Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand Our latest video shows some of the things we did with our Thai friends during this year’s traditional Thai New Year, Songkran.
Posts Tagged ‘Chiang Mai’
Songkran 2012 Video
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, April 16th, 2012Valentine’s Day in Thailand
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Wednesday, February 15th, 2012There are a lot of advantages to living in Chiang Mai. One is you don’t have to think long in order come up with a great Valentine’s day surprise for the little lady. The tourist business provides a plethora of choices. Sharon explains our day yesterday in a series of pictures with captions on our Picasa web albums. Enjoy.
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| Valentine’s Day |
A Day in our Life
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, January 2nd, 2012Our latest video, a series of time-lapse images of daily activities here.
Lighting a “Kom Fai” Lantern
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, November 27th, 2011November 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:
Loi Krathong 2011
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.
Thankful for Friends
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.
Short Stay in the Hospital
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
Sharon appears to have gotten over a short bout with mild food poisoning after two nights in the hospital. We went into a local clinic on Monday because Sharon had a low fever and a racing pulse. The doctor decided to keep her in the hospital for a few nights to monitor her after he felt that she looked as though she may feint. In the States, of course, this would never happen but here in Thailand staying in the hospital doesn’t necessarily mean you have a serious condition. After a raft of intravenous antibiotics and blood tests she’s feeling herself again and ready to go home this morning. Thanks for your prayers for continued recovery.
We’re Moving
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, August 28th, 2011
Bungalow-Style Home in Chiang Mai
One thing weighing heavily on our minds is an upcoming move next month. Our current one year contract is expiring October 1st and we’ll be moving to a smaller bungalow-style or townhouse-style home near our church. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to find anything in our price range in this area. Please be praying as we look over the next two weeks that we’d find the house God’s prepared for us to spend the next year in. It should be located in a safe area, meet our basic needs, clean and relatively critter/bug free. Our reasons for moving are many and complicated but the primary one is financial. We’re trying to save money for a car and could better do that if we lived in a smaller place. Thanks for praying with us.
Family Visit Draws to a Close
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, August 9th, 2011
Fresh off the plane
We’ve had a great couple of weeks with Sharon’s family. They came to experience a different culture, try new things and enjoy time with us and our new friends. As Sharon’s father Dave pointed out today, “We’ve certainly run the gamut of experiences here in Thailand.” It’s true. We pretty much tried to give them a taste of every aspect of life here from our daily language sessions and everyday cuisine to tourist attractions and special “jungle” restaurants.
Showing Dave, Kathie and Michelle around these past two weeks has made us realize just how comfortable we have become here in this new culture and language. It has also exposed areas we need to continue digging into as they ask questions we have no idea how to answer. Pray for safety as they travel back this week and look at the pictures embedded below: (more…)
Family Visiting
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
Sharon's family arrived this morning for a two week visit.
We’re enjoying a special treat for the next few weeks: Sharon’s parents and sister. On the first day of their visit we covered a lot of ground and tried to keep them running around so they could adjust to the time zone quickly. We’ve got an ambitious agenda for the next few weeks together so we’re praying for safety as we drive our borrowed truck and try to show them what life is like on the other side of the world. It’s been fun to see Thailand through fresh eyes again.
Holy City
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, July 16th, 2011
Holy City Chiang Mai 2011
We participated in this year’s annual gathering of 7,000 Christians for worship and prayer last night. Like last year our church led worship at this gathering which would appear to attract about 2% of all Christians in Thailand if you divide 7000 by the latest numbers given at Congress 7.5: 400,000 Christians in a nation of 69 million. Anyways, there are some sample images embedded below or you can see them all here. (more…)
New Pictures
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, July 10th, 2011
New pictures of our latest adventures can be found on our Picasa Web Albums and a few examples are embedded below on our website. We went up Doi Suthep, a mountain near our house, with friends and we decided to pay ten dollars for the tour at the palace on top. The tour guide wanted to be our dedicated photographer so that worked out great. Normally there wouldn’t be so many pictures of us in here.
Below are some samples. Click the picture to see it in a larger format.
See all the pictures on our Picasa Web Albums. (more…)
Glad We’re Not Alone
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, June 16th, 2011Incidentally, 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…)
Our Favorite Thai Food
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…)
Not Your Mom’s Monkhood Parade
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
Last month's Songkran parade
Nope. This thing is serious. Check out this video I took today of a passing parade and threw on our website. We’re not completely baffled by these things anymore but I will say that every single one is different. We’re still in the process of figuring out what certain aspects mean… like what’s the symbolism of the guy holding the statue and the long quill pen? No one’s riding a horse in this one but there’s a carved horse’s head on the tricycle cart they’re pushing the drum on. What do you notice? Help us out by watching this video and the previous one then noting your observations and questions in the comments. We will investigate the parades further and as always keep you informed right here. (more…)
Signs in Thailand
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, May 8th, 2011
"Only Jesus pays for sin"
Signs cover nearly every square inch of available space in Thailand (like they do in many countries). With all the noise sometimes it’s hard to notice just one of them let alone read it as we’re driving by so today I spent an hour taking pictures of signs. Weird huh?
When I got home and started reading them I found some fabulous gems to share. The one on the right is a classic example. These little yellow signs are stuck high on telephone poles all over Thailand with short Christian messages that almost seem designed to purposely confuse people. I’m sure they were put there with the best of intentions as were the thousands of other signs in this city. (more…)
Put us on a Map
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, May 6th, 2011
For your viewing pleasure I’ve placed dots and drawn arrows all over a map of Thailand illustrating the places we’ve visited. Pictures and captions show you what the place looks like and explains when we went, why we traveled there and for how long we stayed. Don’t miss the small text in the lower corner of each caption linking you to the pictures of that event.
This map thing is designed to take the place of our regular April newsletter which would have been all about our travels anyway. View it here>>> (more…)
Tropical Downpour Video
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, May 5th, 2011
It’s been raining almost every afternoon as the rainy season begins here. Today’s rain was the hardest we’ve experienced yet with strong winds, hard rain and lightning for about ten minutes. Today’s rain reminded me to pray for those who live along the Mississippi River in the US and for families of the recent victims of floods in southern Thailand. Fortunately no one died in this rain. All it did was give our motorcycle a wash. Our neighbors were bummed by the rain though. They didn’t get their clothes off the line in time and they had to scramble all over their flooded yard in the rain scooping up clothes! (more…)
Chest Hair and Rap Music
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Wednesday, April 27th, 2011Most mornings as I’m walking by the neighbors invite me to eat with them. Today Uncle Ah kicked my usual chair a yard into the road as I walked by and I joined he and Auntie for spicy pork curry and sticky rice. Actually it’s not just one chair it’s two green plastic lawn chairs that have been stuck together so long they’ve forgotten how to separate. Uncle Ah sits on an old stump without a shirt on sometimes wearing nothing but a towel.
America is a favorite topic of conversation and Auntie never tires of Michigan snow stories. Today the conversation took a strange turn when Uncle Ah looked at me intently and said, “Do you have hair on your chest?” Taken aback a little I paused for a moment and his next question surprised me more, “Can you make rap music?” (more…)
City-Wide Waterfight Video!
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, April 14th, 2011
Lots of things make Chiang Mai famous: stunning temples, the zoo, jungle adventures, etc. Beyond that, however, the thing Chiang Mai may be best known for is its annual water fight during Songkran, the traditional Thai New Year. It’s insane. Today we walked for five hours around the city’s moat throwing an empty bucket into the moat, hauling it up by a rope and dumping the contents (trash, muck, scum and leaves among other things) on people as we walked. Check out our short video (more…)
