Rev. Larry Rice is often in the news, but not always for his good works.  Violence at his homeless shelters caused St. Louis merchants and upscale loft dwellers to call for demolition of his downtown homeless shelter.  Rev. Rice, however, insisted that if the homeless were not cared for in his shelters they would be more desperate and on the doorsteps of those who want the shelter closed.

Rev. Larry Rice; in the background is his New Life Evangelistic Center

The center's mission is to provide for the poor and homeless in St. Louis. It advocates Christian hospitality and respect for life through the services of food, clothing, shelter, education, and job training programs, as well as physical, mental and spiritual health care. It supports such values as  empathy, advocacy,   empowerment, dignity, responsibility, faith, hope, and love.

To be specific, The New Life Evangelistic Center provides over 150,000 meals and sandwiches, and more than 65,000 nights of emergency overnight shelter every year. They provide 80,000 social service contacts, helping individuals and families throughout mid-America with clothing and food through free stores. They also provide fans, blankets, utility assistance, transportation, medical assistance and housing assistance.

They help homeless men (many of them veterans), women and children, as well as the poor, elderly and families overwhelmed by the need to provide the basic necessities.  Rev. Rice's organization is also international, with branches in India and Africa, plus long-standing partnerships with organizations in more than 10 countries.

Many NLEC initiatives are aimed at preventing homelessness.  Rice's organization often intervenes to help those who are losing their homes, have lost jobs, had utilities disconnected or been threatened with eviction.  The job-training program for the homeless teaches renewable energy skills. Some of these trainees staff renewable energy fairs which have introduced thousands throughout the Midwest to concepts of renewable energy.  Others who were formerly homeless staff the Here's Help Radio and TV Network. 

Rev. Larry Rice, with Rev. .Deborah Young, director of the Cape Girardeau Homeless Outreach Center and Thrift Store, announce Dec. 29, 2010 that they will not appeal a court decision which prevents them from acquiring a former federal building to convert to a shelter and other services for the homeless. (Photo by Kristin Eberts)

Rev. Rice has pitted his resourcces and supporters against "the powers that be" many times.  Legal hurdles were put in his way when he tried to acquire the former federal building near his Cape Girardeau Homeless Outreach Center and Thrift Store.  Rice announced at a Dec. 29 news conference (this week) that his homeless assistance organization will not appeal the Dec. 1 decision by a federal judge that effectively denied New Life's claim to the property. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's ruling dismissed New Life's challenge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' 2009 decision not to give the building to the not-for-profit.

Who will end up using the federal building?  First in line is the Cape Girardeau County Commission.  A controversial advocate for the homeless, Rice characterizes his detractors and opponents as bigots prejudiced against the  homeless.

The original plan in acquiring the federal courthouse building was to expand services to include long-term transitional housing beds for up to six months for 125 people per year, drawing from a 22-county area in Southeast Missouri.

New Life acquired a former Social Security building in Springfield, Missouri through the federal government's surplus building program and turned it into a homeless center. Rice said the shelter now serves 100 displaced people a day on a temporary basis.

Controversial he may be, but in 2006 Larry Rice only paid himself, as chief executive and president, $27,600 per year, whereas his organization's secretary/treasurer was paid about $5,000 more. (Later figures were not readily available.)

Some of Rev. Rice's critics, including a former police chief who now runs a free store and shelter for New Life, think he is a disciple.  Other critics, who claim he doesn't work with religious and governmental organizations who have programs for the homeless, think he is a demon.

So, what is Rev. Rice's background?

Larry Rice says he felt his calling to aid the poor as a young Lutheran seminarian in the early 1970s. That theology didn't fit with his Gospel view. His search for a new way took him to an interdenominational school, then to the streets of St. Louis. With his wife, Penny, he began the work in

Larry Rice and his wife Deborah eat dinner on the women and children's floor of the New Life Evangelistic Center in St. Louis.

a humble manner.

Penny Rice died in 2007. Larry married Deborah, his present wife, in 2009.

.

Rice opened his first shelter by converting a YWCA in a deteriorating warehouse and office district. To the dismay of politicians, in the 1980s he took homeless people to camp on the lawn at city hall and to the steps of the Missouri State Capitol. Rice still has a shelter in that converted YWCA, only now he is surrounded by buildings converted into luxury apartments.

That defines an ages-old situation: the powerful versus the powerless.

(Following is a transcript taken from the Commemorative Biographical Record of Wayne County, Ohio, published in 1889 by J.H. Beers & Co., Chicago.  These biographical encyclopedias which exist for many counties are a good source for tracing family migrations.  They often give places of birth two generations back.)
 

FREDERICK RICE, retired farmer, Chester Township, was born in Westmoreland County, Penn., in 1815. His grandfather, Frederick Rice, was also a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1760, and for five years was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, serving under Washington at Valley Forge and Trenton. He married a Miss Lauffer, of Westmoreland County, Penn., and to them were born ten children, all of whom have been dead for many years. In 1812 he moved with his family to Wayne County, Ohio, and settled on a tract of wild land south of Wooster, where he improved a good farm, making it his home for forty years. His death occurred in 1850.

His son, Christian Rice, was born in Westmoreland County, Penn., in 1793, making that county his home until 1819, when he followed his father to Wayne County, Ohio. He located near Tylertown, settling on a tract of land his father had entered, on which he lived a number of years, when he purchased and moved to the farm now owned by his son Frederick. Christian Rice married Charlotte Hine, a native of Westmoreland County, Penn., and to them were born ten children, three of whom are now living.

Frederick Rice, subject of our notice, as has already been seen, is a representative of one of the earliest pioneer families. He was early inured to the work of the farm, his education being only such as was obtained at the log school-house. He has been successful in the vocation of his choice, and now owns 400 acres of valuable land, which is divided into several farms, all being under cultivation. He is one of the prominent citizens of Chester Township, and is now enjoying the rest from labor and the esteem of numerous friends which his early life of usefulness so much merits. He was married in 1840 to Diana Firestone, daughter of John Firestone. They have had twelve children, eleven of whom are living:
Margaret Ann, Elizabeth, John, Charlotte, Simon, Rachel, Frank, Lydia, Jane, Frederick, and Ann. Mr. and Mrs. Rice are members of the Lutheran Church. In politics he is a Democrat.