Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, February 2nd, 2013
Nothing says February like the Superbowl, college basketball and snow on the ground. Or, in our case, Chiang Mai’s annual flower festival, the MK home-school conference and the English Premier League. However you mark the season we’re excited to be able to report progress toward our goals in several key areas:
God provided a place for us to stay in the village we’ll be working in. It will be newly constructed just for us! This is a huge answer to prayer
Just 30 lessons to go in our language program in Chiang Mai! Having completing 370 lessons so far 30 more feels like a breeze.
We’ve enjoyed great team-building activities with our future co-workers and are currently hammering out the purpose, vision and strategy statements that will guide our partnership.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, July 16th, 2012
We are thanking God for his provision just five days after we sent out a newsletter alerting partners like you to our need for a truck that $3,000 of $7,000 has been provided already. It’s been incredibly humbling and awesome to see God providing. Thanks and keep praying that the rest would come in.
P.S. Yes, the truck IN the picture is the one we’d like to buy. It’s in Thailand, not in the US and should last us a long time.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
Just heard these two from our teacher. They are full of Thai humor and culture.
A new Christian goes on an evangelism trip with his pastor up a mountain. After the pastor has explained the gospel to an unbelieving family he asks this new Christian to pray for the residents of the house they’re in and to bless the message he’s just shared. The new Christian obediently closes his eyes and repeats the things the pastor asked him to pray for but he can’t remember how to end so he just begins the whole prayer all over again but still can’t remember. Finally after a few rounds of this he leans over and asks the pastor, “Who was that guy again?”
“Jesus” the pastor answers.
“Oh yeah. In JESUS name we pray, Amen.”
Another time the same pastor asked an older gentlemen to pray and bless the food they were about to eat.
“Okay, let’s all bow our heads and close our eyes” the man began. Everyone gathered around the food, folded their hands and closed their eyes. Five seconds went by. Then ten. Still no prayer was uttered. Everyone began looking around and a few people caught a glimpse of the man running full tilt out of the room.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, August 9th, 2011
Fresh off the plane
We’ve had a great couple of weeks with Sharon’s family. They came to experience a different culture, try new things and enjoy time with us and our new friends. As Sharon’s father Dave pointed out today, “We’ve certainly run the gamut of experiences here in Thailand.” It’s true. We pretty much tried to give them a taste of every aspect of life here from our daily language sessions and everyday cuisine to tourist attractions and special “jungle” restaurants.
Showing Dave, Kathie and Michelle around these past two weeks has made us realize just how comfortable we have become here in this new culture and language. It has also exposed areas we need to continue digging into as they ask questions we have no idea how to answer. Pray for safety as they travel back this week and look at the pictures embedded below: (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
Sharon's family arrived this morning for a two week visit.
We’re enjoying a special treat for the next few weeks: Sharon’s parents and sister. On the first day of their visit we covered a lot of ground and tried to keep them running around so they could adjust to the time zone quickly. We’ve got an ambitious agenda for the next few weeks together so we’re praying for safety as we drive our borrowed truck and try to show them what life is like on the other side of the world. It’s been fun to see Thailand through fresh eyes again.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, May 16th, 2011
Every day my knee feels stronger and the joint gets tighter as my quad muscles learn how to do their job again. Unfortunately we’re not out of the woods yet on this one though. I’ve got a mix of good and bad news for you and I could still use your prayers for a full recovery so I can use my knees to build closer relationships with guys who play soccer every day near our house.
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 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 Monday, October 4th, 2010
Hello everybody-
Just a note to let you know we are over half way there! Our first two flights went well and we are waiting to board the leg to Bangkok. Please pray we will be able to sleep on this leg, as it is now night-time in Thailand. We are encouraged and feeling great as we lOok forward to our new adventure tomorrow. Thanks a lot for the comments, prayers and emails! Keep them coming! -Ric and Sharon
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
Our co-workers and friends about whom we have written several times, Kevin and Emily, have just arrived in Thailand! We received this note from our field leadership:
“Only 3 nights ago we were able to welcome our newest missionaries to the field, Kevin & Emily Bertram and their son Logan. In spite of jet-lag the Bertram’s have been very busy getting set up at their house as well as getting a bank account set up, shopping for needed items, getting official photos done, spending time here at the office for a field overview, etc. Pray for good rest at night for them all and that they’ll soon be over jet-lag. Also, pray for the other enroute families that their letters of guarantee will come through in a timely way – God’s timing!”
Wow! That will be us soon. Be praying with us for them and for our paperwork to come soon.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
It’s amazing how God works. Our May update included a list of special gifts that would be a blessing as we move to Thailand this fall. One important item was a work computer to house our many recordings, pictures, and video we’ll be taking during language learning.
A great friend and supporter answered the call giving us her old computer, a docking station, and a wonderful laptop case. The computer is a Dell Latitude D610 with a 1.88 Ghz processor, 1 Gb of RAM, an 80 Gb hard drive and the very latest Windows and Office suite installed on it. For those who don’t speak computer: it’s a great work horse. We’ll use it until it falls apart.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
That title looks like something you’d find on a missionary’s website, right? This Sunday Sharon and I had the unique opportunity to share our ministry with about 200 kids at our home church in Lansing. It was a lot of fun to show them some authentic artifacts, video clips, and pictures from our journey up until this point. But honestly they blessed us far more than we could have blessed them. They prayed for us, asked great questions and thought about where God might be leading them on their journey.
I love their little prayers: “Dear Jesus please keep Ric and Sharon safe as they drive… or… fly…. to…” Other kids, “Thailand! Thailand!” Kid: “Thailand.”
Precious. Please pray some of the kids would be touched by our presentation and that a seed for missions would be planted in their lives. Thanks.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, March 15th, 2010
We do a lot of waiting.
Buried under a mound of paperwork
Here’s an update on our current paperwork situation:
As you know we’ve been invited by NTM’s leadership in Thailand to join the team there. To complete the process, however, we’re working through a mound of paperwork for the Thai government. Which is fun, don’t get us wrong. From our end everything is completed and turned in.
Now we wait. It will take 4-6 months until we hear anything. Our goal is still to head to Thailand late this summer but we can’t set a date in stone until this paperwork comes through. Please pray everything will go smoothly and that we’ll be approved to move to Thailand. Thank-you.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, February 14th, 2010
As faith-based missionaries we rely on your continued prayer and financial support each day in order to reach our goal of establishing a church among an unreached people group in Thailand. We deeply appreciate the many families, individuals, churches, and organizations that currently partner with us. You keep us going.
We desire to be transparent with our current level of pledged monthly financial giving: 30% of our total need. Our goal is to reach 50% of that need by April 1st so we can purchase tickets and depart for Thailand in a timely manner. If you would like to help please fill out this no-obligation form letting us know how you can partner with us in our ministry:
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Friday, August 28th, 2009
Tomorrow pray for safety as we head to Oklahoma. We will be on the road for five hours and when we arrive we’ll be setting up “home” for seven weeks. During these weeks Sharon will be gathering Cherokee language data and analyzing it. Her goal will be to form an alphabet for the language, among other things. While she’s doing that I will be doing a bit of traveling, using Oklahoma as a “home base” to visit churches, friends, and family in the midwest area.
Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand 
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. 
It’s amazing how God works. Our 
That title looks like something you’d find on a missionary’s website, right? This Sunday Sharon and I had the unique opportunity to share our ministry with about 200 kids at our home church in Lansing. It was a lot of fun to show them some authentic artifacts, video clips, and pictures from our journey up until this point. But honestly they blessed us far more than we could have blessed them. They prayed for us, asked great questions and thought about where God might be leading them on their journey.
