Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, July 8th, 2011
What did I just say
Eight months of learning Thai has been a humbling experience. Not only is the tone of your voice crucial for proper pronunciation the length of your vowels will also change the meaning of words. So you if you say “khao” with a high and falling tone it’s a different word than “khao with a scooping tone. If you say the wrong one you’re still communicating… but not what you intended to say.
In layman’s terms that means Thai is really hard to speak naturally. Here are a few of the statements we’ve made accidentally:
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, April 4th, 2011
Most weekends we go out with our friends from church. Primary activities include: visiting sick people in the hospital, going to weddings, spending six hours praying, boiling eggs at hot springs, going to a revival or riding a hot bus for hours and hours. Not exactly the way we would have spent our weekends back home.
Here’s what we’re learning though: it doesn’t really matter what you’re doing. The most important thing is that you’re doing it together with friends. That’s certainly a strong value we’ve observed playing itself out over and over again in the six months since we’ve been here. Embedded on our website are some pictures from this weekend illustrating my point: (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, February 28th, 2011
Our February newsletter is embedded in a post on our website and is available like always at http://issuu.com/ricbruce. This update marks progress toward our goals in our first years in Thailand, fills you in on what we do each day, provides you with our prayer requests and gives you a glimpse of our new home. Thank-you for reading.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, February 27th, 2011
It’s not often you get to see everyday life while living as a guest in another country so we feel privileged to share these pictures which were taken by our friends (on one of our cameras). They’ve generously agreed to allow us to post them here so please enjoy them and if you’d like to see more pop over to our Picasa Web Albums to see them all (you can also zoom in on these ones).
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, February 15th, 2010
The past few days we’ve been spending time with my family down in Jackson. Sam and Kari are here visiting from Virginia and our latest family addition, Stephen, is up from Cleaveland. Here are some photos from the past few days:
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, November 16th, 2009
A cross outside Crystal Ridge Community Church
We’re tired, so for the next few days we’ll be relaxing and seeing some of the sights in Tennessee, Alabama and Missouri. After all the work Sharon put into her Cherokee analysis and the days of traveling we need to take a few days to slow down, catch up on our mail, and prepare for our next meetings.
We had a great time with in Tennessee today. This Sunday we will be in Missouri at Prosperine Baptist Church. Monday we fly to Arizona to spend time with family for the holidays.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, November 12th, 2009
We’re in Norfolk, Virginia watching the rain slam against the windows and listening to the wind howl though the trees outside. This is the yearly “Noreaster” that residents here have come to respect for its ability to flood the city annually. Here’s a link. We are safe, but appreciate your prayers as we are hoping to drive to central Virginia tomorrow and then head on to Tennessee Saturday.
Yesterday, however, we did squeeze in a little fun before the heavy rains and wind. We went to the Virginia Beach Aquarium and had a great time looking at the animals. Here’s a sample of what we saw:
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, November 9th, 2009
Sharon is done with her paper!
On the road finding internet is always a problem and when we do get it we snatch every precious second of it we can get. I’m in the process of adding pictures to our online albums, checking our email, updating our website, downloading important files and updates for my computer, and managing our contact lists from the churches we’ve visited. The most important thing I’m doing, though, is sending Sharons paper off to the grader’s. Here’s how it came in:
Pages: 115
Hours: 100+
Sharon is SOOO happy to be done. Now we party. We’re going to the beach and then shopping. Wednesday we will go to the aquarium here in town.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Here are some funny comics that have been in the past few editions of our local newspaper. Sharon’s mom cut them out for us, so I thought I’d post them for everyone to read.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, October 12th, 2009
Sharon made some delicious indian tacos on Saturday with her language helper (Bobbie) and some of her friends who are also in the linguistics course. The time Sharon has spent with the Cherokee friends she has met here in Tahlequah has been priceless, but we are ready to move on and be completely done studying. Sharon still has a lot of work to do! Breaks like this one are much-needed and well-deserved.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Sharon attended a Powwow on Saturday and had a great time watching the dances and seeing the costumes. She was able to try Indian Tacos and even some of the dance moves. Cherokee culture is rich and intricate, so Sharon went to the powwow to learn some important culture that will help her with her analysis of the language and understanding her language helper. I will be posting some video of the event tomorrow.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, August 13th, 2009
Many people know about our previous hike on the Appalachian Trail… when we walked from Pennsylvania to Maine after we got married. The past four days we were continuing the hike south, completing 50 miles more of Pennsylvania. I am in the process of typing a journal of our time on the trail. For now, here are some pictures. Check back later for the play-by-play.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
Today was the fourth day of VBS at Trinity. There are hundreds of kids involved and it’s a great opportunity to get them excited about reaching the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. As part of my internship responsibilities, I’ve been bringing in missionaries to speak to the kids.
Schedule of Events: Day One: Everywhere we are is a mission field! Day Two: Some churches look different then ours! Day Three: Isolated Tribal People need the gospel! Day Four: Some kids live different lives than I do! Day Five: I can follow God anywhere
My involvement has been minimal, really. I recruited some volunteers, explained the curriculum for them, and made sure they had everything they needed to do the job. They have all done a fantastic job! LifeWay
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, June 7th, 2009
Seeing a professional baseball game is amazing on any day, but today was exceptional. The tickets were gifts from a missions-minded couple at our church, the weather was great, the Tigers won via a grand slam in the eighth inning, and I got some decent pictures. Thanks Ben and Jen!
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, May 10th, 2009
This mother’s day we’d just like to thank our mothers who spent so much time and effort raising us. We both are blessed to have excellent families and especially dedicated mothers who love us very much. Although we weren’t able to be with them we still thought about them often. -Ric and Sharon
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, May 9th, 2009
On top of her incredible linguistics workload this semester, Sharon has spent hours training for a race. It all paid off as she crossed the finish line of her 10k (6.2 miles) in one hour, three minutes, and fifty seven seconds.
For her full race results, please visit this link and type Sharon Bruce in the appropriate boxes.
Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand 
