Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, April 8th, 2011
April 13, 2010 Thai people offering water to a monk during Songkran Festival
Thailand has its own New Year celebration from the 13th to the 15th of April each year. It’s a really big deal and we’re gearing up to participate in it this year here in Chiang Mai. Honestly we don’t know too much about it but we’ve been prepared by our Thai friends to get very, very wet and to watch out for drunk drivers. We know that part of the festival includes celebrating your parents and honoring them with gifts and praise. We also know lots of people wear Hawaiian style shirts. (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, March 27th, 2011
Embedded on our website and, like always, posted on YouTube is a video of what we thought were men acting out what was once a traditional tribal dance at Chiang Mai’s cultural center. After showing it to friends at our church and hearing them say it was an old Thai dance we’re not sure exactly what the history of the dance is. Nonetheless, it’s a pretty cool act. Check it out: (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, March 20th, 2011
This video shows you what our lessons are looking like these days. We play videos of everyday activities we saw in the community and our teacher dubs over them in Thai with what is happening in the video (step-by-step description of the actions). For example in this video he is saying something like, “The other morning at the restaurant a woman cleaned off a table. (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, March 19th, 2011
We’ve created a new video showing you more of the activities that take place at the local temples. To get this footage we had to drive up Doi Suthep, a mountain near Chiang Mai and then climb hundreds of steps to the temple. The earlier you get up there there better so we left at 7:00 AM. See it at our website or on youtube.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, February 25th, 2011
Embedded on our website and available at YouTube is a quick video of us driving in a section of our new home, Chiang Mai. It shows the east side of the famous “moat” surrounding the city and Thapae gate. Thanks for watching.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, February 18th, 2011
On our Youtube account and embedded on our website you will find a video of an important religious holiday here in Thailand. Days such as these see hundreds of people gather at local temples to make merit, light candles and incense and listen to sermons and chants by monks. As you watch the video think about the creative and unique ways mankind has devised to worship anything other than the one true God. Thanks for watching.
Rom 1:25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
Thought I’d put a quick update about my surgery back in October. Hard to believe it’s been four months now! Honestly I almost never think about it now because I can do basically anything I want with it. Thankfully looking back on that experience it’s barely registered as a blip in our time here… unless you count dealing with the insurance over getting paid for the procedure. That’s another story though.
I visited the Doctor last week and he said I can begin running but only in a straight line or on a track. No soccer yet because any sudden stopping or stopping in a lateral direction could risk damaging the repair. We’re counting this progress in the “blessing” category. Thanks for your prayers.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, December 30th, 2010
Today’s pictures come to you from the Chiang Mai Arts and Culture Center, a facility near the Three Kings Monument dedicated to educating the public about Chiang Mai’s history, culture and art. Like most museums it has WAY more information than you could possibly learn in one trip. What struck us this time was the painstaking detail the creators took to depict Chiang Mai’s history. Below are a few samples of their work. See them all here. If you’d like to view the picture in a larger format right click it and select “view image”.
The Three Kings Monument. The museum is behind it.
Villagers in an ancient Thai culture performing a ceremony.
Villagers threshing rice. Similar methods are still used in parts of Thailand today.
This guy makes threshing the rice look easy. Could be because he's a statue...
Ladies selling fruits and vegetables simulating markets that have existed in every village in Thailand for centuries.
This is an average Northern Thai house 100 years ago.
A sample of ancient northern Thai script.
A ceremony to coronate the new King of the Lanna Kingdom (present day Chiang Mai).
Thais used to believe that hanging these woven baskets at the center of their rice fields would ward off evil spirits.
A blessing ceremony. Very similar ones are still held all over Thailand today.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, December 27th, 2010
Day two in our ongoing saga of pictures from Chiang Mai, Thailand brings you photos from the market. Be warned, you may find some things in these pictures you will NOT see at your local Walmart super-center. To enjoy all the photos at our web albums click here. Enjoy a few samples below:
This kid kept staring at me...
Pig anyone?
Stacking chickens.
Fish. It all universally smells like fish.
Cow's ears. I actually tried these things. They were crunchy and half-cooked.
"I'll take..."
The stuff on the left is SUPER spicy. Some sort of pepper seed I think.
A heart to heart. Or a teachable moment. Universally embarrassing in public.
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 Monday, November 1st, 2010
Tonight we saw the surgeon who performed the ACL / meniscus repair on Ric’s knee two weeks ago. He confirmed the plan we’d discussed then: four more weeks on crutches, traction beginning next week and full recovery in six months. He said the leg appears to be healing very well and that my quadriceps muscle is still strong. The only thing that’s different at this point is that the staples are gone and the bandages are off. Feels good! Thank-you for your prayers as we begin therapy next week. That will be painful.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, October 16th, 2010
Well, the surgery is tomorrow. At YouTube (and below if you’re visiting our website) you will find a quick video I made tonight. We appreciate your prayers as we experience a new part of the culture here: surgery.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
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).
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Here is a video done by Grace International School designed to show foreigners on their way to Thailand what it will be like to live in the city. It’s a great resource and it has helped us understand some things despite the fact we just visited. We will be living in Chiang Mai for two years to learn Thailand’s language and culture before moving to a more remote area without access to these luxuries. We’ll have to enjoy Chiang Mai while we can!
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
We’ve been running non-stop since we arrived in Thailand. Our first morning was spent flying from Bangkok to a regional city, Chiang Mai. Once we arrived our first order of business involved a tour of Grace International School and learning about the various ministries connected with the school. Our second priority involved food but I won’t bore you with the details.
This morning we started out with a big bowl of fried rice and enjoyed two more presentations regarding missionary work in Thailand. Later today Sharon and I arrived in Udon Thani, Thailand to visit with missionaries from our home church. We will be here for a few days and hope to post a few pictures of our time here. Here are a few pictures from the last two days:
Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand 
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Tonight we saw the surgeon who performed the ACL / meniscus repair on Ric’s knee two weeks ago. He confirmed the plan we’d discussed then: four more weeks on crutches, traction beginning next week and full recovery in six months. He said the leg appears to be healing very well and that my quadriceps muscle is still strong. The only thing that’s different at this point is that the staples are gone and the bandages are off. Feels good! Thank-you for your prayers as we begin therapy next week. That will be painful. 
