Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand
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.
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…)
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.
What is this mess of wires? Well, that’s our new home phone from Vonage! Some of you may have heard of this service and some haven’t.
It’s great: Free calls. To Thailand. To us. From you. OR Free calls. From Thailand. From us. To you.
It will be a great way to keep in touch, share our lives and keep you involved. The best part: It will be Ric’s cell phone number. Just keep it in your cell phone or address book and call us when you get the urge to hear our voices. Keep in mind that Thailand is exactly 12 hours from Eastern Standard time most of the year and that we won’t be answering during the middle of the night. Leave us a voice mail anytime, however, and we’ll be happy to call you back.
If you need our number send us an email at ricandsharon@gmail.com
Last night we went to the beach to celebrate Sharon finishing her Cherokee analysis. It was great to walk along the boardwalk, splash in the waves, and feel free at last. Here are some pictures:
We haven’t been to Oklahoma yet, but we’ve seen pictures. Here’s a taste of where we’ll be staying for the next few weeks:
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
God has called us to be ambassadors for Christ in Cambodia. That’s our motivation. This one purpose gets us out of bed in the morning, we find. The more we learn about Cambodia and pray for the work God is doing in the country the more excited we grow. Here’s what God has called us to do-
Catch a Glimpse of Our Purpose:
Few people can say they knew exactly what they wanted to do and be when they were in high school. We were both sure of two things six years ago – we were committed to each other and we were committed to Paul’s attitude toward evangelism in Romans 15:20:
" I have been eager to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation."
To us, this verse reveals bit of God’s heart: he wants all people to have equal access to His truth and to the gospel. But they don’t. Inequality still exists, so we’ve dedicated our youth to fixing the situation in one part of the world: Cambodia.
The Specifics:
Our specific ministry location within the country is to be decided, but we have a timeframe of what we will be doing when (this is all subject to change).
That’s the work we’ve been called to do and trained to do, now we are asking God for the financial and prayer support needed to see the task completed. God has called us to represent Him in Cambodia and you can be an important part of seeing that happen! Please visit our ministry page to learn more, send us an email, or give to our ministry!
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