Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand
We’ve had some incredible experiences in just two short weeks back here in the states. It’s been a wild ride! Our days are packed with things like meetings, family gatherings and time with our friends and supporters. That’s you! If we haven’t gotten something on the calendar yet… let’s make it happen! Here are some shot of the past two weeks:
There are a bunch more on Picasa:
This past weekend Sharon and I took a trip with some good friends of ours. The experience was basically this: we’d stop somewhere for five minutes, rush out of the car, furiously snap pictures and jump back in the tiny pickup truck to speed off at 100 miles an hour down the road. We left at 4:00 AM on a Friday, drove 7 hours to Ayutthaya, another couple hours to the heart of Bangkok, 3 hours to Pattaya and finally turned around 12 hours from our home here. The whole trip was 58 hours long. Embedded below (maybe) are a few of the pictures. Click here to see them on Picasa. There are dozens more on Facebook.
Our friends shared some of their photos with us from a trip they took last month and I thought they would be good to post here for a wider audience. There are still some villages in Thailand lacking basic health services, sanitation, clean drinking water and other essentials. The good news is the Thai church is rising to the occasion and filling the need. The pictures speak for themselves:
None of these pictures are labelled for reuse.
We’re always posting new stuff to our Picasa web albums and to our Youtube account too. Here are a few highlights lately:
Last night we went with some of our Karen friends to Hoi Geaow and sang a bunch of Karen Christmas songs with them-
Here are pictures on our Picasa account of our trip to Turtle Mountain, our church’s sister church. The bullet holes in the cross are a from an incident a few years ago where two men came onto the church property at night and blasted the church building several times to scare off the members.
Up, Up and Away is video we posted a while ago that no one really noticed. During November youths in Chiang Mai compete to make the biggest and best “Com Fai”s. Here are a few of the entries:
We have other albums online for you to check out like pictures of our time carolling here.
This weekend Sharon and I took an incredible trip out to Northeast Thailand, an area we’d like to work in full time. This weekend we experienced a merit-making ceremony for the deceased which blew our minds. Here are my favorite pictures from this weekend:
See them all here:
The mountains of Northern Thailand have fascinated us since we arrived. Here are a few shots from the top we took this month:
Got my conference face on. Has a camera in it.
We spent last week with some of our favorite people: our co-workers. Since many of them work in remote parts of Southeast Asia we don’t get to see them often. The six days flew by chock full of reports from the various teams, workshops and meetings with our leaders and fun times of fellowship and encouragement with fellow workers.
Below I’ve embedded several pictures of Sharon and I taken during the past week but believe it or not we weren’t the only ones there. You can see the rest of the people by visiting our Picasa web albums (also available on our new Google+ account).
We have more pictures from the Lawa wedding we attended this week embedded on our website. These ones are from my camera wing-man: our Thai teacher, “older brother” and friend (which is a weird combination here). If you’re a picture fanatic and have to see absolutely every single picture we post you can see them all on Picasa. (more…)
On our fifth anniversary we headed 14 hours south of here on an overnight bus to a tiny island. Enjoy the selected pictures we’ve embedded on our website and uploaded to Picasaweb. You should see two different slideshows. They show a different side of Thailand than we’ve experienced in the six months since we arrived: the beach, Bangkok and hundred of kilometers of Thailand’s middle section. Tell us what you think. (more…)
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…)
While in Northeast Thailand we visited a village temple with our friends and thought you’d enjoy a few of the pictures we took. Village temples are similar in form to temples in the city but they have a much more intimate and close-knit feel since obviously everyone in the village knows each other. Enjoy:
Some village temples use gongs and drums, something I haven't seen in the city yet.
The head monk leads the ceremony.
The men and women split up for the ceremony. Sharon fit right in.
While listening to the sermon most people have their hands together.
I definitely don't understand the ceremonies yet.
The temple isn't just for religious activity. It's also an important hub for social life.
Offerings are given to the monks.
Be sure to check out all the pictures of our journey on our Picasa Web Albums.
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).
Great portrait of a street vendor
Headed to a wedding.
Wedding. Love this picture.
Having fun.
Raw Larb meat salad.
Old tribal woman
Can you find the lizards in the tree?
Heading home.
Check out all our pictures at Picasa.
In the past months we’ve taken thousands of pictures but honestly we just don’t have time to post them all. On our website you’ll find some scrolling picture slideshows or you can check them all out at our picasa web albums. Here are some samples of what you’ll find in the albums:
Beautiful waterfalls
Pictures of our church
Funny situations... like dogs that think leaves are money.
Beautiful flowers... from Sharon's camera.
Evil looking cats.
Delicious food.
Did we mention waterfalls?
Be sure to check out all our pictures at Picasa.
If you want more up-to-date pictures check out our mobile albums on Facebook.
Today we visited a pottery factory, a silk factory and an antiques store. Just like the other days this week you will see the pictures we like best below. You can check out all the pictures at our web albums. Thanks and enjoy the pictures!
Doesn't she look like a teacher??
This job must be painstaking.
"Krew" is teacher in Thai
This "factory" was pretty much there just to fix mistakes from the real factory.
Sharon loves the elephants. More at our picasa web albums.
This long plate is used to serve sauces... Like PF Changs.
Making silk. There are pictures of the entire process in the extra pictures.
Sharon loved it all... even though she was fighting an upset stomach.
If you want to see more check them all out.
Day three of our week in photos: flowers. Northern Thailand has a unique climate that creates some colorful, exciting flowers. As usual, below are some samples. You’ll find the rest in our web albums.
This reminds me of Willy Wonka for some reason.
Hello from Thailand. Wish you were here with us.
We liked how the window framed the flower.
Pink is "see champoo" in Thai.
When there's light behind them you can see the veins in the flowers. Neato.
The most beautiful Thailand flower is in this picture.
I may have overdone it a bit with the orchids.
Oh yeah, there were a lot of people at the gardens too. 
Glowy!
I guess orchids are just more photogenic.
Check out the rest after the jump here.
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.
Smelly charm things to go in your car.
Check out 20 more pictures at our Picasa Web Albums.
Sharon and I have a week off language learning for the holidays!!! Which means more time to post on the blog and see more of the beautiful city we’ve been living in. Today I visited several temples around the city and took pictures of anything that seemed interesting. Check out all of them at our Picasa web albums and a few samples here:
Check out all the pictures at Picasa web albums and check back every day this week to see more pictures.
Blog Announcements
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Thursday, May 19th, 2011Sent by a blog reader.
We have a few general blog announcements as we prepare to fly to a province we haven’t visited yet. This past week we were so encouraged by the comments, emails and notes showing your support. Thank-you!
A friend sent us the picture you see in the thumbnail of this post. In just seven words it sums up what we spent 383 words explaining in our post about eating more rice. Speaking of pictures have you seen the pictures I took today at the temple? Personally, I prefer videos like the one we posted about the monk parade on Tuesday. Our most popular post this week was definitely a short summary of the “Rigors of Missionary Life.” (more…)
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