Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand 
Never fear faithful blog readers. Yes, our two best cameras were stolen but we never leave home without a backup plan. Sharon keeps a little Canon point and shoot in her purse all the time so we’re still able to share video and pictures from Congress 7.5! It takes pretty decent pictures. For your viewing pleasure we added a gallery to our photo page of the 20 best photos we took during our trip. But not just that! Below we’ve embedded a new video of Bill Hybels making his opening remarks toward the end of the conference and a video featuring various other aspects of Congress 7.5 at Thammasat University. Enjoy. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Story’
Congress Pictures and Video
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, May 14th, 2011Chest Hair and Rap Music
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Wednesday, April 27th, 2011Most mornings as I’m walking by the neighbors invite me to eat with them. Today Uncle Ah kicked my usual chair a yard into the road as I walked by and I joined he and Auntie for spicy pork curry and sticky rice. Actually it’s not just one chair it’s two green plastic lawn chairs that have been stuck together so long they’ve forgotten how to separate. Uncle Ah sits on an old stump without a shirt on sometimes wearing nothing but a towel.
America is a favorite topic of conversation and Auntie never tires of Michigan snow stories. Today the conversation took a strange turn when Uncle Ah looked at me intently and said, “Do you have hair on your chest?” Taken aback a little I paused for a moment and his next question surprised me more, “Can you make rap music?” (more…)
What’s in Tennessee?
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, November 14th, 2009Tomorrow we will speak at a country church near Fayetteville, TN. We were invited to the church by a man we met on the Appalachian Trail this summer. As stories go, the story of our meeting seems pretty interesting:
Our last day on the trail that week proved stiflingly hot and the trail grew steep as we climbed to a mountain ridge from a river valley. When we reached the top of the ridge, we thought our troubles were over. The terrain was relatively flat and we only had about six miles to the shelter we were stopping at for the night but it took us hours to make the trek because the trail was so overgrown.
Overgrown trail is not typically an obstacle hikers on the AT face, but this particular section looked like it had not been maintained that year… and we were hiking in August. As we rounded a bend in the trail I saw in the distance a man sitting on a log that did not look like a hiker at all. As we approached I noticed he wore blue jeans, heavy black leather boots, and a cotton shirt. Beside him lay a very heavy-looking pack.
After our first two months on the trail we’d learned to be very careful and trust our instincts when we came across things that looked out of place. In this case we needn’t have worried. A kind, relieved smile spread on the man’s face as we approached and after a brief hello he asked in a slow southern drawl where he was.
After a fifteen minute conversation we learned he was the pastor of a church and he learned we were missionaries. We hit if off immediately and had a great time talking with him. That night we shared our water and offered our food to him. We all slept in the shelter that night (he upstairs and we downstairs) and the next day we shared a ride with him back to his car. Random chance? Probably not.
