Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, December 17th, 2011
(c) Norman Murphy
Life around this time of year is nuts. Whether it’s caroling all night, preparing special songs, or passing out tracts our friends hardly sleep this time of year. It’s true that we work hard but sometimes it seems like we “play” even harder with our friends. Unlike back home, people don’t get work or school off during this time of the year leaving schedules packed full and little end in sight until the new year.
A common question we get is, “How’s your language learning coming?!” Language learning is a lifestyle. It’s like trying to lose weight, eat healthy, get enough sleep or read through the Bible in a year. It’s hard work and requires a lot of discipline. It also requires sacrifice. You won’t lose weight unless you stop drinking that six pack of Pepsi for breakfast. Language learning has its ups and downs but overall we’re very encouraged with our progress.
We moved. Our new neighborhood is awesome. We’ve really enjoyed getting to know the people that walk around our neighborhood at night and the people that loiter around the local snack shop. Mostly we’re thankful for the lower rent outside the city as it helps us cover our expenses better. Thank-you to those of you who gave to cover our moving expenses.
A recent trip to visit a tribal team about six hours from here was incredible. There are people groups here in Thailand who need to hear God’s live-giving message, the gospel, in their heart language. During this Christmas season our hearts go out to you, our family and friends who have cheered us on to this point. We appreciate your love and support.
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 Monday, April 4th, 2011
Embedded on our website and available at Issuu.com is our very latest newsletter featuring highlights of our days, weeks and months here. It’s been a memorable journey here and we hope you feel a part of what God is doing in our lives and through the Thai church here in Thailand. Please feel free (like always) to email us any questions. (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, October 25th, 2010
We’re now officially in “stage one” culture and language acquisition here in Thailand. Up to this point we’ve been in a “warm-up” phase which basically entails getting our ear attuned to the new sounds and our minds and hearts used to our new way of life. This new stage looks quite a bit different. There are no trips to “the office” for orientation. There are no structured, dictated outings to go on.
Our schedule is completely up to us and our language learning can pretty much be tailored to fit our needs…. as long as we put in at least 40-50 hours per week. So what do we do? Well, there are three basic elements:
“Exposure” time involves observation and participation in our larger context: getting into the community. This can be anything, but it needs to be consistent, varied and purposeful. We need goals – in fact we plan exactly what we want to observe, learn and participate in to maximize our time.
“Language Helper” time is intense. We sit down with our language helper in front of a picture book we created in planning the week before. Our goal is to have him tell us what is happening in the pictures we show him. After he tells what is happening in each picture a few times we begin quizzing on this new material.
“Processing” time is supposed to be minimal. We try to spend as little time as possible putting data into the computer, planning for our upcoming days and doing rote memorization.
Please pray we’ll find a healthy balance of all three elements and also find plenty of time for reviewing our older material. Here is a sample of Thai we’re learning by rote memorization. Not our ideal, but you need a few key survival phrases:
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, June 1st, 2009
Where were you a year ago today? We were in Cambodia… and we can prove it since I wrote in a journal quite a bit while we were there. For the first time, we’ve made the journal publically available here. Below find the basic breakdown of the days I’m publishing: Some names and locations have been changed or omitted to keep everyone honest.
Schedule 5-29 03:00 AM – Sharon wakes up 04:00 AM – Ric wakes up 08:00 AM – Detroit to Dallas 12:30 PM – Lunch in Dallas 02:00 PM – Flight to L.A. 08:00 PM – Meet everyone in L.A. 11:30 PM – Flight for Cambodia Schedule 5-29 05:30 AM – Wake up on an airplane over Laos 11:30 AM – Middle of a short flight to Phnom Penh 12:30 PM – First Cambodia car ride 03:00 PM – Lunch with missionaries 04:00 PM – Palace 05:30 PM – Wat Phnom 07:30 PM – Eat dinner at the riverside 10:00 PM – Crash Schedule 5-30 03:30 AM – Rooster crowing 05:30 AM – Finally fall asleep again 07:30 AM – Wake-up call, authentic Khmer breakfast 08:30 AM – Killing Fields 10:30 AM – Russian Market 12:30 PM – Jars of Clay restaurant 02:30 PM – Toul Sleng (S-21 prison) 05:00 PM – New Central Market 07:00 PM – Thai Coffee Shop (Black Canyon Coffee) 08:30 PM – Bedtime Schedule 5-31 05:00 AM – Wake up, rooster, catch up journal 06:00 AM – Shower, Van pickup 06:15 AM – Meet Vannak for the first time 07:00 AM – Leave for Northern 12:00 PM – Arrive in 12:30 PM – Eat at Thai/Khmer restaurant 02:00 PM – Check into guest house 02:30 PM – Cultural village 06:30 PM – Pizza for supper 09:00 PM – Crashed in an Air Conditioned room… so nice Schedule 6-01 05:00 AM – Wake up 06:00 AM – Breakfast at the restaurant downstairs 06:45 AM – Leave for Angkor Wat 07:15 AM – Bayon 11:30 AM – Eat, blisteringly hot, Micah sick 12:30 PM – Angkor Wat 02:30 PM – Nap at the guest house 03:30 PM – Floating village 06:30 PM – Eat, watch Aspara dancing 08:30 PM – Guest house 09:15 PM – Sleep Schedule 6-02 06:00 AM – Wake up 07:30 AM – Leave for remote province 11:30 AM – Arrive in province, eat 02:30 PM – Motorcycle Ride 03:45 PM – Arrive at ministry location 04:00 PM – Talking with missionaries Ralph and Kim 09:00 PM – Bed Schedule 6-03 05:00 AM – Rooster (deja vu?) 07:15 AM – Pancakes! 09:45 AM – Village tour 02:00 PM – Visit other missionary family with 03:30 PM – Return to Ralph and Kim 05:00 PM – Badminton 07:30 PM – movie, testimony 09:00 PM – Bed
email me your thoughts here if you liked the journal.
Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand 
