NEW BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - For nearly two decades, the Rev. Larry Rice and the New Life Evangelistic Center have hosted an energy fair to help people learn more about alternatives to traditional energy.
"We have tried to always show the do-it-yourself ideas, so that people don't have to spend a lot of money," Rice said Monday. "The field, as a whole, has become very technical, and a lot has changed."
According to newlifeevangelisticcenter.org/about/, Rice's St. Louis-based NLEC has focused on "providing effective support for the poor and homeless" since its founding in 1972, with "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."
Part of the ministry has involved TV and radio stations - including KNLJ-TV, which Rice operated from studios between News Bloomfield and Holts Summit, until he sold it to the Christian Television Network in 2007.
However, Rice and NLEC still own the grounds where the TV studios had been built - where the transmitting tower still stands - and where, almost 20 years ago, Rice launched a Renewable Energy Center that played host to Monday's Energy Fair.
"This is supposed to be an introduction to the field of renewable energy and cost-savings," he said.
The Energy Center has solar panels and a wind tower for generating electricity, as well as display buildings showing alternate design styles and a small fish production area that could be set up in a back yard.
"We try to show an overview, because I don't believe that any one area of renewable energy is the answer," Rice said. "You have to have a combination."
He said getting involved in solar energy takes less investment than it required a few years ago.
Rice's son, Chris Rice, runs the NLEC program in Marshfield.
"We're going to do what we can to make our displays even better," he said. "We're trying to let people know that this is about the stewardship of God's creation.
"A lot of people see caring for the earth as a secular thing, but we believe it's part of our (Christian) mandate to care for all Creation."
Audi and Brenda English drove from New Melle, in St. Charles County, to visit the Energy Fair after seeing information about it on Rice's St. Louis TV station.
"We've been interested in solar, alternative energy," Audi said. "We decided to come out and get a first-hand look."
Tom Moore, of St. Louis, came to Mid-Missouri to help Rice explain solar-powered systems.
He told the couple planning on shifting to a solar- or wind-powered system requires some homework to establish how much power the appliances, TVs and computers use from traditional sources - because it's how much power the new system will be using.
Sky Huddleston, of Bourbon, and his father make "rocket stoves" for people to use indoors - mainly as a heating source, but they also can be used for cooking.
"They allow you to use about one-fourth the wood that a conventional wood stove does," he explained. "They light up very fast - from the time you light the match, you can get that top plate to over 600 degrees in as little as five minutes."
Huddleston said the stoves meet Underwriters Laboratory standards and are installed like a conventional wood stove.
Peter Garcelon works with NLEC at its Marshfield facility, and came to Mid-Missouri to help with Monday's five-hour Energy Fair.
"Hopefully, (people) will realize that, by turning to this - the solar cookers and things like that - they can save a lot of money on energy."
He touts his own experience, for his "round" house design, in a rural area.
"My electrical bill used to be anywhere from $100 to $150," Garcelon said. "By using solar power and the power of the air, you can bring your bill down to as low as $12 to $15 a month - and it's running everything."
John Kendrick lives on NLEC's New Bloomfield property, taking care of the goats, doing some of the land maintenance and some of the teaching - such as showing how to build and operate a system for growing vegetables and small fish, like tilapia, in the same closed-loop water delivery system.
"There's no chemicals, and you know what you're getting," he explained.
Thom Day, of Jefferson City, was showing off a child's kit showing magnetic levitation.
While it's a toy, he said, the idea behind it is to encourage people to "come up with, and invent, different ways to generate electricity, that are clean (and) no longer using fossil fuels (or) nuclear energy."
The concept has been around nearly 150 years, he said, and the fact that much of what we know today was invented since the end of World War II gives him hope that a cleaner-energy future is possible.
"Look what's happened to transportation," he said. "Slowly but surely, electric cars are taking over for the gasoline-powered cars."
Information about Rice's Energy Fair and his energy-saving ideas can be found at moreenergy.org.