. It’s true that we work hard but sometimes it seems like we “play” even harder with our friends. Unlike back home, people don’t get work or school off during this time of the year leaving schedules packed full and little end in sight until the new year.
A common question we get is, “How’s your language learning coming?!” Language learning is a lifestyle. It’s like trying to lose weight, eat healthy, get enough sleep or read through the Bible in a year. It’s hard work and requires a lot of discipline. It also requires sacrifice. You won’t lose weight unless you stop drinking that six pack of Pepsi for breakfast. Language learning has its ups and downs but overall we’re very encouraged with our progress.
We moved. Our new neighborhood is awesome. We’ve really enjoyed getting to know the people that walk around our neighborhood at night and the people that loiter around the local snack shop. Mostly we’re thankful for the lower rent outside the city as it helps us cover our expenses better. Thank-you to those of you who gave to cover our moving expenses.
A recent trip to visit a tribal team about six hours from here was incredible. There are people groups here in Thailand who need to hear God’s live-giving message, the gospel, in their heart language. During this Christmas season our hearts go out to you, our family and friends who have cheered us on to this point. We appreciate your love and support.
Yours, Ric and Sharon
Tags: carol, christmas, Language, neighborhood, play, schedule, sleep, song, Thai, tract, tribe
Lighting a “Kom Fai” Lantern
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:
Tags: 2011, Chiang Mai, festival of lights, kom fan, lantern, lighter, Loi Krathong, Mae Nam Ping, Night Bazar, november, Ping River, Thailand
Prayer Requests
A good friend sent us this prayer request list. Here’s how he’s lifting us up these days:
- That God would find favor on Ric and Sharon granting them good health and full healing for Sharon’s leg from her motorcycle accident.
- For them to create a good study routine for the next few weeks before Christmas.
- That God will show them ways to use their car effectively for ministry.
- That God would lead Ric as he makes disciple-makers of the two guys at his church. Also, that the Holy Spirit would convict their girlfriends of their need for Christ’s redemption.
- That God would direct Sharon to those girls that He would desire for her to develop intentional disciple-making relationships.
- That God would help Ric and Sharon “see” the needs the students have and how to best reach out to them.
- For continued strength and patience in their language learning.
Tags: accident, car, christmas, disciple, friend, Language, learning, list, Ministry, motorcycle, Prayer Request, redemption
Loi Krathong 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.
Tags: Buddhist, Chiang Mai, China, culture, Loi Krathong, monk, Navarat bridge, parade, temple, Thapae gate, Thapae road, traditional, tribal
Interviews are Completed
After hours and hours interviewing dozens of people (sometimes multiple times) our friends are likely quite sick of us. On the plus side we now have several hours of raw language data from multiple speakers. Our goal is to now organize all that data, write it out in Thai and then speak it back to the people who gave us the interviews. Easy! 
We’ve gotten some incredible stories. Today Tang was telling me about his childhood. His dad took him to boarding school when he was six years old. Dad told little Tang he was just going to go register him and be right back. Tang sat on the sidewalk for twelve hours before one of the teachers at the school found him and asked what grade he was in. Soon all the things Tang had brought to school were stolen except the clothes on his back and the spoon he had to eat with. Even his shoes were gone! But he held onto that spoon for dear life when other kids would beat him up because if he didn’t have it he would go hungry at dinner.
Puts our small troubles into perspective. Thanks for your continued prayers and support! – Ric and Sharon
Tags: boarding school, data, interviews, Language, stories, Thai
Flood Update
The water has gone down in our area and is now wreaking havok in suburbs of Bangkok, Thailand’s capital city. This year’s floods are the worst in 50 years and there are a lot of people that have lost everything as a result of this slow moving disaster. Some incredible photos at
are worth viewing and as always visit www.bangkokpost.com for the latest updates.
Tags: Bangkok, bangkokpost, flood, Thailand, water
Buying a Car
This is the "deluxe" version of the same car we're buying. Imagine this minus the fancy grill and wheels.
We’re buying a 1995 Nissan Cefiro with low miles from a good friend. At first we didn’t want to buy a car because trucks are generally tougher, safer and a better value but this car fell into our laps and after driving it for a few days we fell in love with it. It’s probably different than the car you drive to work in a few ways: the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, the turn signal and wiper controls are switched and it has two fuel systems: one for gasoline and one for natural gas.
The above picture was definitely taken in Thailand, btw. Notice the parking job. People will often double or triple park this way then leave the car in neutral so it can be easily pushed out of the way if need be.
Vehicles are expensive and depreciate slowly. Despite its age the car sells for 8,000 US dollars on the open market! However, we’re thankful to be off two wheels and onto four. Thank-you for giving and praying to make this happen.
The Lighter Side
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:
Check out the videos on Youtube here and here.
Tags: baptism, eat, grub, life, light, Mountain, trip, waterfall, worm
