100 Random Facts | Resume | Background Information

Testimony

My name is Nathan Rice, and I came into existence on July 12, 1980 in Tyler, Texas.  I was born into a wonderful family with two amazing and godly parents and an older sister.  I wasn't in Tyler long, as nine months later my father had a job offer with a company up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and we relocated there.

In the summer of 1986, when I was six years old, my father sat down with me and explained the Gospel to me.  He told me that we had all sinned but that God came and died for us that we may be forgiven and spend eternity with Him in heaven.  For me, it was a no-brainer.  I made the decision to trust God with my life at that point, but as a six year old, I had so very little understanding of what that all meant.  I also began swimming competitively at this point.

Three years later my dad lost his job and got a new one in Texas, so we moved to Richardson, a suburb just North of Dallas.  I ended up doing very well as a swimmer, so this played a huge part in my life as I was growing up.  I began to consistently post times that were among the fastest in the nation for my age group from the time that I was twelve until the end of my time as a competitive swimmer.  Things began to really pick up for me in high school, where I broke five school records and earned a silver and two bronze medals at the Texas High School State championships.  This success was from God, and I am very thankful that He gave me the talent and ability to do so well.  Three major things resulted from the success- the first is that it was a tremendous learning and developmental opportunity for me, the second is that it brought me into public view at my school and the third is that it got the attention of men's collegiate swimming programs across the country.  I ended up having to make some decisions on how I would treat the success and the response of those around me to it, and eventually I came around to credit God for it all and dedicate my time swimming to Him.  I ended up signing a letter of intent to swim on scholarship at the University of Kansas, so after I graduated from my Berkner High School in May of 1998 I headed up to Lawrence to begin my studies there.

I'll never forget my initial reaction to college.  Having been raised by godly parents in an environment where God was honored, I was struck simultaneously by euphoria and horror when I observed the newfound worldliness (for lack of a better term) around me.  I knew that I belonged to God, and yet, the world around me looked so appealing, and better yet, my parents were nowhere to be found.  I ended up making some dumb but relatively harmless decisions and ultimately decided that the things that freedom from parental control and supervision offered me just didn't match up to the freedom I had in Christ.  A major turning point was when the campus director for Campus Crusade for Christ (Scott Kettrow) led an Easter Outreach on campus and encouraged me to join him.  As I was sharing my faith with the students that afternoon, I began to truly understand my purpose- to tell others about the most incredible being to ever walk the earth.  I began an in-depth study of the Bible (that I completed over five years later), started an evangelistic/apologetic website (www.seekthetruth.net), led the following year's Easter Outreach, and felt a strong desire to be more involved in ministry.  During my Sophomore year at KU I came to make the difficult decision that although I was at the peak of my athletic career and still improving I needed to give up swimming, which had played such a huge role in my life for the previous fourteen years.

I had to transfer to Texas Tech for financial reasons and although I missed Kansas and all my buddies there, it was great to be back in Texas.  I hit the ground running at Tech, starting a Bible Study at my dorm (the University Plaza) and getting involved in leadership of Campus Crusade for Christ there as well as getting involved in a local church.  My second year there I joined Kappa Upsilon Chi (www.kyx.org), an incredible Christian fraternity where I served as chaplain the following year.  I spent the summer of 2002 working for Josh McDowell Ministries, where I was able to experience ministry in the workplace, domestically, and internationally in Moscow.  In the Spring of 2003 I felt God's calling in my life to pursue an MBA, so I graduated, took and scored well on the GMAT, and headed to the University of Oklahoma.

In the Spring of 2004 I took a job with a research firm in Oklahoma City, in anticipation of putting my MBA degree to good use in the business world.  At the time I was eagerly anticipating a bright business future and the ministry I could have along with it.  In fact, pretty much my whole life I've wanted to follow in my father's footsteps- to be a faithful man of God who is a successful businessman and able to seamlessly blend his personal ministry with his work.   I've always felt that such men of God are highly underrated and underappreciated in the amount of good they do for the church body and the community in general.  The five months when I worked at that job ended up being by far the worst five months of my life.  I spent so much time at work that my studies and friendships were neglected and so much energy trying to measure up in the workplace, but constantly falling short, that spiritually I regressed five years into making some of the same stupid mistakes (wrong priorities and time mismanagement) that I made nearly six years earlier.  I ended up being let go (on my birthday, of all times!), and all my dreams of progressing with the company came to an end.  I'm a very analytical person, and over the Fall of 2004 my thoughts were consistently focused on what went wrong over the summer.  I kept coming to the conclusion that the reason the summer was a failure is that no matter how hard I tried, my heart just wasn't into it.  I was trying so hard but way deep down inside of my soul, a part of me was crying out that this was not my calling.  I didn't want to listen though, so I had to be fired to hear it.  I don't know if I would feel this way in any workplace setting, but I do know that this summer was the third internship I've done and felt the same way- that I would rather be doing ministry.  Since my conclusion was that my heart wasn't into it, my next task was to figure out what my heart was into, and that was fairly obvious.  In my heart there is a motor running and an excitement for Christ that I can't explain or comprehend.  Something about that unexplainable, beautiful act of bloody love that is the cross has gripped my soul and I just can't stop desiring Christ and to make Him known to those around me.  The way I seem wired to do this is through the spiritual gifts of teaching, shepherding, and discerning that God has given me.