Plays On Word Radio
An in-depth look at the Word of God, the Plays On Word community, and the Plays - with original music - we perform, that are based on the Word of God. New episodes drop Fridays at 7AM EST! To find out how Plays On Word Theater can perform 'LIVE on YOUR STAGE' and to support this missionary & podcast visit: https://playsonword.org/
Plays On Word Radio
Ep 81: Inspiring Encounters and Miraculous Moments/ Dr. Gary Kohl & Ben Abalos (Part 1)
"Can faith and prayer turn the impossible into miracles? Join us as we share inspiring stories from the 'PETE' play at Ocean Grove, NJ, highlighting transformation and unwavering faith."
Have you ever faced a challenge that seemed impossible to overcome, only to discover that faith and prayer could turn it all around? Join us as Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenney Jr., shares his extraordinary experiences performing the 'PETE' play at Ocean Grove, NJ. From battling logistical nightmares like finding parking to dealing with unexpected wind gusts, you’ll hear how these obstacles were transformed into blessings through unwavering faith. Witness the heartwarming stories of Scott, who renewed his faith, and Joe, who stumbled upon the performance by chance, highlighting the profound impact of the Plays on Word ministry.
We express our deepest gratitude to our supporters who make it all possible and share a remarkable story of transformation: a man deeply involved in Satan worship encounters the Gospel at one of our plays. Our journey continues to Brooklyn, where collaboration with Richie and Sarah Cancel's church, Calvary Life, brings the message of unity in Christ to a diverse audience that includes Muslims and Jews. Despite technical hiccups, God’s provision shines through, whether it’s securing parking or using a battery-powered keyboard. Our visit to a Messianic congregation in Livingston, New Jersey, celebrates the joy of a united body of Christ, all thanks to the collective efforts of our supporters.
Get ready for an inspiring conversation with Rev Dr. Gary Kohl and Ben Abalos from Belair Baptist Church in Bowie, Maryland. Dr. Gary recounts his early encounter with God at a Vacation Bible School, while Ben shares his transformative journey of embracing Christianity through his future father-in-law. We discuss the emotional weight of witnessing loved ones who have yet to find faith, the joy of having multiple pastors in one family, and exciting projects like 'THE PARABLES' presentation. As we wrap up, we reflect on the importance of contemporary communication in ministry and express our heartfelt gratitude to our Plays On Word family. Tune in for an episode filled with faith, unity, and the relentless effort to share the message of Christ.
Performances at:
• Ocean Grove Boardwalk Pavilion w/ Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association
• Marine Park w/ Calvary Life Church
• Beth Messiah Congregation
PlayGrounds Guests:
Dr. Gary Kohl & Ben Abalos
Belair Baptist Church
Belair Baptist Christian Academy
Plays On Word website
Plays On Word YouTube
Plays On Word Instagram
Plays On Word Facebook
Email us: team@playsonword.org
Lord you know. Hey guys, you are now listening to Plays on Word Radio. It's the best. They prayed for me and I didn't know what was going on. I've been involved in many different spiritual movements, and then not until I was 26 years old. That's when I met my wife Tavi's dad. And then not until I was 26 years old. That's when I met my wife to be's dad. I tried to convert him into what I believe in and he ended up converting me. Jesus.
Speaker 2:You're the only name, you're the only thing, you're the only thing, you're the only thing.
Speaker 3:Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr, the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen, amen. Welcome to all of you listening to Plays on Word Radio. We are broadcasting from the sanctuary in Point Pleasant, otherwise known as Reverend Mike Morgan's house, mike and Joanne Morgan's house. This is their sanctuary and we are on our Northeast tour doing the Pete play. And, uh, we did. What did we do? We did, uh, ocean Grove and I got to tell you, um, this, this young guy comes up to me after we did the Pete play. Actually, let me back up and just give a little context.
Speaker 2:Every time we do Ocean Grove it's usually a challenge logistically. There's nowhere to park. The bathrooms are like really far a football field away to get to the public bathroom and the other bathroom that's in the trailer that's close by is always locked and closed. So we had some people leave a few years ago. We've been doing Ocean Grove maybe for five years now four or five years doing Pete in the summertime up there on the ocean, and there were some people a few years ago that actually got up and left the play because they had to go to the bathroom and they reached out to me later oh, we're so sorry, we had to leave, but we had to find a bathroom and I was just bummed and it's always been a challenge and it's been a joy to do the play. But there are logistical challenges that come with doing a play on the beach, or it's the beach pavilion, so it's the boardwalk, but it's basically up on the beach.
Speaker 2:One year we were doing the play and the boat for Peter Peter's boat is. At the time it was made out of cardboard and, yeah, there was some wind going on and I'm doing the play and I'm thinking to myself how on earth am I gonna explain when this boat goes flying away down the boardwalk? I'm literally in prayer as I'm doing the dialogue for the play. I'm like, lord, please, don't let the boat blow away. Lord, please, please, help me out. Lord, please, I could really use your hand to stop this wind. Peace be still, peace be still. And I remember during that scene it was like when Jesus calms the storm, and this time the storm didn't really calm, the wind just kept. Big gusts of wind would come through and I was like, oh no, this is going to be a disaster. Anyway, it's things like that that have kind of worn me out a little bit.
Speaker 2:So this year, I must admit, I was not enthusiastic about coming up to Ocean Grove, enthusiastic about coming up to Ocean Grove, and not that I don't like doing the play, but I just was a little bit overwhelmed with all that had to go into it. You know, finding parking, we now have a trailer to keep our stuff in, and so I'm thinking, oh man, I, man, where am I going to park the trailer? I don't know what I'm going to do here, and just things like that. And so we Katie was struggling, she was having a hard time. I forget exactly what she was upset about, but Katie was upset about certain things logistically and it was not a joy. And I remember at one point I was like man, we need to recalibrate here. And we did, we prayed and it was like, okay, now we can go, now we can go up. So we went up and we did the play and it was just a major blessing doing the play there. The Lord did not allow the wind. I mean, I have a new boat now. It's made out of like Lexan and I put some metal ribs in it and it still could blow away. But there was no chance it wasn't going to blow away, no wind.
Speaker 2:And we did the play, the Pete play, and afterwards a bunch of people came up and were talking with me and this one young guy is standing there for I want to say 15 minutes just waiting, waiting, waiting. Young guy, maybe he's in his 20s and he comes up to me. His name's Scott. Hey Scott, if you're listening. What's up, bro? He comes up to me and he says you know, I was here last year when you did the P-Play and I made a public profession of Christ here last year and he didn't even know we were coming back this year and he was all excited and just amped up to let us know that God touched his life through this ministry. He was blessed through this ministry and he was recalibrated to just recharged in the Lord. He's a young guy. I love to see young folks on fire for the Lord. This other guy comes up to me. His name was Joe. Hey Joe, if you're listening, god bless you. Joe comes up and he was supposed to go to some kind of event at the auditorium and his friends I guess they didn't have a ticket for him when he got there and he was like, well, I'll just go hang out on the boardwalk and wait for you guys. And so he comes down to the boardwalk and guess what he runs into Plays on word, yeah, doing the Pete play, we're doing the Pete play. And he was like I never saw nothing like this. This was great Amped up for the Lord. He was so amped up that he went and got his friends and that encouraged me Really when we needed encouragement.
Speaker 2:It's easy to get discouraged and be like man, what's the point here? Man, not really, what's the point. That's not actually accurate. But just it's easy to get discouraged, to find yourself fighting discouragement. Oh man, we got to deal with the parking and all this hot and all this other stuff and we were just so blessed and the band was tight. I mean really tight. This whole tour, all the bands we've played with have been tight. It's different guys.
Speaker 2:Ocean Grove it was Roy Larson on bass and Randy Yelton on the drums. These guys we didn't even have a full sound check, man, we just they just got up and boom, locked in as if we've been well, we have been playing together for years, but I mean locked in, rock steady, and it was just a true blessing. And afterwards, one of the reasons there were a lot of people afterwards is because one guy came up and he asked for prayer and he said can you guys pray? And so somebody ran and got oil. We anointed this guy with oil, laid hands, had a group of people. It just turned into straight church man. We were praying over people that needed healing. Nancy was there holding it down. Nancy is Randy's wife and they've been just supporters in all kinds of ways to the ministry and she was just so blessed and it was just an honor to see her there. And that was Ocean Grove.
Speaker 2:And then after Ocean Grove, we went to Brooklyn and did the Pete play in a park in Brooklyn and and yeah, that was man going over to Verrazano with the trailer and just, oh, actually let me back up. I must back up. When we got to Ocean Grove, after Katie and I recalibrated and had prayed and committed it to God, recalibrated and had prayed and committed it to God, we got to Ocean Grove and wouldn't you know, the Lord had cleared a space for the truck and the trailer right in front of the venue where we were going. I could not believe it. I said what, huh, what? No, I can park right here, right in front. How is this possible? There were no cars in the area and it fit the whole trailer and the truck. I could not believe it. I said, wow, lord, you really want us to get this done. See where the Lord guides, the Lord provides. And so, man, I just was that's yeah, I had to share that with you. The whole experience was just incredible and the Lord's hand was over it.
Speaker 2:And I want to personally thank all of you supporters that have supported and do support plays on word in one way or another. We are just so grateful, all of you, for every single one of you, because you make it possible for us to reach out and touch people with the Word of God. The year before I think it was last year there was somebody who was involved in Satan worship and all kinds of stuff and he came down to the boardwalk to buy drugs and ran into the Pete play and stayed for the whole Pete play and had the gospel shared with him, and we had people there that just loved on. The guy shared the gospel with him. So a lot of good work the Lord is doing. To my great surprise sometimes and I shouldn't be so I repent of that with dust and ashes. Well, maybe not that far, but it's in my heart. How about that? So the next stop on our tour we went to Brooklyn, where Richie Cancel and Sarah Cancel, our dear brother and sister.
Speaker 2:They planted a church called Calvary Life and it's in Brooklyn and they hold their services in the summer. Some of you might remember them from early on in the Please On Word radio archive. If you go back you'll see. I forget which episode it was like 21,. I think I got to go back and look I'll get it for you. But yeah, we interviewed them. They meet in the park in Brooklyn in the summertime and during the rest of the year they meet in a building but they do their thing outside in the park. And we went up and did our Pete play and there were, in addition to their church, there were some Muslim ladies that were there with their kids and they listened to it, saw a bunch of people with yarmulkes walking around listening to the gospel, listening to the play, as we were open air, performing the word of God and preaching the word of God, because we always share the gospel, and so that was a great experience and many people were blessed by that.
Speaker 2:And the Lord provided parking right one block over in Brooklyn. Provided parking right one block over in Brooklyn. Yeah, imagine that. Some of you that know, you guys know that's like improbable. And the Lord hooked us up, gave us a great parking spot and the whole team you know. We were able to unload the trailer, which has made everything move much faster.
Speaker 2:And yeah, when we got up there I made the faux pas of assuming there would be electricity. There's usually electricity and I just assume there'd be electricity. But I got there and Richie was like no, there's no electricity here. Man, we do everything with battery. I was like what? Huh? And I do have a for plays on word. We have a it's like a car battery type thing that has electrical sockets on it. It's for situations like that. We also have a generator, but I didn't bring any of that on this trip. And I'm thinking to myself, uh-oh. And then just peace flooded over me and I was just like this is the Lord's deal. So if I can't play my keyboard, the music, the Lord's gonna fight. We'll find a way if we have to play it off of a phone or whatever.
Speaker 2:Well, turns out, these guys, they had a keyboard that took batteries. I couldn't believe it. If there was a TV camera, I thought I was on. What's the show candid camera, ellen Funt. Some of you old heads are nodding your head right now. You know, yeah, I was looking for the TV camera man. I was like I can't believe it. They actually have a keyboard with batteries in it and it worked fine. So we were able to play Paul Mazzu played on that, played the box, the drums, and we had just a joyous time in the park proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Just a joyous time in the park proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Then, after that, we went to a messianic congregation yeah, beth, messiah in Livingston, new Jersey, and we met Irving and, and we met Irving and Ray and just so many great people, beverly and James and George. We met a lot my buddy Jeff now, yeah, and just so many people there. It was fantastic and we're going to have Rabbi Irving on the podcast very soon and it was just a fantastic time. They were so receptive to the word of God going forward in the Pete play and one of the things in the prologue of Pete at the end you guys know the prologue, that's the miraculous catch story when it basically sets up the whole play and Peter says you know, I looked at them, they looked at me, we looked at him and then I fell at Jesus' knees. That whole thing Because they caught so many fish. It was incredible.
Speaker 2:And Peter says we brought our boats back to the shore and from that moment on, we left our nets and our boats and we followed Jesus. Moment on, we left our nets and our boats and we followed Jesus. Well, when we did this messianic congregation, pete says we left our nets and our boats and we followed Yeshua. And you could hear people go. Oh, it was great. You know, the congregation is part Jew, part Gentile. It's like the early church. It's fantastic. But these folks love Jesus, the Messiah, and they love God.
Speaker 2:And it was just, you know, this magnificent trip the Lord has us on meeting so many people, on meeting so many people across the spectrum of the body of Christ. It's just fantastic and the unity that we have is the spirit of God. There is unity and it's just great to see such a diverse group and it's always a joy, and so I just wanted to make sure that I thank every single one of you that is a supporter. I mean, on this last tour, more people came on board to support what we're doing and people. I just wanted to thank you guys. I want to thank every single one of you. Some people support financially, some people support like Mike and Joanne. Right now they're letting us camp out at their house while we're on the tour. Yeah, yep, and just you know, mark and Karen, mark Case and Karen Case. They set us up with storage space so we had a place to store our stuff and we grabbed most of it and threw it in a trailer. But now, but before we had the trailer, yeah, it was. You know, people, just, it was such a blessing. So many people have stepped up. The musicians have stepped up to help because it is a team effort. It is not just me and Katie doing this thing, it is literally a team effort.
Speaker 2:And those of you that might be thinking well, I haven't really given to the ministry. What you can do is you can pray. If you are right with the Lord, you please pray for the ministry. That's the most important thing. That is absolutely the most important. Are right with the Lord, you please pray for the ministry. That's the most important thing. That is absolutely the most important. That, if the Lord puts on your heart whatever, whatever you would have you do is cool. But everybody can pray for the ministry, pray that people get saved, pray that the Lord keeps me and Katie healthy, provides, opens doors for us, provides for us that kind of stuff. Man, that's eternal right there and I'm eternally grateful to you for it.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I have talked up a storm this entire podcast here and we wanted to get back to our speaking of people that support. We wanted to get back to our speaking of people, that support. We want to get back to our playground section, which is where we, when we do a play at a place, we talk to the people that are in charge there and get a little bit of the lay of the land and learn about the playground where we just had the play. And what we're going to do this episode is we are going to do this episode is we are going to visit, with our speaking of support, our dear brother, the Reverend Dr Gary Cole from Bel Air Baptist Church and Ben Abalos from Bel Air Baptist Church and the Bel Air Baptist Christian Academy, and we did this interview a while back and I have been meaning to put this on the playground section and shame on me.
Speaker 2:This was right after we did Genesis Joe at Bel Air Baptist Church and for the Bel Air Baptist Christian Academy. And so take a listen, these guys are awesome. Take a listen. We just did our Genesis Joe presentation. I don't like to call them performances, even though they are performances, but it really is a presentation of the Word. Pastor tell me, reverend, doctor, tell me your whole name. And brother man, you tell me your whole name. After after reverend here.
Speaker 4:Okay, I'm gary cole, uh, from buffalo, new york. Where's cold buffalo area? Yeah, yeah, okay, this is, uh, we're at bel air baptist bel air baptist church the christian school? Yeah, we're. It's also the church. Yeah, the school is a ministry of the church. Uh, the Lord has blessed us. This is our 22nd going on 23rd year, amen, and so we just thank the Lord for that.
Speaker 1:I'm Ben Avalos. I'm the pastor's help here.
Speaker 2:Somebody's got to hold Moses' arms up right.
Speaker 1:And I'm also a teacher.
Speaker 2:Okay, I teach in a public school. Amen, well, thank you. You know, we did our Genesis Joe thing, and this is the playground section, so tell me, how did you meet the?
Speaker 4:Lord. Well, I was 11 years old, in Vacation Bible School and the Lord had been working on my heart for some time, and just one. It was actually a Thursday at about 1030-ish in the morning and the Lord just spoke to my heart and said this is the time to allow me to come into your life. And I did.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 4:You know, I just feel so saddened for those who don't know the Lord I was, so I've been so blessed, you know, to have known him virtually most of my life. You know, my wife was saved as a youngster, as a teenager I guess. My daughter was saved at about four. My granddaughter was saved at a young age two, four, five, somewhere around there. And I am just what more does one need in life? That's a testimony to the goodness of God right there. Oh, yes, it is, yes, it is.
Speaker 2:To live in like a whole life. People live their whole lives and don't know to not know him.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, man. Yeah, I share your burden for people that don't know him. How about you, sir? Brother Ben, it's a long story. Okay, we got time. Give us the elevator. Give us the elevator version.
Speaker 1:Well, I remember my friend invited me in a prayer meeting. Uh, I was 11, 12 years old back then, and yeah, I remember yes, okay, um, they prayed for me and I didn't know what was going on. Uh well, in between that, I've been involved in many different spiritual movements. And then, not until I was 26 years old, that's when I met my wife-to-be's dad. I tried to convert him into what I believe in, and he ended up converting me.
Speaker 2:He's a believer, and so yeah, um I.
Speaker 1:I remember I was crying in his study and thinking what was I thinking all those years and how much have I missed the things that I embraced yeah and I was crying um in a mixed emotion, if you will. Yeah, because I came to know the Lord and I'm thinking about all the nonsense that I subscribe into All those 25 years of my life. Since then, I desire to be in service to the.
Speaker 2:Lord.
Speaker 1:Amen. Like you, I really have a heart for a broken heart, for those who knows not the Lord yet as their Savior.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that to me, that I think the Lord allows us to get a taste of how he feels when we're burdened, and sometimes the burden can be so overwhelming, like the burden for the people that don't know him, that are lost. We can feel just overwhelmed. We can't handle the level of burden that he has. I mean he's just letting us have a little bit of what he feels.
Speaker 4:I think you're absolutely right, brother Ben. Every week we do Sunday morning we do prayer requests, and it's always for his loved ones, his family, his sister and brothers and nieces and nephews. I'm blessed somewhat the other way. I guess I'm kind of the senior generation now, but I've got there's three Pastor Coles in my family.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a great testimony right there.
Speaker 4:That is a beautiful art cole, george cole. George cole senior is my first cousin and his son, george jr, and his and his brother arty, are on the new york area. Praise god, back there doing things so praise god.
Speaker 2:We um, gotta keep that in mind, man, god is he's been really good to us. Getting back to that whole lost thing or prodigal type of situation, we're working on the prodigal son. We're doing going to do something called parables, where we do the prodigal son and we're going to tell the story from the brother's perspective. We're also going to do, uh, the good samaritan, like we're going to combine a couple parables in an event night so you come out and you'll see some different parables that jesus told and you know one of them is going to be the prodigal son and it's going to be interesting.
Speaker 2:One of the songs on my new album is actually sung from the dad's perspective. It's called Could it Be? So I'll make sure I send you guys a copy of it. Which brings me around to another question. I wanted to ask Any thoughts on the play good, bad or ugly. Any thoughts? Did to ask Any thoughts on the play Good, bad or ugly Any thoughts? Did anything stick out? Did anything? Did you like anything, dislike anything? Pyramid Depot. Pyramid Depot yeah, they've been having sales there. People love that.
Speaker 4:I appreciate your ministry because you know you put a visual effect to things, you know, and it really kind of blends the story together. I like the way you blended the whole thing and then you kind of paused somewhat in between when it was an obvious reference to Jesus down the road somewhere and the same type of thing. I think that was very effective. The way you did that, amen, yeah.
Speaker 2:Then there's humor in it. I had a guy come up to me last week and he said you should have marketed this whole thing as a comedy. I was like okay, instead of gospel.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Early on we had somebody that did not like the comic references. She thought it was almost sacrilegious and it was almost wrong. But one of the things that I've noticed is, the next time you see this play or any of the plays we do is a lot of times when there's a difficult situation or a really deep emotional situation we'll turn around and drop one of those things to kind of snap you out of it and like you end up laughing because pyramid depot, the idea. Okay, they're building pyramids. It's ancient egypt, you know, we have home depot, that's a contemporary thing. Okay, I can relate to that a little bit. And so the concept of humor, and I I can't take any credit for that. The good lord, I'm telling you, he gave, literally gave me all everything, even the humor stuff. He hit me with it. I was laughing when he was putting this whole play together. I'm like, can I say that Pyramid Depot?
Speaker 4:I mean, jesus spoke in contemporary terms in His time, obviously, yeah, okay, I think that was great.
Speaker 1:As pastor said, the pause and the emphasis on the type and the other type. That's very effective and we appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen. That's all the time we have for visiting with Gary the Reverend, dr Gary Cole and Ben Avalos from the Bel Air Baptist Church in Bowie, maryland, and we will put a link in there in the show notes. We're going to continue this interview because it's pretty cool. Yeah, those brothers and the entire staff at Bel Air Bel Air Christian Academy also. These people love Jesus, man, so keep them in prayer. If you're in the Maryland area, check them out and until next time, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you what? And give you peace.
Speaker 3:This program was made possible by the Plays on Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at playsonwordorg.
