BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

The lure of the street life pulled at him, but now Rick had no time for it. He attended summer school during the day and night school in the evening. By the time he did his homework he had no time to party. He started back to school in early 1990, and by the spring of 1991, he had earned his diploma. A Future and a Hope A local radio station hosted a college scholarship program. When Rick heard he could enter simply by writing an essay on why Hispanics need higher education, he thought, What could it hurt? He wrote an essay…and won the scholarship. Then, he was asked to speak at a luncheon at upscale Las Colinas in Dallas. “I was just a Mexican kid who’d never been outside the boundaries of North Side of Fort Worth when I found myself speaking at some of the ritziest places I’d ever seen,” Rick remembers. “I stood there looking around and wondering how I’d gotten there. Then the Lord said, 'Remember when you asked for your future? This is it.'” Rick attended Tarrant County College and earned an associate degree in criminal justice. In 1994, he married his pastor’s niece, Rosalinda. Rick’s parents let them move into one of their rental properties, which the young couple fixed up. One evening, Rick’s friend Ram and some of the gang members dropped by to visit. They were drinking beer. “Come inside,” Rick invited. “Let me show you around.” “We would never disrespect you by taking beer into your house!” Ram said. They left their beer outside and Rick took them inside and showed them all the improvements he’d made to the house. “This is what God does in your heart,” he told them. An Open Door In 1995, Rick went to work in the Partner Services department at Kenneth Copeland Ministries. He had learned about the ministry through his pastor, who was a KCM Partner and taught on faith. A year later, he was transferred to the Prayer department where he worked as a Spanish proofreader. Soon afterward, Rick became a full-time prayer minister in the prayer department where, for a number of years, he ministered to children and teens through letters, emails and phone calls. Since that time, the Lord has opened several doors for Rick to minister the gospel. In 1999, a pastor from Ohio flew Rick and Rosalinda to South America where Rick translated for him. While there, Rick spoke at three churches and traveled to Brazil where he stood in front of breathtaking waterfalls. “Lord, I’m just a Mexican kid from North Side,” Rick remembers telling God. “How did I get here?” 'Remember when you asked for a future? This is it.' Back home, one of Rick’s friends from the gang was getting married and asked Rick to perform the ceremony. Afterward, the friend met Rick in the hotel lobby. “Ricky, I’ve done some really bad things in my life.” “I know.” “Can I be forgiven and go to heaven?” “Absolutely.” “Then I want to get saved. And I want you to baptize me.” After that friend’s conversion, another friend asked Rick to lead him to the Lord. Back in the Park “We started having rallies in the park with music and snow cones, free food and free prize giveaways” Rick recalls. “We offered resources for a variety of things like how to get your GED. When I gave the altar call I said, ‘There’s hope for you just like there was hope for me.’ Over the past seven years, we’ve had more than 1,000 salvations. I’m more of a leader now than I was back then.” Eddie the Dog said, “Ricky, I don’t believe in God, but please take my daughter to church with you. I’m so proud of you. You’re the only one of my friends who made it.” Before his death, Eddie the Dog accepted the Lord and made peace with God. Angels sang and all of heaven rejoiced. “KCM has been a life support system to me,” Rick says. “I’ve learned so much, it’s like attending faith university. They taught me that I’m not just some kid from North Side. I’m a joint heir with Christ.” Today, Rick and Rosalinda Nuñez have one son, Marc Anthony, who is 10. Rick, the boy from North Side, now ministers to KCM’s Partners and Friends who call for prayer. He has traveled all over the country with KCM, and at times has assisted with Spanish translation. But the longest journey he has ever taken was the journey of faith. During that journey, he has never expressed anything except unconditional love to his friends from the gang. And that’s what they’ve always offered him. In addition to working at KCM, for several years he also worked in the evenings with a gang intervention program in Fort Worth. Assigned to the neighborhood he grew up in, he worked in the youth development program where he taught life-skills and GED classes, organized various athletic tournaments, took the young people on field trips, did one-on-one counseling and prayed with them. The movie "Boulevard Nights" got one thing right, says Rick. What was portrayed in the movie that drew hundreds of kids was a chance at love, friendship, camaraderie and loyalty. In Christ, Rick Nuñez not only found those things; he got what no gang could ever offer…forgiveness, deliverance, joy and eternal life. V Partner with KCM today! 1-800-600-7395 (U.S. only) +1-817-852-6000 BVOV : 25

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