Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand 
Meet our new teacher, Krew Air. Sharon and and Krew Air (krew means teacher) hit it off quickly, making our daily lessons a joy. Basically Sharon and I take turns interviewing Air for 3 hours every day. We record the entire time session, take the data home, process it into our database and then take what we learned and ask other people about it. An example from today: we learned that in the past women in Thailand often didn’t learn in schools and didn’t have jobs. This is something that changed recently so we go around asking people’s opinions of this change. What are the pros and cons of women working outside the home? What are the advantages and disadvantages women face in society today? In the past? These sorts of questions get our friends thinking and sharing their opinions and we become more and more knowledgeable about the way our friends think.
Posts Tagged ‘learn’
Krew Air
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, October 30th, 2012Thai Buddhist Temple in Perry
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, July 31st, 2012One day a few months ago my dad noticed a car broken down in our neighbor’s driveway. Upon further inspection he realized they were a group of monks in traditional orange robes. None of them spoke English but there was a lady driving them around who had been in the US for a few years so she could speak some English. What my dad got, between the broken English and the frantic gestures, is that they were on their way to a temple just a few minutes away. Later, he forgot all about it.
Wat Dhammasala in Perry, MI
When Sharon and I arrived last month we were talking about monks and it jogged his memory… oh yeah! There’s a Buddhist temple just down the road. I checked it out several times without seeing a living soul in the vicinity but was blown away by how authentic it was. Today I went back for the fourth time and was able to meet the monks, speak Thai with them and get the calendar for the next few weeks.
If you live in the mid-Michigan area and would like to see the temple with me I’ll be glad to take you and show you a Buddhist ceremony this Saturday, August 4th at 10:00 AM. It’s the khao pansa ceremony that celebrates the traditional entering of the rain retreats in Thailand or “Buddhist Lent.”
Call me at 517-203-9511 and I’ll give you directions.
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…)
Rigors of Missionary Life
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, May 16th, 2011
Start of the Casiquiare - by Martin Mykiska
Incredible worldwide advances in technology have reversed many of the rigors of missionary life. By and large missionaries no longer have to raise their own food on farms, spend weeks hacking through dense jungles looking for unreached people groups or hike for days to get into a village. So what are the rigors of modern missionary life?
Seven months ago we embarked on the most ambitious adventure of our married life. But just like every adventure we’ve been on including Alaskan salmon fishing and hiking the Appalachian Trail the adventure sometimes doesn’t feel exciting while you’re going through it. Our biggest challenge is this: there is no end in sight to the work here. (more…)
Detailed Lesson Breakdown
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, March 25th, 2011At the risk of saying too much about how we learn Thai we’ve posted a new video on YouTube and embedded it on our website with a detailed breakdown of how we learn Thai. The step-by-step process depicted in the video only misses the part where we review the dubbed video over and over until we understand the entire thing. These are the highlights of a three hour session last week for us: (more…)
Making Lemonade
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, October 22nd, 2010
Ric at the park
As the old saying goes if life hands you lemons make lemonade. That’s what we’re trying to do with this situation we’re finding ourselves in. Sure, I can’t walk far but there are still a lot of places a person can plop down on a bench and do some serious observing, listening and learning. When Sharon goes shopping I sit on a bench outside the store and talk to people. When we go to the park I plop down by some fountain statue thing and take pictures. During down times I watch Thai television, process pictures, review what we’ve learned and prepare for our upcoming sessions with our teacher.
Overall, I’ve found that having an injury actually makes me more human in some way. People come up and ask what happened and even though I’m not entirely able to explain it I still get the basic point across and it starts a conversation and hopefully one day a relationship. We’ll see what God does. We’re looking at the silver lining. Thank-you for your continued prayers.
