“If I were limited to a few things to take into my future, this book would be second in line behind The Bible. The Power and Blessings of a Sunrise succinctly lays out life-enhancing, I’d even propose life-saving tools embedded in true stories from this brave and introspective combat Vietnam veteran. In its simplicity, Rice challenges the reader to distill and determine our own “disabilities” so that we can then identify how we are to compensate or correct, empowering ourselves to a more fulfilling life. HOPE serves as the vanguard of this mission and ACTION its surety of its success. And the beauty of it all, it begins with each new sunrise.”
Susan P. Hunter
Author “77 Letters
Operation Morale Booster: Vietnam”
Barry Rice brings a rich, multi-faceted and attention-grabbing background to his labor of love as an author, speaker, veteran and friend.
Barry’s life-enriching The Power And Blessings Of A Sunrise book serves as a commanding encouragement to lead you to basking in God’s power and blessings and to you to make choices for your future based upon the opportunities God presents with every sunrise.
Blending his small-town sensibility, big-world experience and engaging sense of humor, Barry is known for his ability to delight, inspire and challenge his reader and reader and audience to reach for all the good stuff presented upon the horizon of God’s sunrises.
After only a year of studies at college and a two-year stint as a professional water-skier at Florida’s Cypress Gardens, Barry served as an Infantry Company commander in Vietnam until he was seriously wounded and returned to the United States for surgeries and rehabilitation.
While recuperating from his combat-related wounds, Barry began thinking that living (what he thought at the time) was a fulfilled life required a get-ahead-of-the-Joneses approach. Through deliberate efforts, Barry learned and utilized skills that he had not been taught in school. With his newly established mindset, he set out to develop a plan for his future that placed equal emphasis on skill-building, personal responsibility and accountability.
While he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams in the ‘corporate world’, it was not the chapter of his life that brought his discovery of The Power And Blessings Of A Sunrise, and thus, total fulfillment.
A diagnosis of Stage IV Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, spurred from his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam, led him to a Florida beach and then to the discovery that he could literally ‘see’ God in every daily sunrise, whether clouds of fear, financial stress, depression or even actual clouds hid the glory of ‘seeing’ God.
Barry’s unique perspective on living a life of faith grounded in God’s blessings and opportunity-filled sunrises leads him to write and speak like every reader or audience member is his friend. From relating a combination of serious and silly anecdotes to challenge mindsets and outlooks on one’s future, Barry isn’t afraid to provide a dose of reality to his inspirational message.
Barry uses his platform as an author and speaker to demonstrate to others who may find themselves in a rut how to witness God’s power, blessings and opportunities and harness them for themselves.
Barry’s life has been marked with wonderful achievements, along with personal and professional setbacks – which he refers to as “minor inconveniences”. His triumphs through these “minor inconveniences” reminds us that no matter what life dishes out, it’s how we react to the daily choices and opportunities presented by God’s sunrises that matters most.