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 138: Finding Peace Beyond Panic - Plays On Word Update (Part 2)
"Last week we shared our white-knuckling adventures down the mountain road that kicked off our North East tour. Today we continue the adventure debrief of that tour!" Teddy and Katie share their recent ministry tour experiences across North Carolina, New Jersey, and New York, highlighting how God protected them during a harrowing mountain drive and opened doors for ministry at multiple churches.
• Surviving a treacherous mountain drive, with no guardrails, that tested their faith
• Visiting Quaker Street Bible Church in Delanson, NY, where they performed the 'PETE' Play
• Connecting with Pastor Geoffrey Ekstein at Bethlehem Community Church and experiencing a warm reception
• Performing on the Ocean Grove Pavilion boardwalk despite challenges of an outdoor venue
• Reflecting on the importance of giving invitations during performances, inspired by D.L. Moody
• Celebrating special moments like when a boy named Andrew participated in the feeding of the 5,000 scene
• Reuniting with original Plays on Word team members and longtime supporters across multiple venues
• Experiencing God's faithfulness in bringing people to decision for Christ at almost every performance
Quaker Street Bible Church: https://www.facebook.com/p/Quaker-Street-Bible-Church-100064469751520/
Bethlehem Community Church: https://bccdelmar.org/
Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association: https://www.oceangrove.org/
Trinity Tabernacle of Gravesend: http://www.trinitytab.com/
Brick Presbyterian Church: https://brickpresby.com/
Calvary Chapel of Monmouth County: https://www.facebook.com/CCMCNJ.org
'PETE' @ Trinity 08/15/25: https://www.youtube.com/live/CQwiEmzsEKs?t=969
The French Market: https://www.thefrenchmarketnj.com/
We have another tour coming up, so we need you to be in prayer about it. If you want to get a personal update and/or would like to get our newsletter with photos from this tour, reach out to Katie through the links below. If you'd like to learn more about Plays on Word Theater or see our upcoming schedule, visit playsonword.org. We have Genesis 'JOE' performances coming in October and 'CHRISTMAS JOE' performances already booking up for the holiday season! Plays On Word Newsletter Sign Up - https://playsonword.dm.networkforgood.com/forms/newsletter-si
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Email us: team@playsonword.org
Lord, you know you will now listen to Play.
Speaker 2:For One, it's the best. And there were some others. I can't remember at the time, but Randy Yelton, our Christian gangster. Listen, I'm playing drums. I'm playing drums of what Randy played the drums. And Phil Sinclair, brother, phil Brother and Phil Sinclair, a brother, brother, phil, brother, phil from Sinclair. He's from Queens, originally from Queens, but then he moved to Staten Island.
Speaker 1:Jesus, your name your name, your name. Have you ever faced a situation so terrifying?
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:So we are back, and last week we talked about our harrowing experience going down the mountain and praise the Lord.
Speaker 1:He brought us through that whole situation. Yeah, I didn't get to mention your parting comment when we left. What?
Speaker 2:did I say oh yeah.
Speaker 1:You turned to me and said well, I guess that's one place we won't be doing Christmas, joe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no man, I'm not trying to do that.
Speaker 1:And if you know my husband, he likes to inject some humor and levity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm definitely not trying to go up that mountain in the wintertime.
Speaker 1:Oh, I couldn't even imagine. No way, I mean, I'd love to be able to do it, but yeah, I'm not trying to tempt the Lord.
Speaker 2:There's that, yeah, there'd be temptation. So after we got off of this um, this mountain and we, we did have some really cool photos with the, with the family members at the uh it's in the boat, yeah there it is. There's a picture of the thing I'm still showing Katie. These photos, that's it we're going to put maybe post this too and the newsletter. We made our way up to new jersey and we visited with with, uh, mary lane right, mary lane, mary cosgrove.
Speaker 2:Cosgrove cosi yep, our um, our costume designer, and we had a chance to to meet up with her yep, katie's mom. And I had the opportunity to drive through my old neighborhood where I grew up and see the house that my mom sold, that we all grew up in, and some folks purchased it and really hooked it up. That was cool. They put a nice fence up and that was fun.
Speaker 1:You got to visit with your mom, I got to visit with my mom. She let us camp out For a couple days, yeah she let us camp at her place.
Speaker 2:Then we made our way up to New York State because we had to and it had been in the making for a while. Andrew and Sherry Strickland are brothers and sister of ours, and Lynn Jackson with the Thrive Leadership Foundation.
Speaker 3:They've been on the podcast.
Speaker 2:So a lot of connections have come out of that situation, which I'm sure is blessing Scott and Lynn. But we went up to their church, which is the Quaker Street Bible Church, standing firm on God's word, and it's not too far outside of Albany, new York, but we went up there.
Speaker 1:The Delanson. Yeah, did I say that? Right? I kept saying Delanson, I think, and it's Delanson, delanson New.
Speaker 2:York.
Speaker 1:I can see Andrew rolling his eyes right now, right now, if he's listening. Sorry, andrew, sorry about that. I think I got it right now, delanson.
Speaker 2:And we visited their church and we did the Pete play for them and it's an old church building, Very old, very old building, and it's up in kind of the mountains a little bit. So I was shell-shocked still from what happened. Yeah, but, the roads were much wider, much wider.
Speaker 1:There were no inclines like that, no inclines there were shoulders on the highway.
Speaker 2:I mean, north Carolina don't believe in shoulders, man no they definitely don't here New.
Speaker 2:Jersey man, new Jersey has shoulders on the side of the highway. I mean, north Carolina don't believe in shoulders, man? No, they definitely don't, jerry. New Jersey man, new Jersey has shoulders on the side of the road. You have a problem. You pull over North Carolina. You pull over, you're in the ditch. So, anyway, we had just a blessed time and we stayed with Andrew and Sherry and had a fantastic time with them. So much fun. They live in a wonderland. Their house is a wonderland, I'm telling you. I would say if you're ever there, you should look them up and just visit their house.
Speaker 1:Sorry, we just turned your place into an Airbnb.
Speaker 2:That's it. Airbnb, man, it was a wonderland. It was a magic house. It was just magical and the church was really cool. It reminded me of the old Shiloh Baptist before they rebuilt.
Speaker 2:Old Shiloh, or what's? The United Methodist Church in Bayville that we went to with Pastor Chang Young. They just had a baby. Congratulations, Pastor. Again, I'm shouting you out on the radio right now. Yes, they just had a baby over there and our dear brother John Thomas is over there holding it down. And it's the same type of sanctuary. It's an old, old school from the 1800s, and so that was a little bit of a challenge just setting up our peat boat. But when we designed the peat boat, we designed it to be able to go into different venues and to be different lengths, and the good Lord thank God he gave me that wisdom to do that to design the boat with flexibility. You know what I mean. It literally can flex into a three-foot.
Speaker 1:It's like three different lengths. It's three different lengths and you have used every single, every one of them, yeah, every single one of them, and I've actually used one side full length and the other side short length because it's an adaptable thing and that came from the Lord.
Speaker 2:That's not something I thought up. He was like listen, when you make—of course I didn't hear an audible voice, but that was the vibe. Yes, he sounded like Randy Yelton. He was like listen, randy Yelton is our—I don't want to call him a Christian mobster, but he can sound like a mobster, you know what I'm saying he's the coolest dude.
Speaker 2:Smooth on those drums, that's right, he's the drummer, but he says listen, this is how we're going to do this. And that's exactly the vibe I got from the Lord Listen, this is what you need to do. And he had me build that boat and I built it so that it was flexible, it could bend and fold into the different positions I needed. So we did this church and it went over really well. We had a fantastic reception there. Right, people were really blessed there. Right, people were really blessed there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were really blessed and they had a nice time of fellowship afterwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and people were excited and telling us about other family members they knew in Florida or North Carolina. There was someone that their family member was down here. So, you know, that's what we love, because this is really how this spreads. It's people's testimonies.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:After seeing the play and going to the church leadership and saying you've got to see this. You've got to bring them here.
Speaker 2:I didn't even set my keyboard up. I used the piano there, didn't.
Speaker 1:I Right, no, and it sounded great yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really really cool, just intimate, and they abused the whole nine, and so you know that was really cool. There's a picture from the house, katie, that's from the Strickland Manor. Yeah, the Strickland House, yeah, and we were fed well oh man, I mean sherry, sherry. Just she was like what, what is she? Do you want some crackers or something?
Speaker 1:and she pulled out like 40 different brands of crackers and chips salsa, cheese and honey I was like what, oh my gosh and andrew made, what he made um pancakes and all kinds of stuff yeah, he threw down, he threw down. I was like, yeah, that's what I'm talking about he really cooked them up well I was able to stay on my carnivore diet, yeah yeah, yeah, you're doing very well with that too.
Speaker 2:I might say Thank you Fair enough. So from there we went to another church in New York State.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was a Friday night and then Saturday, the very next day.
Speaker 2:Saturday the next day we went about 45 minutes away to Bethlehem Community Church.
Speaker 1:I don't even think it was that far. It was maybe 30 minutes right.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I thought it was 45, 40, something like that.
Speaker 1:But it was close and the cool thing was that it was Sherry and Andrew who set that up.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Because they are, you know, that's a church that they're affiliated with, so to speak, right, and they were able to set up that part of the tour for us, so that was kind of cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Pastor Jeffrey.
Speaker 2:Eckstein, that's right, and it was fantastic to meet him, jeff.
Speaker 1:Pastor Jeff.
Speaker 2:Yep, and it was cool. You know, you just meet people and you just click right away and you just you know that you're connected through the Spirit of God.
Speaker 1:I always say that like God just keeps introducing us to more family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's cool. Yeah, he does Absolutely 100%, and so this was a much bigger church, bigger congregation, bigger building, and when we pulled up with the van, it was nice. I don't think I have any pictures inside. I thought I took pictures inside, but maybe I didn't.
Speaker 1:I took a bunch of them. Yeah, I think you did. Yeah, I didn't take a bunch of pictures inside the sanctuary, but they had a beautiful spread as well.
Speaker 2:Oh man, they made. Yeah, oh, cool little. What was the fish?
Speaker 1:the fish with the chocolate yeah, it was it was like a chocolate the fish cookies it was a rollo with a pretzel and a.
Speaker 2:The golden fish cookie cracker type things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why can't I think the?
Speaker 2:name of them, pepperidge Farm fish or whatever. It was yeah, and they put it all on one thing. It was whoop.
Speaker 1:The combination was amazing.
Speaker 2:We had a fantastic reception there. People were very blessed.
Speaker 1:And his background, pastor Jeff's background is really interesting.
Speaker 2:Well, the people listening should know.
Speaker 1:Hopefully they listened to that podcast.
Speaker 2:Hopefully you have been listening to the podcast. If you're new to the podcast, then you don't know. But yeah, pastor Jeffrey, we interviewed him.
Speaker 1:That was a great interview. Yeah, pastor Jeffrey, we interviewed him. That was a great interview.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we interviewed him for the podcast and he was let's see which one it was. Yeah, it was episode 134 and 135. So just going back to August, go back a few weeks from episode 134 and episode 135, from the synagogue to the sanctuary One man's search for God, and it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to check that out oh man. His testimony is pretty amazing.
Speaker 2:His testimony went on to bless some people. Oh yeah, we got a. I got a text from a dear brother that was kind of in the dumps feeling beat down and he really needed to hear that and he was so encouraged by it. And here you know, we're just doing our thing, man. So that's the good Lord, that's the beauty of the body of Christ.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we had. I mean, that was fantastic and we're supposed to be going back. They said they want us to come back. I call him Rabbi Jeff, and I didn't know. That's part of the peep play. I usually find whoever the hosting pastor is and I'll speak to him During the play. I'll be like hey Rabbi, hey Rabbi, and I call him hey Rabbi Jeffrey, rabbi Jeff. And people started laughing like I was like, oh, they really think this is funny man this is great, oh man. Afterwards he came up to me.
Speaker 2:It's like little, did you know did you know that, you know I have it. I come, I'm Jewish and some of the people here you know they call me rabbi Jeff it loving, and so when you said that, they were like what, what, what, that's cool. So then again, there you go, there's the Holy Spirit doing his thing. So yeah, um, we, we had just a fantastic time, met more of the family of god. It'd be great if I could just bring all of you with me on the tour. You know, I don't know how I could do that be like you guys, you know but maybe there's a way we can.
Speaker 2:Maybe we'll set up a camera or something. You know, just do a documentary on one of these tours. We'll get a video camera team to just follow us so you can follow us. Hey, they make, they make reality TV shows out of much stupider things than this you know, I don't know if I'd want a camera follow me at all times.
Speaker 1:There's that, but you know, we'll brainstorm this a little bit more and get back to you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm just thinking out loud and I think our producer now is looking at me like or our artistic director just gave me a look like what are you talking about? Stop the presses.
Speaker 1:Anyway.
Speaker 2:Insert break screeching. We went back with Sherry and Andrew and stayed with them after the play and that was fantastic.
Speaker 1:again had just a great time had another food fest, had a food fest, and that was a Saturday, that was Saturday, and then we got up. Sunday morning Super early, sunday Very early.
Speaker 2:Sunday morning and jumped in the car or in a truck, I should say In a truck and we headed to Ocean Grove or I tailed it back to new jersey. I think we stopped at my mom's house for a hot minute, um, and then we went to ocean grove to do our peat play up on the boardwalk.
Speaker 1:And that was a 4 o'clock performance. Yeah 4 o'clock in the afternoon it was nice.
Speaker 2:It wasn't super hot. Ocean Grove is always a challenge. It's kind of hard for us because of the setup and we got there late later than I'd wanted Later than we normally would want to be there. So I couldn't set up the I felt like I couldn't set the stage up and I did not have the energy I thought about. I looked. I was like man, can I pull everything out the trailer? Pull that stage out.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you didn't. I couldn't man, I'm glad you didn't because the stage is a nice little added tweak. It's not 100% necessary, so it's not like we weren't.
Speaker 2:I just found that doing the Pete play, and particularly when Pete kneels on the ground or when he's in the boat if the boat is on the floor, people are looking over other people to see stuff when I'm sitting in a boat. So that's a little bit of a challenge and that was the reason for the stage. But I just there was no time, I didn't even have time to set our PA system up. We had a PA ready to go and I was like I'm not going to have time to set it up, I'm just going to go right into my amp. And that's what we ended up doing right into the amp and um. So it was. I mean, it was cool. We had some people come out. It was not a packed audience, but uh, larry and becky came out. Right, larry and becky and and uh, elaine maitland came.
Speaker 2:She surprised us and johnny cat johnny cat, johnny cat, what's up, man, he came out, you know of course lisa sinclair came with.
Speaker 1:Yes, lisa was there and she was there, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah uh, anita strokes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she was there maria helped who's?
Speaker 1:that yeah, because lisa was helping me wasn't maria with her. Uh, anita, yes maria was there and anita stroke.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there were. There were some others I can't remember at the right top of my head, but Randy Yelton, our Christian gangster. Listen, I'm playing drums, am I playing drums, or what? Randy played the drums and Phil Sinclair, our brother Phil. Brother Phil from Sinclair. He's from Queens, originally from Queens, but then he moved to Staten Island.
Speaker 1:We still had over 60 people there. People came in and out, because I'm always been counting. We had like 61 total.
Speaker 2:And the gospel went forward. We shared the gospel, which is what we do.
Speaker 1:And it's challenging because people come in and out and people are walking behind you obviously on the boardwalk. You know it's an open public area and you know, and people in the audience when people go by get distracted. But you are the forever professional.
Speaker 3:so it's always a challenge, but I know it's a challenge and I can tell when you when you start to um, even get no, when you get more animated or louder you know, because you're you're also trying to keep people's attention yeah you know so it's it is always effective.
Speaker 1:But that, yeah, it's a challenge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anytime we do outdoors is a challenge and uh, then our dear sister I forget her name, I got a picture of her, though uh, what is her name? She, she's the one who, um, just gave us some, really gave us a really good tip. And uh, yeah, then after that, I think during that part of the tour, we had the chance to visit one of our favorite places, which is the French Market in Rumson.
Speaker 2:New Jersey. If you are near Rumson New Jersey, look up the French Market If you like French food. It is authentic French cuisine. It's more of a lunch-breakfast place, not like a French fancy French restaurant. It's more of a French market where you can go and you can get a baguette with.
Speaker 1:I had one of the best quiches I've ever had. Yeah, and we've never had bad food there. I mean never, and I shouldn't even say it like that. Never had bad food. We've never. It's always been exceptional, yeah yeah you know, the food's always been great always I had.
Speaker 2:What did I have?
Speaker 1:I had, uh, man, I had like a ham and cheese, but like that cheese, but it was fancy cheese style. Yeah, man it was, it was banging, it was great it was nice and and it was good, um, you know, it was good to be able to to kind of take a breather and visit with some people, because, so we just told you about, our last weekend was Friday, saturday, sunday.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We're about to repeat that. Yeah, and come on another Friday, saturday, sunday.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then we had, we went back to New York, but this time we went back to New York City to get with wait, that was Friday, yeah, friday, yeah, friday. We did New York City atinto, who are dear brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1:Again. We met them at Keswick and also through at the Thrive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Thrive is Scott and Lynn Jackson.
Speaker 1:They were at one of the retreats we were at Scott and Lynn Jackson. They were at one of the retreats we were at. We've just been blessed to be able to, because this was another one that was a long time in the making.
Speaker 2:And they were really blessed. Fantastic, and there were some hands there. We got some souls for the Lord. Every one of these with the exception of Ocean Grove and maybe even Ocean Grove, every one of these plays, I see somebody raise their hand saying they prayed to receive Jesus. Because I give an invitation, I'm like, listen, we can do this now and you know, we can ask him and I lead people in a prayer and you know, I think that's important.
Speaker 2:Some people knock that, they, some people knock it, they, as far as giving, giving a invitation, and it's like, well, I'd rather, I would rather give an invitation than do what is not working for them not doing anything, them not doing anything, not inviting anybody to pray, pray to join the family of God, whether they stay in it or not. That's not my responsibility, that's not my job, it's between them and God anyway, but to not give an invitation. Now, as far as I was trying to remember a Moody quote that DL Moody gave about it, it's fantastic about this person that basically was asking him you know, why give an invitation when a bunch of people that go to these rallies a year later might not be walking with the Lord? And Moody turned it back on that person and was like, well, I'd rather do what is working for me, as far as it's working, than to do what you're doing, which is nothing. And for many pastors it's an easy cop-out to say, oh well, invitations don't work. That's an easy cop-out to not get out of your comfort zone and stand on the Word of God and actually invite somebody to pray to receive Christ Jesus, to make it official.
Speaker 2:So I believe in giving an invitation. There are a lot of people that are in the body of Christ right now because someone invited them to pray to receive Christ. You know. So, you know, that's that. And the other thing is, as far as Moody's concerned, the Chicago Fire. He preached and he didn't give an invitation and he felt the Lord put on his heart to give an invitation. It was in front of a big crowd and he didn't, he did not give an invitation and then the Chicago fire happened and a bunch of the people that were in that audience died and it tormented Moody, thinking they might have gone into eternity, never officially reaching out to him and never making it official with God, and uh yeah, because he said that he intended to call for a decision the following week, Right and then in between right, and that's when the fire hit and the fire leveled.
Speaker 2:Chicago Ruined it.
Speaker 1:What's that Go ahead? I like the quote that he wrote when he was reflecting on that devastating experience. He said I want to tell you of one lesson that I learned that night which I have never forgotten, which I have never forgotten, and that is when I preach to press Christ upon the people, then and there, and try to bring them to a decision on the spot. I would rather have that right hand cut off than to give an audience a week now to decide what to do with Jesus.
Speaker 2:Right, right. And the Lord put that on my heart before I even knew of Moody's situation or his. You know what happened with him. The Lord put on my heart as clear as day you need to not assume who's in the kingdom and who's not. You need to not just make assumptions, you need to give the opportunity and you need to give the invite. And so I'm just being obedient to him. You know whether we want to be eggheads and sit back and say, well, percentages don't really work. That's whatever you know. You can go down that and hide behind that if you want, but I'm going to give an invitation because God wants me given an invitation.
Speaker 1:It was a cool, really cool evening too, because I think you had said in the beginning of the evening you were just setting things up and people were coming in and there was a woman there who had her Bible open, and didn't you have an interesting conversation with her as well?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, I was walking around and I forget her name right now, but she said that she—.
Speaker 1:Carol, I think it was. That's right Carol, that's right Carol.
Speaker 2:And she had her book open to the book of Ephesians and we had just done that. So I was all amped up. I was like, oh, ephesians, all right, carolyn Praise.
Speaker 1:God, that's what it was, carolyn.
Speaker 2:I went down a whole bunch of stuff and she's looking at me like this guy's out of his mind and I said, well, yeah, I forget how we got on the subject. But she said, you know, oh, I said if you have any questions, feel free to ask me. You know any questions? Just went through that book. She said, oh, really, yeah, because I have a lot of questions.
Speaker 1:I'm new to Christianity and I've got a lot of questions. I said, oh, all right, amen, so you never know. And the crazy thing was, you know, afterwards we always like provide—we have t-shirts and stuff that people want to you know, kind of bring home the experience. And she had actually brought a t-shirt and she gave me a call. She reached out the next day because she wanted to see if she could exchange it, just for a different size. And so in speaking with her, we had such a nice conversation. She told me about something that she felt like the Lord had put her in the right spot at the right time after that play to help somebody else out. And she recalled that you had had that conversation with her. I said, oh, my goodness, my husband told me about that. So, and and we just had a nice you know convo and I reiterated what you said- you know that if you do have any questions, please feel free to reach out.
Speaker 1:But it was um, it was really neat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fantastic, I mean, it was just. It was great all the way around. We had a really cool setup going on too. You were able to. You had plenty of room. You laid out all your tables it looks like your merch tables which we're restocking, some stuff we're trying to get our mugs and stuff back. But yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was a whole lot of fun and we had a great time up there. Great crowd, great crowd, and people were really blessed. I usually find one kid in the audience during Pete when Jesus feeds the 5,000. I usually try to find one boy, a younger kid. I scan the audience. I'm looking around like who can I? Because there's got to be that one boy who brought the five loaves and two fish, and up there it was this young kid and he looked at me when I said, oh, it was this kid right here, this guy. He had. He had five small loaves of bread and two fish and he's looking at me like what, what's going on and and then I said I said what's your name?
Speaker 2:He said my name's Andrew. And I was like I'm always amazed when it's like a biblical name, because everybody just falls out cracking up laughing and everything, and I look at the audience and say you can't make this up. This is a biblical name if I've ever heard one. And in fact you know what? We could put the link to the Peat Play on the show notes.
Speaker 1:So if you want to see, I think we did when we did the um.
Speaker 2:Oh, james and Melissa. Yeah, we can do it again. Oh, I didn't know that was up there.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I think it was but. But you're right, we can. We'll double check. We'll put the replay back up the the link.
Speaker 2:When we did it there, andrew and I have a picture of him in the boat afterwards and he's, and he, it turns out that's, uh, james and melissa's son. I didn't even, I didn't even know it, so one of them. Yeah, yes, yeah, yep and then we uh, our dear brother paul mazu, played with us, played um, played the box yeah, he was there with with phil sinclair, with phil sinclair again, and it turns out that that was his family church growing up.
Speaker 2:They have a picture in there from the 60s I think, or 70s, early 70s or 60s, something like that, where Paul is a baby basically, and it was the first non-Catholic Italian church, church in brooklyn. I think it's an old church, old, old, old church and uh.
Speaker 1:So yeah, they just had an anniversary. Was it 150 years? Something crazy go back to that podcast, because we talked about it there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah so we had, you know, we had just overall, we had just a terrific time.
Speaker 1:And then, oh man, like over 100 people there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was Friday. Then Saturday we were at the Brick Presbyterian Church and our dear brother Andy Puzicki, he made his return to play his own word after nine years, or something like that.
Speaker 1:Inaugural, is that how you say it? Yeah, drummer. Yeah, he was the original.
Speaker 2:after nine years, yeah, and um, john thomas came out and, uh, my aunt christine came out and andrea and and anna came out sue hager and he finally got a chance to see a full play oh, yeah, yeah, yeah um joe santucci and yes, june, johnny cat was still there. It came back out.
Speaker 1:Forgive us if we don't mention everyone that we saw there.
Speaker 2:And it was.
Speaker 1:Lynn Miser, that's how you say her last name. She was the one who set it up. She had seen a peep play with some other members of the church. This was a while ago. I think this was another one that was a little bit in the making and they came out to ocean grove in the past, so one of our plays and um yeah so we're finally able to make that happen there what date was that that was um?
Speaker 2:that was saturday the 16th yeah, so yeah, saturday, the saturday, august 16th we were hold on, yeah, saturday August 16th. Hold on one second here, let's see something. Yeah, yeah. And we had Sue and Nelson Ramos came out. We're trying to snatch them away to North Carolina with us. My man, richie Conner, came out. Richie Conner man, oh, my goodness, I haven't seen him in a minute.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Lisa was there with him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, lisa came out. Yep, that's my man. We go way back, man. Oh, my goodness, we go back to like 1991 or something, something crazy like that. Becky and Johnny came out, janice and Matthew and Luke came out, right and Mary Ann.
Speaker 1:And Eleanor and.
Speaker 2:Eleanor. Sorry about that. Mary Ann and Eleanor came out, had just a blessed time. It was like old school CCLW was in the house and yeah, we just had a fantastic time there. Yeah, we just had a fantastic time there. And then we made our way to Calvary Chapel of Monmouth County on Sunday where Larry and Becky were there Pastor Shaw, he's 92, holding it down. He was on our second or third podcast the very early on. Oh, that's right, first season. Yeah, right, first season. Yeah, first season. My, my official greek instructor, my new testament greek teacher I still have some questions for him.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, so we did. And and again, randy and phil, I think, played there. Yeah, phil and randy and little billy came out billy was playing the drums at the table. Yeah, billy's playing the drums and randy a future. Uh, play some word yeah, and nancy yelton came out nancy and you know she basically oh she just she loved it. She holds part of the copyright on. Who is this?
Speaker 1:oh, that's one of her favorites.
Speaker 3:She owns the publishing on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's one of her favorites. And she came up to me and said you did it again. I can't believe. You made me cry again, and I've seen this a bunch of times. I said, well, hey, but Larry and Becky, they're longtime supporters and this church overall has supported Plays on Word and what we do From early on. We first did a play there in 2015, I think 2015. So yeah, man, either 2015 or 16, but it was a long time back with the original, andy Puzicki and Phil Sinclair. I think it was Phil's first or second gig with us.
Speaker 1:Was it really?
Speaker 2:It might have been Phil's first gig with us. If I'm not mistaken, I think it might have been his very first gig with us, and so, yeah, yep. And then, after we were done with our Basically that was the last part of our tour we had breakfast with Pam and Patrick, and Pam right now is in Albania with Step of Faith. She's in Albania literally right now, at this moment. I just texted her a few hours back and she said yeah, they're there, they're good, they're at the Home for boys. Hopefully she will give us a full update. We're going to get a full update and maybe we'll put that on. It's very soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're hoping to go back, maybe next year.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Praying about it.
Speaker 2:Yep, we miss everybody over there. And then we, on the way out, we had a chance to visit, with longtime supporters of ours, in fact, my best guy at my wedding, orlando Burgos Rivera, orlando Burgos and Gloria Burgos. And Orlando is just a dear brother of mine in the faith and in fact, the Lord used him to get his hooks into me. The Lord got his hooks into me through Orlando Burgos. Orlando Burgos was sharing scripture with me and he shared the word of God with me and faith, and the Lord used him in an instrumental way. So, if you're listening to this right now, orlando Burgos has touched you by being faithful to God, him and his wife Gloria. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing right now if the Lord didn't use them. Wouldn't be doing what I'm doing right now if the Lord didn't use them, and so, yeah, they're that close to us. So, orlando Burgos, so you guys, remember to keep Orlando and Gloria in prayer. Keep them in prayer for all their adventures.
Speaker 1:We also got a chance to see our good friends Will and MC. Oh yeah, that's right. And we we caught up with I got a chance to catch up with christy and, of course, my mom and uh and and bill bauman oh, yeah, doc bill bauman, our doc bill bauman christian chiropractor?
Speaker 3:yeah, man.
Speaker 1:He's the christian chiropractor. He lays hands on you and prays for you yeah, um, but yeah that
Speaker 2:was that was good and it for you, yeah, but yeah, that was good and it helped you, I think.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, it really did. He helped me too. I just got to go see him.
Speaker 2:Good foot like James Brown Anyway, plays on Word family. We have another tour coming up, so we need you to be in prayer about it. Send us an email text if you want to find out. If you don't see anything on the website, if you want to get a personal update or something like that, reach out to Katie. Don't call me because I'll give you wrong.
Speaker 1:I'll give you the wrong instructions, the wrong directions yeah, I always tell him he has the easy part, just as the play. I'm keeping track of everything else. Amen. Well, we went long again, so until he has the easy part, just as the play.
Speaker 2:I'm keeping track of everything else, right, amen. Well, we went long again, so until next time. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
Speaker 3:The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. This program was made possible by the Plays on Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at playsonwordorg.
