Coming Into This World Almost Didn’t Happen for Daniel Ritchie
“The story of my birth, there's a lot of just wild layers to it in the fact, number one, I was born without arms, but they didn't catch my disability in utero. And so, they didn't know I didn't have arms until I'm delivered. And then in that moment of just assessing my situation, my disability, then they realized also I wasn't breathing. And so, in that moment, the doctor's immediate gut reaction - and realizing that I was medically dead - was to turn to my father. And he asked my father if they ‘wanted to let me go.’
And man, dad didn't need a moment. He didn't need to process through it. He just looked at the doctor and he said, "You're going to do whatever it is that you can do to try to revive my son." And they rushed me out and man, by the grace of God, I think it took less than two minutes for them to revive me and bring me back into my parents.”
Daniel reflects, “But I mean, just God's grace, I think both in just giving me a courageous dad, God's grace and I mean, truly bringing me back from the dead, those first few minutes of my life were definitely some wild and crazy ones!”
(Richard) Of course, God knew before you were born that you would not have arms. And you think of the Bible verse about being knitted in the womb. How do you look at all that?
(Daniel) “Yeah, I mean, I think of the story. There's a story of Jesus interacting with a man born blind in John chapter nine. And Jesus, in referring both to the disciples and to this blind guy, Jesus says that this man was born this way so that the works of God can be displayed in his life. And that story has always been huge in my life, much as Psalm 139 has been, is that God didn't mess up when he made me. He made me in the midst of my armlessness, not only for me to see more of God's strength in my weakness, but I think just as much for the world to see that too, how God has given me strength and peace and joy where I think in the physical sense of things, there is no reason why I should have those things. But it's evidence of his grace.
It's evidence of his strength. It's evidence of the peace that he gives. And so, I think that God's very careful creation of me allows me to be, I think, just a living testimony of his grace in honestly, just visual ways that express the grace of God just as much as my very words could.”
Talented Toes
(Richard) As you were growing up, how did you learn to cope with not having arms? I mean, obviously there's some challenges involved.
(Daniel) “Yeah. I think from the physical aspect of things, honestly, the Lord really blessed me. I mean, I have some talented toes that allow me to do everything that you guys do with your hands. I mean, from top to bottom. I write, eat, drive, mow the lawn, fish. There's just not too many things I can't do with my feet. But I think the coping with how the world saw me and still is the difficult thing for me just because growing up, I've faced your stereotypical bullying, poor treatment from classmates.
Even now, I'm a 41-year-old man. I get stared at every time I go out into public.
And I think that in coming to Christ, I really had to grapple with the reality. And again, to go back to that Psalm 139 verse you had talked about a second ago, that God didn't mess up when he made me.”
Daniel came to Christ at the age of fifteen. “God used, of all things, a dodgeball lock-in to bring me to himself. Just in the chaos of this lock-in, I think it was like two or three in the morning, I end up sitting down with a student pastor who just begins to share with me just the gospel of Jesus and how much Jesus loved me, that he came to this earth, died for my sins, rose to life to show his power of above sin and death. And that as Romans 10 says, that if I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead, I will be saved. And that was the night I took that step to trust in Jesus as my savior, as my Lord, as my everything. And I mean, man, talk about life-changing moments. That is the moment where I think everything in my life switched for the better and for the glory of God.”
It wasn’t long until Daniel became involved in ministry. “I just knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life telling people about the gospel of Jesus and the hope that God brings in the midst of difficult circumstances. And so, good grief, that decision was now 25 years ago. And brother, it has been an amazing ride. I'm so grateful for just the call that God has put on my life.”
Seeing God at Work Now, Especially Young People Coming to Faith
Today, Daniel is an evangelist, traveling much of the year. And he’s also an executive in the Southern Baptist Convention. He is fascinated about what he sees God doing among young people. “I'm a full-time evangelist, so I am on the road 150 days a year preaching the gospel and all sorts of dynamics. And in a typical year for me in ministry, we would see somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 salvations, roundabout that. In 2025, just within the purview of the ministry that God has given me, we saw something in the neighborhood of about 1,100. And that has nothing to do with me. It's not like my preaching got better. Nothing changed in terms of the life of my ministry, but I think there's a sensitivity to his Spirit, especially among Gen Alpha right now that I can't begin to explain or to quantify other than the fact that I think this generation, they have access to so much of the world right now through social media, through their friends. And I think they're coming away not satisfied. They're looking around at what the world has to give, and they think that's not enough. And I think they're beginning to see just the satisfaction and the contentment and the purpose that Jesus brings. And this generation, I think we're unfairly judging them as a sort of broken generation, but the Spirit is working in and among so many of these school-age students, college-age students in ways that honestly, I don't think we've seen since the Jesus revolution in the 60s. And so, it's an amazing time to serve that generation, that's for sure.”
There's is so much more to know about Daniel. We invite you to listen to our full podcast interview just below: