Eddie Rice
Christ His First Love Now

“As a young man, I came home from Viet Nam very troubled, not really knowing any direction, so I turned to the world. I was married twice, neither marriage working out. My second wife and I left Saginaw because I had gotten laid off from Wickes Corporation. And we went to Alabama where we stayed for seven years. We had one daughter, and to make a long story short, my wife got pregnant by my best friend. I brought her back to Saginaw to be near her family, and then I started drinking and hanging with the wrong crowd. It was during this time that I was introduced to drugs, and my life really began falling apart. When I hit rock bottom I lost everything that I had. I had nowhere to stay. It was then that I remembered the Saginaw Rescue Mission. When I was a child they would always give my aunt food for us. There were five of us and we were poor.

When I came to the Mission I met a true man of God named Darryl Bartlett. Mr. Bartlett was a good Bible teacher who regularly taught us to put Jesus first in our lives, and that everything else would fall into place. He taught us to be obedient to God and live a disciplined life. That’s where I began to find God. Even though He was there all the time, I didn’t know it. He had already chosen me to be one of His children. It was at this time that I also met Ken Streeter. He was a great man of God and you could see Him working in his life. Ken became my mentor and a true friend.

It was then that the enemy saw my weakness. I went through storms, trials, and tribulations. I lost my first love for God, but He never turned from me. Every time I felll down, He would pick me up. Friends and family wrote me off, but I prayed to God in Heaven. I took awhile to learn that I had to obey Him (Acts 5:29). He put two men in my life at the Saginaw Rescue Mission to make a nothing into a something. People wrote me off, but God wrote me in. Now I am saved, baptized, confessing that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, and I have repented of my sins. I have become a slave to God. It is no longer I who live in this fleshly body, it is Christ, and His Holy Spirit lives within me. He is in control of my life. It is no longer my will, but His will that guides me. I love God over everything in this world.”