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 120: From Broken to Director of Fun - How Christ Transforms Lives (Part 1)
"How might acknowledging our weakness open the door to strength through faith-centered transformation? Today James Serpico will tell us how God transformed him from broken addict into THE America’s Keswick’s “Director of Fun”!"
James Serpico never expected to become the "Director of Fun" at America's Keswick. Six years ago, he was just another broken man entering their addiction recovery program, assigned to Room 18, top bunk. Today, he leads programming at the very place that transformed his life.
With raw honesty, James shares how childhood instability and his father's death when he was 13 left him desperately insecure. By 15, he discovered alcohol could temporarily erase his social anxiety. "I don't have those fears anymore," he thought, setting him on a dangerous path of substance exploration. In college, he found prescription painkillers particularly effective: "I didn't have a broken bone," James explains, "I had a broken heart, and it felt like it healed."
The facade crumbled after a car crash on the New Jersey Turnpike became his wake-up call. At America's Keswick — a 127-year-old faith-based recovery program in the Pine Barrens — James encountered a radically different approach to healing. "We are 100% believers that the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what changes a person, period," he explains. With no phones, TV, or outside distractions for four months, residents immerse themselves in Scripture and community.
Through trauma counseling, James began replacing destructive lies with God's truth that he is "accepted, approved, loved" regardless of circumstances. This ongoing transformation exemplifies a profound spiritual paradox: "The weaker that we understand ourselves to be, the stronger and more confident we actually become," because our strength comes not from ourselves but from Christ within.
For those struggling with addiction or supporting loved ones on their journey, James's testimony offers tangible hope that lasting change is possible not through willpower alone, but through heart transformation. Learn more about America's Keswick's men's and women's programs, or support their work by joining the Family Freedom Walk fundraiser on May 10th (11am-2pm).
Addiction Recovery at Keswick - https://addictionrecovery.org/
Barbara's Place - https://addictionrecovery.org/barbarasplace/relaunch/
America's Keswick - https://americaskeswick.org/
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Lord, you know you will now listen to Plays on Word Radio.
Speaker 2:It's the best.
Speaker 1:America's Keswick is a conference retreat center, but it was founded as an addiction recovery ministry for men and it's been around for 127 plus years. It is a men's program that lasts for four months no TV, no newspapers, no magazines. We are 100% believers that the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is what changes a person, period for good, for the better. You're the only name. You're the only name. You're the only name.
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:James Serpico, welcome to Plays on Word Radio. Thank you for having me. Yes, James Serpico is the owner of Keswick. He runs. I can't say you're the mayor, because that's Rob Russomano's official name. Rob's the mayor. We got to come up with something good for you, but you're definitely one of the important you called me the director of fun. The director of? That's your official title the director of fun. I love it. I love it, man. D-o-f, d-o-f, yeah, yeah, he's D-O-F.
Speaker 2:He's the director of fun. But yeah, so you know, I just wanted to introduce the plays. Many in the Plays on Word radio audience right now are going oh wow, they got James Everett. I know him. You know there's a lot of people that know you from Keswick. I first met you when we were doing the Pete play in the back at the Colony Chapel.
Speaker 1:That's right, yeah.
Speaker 2:On the Keswick grounds and I distinctly remember this young guy. He was very serious but afterwards coming up to me saying how blessed he was. I think it was the Pete play.
Speaker 1:It was definitely Pete, yeah.
Speaker 2:It was Pete, yeah, and you had your game face on. I did not know what you were going through at the time or what you had gone through, but apparently the Lord was in the middle of doing a great work in your life at the time. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 1:Well, there's two things about what we just. I was listening to you and two things came to mind. The first one was that you were saying that some people know me and I've thought about this. I've thought because I have a last name. I don't know if people know the last name, serpico, but it has some. It has some connotation to it, it has some connections to it and I'm sure there's some relationship to the serpicos that were on the movies and tv shows and stuff like that, and, in reality, from Italy.
Speaker 1:But I was thinking about names and I was thinking about my name and I remember, before coming to Keswick, I was thinking, man, I'm leaving a bad name out there for myself, especially my last name. My first name is different these days, but last name is something that people hear and they say, oh, and I was like, man, I'm leaving a bad, I'm leaving a bad name out there, and that's one thing that comes to mind is that god, he gave me a new name, amen, and people are thinking of me differently than they would have, and it's funny to say that because I, I, um, I was very good at hiding my addiction. I was very good at just hiding the things. If I was doing bad things, I was good at hiding it. So I don't know, even if you'd ask your average person that knew me even before Kez, like, oh, what kind of name was James Levin? But I knew, I knew the name that I was leaving out there.
Speaker 1:And so I just think of people that I know these days and that know me, and that you say that with a smile, that people are saying, oh, they're going to be glad to see james serpuk on there and man, that's like, yeah, super heartwarming. Yeah, I think that god has given me. I know he's given me a new name and it's not even. It has has nothing to do. It has to do with me, james Serpico. It has all to do with Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Amen, and so the Lord is a restorer.
Speaker 1:Amen to that. He's a God of redemption. Yeah, so I was like my first week just about of being at the colony. Yeah, you were new. I remember that you came and provided this play and you're a one-man show and I was blown away by you but also by the story and, if I can remember correctly, and even putting myself here back to there and even seeing your performance a number of times since then, that I'm sure my heart was touched by you and the story of Peter and his mess that he made along the way and that Jesus touched his life to be one of his.
Speaker 2:That was six years ago.
Speaker 1:Yes. April 2nd 2019 was when I came in the doors, and so it was probably a week or two after that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, and I'm just curious, how did they? Because it's very important for us. At Plays on Word, one of the things we do is we make sure we minister to the guys at the colony there, not just come out to do plays for just the general public, which is fine. That's what we do, but one of the things we do is make sure that we are ministering to the colony. I'm just curious, how did Rob promote it? What did they say? Come see this.
Speaker 1:It was Rob and Terry Russomano. I remember very much that Terry.
Speaker 2:I think she gave an announcement at one of the meals of the colony and I remember very much that Terry.
Speaker 1:I think she gave an announcement at one of the meals of the colony and I remember they said, yeah, well for the colony guys, it was for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:And so they said yeah. I don't think they ever said it was mandatory, but it probably was. Yeah, Praise God that that's what they were. They were providing an offering for one of the, for one of the evenings of the of the colony experience.
Speaker 2:Amen, that's you know what. What's what's funny is I went across the because there's no bathroom at the colony chapel, so I walked all the way across the pond over there to the to I guess I don't know what that area is called.
Speaker 1:The actual, probably to the actual colony, guess, uh, I don't know what that area is called the actual, probably to the actual colony yeah, the colony building.
Speaker 2:And so I go into the bathroom, I'm in the stall there and these guys come in and a couple guys were like I don't know man, I don't feel like doing this, I don't feel like man and so I I start chiming in, I'm like, yeah, man, I I don't even know what this is, I don't even know what's going on here, man.
Speaker 2:They tell me some clown or something is going to be up on stage. So I start playing. So I come out of there. I wasn't dressed yet in my Pete outfit, but when I went up on stage I saw the guys that I was complaining with about having to go to this stupid thing and they were like what Wait, is that the guy Boy? He looks like him. So yeah, I had fun with that. It's always dangerous man and I've done that since. I said let me go over to the cone and see if I can.
Speaker 2:The inside scoop? Yeah, because there was a couple guys. They just were having a tough day or whatever. If I'm it was a couple guys. They didn't, they just were, you know, having a tough day or whatever. If I'm not mistaken, though, at the end, though, they were blessed and they were uh, and that's that's an important thing. I mean, basically, for those that are listening right now, what we're talking about colony, because we know, but how would what do you? What is keswick? What do you? How would you explain? Explain it to somebody that is maybe in California listening right now. It's like what are they talking about?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's the colony? What's Keswick? What's America's Keswick? I don't know if they can see how it's spelled, but what's the silent W?
Speaker 1:America's Keswick is a conference retreat center, but it was founded as an addiction recovery ministry for men. Right now it holds 40 men. The capacity is 40 men and there's staff members that have offices within the facility. Right now it houses 40 men and it's been around for 127-plus years. It was founded in Whiting, new Jersey.
Speaker 1:Whiting, new Jersey, is one of the highest senior populations in the United States of America, which is very interesting. It's a cool place because we've got a lot of people praying for us and most of the time seniors are of the best uh prayer warriors out there. So we're right in the middle of pine barrens, which is one of the biggest um nature reserves and national parks. I believe in the country as well. Um, and so it's a. It is a men's program that lasts for four months. You, you come in the doors, I came in the doors, and pretty much the majority of any outside distractions are stripped. There's no phone calls, and this might be similar for most programs honestly, most addiction or rehab rehabilitation programs for addictive behavior but for Keswick, no phone calls for the first 30 days no TV, no newspapers, no magazines.
Speaker 1:We are a hundred percent believers that the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, the gospel of Jesus Christ is what changes a person, period. But what changes a person for good, for the better? Addiction eventually goes by the wayside, and when I say addiction, I mean substances alcohol, drugs, pornography, those big ones that I think get big labels eventually go by the wayside and then you start doing some real work where God starts to heal your heart, and for me he did. And that's the great thing about Jesus he is a god of sanctification, justification, glorification immediately. But some of those things, especially sanctification, is one of those things that that is progressive and that takes time and it continues, and I I often struggle with that. But I have come to a place where I say thank you, lord, because if I was sanctified perfectly on earth I wouldn't have a need for god, yeah, any longer. And so I say thank you, lord, because he's, he knows what's best for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 1:It's good to be in relationship. That's what it's all about. It's good to be in relationship with the Lord. And so I don't understand it fully, that's for sure. But I know part of being sanctified continually is that it gives me good reason to be in continual relationship with my Father in heaven. And so it's four months. Let me get back to that. Four months mandatory to stick around. It is fully funded by offerings and gifts from the surrounding community.
Speaker 1:When I say surrounding anyone who wants to give, we do not receive federal funding, and I say that to tell you that it is $500, a flat fee, an intake fee. You pay that fee, you stay for four months and you complete that part of the program. And then there is another eight months covenant relationship that we set up, where a member of the colony will form a relationship with the church and then continue the process of learning and growing in Christ and with the church and with other believers and just even wherever they might go to work, just in their everyday experiences. And so once you complete the four months and then the eight months, that's a full graduation of the Colony of Mercy. With that said, you can stay for an additional time, which is called our discipleship program. That's a mandatory three months, and then some people are offered to stay as an intern. You can certainly support the ministry by giving that.
Speaker 1:Information is either by phone or by the website as well. You can come here for our conferences. You can go to the events page on our website. Conferences are fantastic there. The conferences are great. We have conferences at least at least once a month, and then there's all kinds of monthly programs. There's a lot going on here, and so I'm actually being paid to talk to people about that.
Speaker 3:So please call me or email me, if you have to people about that.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, please call me or email me if you have any questions about that. The most the closest things that are coming up are our family freedom walk, which is our biggest fundraising event of the year. Okay is on May 10th. That is gonna be at 11 am to 2 pm on May 10th. That takes place during our be at 11 am to 2 pm on May 10th. That takes place during our reunion weekend. So we invite all of our graduates. Men's program, women's program I didn't mention the women's as much, but Barber's Place just turned 10 years old, which is amazing. Barber's Place is our women's program. It's a smaller program. We have capacity of eight for eight women. It literally just what's the word? It was on pause and it just started back up, okay, last month. We have six women currently in the program, so if we get two more, we're looking at a full house and may 10th will be tomorrow uh.
Speaker 1:So tomorrow, if you're able to, if you're local or even if you're not, if you want to take a drive, please come on out to America's Keswick for the Family Freedom Walk from 11 am to 2 pm to help raise funds for our addiction recovery ministries, and then we have all kinds of other stuff, and so being involved can be. Coming here, be praying, please be praying for America's Keswick. As Fred said, the men of the colony and the women of Barbara's Place are top priority. They're the reason we're all here. Praise God that the founder William Ross started this place because he came out of addiction, and praise God that Jesus came not to save those, that he came to save those that need a physician. Right, he came to save the lost, not those that think they got it all together and think they're heading in the right direction. Because Jesus made that comparison. He said I came to save those that are lost, not the righteous. He says that almost facetiously because there are no righteous.
Speaker 1:He was basically saying not for those that think they're righteous. And so Jesus is the foundation of America's Keswick, because he is the best thing for those that are lost and searching for love in all the wrong places. And praise God that I think we just said it when we're weak and we're strong, when we're lost and we're found, yeah, man Right. And so for the guys and for the women, and certainly for the staff and for our guests that are going to be here, that's a huge way to be involved is is by praying amen, amen, that's.
Speaker 1:That is absolutely fantastic, and so I'll I'll go from the general statement or the generic statement of saying the yous and the wees and the and the days. So let me, let me rewind a little bit, because it's important to know what I came from, and we all come from the muck and the mire, but we all have a particular story too and there's details to each, and mine is. I'll give you some of the background, because that's how life works usually. My parents divorced when I was very young, my mother remarried and my dad passed away. My birth father passed away when I was 13. And so those things are those big moments.
Speaker 1:I think of just childhood that really shook things up and just had me on unstable ground. And I think of the word insecurity and that words that was really meaningful because there's an insecurity here. It was like, oh, I'm insecure, but it started with an insecurity on what I was standing on, what I kind of came into life experiencing, and I love my parents and I love my dad Uh, even even in his not being here, even in his death, I love them desperately and I'm being taught what love is, and so love involves loving broken people and that's been part of my healing, has been even just the uh redemption and the uh reconciliation, yeah, of those relationships, and even you know those experiences. But so after my dad's death when I was 13, I would say and that's, that's a big age, it's like a teenager and that's a pivotal age and you say, okay, that's usually right around there's when there might be substances that come into play, and they sure did.
Speaker 1:Right around 14, 15 years old, I was introduced to alcohol and my insecurities that I had even prior to my dad's, my dad's death. I was insecure in social environments and, uh, let me just note, I am the director of fun, but officially the director of programming, which is hilarious because programming directors are typically around a lot of people, yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe even in front of a lot of people. And so, man, god is so good to just say this fire, this place of discomfort, is going to be so good for you and man, I don't like it.
Speaker 2:I don't like it. Very often I get it His power is made perfect in weakness isn't it?
Speaker 1:It sure is. You're really living that and it's so beautiful too, because it's hard, the hard things. I like going to the gym, I like to work out, since I was probably around 12, 13 years old, and there's such a good relationship, there's such a good illustration there. We don't go to the gym and sit on a couch. You go to the gym and you get on a treadmill and you turn the speed up.
Speaker 1:And you put the weight up. You don't go down and wait, you go up and wait. And I don't know if it's a perfect illustration, but it's a pretty good one that god says, okay, let's add a few pounds, let's add five pounds, yeah, but he's right there to spot yep, to spot the bar. And then when you can't do it, he's like I'm gonna be in you and we're gonna do this together and it's just a really cool relational yeah, stretching and growing, and so stretching and growing. And so, yeah, about 15 years old, I was definitely taken by. It got its hooks in me by alcohol and really it was like a substance thing. The alcohol was just, I think alcohol is convenient, and so it was around and it was something as light-hearted as playing ping pong with my brother and drinking my parents wine and saying, man, this feels pretty good. And so at that point, the next few thing, next few experiences, were being in a social environment and saying, oh, I don't, I don't have those fears anymore. This has, has alleviated the fears of being around people. I don't really care about what they think of me, I'm just going to say what comes to mind, and I was probably a fool a lot of those times because I didn't care. But that's what I felt and it alleviated those fears and those stresses and the anxieties, and so I think at that point I was really hooked in the idea or thought of if a substance can give me the experience, the feeling of being alleviated, of anxiety, then I'm going to check these things out.
Speaker 1:That was a big reason for me to continue going down that road of substances, of exploring and experimenting with substances, and pretty much each one that I found I was like okay and there's a fun aspect to it too. There's a peer pressure aspect to it. There's a hanging out and social acceptance aspect to it hanging out and social acceptance aspect to it. But for me, I think the big thing that led me down that road and I continued down that road was because I was so anxious around people and it just took that. It took that fear away I was into. I got into a different headspace, different, different mindset. I found some that I didn't really like, but at least it was still something that was different from just me, just james, being scared and anxious and, you know, sober. And then eventually I found one I really did that like clicked, and it was painkillers and uh, that's a big deal with a lot of people.
Speaker 1:It became huge right around that time too. I was probably a freshman sophomore in college, and so that was probably around 2002, 2003, when we didn't know how bad they were and how addictive they were, and there was a lot out there as well.
Speaker 2:Doctors were prescribing it like it was a candy or whatever. They flooded the market so you could get them everywhere.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, man that's a, that's a. That's a documentary out there. That's the number of documentaries. But for as far as my personal story, they were out there, they're available and they when you talk about pain killers, they definitely kill physical pain, but they also do a lot to emotional and mental pain and they did that for me. They I didn't have any, I didn't have a broken bone, I didn't have a hurt back, I didn't have a bad knee. I was in good shape, but I was in really bad shape. I had had a broken heart, yeah, and it felt like it healed. It felt like it administered pain relief to my broken heart and it did that in a way where it took away the anxiety really significantly and I felt more like me than I had ever felt. But I was on this pill, I was on this drug. It was an opiate and all it was doing was releasing dopamine, but in an unnatural way yeah uh, and I was.
Speaker 1:I was really, really hooked and I did that for a number of years. Only on the weekends I said I got this under control, I can handle it, but it was just messy, messy story. You know, once a month, twice a month, messy story, messy story. I'd still be drinking. One thing led to another and I crashed my car on the New Jersey turnpike. Going from the turnpike to the parkway, there was two options Teen Challenge or America's Keswick, and I landed on America's Keswick. Two weeks after the accident I was in the doors, room 18, top bunk.
Speaker 1:I stayed for the four months back in 2019, graduated in August 2019. I stayed for the discipleship portion of the program for five months. Discipleship also offers something called trauma counseling, with Pastor Noah in our Mercy Shores counseling arm of the ministry. That was where a lot of healing took place, where some of the past traumas that I experienced were uncovered, looked at, examined, addressed, and that those traumas have started to and they really started at that point and they're continuing to but have started to be replaced, those lies that I believe through all that. They've started to be replaced with the truth of God that he loves me, that, no matter what happens to me, I'm accepted, I'm approved, I'm loved, all my needs are met in Christ, and so that process continues. And after five months, they offered me to be an intern, invited me to be an intern. I stayed for a year.
Speaker 1:I mentioned that because Robert, my boss and my friend, who took me under his wing from basically the start and had me dressing up as the time traveler during the summer conference season that's where it all started in programming for me, and he was diagnosed with cancer shortly after I was hired. And I say to myself what is happening? Wow, how could this be right? Yeah, and I still ask myself that. But uh, the next, the following October, he passed away of pancreatic cancer. And uh, I know you and I were we're sitting here mourning that right now and we miss Robert. Uh, you know as much, as as much as when he left us the first day and they named me the director shortly thereafter.
Speaker 2:And I said what Wow?
Speaker 1:And some days I still say what? But I don't know if I've ever been more comfortable in this position. And I stay comfortable, meaning confident in the lord, knowing that he, knowing that he has has me in the right place at the right time for the right reasons, and that's to share his love, uh, with everyone that I come in contact with. And uh, robert's in a good place, my dad's in a good place, my dad's in a good place. They're both believers and for those of you that might question, well, my loved one wasn't a believer. What's up with that? First of all, I'm sorry. Second of all, I don't know exactly, but I do know God is good and he has answers that I can't give you outside of the general statement, but it's a beautiful statement that he's good and he loves you right now, right here.
Speaker 1:I was praying this morning for my aunt who is pretty much days away from passing from cancer. I said God, help her If she has breath in her lungs, help her. If she has breath in her lungs, help her. And so that's all we have. And that's all we need is our Father, who's good, who's done everything on His end to send His only Son for our sake to save us from our own brokenness and sinfulness and selfishness, and all the brokenness and sinfulness and selfishness that exists around us, that he did all that for our sake, man. That's good reason to talk to Him and pray to Him.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Amen to that. You said something interesting. You said you know you're feeling confident in this position. I find the weaker that we understand ourselves to be, the stronger and more confident we actually become. And it's because the source of our confidence is not from within us, but it's from within. It's Him. The more dependent on Him, the weaker we recognize that we are Exponentially. Our strength increases because our strength is powered by Him, not us, and it's almost as if we can hinder the power of Him by thinking that we are something greater than we actually are. You know, Amen, Amen. Hey, that's all the time we have. We're going to continue this interview with the great James Serpico next week, but until then, 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 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.
