After 13 years of drug abuse and alcoholism, Eddie married Ruthie Phillips, a woman he had met the year before. They spent three turbulent years together. Eddie’s passion for alcohol cast a shadow over every meaningful aspect of his life, so he was not able to provide the love that Ruthie needed. One night Eddie discovered that his wife was having an affair. Furious, he yelled at her and told her to leave and never return. Ruthie took this seriously. She left that night, and to Eddie's astonishment, returned the next day only to pick up her things.

The separation devastated him. He did not eat or sleep for the following five days, and a nagging pain persisted in his stomach the entire time. Feeling helpless, Eddie drank alcohol to drown the pain. He nearly suffered a nervous breakdown, but God intervened just in time. Ruthie’s grandfather, Minister Leon Phillips, called Eddie, and prayed with him for three nights. Finally, one night Leon said to Eddie, "God’s knocking on your heart. Why don’t you let him in?" Instantly Eddie knew that the pain in his stomach was God’s relentless nagging, and it was then that he decided to repent.

The transformation was instant. Alcohol was no longer appealing to Eddie. Suddenly he thirst for the word of God instead. Eddie recalls, "My hunger for the Word was insatiable. God didn’t deliver me from the emotional pain, and reading the Word was the only thing that soothed me. It was what helped me survive." His hunger for the Word was so poignant, that he even took advantage of red traffic lights while driving to read a few more verses.

Eddie felt the love and healing of the Lord, but he still felt an intense longing to be with Ruthie. He put his burden in God’s hand. "The Lord was trying to get us back together, but she didn’t want to. God finally told me to let her know that it was her decision. She still wanted a divorce." One day Eddie cried out frantically to the Lord for mediation, but God told him to let her go. Reluctantly, Eddie obeyed.

He spent the next three years in a futile search for someone to replace Ruthie. But five women later, he realized that dating was not the way to go. "Dating was the only way that I knew. I came to realize that all it did was cause hurt feelings in me and the other person when things didn’t work out." Eddie points out that the Bible never teaches people to date. "The Bible teaches you to put God’s Kingdom first, and then everything you need will be added to you. Through prayer, God will send you the right mate. Dating is the world’s system, and that’s not the

Lord’s way." Eddie says that God provides the happiness and comfort everyone needs. "If you’re not happy while you’re alone, then you won’t be happy with someone else either. No one can match the Holy Spirit."

Eddie decided to give one hundred percent of his life to the Lord. And it was not easy; God allowed it to be a challenge. "God uses development to teach you the proper way to live a Christian, single life." He was 35. At this age most people are developing a family, or getting married. Eddie recalls his struggling emotions: "Those feelings of being desperate and wanting to get married were always there." But he found the best way to deal with them. "I found that through prayer, service, reading the word, and being diligent with my relationship with him, helped me to deal with those desires."

God became Eddie’s special someone. Eddie used his God-given talents to praise the Almighty. He sang for numerous choirs, and led a vocal group at a church called Voice for Jesus for six years. But three churches later, Eddie realized that God wanted him elsewhere. Two years ago, in 1995, God guided Eddie to a small, home Bible study. Only seven people attended the meeting. Eddie felt discouraged at first, because it was not where he wanted to be. But since he knew that it was what God wanted, he obeyed.

Within the next two years the group outgrew the home and a larger meeting room they had moved into. Now it is on the verge of outgrowing a warehouse. It evolved from a small Bible study into a strong and large church of 500 people. The church could not have been given a better name, which is A Place for Hope. Here Eddie was ordained as a shepherding pastor.

The story does not end there. In Matthew 6:33 it says, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Eddie obeyed the Lord and trusted him, even when the obstacles seemed impossible to overcome. God recognized this. And now at 43, Eddie’s prayers have been answered. He and his soon-to-be wife, Maria Bareto, are making plans to get married sometime next year.