My Journey

Psalm 126:1-6

“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.  Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”  The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.  Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb!  Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!  He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.”

This Psalms is telling about the returning of the Babylonian exiles to Jerusalem as an event that has already taken place.  It is telling how God restores Zion as the political and religious center.  It also tells about the restoration of prosperity to both the people and the land.  What has God done for you?  Let me share what He has done for me  and about my exit from Babylon and into a Land of Promise.

I was born into a family of five, Dad and Mom, brother and sister.  My early childhood was playing in the park, going to church when the doors were open, and in that we did not have a car we walked everywhere or took the bus when we went downtown.  We had a small grocery store at the end of our street, but H.E.B. was about a mile and a half from the house and we carried our groceries.  The church was almost 3 miles and sometimes on Sunday nights someone would offer to bring us home.

I now understand we were under resourced, we did not have toys, like the other kids, or new clothes, but they were always clean, and we never went hungry.  If we wanted spending money, we picked up bottles, a milk bottle that someone pitched out was worth a nickel and a coke bottle was two cents at the grocery store. 

Sundays were special because we knew that on Sunday mother was going to fry chicken or cook a chuck roast with a dessert, that is if Dad was not working shift work, if so, no dessert and maybe no meat.  By the age of six I was part of the work force, it seemed because I was the youngest, my brother and sister used me as the buffing machine when we waxed the wood floors.  They pulled me all over the house on a towel, it was not fun.  When we painted the house, I was always the one that had to paint the eves and each 2 x 6, I hated that job.  We also had to keep the flower beds clean and the grass cut, we had a push mower that had no motor, Freddie and I were the motors.  

Now when it came to my sister, she helped mother in the house, she never had patches on her clothes, and did not have an older sister to pass down clothes, what a blessing.  My mother was amazing she knew how to cook red beans 98 different ways and when my sister needed a new dress, Mom and Doris would catch the bus and go downtown to the big nice store and pick out the dress my sister wanted in the store window.  Mother would take out a pad and sketch the dress Doris wanted, go buy material and come home and make a pattern.  My sisters friends as she got in to middle school wanted mother to also make them dresses, as I recall she only did that once.

I got my first job outside of mowing lawns at the age of 12, working for H.E.B. and I got sixty cents an hour.  I worked for H.E.B. and Burt Themie, till I got out of high school.  Burt Themie and my dad taught me how to work, and it was something that blessed me my whole life.  I am so grateful to both, for they also taught me a job worth doing was worth doing right.  Burt taught me how to value the customer and to put their needs and wants first. 

I have shared that I saw little value in school and never applied myself.  In this day and time, I would be a special needs child, but one thing I did well was spend time in the Vice Principal’s office.  When getting out of High School, I worked first for Cameron Mfg. we sold upholstery stuff and I was the delivery boy and the custodian.  I did not want to be drafted so I joined the National guard and was sent to bootcamp at Fort Polk and then Fort Sam to learn how to be a doctor’s assistant.  I got through all that and came home and got a job at Corn Products cleaning out furnaces and doing grunt work, and I began Jr. College at Del Mar and my wife helped me pass English.

Jan and I got married after dating for two plus years and neither of us had a clue what we had entered into.  I got laid off from Corn Products two weeks before we married, but I’m a person who was taught to save money, so we had two thousand in the bank. I started to work for an oil field service company.  I took Jerry’s job in a very short time and became district office manager and warehouse and also went out on the wire line truck. Jan and I one night after working until midnight on the paperwork that had to be mailed to the main office in Houston, we figured how much I was making per hour and it was nineteen cents.  The best thing that happen to me was confronting my boss on a big mistake made in front of our best customer Exxon, and he fired me on the spot.

I began looking for a job and had many interviews but took a job with a company I had never heard about, 3M Business Products.  I was now a salesman in name, but it was all cold calls, carrying a forty-pound copy machine on every call.  I had a lot to learn about selling and yet knowing how to work made my boss stay with me.  I made ten calls a day and got rejected on all ten calls, copiers were a new concept, and I was sure each time for years I saw a person walk into the office they were going to get my job.  

Now it is important, I share about coming out of my Babylon, it happened in a Barber shop when my barber ask me to go to a Bible study, he was not a Bible study kind of guy.  I went only to see why Bob the barber would go to a Bible study, and after going I promised myself, I would never go back, nor would I let Bob cut my hair.  But God, I know no other way to explain it, each week on Wednesday I was back at that Bible study and began to visit the places where these men worked.  They were the real thing, what they said at the Bible study they were living out in the workplace.  It took me six months to ask Jesus into my life, it happened in a motel in Victoria, Texas.  

Jan saw such a change in my life and about a year later she also ask Jesus to come into her life.  When Jesus came into me an I into Him, he took away my desire to drink adult beverages and the filthy mouth I had.  But it took years for me to allow God to teach me how to honor and love my wife.  God kept sending men into my life who loved me and confronted me on being gentle with my wife.

Let me share that soon after I ask Christ into my life, I was loading a big machine into my car and I saw a sharp young man enter the office.  Once more fear entered into my heart and yet I was now one of the top salespersons in our Branch.  As I got into my car, I heard a voice in my head say Bob, I have given you everything you need to do this job, and you are doing a great job with what I’ve given you, fear not.  From that day on I never worried about someone taking my job.

3M Company decided to get out of the copy machine business after I had been there 16 years, and I was sure I would be looking for a job.  My boss called me and another salesperson into his office to assure us that 3M Company had other divisions and they would offer us jobs, but I was sure that they would not.  But once more it was fear and not trusting in my Big God, who loved me so much that He allowed His only Son to take on human form and die for my sins.  I had three divisions offer me jobs and I went with the Electrical division and watched God do amazing things for Jan and me.

We are so blessed to have had Natalie as our daughter, she has said that she grew up with us, and that  is very true.  She and I were the best of friends and at about thirteen she liked her mother a lot more than me and in fact was not my baby girl again until about 18 years of age.  But let me tell you what God has done, Natalie married a guy named Byron, his profession is electrical Engineering, but his and Natalie’s identity is found in Jesus Christ.  They have two young men who are both in College and doing well, and the desire of our heart is to see them do as their parents and follow Jesus.  

If you are still reading this paper, let me proclaim that our Father is a great Father, and He knows all about us and loves us anyway.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice