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 149: Stories Of Faith, Loss, And Lasting Hope
"What if gratitude isn’t a feeling but a strategy for the soul? Today, we revisit with three unforgettable stories—a Haitian missionary, a Brooklyn pastoral couple, and a former NFL quarterback who all learned about God’s grace—and their callings."
A gratitude-soaked best-of brings testimonies from a Haitian missionary, a Brooklyn pastoral couple, and an NFL quarterback turned dentist, each pointing to Scripture, salvation, and steady hope. We share why thanks can lead the heart, how grief refines faith, and where ministry multiplies.
• practicing thanksgiving when emotions lag
• Brian McDaniels’ jailhouse conversion and Scripture discipline
• how meditation on the Word fuels calling and courage
• Melissa’s journey through loss to a deeper view of healing
• preparing children with a living faith and a place to turn
• Gary Quazzo’s shift from legalism to grace and assurance
• culture, character, and the changing NFL landscape
• FCA roots in New Jersey and expanding student impact
• ministry formed through tragedy and school outreach
• church planting, shepherd training, and lifelong discipleship
Click on underlined links below:
Make sure you try to come out and check out our 'CHRISTMAS JOE' tour if you can. This is gonna be a limited run.
Cross To Light Ministry - https://crosstolight.com | Brian and Sophia McDaniel Testimony
Ministry Continues in Haiti Despite Rising Gang Violence -
https://calvarychapelmagazine.org/articles
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Trinity Tabernacle of Gravesend Website: http://www.trinitytab.com/
Trinity's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrinityTabernacleOfGravesend/
Trinity's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@trinitytabernacle7584
Scripture Bakery (Melissa's Bakery! - Check her out online/ DM to order): https://www.instagram.com/scripture_bakery/?igsh=YXRtOW5mZ2h2ZHpm#
'PETE' @ Trinity 08/15/25: https://www.youtube.com/live/CQwiEmzsEKs?t=969s
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Fellowship Of Christian Athletes - FCA: https://www.fca.org/
Gary Cuozzo Truth In Sports: https://truthinsports.org/gary_cuozzo/
Plays On Word website
Plays On Word YouTube
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Email us: team@playsonword.org
Lord, you know you're now listening to play one is the best.
SPEAKER_01:Hello, and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discussed, 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_05:All right, all right, all right. Amen. Welcome to Plays on Word Radio. My name is Fred David Kenny Jr., otherwise known as Pastor Teddy or Pastor Buck. And uh thank you very much, Katie Kenny and Josh Taylor, for that marvelous intro. And I just want to say, first of all, I want to say uh happy happy Thanksgiving to all you guys. I know you're probably recovering from yesterday's meal. Um and hopefully there were no family fights. And hopefully, you guys took my advice from last uh week's podcast where I encouraged you to be thankful to the good Lord and uh gave some examples about that. And it's just it is so important to enter his gates with thanksgiving. You know, it is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to thank him. And if you you know, holidays are hard. Holidays are very hard for many people, you know, a lot of people have a difficult time during the holidays. One of the things that you can do if you're having a tough time is you can thank God. Thank him. You can find something to thank him for. Start there and let the Lord direct your worship, praise, thanks. And if your heart is not there at first, you start thanking him for the things you have. Look, man. You just breathe in. Thank you, Lord, for the air that I just had. Thank you that my lung is working, those of you that your lungs are working. Thank you, Lord, my eyes are are working. Lord, thank you. Thank you that my ears are working, that I can hear this. This broadcast of this madman. Thank you for the meal I had yesterday, Lord. I'm letting me not let me not just say grace, thank you, Lord, for the food. But let me let me straight up thank you. Really thank you, because there are people that do not have a meal right now. Think about that. Some people it is cold outside, even in North Carolina. Yeah, it went down to like 30 30 degrees almost. That wasn't in the brochure when I moved out. Bottom line is we can be we can find something to be thankful for. Start there. If you are bummed out, the the the best thing you can do is start thanking God for the things he's done. Turn every negative into a thanks. Find something to be thankful for. Like my pop, he passed back in 2023. And uh I could be bummed right now that he's and I am bummed that he's not with us, but I'm turning that bummed outness, that's not a word, but the bummed outness into guess what? Lord, I'm gonna thank you for the years I did have. Lord, thank you that I had so many Thanksgivings with Pop. Hallelujah. Thank you for that, Lord. I'm still bummed out. I wish he was here. But let me go on record to go upstream from my emotions. Hallelujah. Well, speaking of thanks, I just wanted to this episode, we're gonna do something a little different. I don't know how well. Please send me some feedback. Let me know what you think, good or bad or ugly. We are going to um take a listen to just a couple of interviews we've had with some people this sh this past year. I was so tempted to go back to Aunt Bev in season one. I think I I think I'm gonna have to do that. Or maybe we'll just do a new interview with Aunt Bev and get updated on what's going on with her. But yeah, I want to do, you know, uh just uh just like a best of, you know, and one of the interviews that really stuck out this year that was beyond fun was with our brother Brian McDaniels, who is um the king of Haiti right now. And so we're gonna just check, I just gonna play part of it. Not all of it, just check it out. Uh well actually, you are the I'm just a servant over there trying to feed the sheep. Yeah, you are in Haiti. You are a missionary to Haiti.
SPEAKER_07:Yes.
SPEAKER_05:Tell me first, tell me about you. How did how did you come to meet Jesus? You're one of the craziest guys I know, which attracts me to you because I'm a madman too. I'm a madman for Christ, and and I see that in you. So how did how did you and when did you meet Jesus? The reason how did you meet him?
SPEAKER_07:How did he come into your life? I got I got saved in a jail cell. Wow. Yep, I was in a jail cell. My life was destroyed. I was looking at felonies, and some guy, man, I don't even I won't know, I don't won't know who he is until we get to heaven. He came up, he handed me a Bible. He goes, I he goes, six months ago I sent sent in for this Bible, but it I got one in the meantime, if you want it. He goes, and if you get to know the God of this Bible, he can help you with every one of your problems. And I said, Oh man, and I remember I sat I had that Bible and I sat in the cell, and man, I started reading it, and I never put it down, dude. I never put it down. I just read that thing, I mean, I just Philippians, Thessalonians, Corinthians, Romans, I just kept reading it, devouring it, devouring, I thought I was just sitting there by my side. And after about two weeks, all of a sudden, man, I'm not kidding. After two weeks, I was the happiest guy in jail. Born again, not of a corruptible city, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives in the body forever. I'm serious, that's how I got stayed. Born again for the word. And I, and that was it, man.
SPEAKER_05:And you haven't been the same since.
SPEAKER_07:No, nope. I got out, I got out, um, I was getting out of jail, and uh they I asked to see a chaplain. Yeah. He said, okay. He goes, you gotta find a church. Where are you gonna go? I go, I'm gonna go to Calgary Chapel, Costa Mesa. He goes, have you ever been there? Is anybody from the church? I go, I don't even know. I don't even know to this day how I said that. He said, Did anybody from that church come and invite? I go, no. Did you just hear it in your head or did the Lord put that on your car and told him? So I got out, what? I got out and uh and I went, I went the next day, I went to that church, and uh it was, I remember the first Sunday, uh Chuck goes, Well, that concludes our study in Revelation 22. Next week, we're gonna start Genesis chapter one. The next week after I sat there for seven years from Genesis to Revelation. I don't think I missed the study. That's how it started with me, man. God had God perfect timing, man.
SPEAKER_05:Perfect timing.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And you were able, and you know, Chuck, he takes you through the word, man. You just go through it.
SPEAKER_07:Man, I didn't want I didn't want to miss. I feel I didn't want to miss one study.
SPEAKER_05:So the word of God, how important was the word of God? Obviously, it was important to you being saved. Uh it, you know, those people that maybe don't think it's important to get into the word of God or conveniently are are bamboozled by the enemy to not pick up their word or to, you know, ah, they can do it next week or next, or just bring it to how what would you say to somebody who has says, what's so powerful about the word of God?
SPEAKER_07:Well, we we we train young leaders in Haiti now, and so what I tell them is your ability to memorize the word of God, to rightly divide the word of God is directly related to how much of the good works God has ordained for you before the foundation of, to be able to take those. Because when Josh, when they were going into Promised Land, uh, you know, Joshua asked Moses, how do I do it? He said, This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, then your way will prosper, then you'll have good success. The way you're gonna be able to take this is through the word of God.
SPEAKER_05:Hey, man, you gotta love that dude, man. Oh man. Brian, I'm thankful for you, man. Uh if you want to hear the whole thing, check out episode uh 124. So it's podcast 124, and I believe 125. No, it's 124. It's 124 with Brian. Yeah, so we are we are absolutely thankful for him. You'll be able to hear the rest of that incredible interview that we did with him, which was a real blast. Um, and if you can remember to keep him in prayer and the work that the Lord is doing with him in prayer, please keep keep that in prayer. So keeping with our best of, uh we're gonna take a trip from we're gonna move from Haiti to uh let's see, uh James and Melissa Pinto, who um are up there in Brooklyn, New York. And uh let's take a listen to part of their interview. This is from episode 136. I think you're gonna dig it. So tell me something. I need to hear your story. I mean, uh James, I can hear in your accent that from you, you're from New York. I can hear a New York accent there, but I don't hear that in your wife's voice. I don't hear a um, I don't really hear a New York accent. Where what what's what's the deal with that?
SPEAKER_04:Well, because I'm not from here.
SPEAKER_05:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:There you go, drop the mic. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I was born in Missouri, raised in Texas, my family's in Illinois. I lived in Connecticut and Germany. Uh, and while I was in Connecticut is when we met. And then moved to Brooklyn after we got married.
SPEAKER_05:Wow. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so I I think I have a little bit of everything, so it's just kind of who knows.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. I love it. I love it. Now, James, what about you, man?
SPEAKER_03:I grew up not far from here, a few miles. In a uh part of Brooklyn called Dica Heights or like Bensonhurst. Okay. It's not far from here. And um Yeah, I've been here my whole life basically. Lived in Florida for a few months, but I don't even count that. It was so short. I need to hear your your story.
SPEAKER_05:What where does Jesus come into play with you and and with Melissa? What's going on here? What when did you guys meet that guy?
SPEAKER_03:Melissa?
SPEAKER_04:Well, mine's a lot shorter than James, I think, but um my mom died when I was 13. And so through the grieving process of uh of that, I came to know the Lord. It took about it took six to eight years, and then I could say fully on at 10 years that I really was serving him. But yeah, my mother grew up in a Christian home, so when she got sick, she came back to the Lord, but we weren't raised as Christians. So I, you know, it it was a process, but yeah. Basically through that, I I never cursed. I never I don't drink, I don't smoke, I never did any of that, I don't really have anything. It was really through uh a grieving process that the Lord just pulled me in.
SPEAKER_05:So you you became aware of because of the great comforter.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Well, um, I was very upset and I was very up mad at God because my mother claimed healing till the day she died and didn't prepare us. And um through that, the Lord little by little, we were invited to a youth group, and there's a lot of things that are entangled with it, but he really just showed me who he was and that the ultimate healing is really heaven and uh uh you know it's uh really our perspective on earth, which is not our home, and all those other great things that I'm still learning. So um, but through that I always said if he could get me through that, he could get me through anything. And since then I've my faith has never wavered. So thank God.
SPEAKER_05:I'm sorry you had to go through that at such a young age, but uh I'm also glad that the the Lord got a hold of you at such a young age, you know, and started Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It's a good example of uh refined by the fire.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah. I know some folks even now that are angry with God for um allowing loved ones to pass on, and uh it is a it's a difficult thing, you know. The Lord heals some people, and some people some people he says, uh you're gonna get the final healing, you know, but not right now. So it's uh definitely a challenge.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, really that's the healing that I believe that the Bible is talking about is really our salvation, has healed us, has has redeemed us from death, and we have an ultimate healing in in the Lord. So um, if we can see it that way, that nothing else is promised to us. We're not promised, you know, um a new knee or a new heart, or uh, but we are promised a new body in Christ for eternity. And when we get saved, that seals the deal that we have been healed from from that.
SPEAKER_05:So anyway, yeah, you're absolutely right with that, because you're never gonna go wrong that way. And believe it or not, that is our primary, that's our primary ailment. The primary element of humanity is is sin. And Jesus, his mission was to deal with that. Well, he came to deal with he took away our sin, and by by his stripes, we are healed. So yeah, you're absolutely correct. He can heal, he still does heal. Oh, yeah. And he can, but the primary uh aspect of the healing that was necessary was sin. It's kind of like if you have somebody who has like a uh a brain tumor, and maybe they also have a little cut on their pinky, you know, to focus on the little cut is not the way to go. You need to deal with the the real problem, the brain tumor. And that's what Jesus did. And when when he came, he dealt with the the main problem. Now, can he heal can he heal the the nick on the finger? Absolutely, and he he can and does, but not always. Not always, yeah. But one area he always heals is is sin. If if someone comes to him and says, Lord, save me, please. I'm a sinner. Save my soul. He yeah, he's faithful and just to forgive us um our sins.
SPEAKER_00:So you brought up uh an interesting point, and I think this is something that most people that have not been raised in a Christian home, um that's why there's so much trouble is the fact that you weren't prepared for it, you know? And that's why it's so important to be exposed to Christ, to raise your your kids in a Christian atmosphere. Um, because at least, I mean, we're not prepared for everything that comes at us, but we know our father is. So at least we have a place to turn. And and thank goodness as as uh he said, you he got a hold of you. Um but I think that's the problem with a lot of people. We're just not prepared for stuff, and we and people don't know what direction to look when something so tragic happens, you know, if they're not in Christ.
SPEAKER_05:No doubt, no doubt. How about you, James?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, so thank God the Lord um saved me back in 1995. Um prior to that, I was just really in a bad state. Um suicidal thoughts, um, just not living a good life. And uh what was what was good in that despite everything that was happening, my father became a Christian back like in 1989, 87, something like that. And um so at that time he had went into a ministry called Victory Outreach, and his life was radically transformed because he was a hardcore drug addict for many years, shooting heroin, cocaine, like a hundred milligrams of methadone habit a day for like 19 years. And um when I was desperate, I said if God can do it for him, he can do it for me. So I was exposed to the time I was a kid, you know, my teens, but I wanted to do my own, and and uh thank God I was able to uh return to the Lord when I needed him, and he was there, and um so that was back in 1995, and uh got saved, was what a church for five years, and from that church I came over here and um just was a congregant for years, then got the youth, then got involved speaking, became an assistant pastor on the two pastors, and then eventually I became the pastor here. That's that's awesome.
SPEAKER_05:I love it. I love the story of uh just going there for to w to worship on Sunday and 25 years later or whatever it is, 30 years later. It's a little longer than that, actually. Yeah, yeah. And then uh now you are like the head shepherd. That is just that's awesome. Praise God, praise God for that. Yeah, episode 136. If you want to check out the whole the whole kit and cabood, I guess there. Um there have been so many awesome interviews that we've had with brothers and sisters on this on this radio program, there's no way I could do justice uh and play all of them. They're all my favorites. It's not like I'm picking out these are my absolute favorites. I just want to just share some of the best of. And so one I do have to admit, this is one of my favorites just because the person, this one coming up, the person is one of my favorite human beings on the planet. And um, man, I don't even need to say much more. First of all, before I we get to this next guy, I just want to say thank you for all of you listening this year and uh these years. It's hard to believe, it's been years. Yeah. We're coming up on our fourth season, man. It'll be our fourth season will be beginning in January. Can you believe it? Wow, God is good, man. God is good. Thank you for taking this journey with us. Some of you, it's part of your Friday morning, some of you it's part of your Friday evening, some of you it's part of your another time during the week. Um, just thank you so much for being part of the Plays on Word Radio. Um send us an email or a text or something, and uh, you know, let us know what your favorite episodes might be. Um, but we are absolutely 100% grateful for all of you that have been on the program, all of you that listen. This past year we've had some pr really cool interviews and we've done some really cool plays and cool places. This one here coming up is from Dr. Gary Quazzo. Yes, Dr. Gary Quazzo, one of my favorite, this is one of my favorite interviews of the year because he's one of my him and Peggy are one of my favorite people on the planet. And uh this is it's just a cool interview. So check it out. Today is our sports edition. Welcome everyone to Plays on Word Radio, special sports edition, and thank you very much, Katie Kenny, for that intro and Josh Taylor. Uh, we got something special for you today, man. This is when you say this is a get, this is a get, man. Uh, one of our early supporters is we're gonna interview, and uh, this guy is somebody that is very special to me and to many of you listening. It is Mr. Gary Quazo. That's right, and Gary, some of you old heads are going, oh what? Yeah, Gary Quazzo. He played uh with the Colts, he backed up Johnny Yu, Johnny Unitis. Come on now, he backed up Johnny Unitis. Uh when the Saints, that's my brother Ben's favorite team, or it used to be, when the Saints were an expansion team, he was there, I guess, their first year, and then get this, he played with the uh Minnesota Vikings, and uh yeah, he played at the same time, same time as the Purple People Eaters. Oh, one of my cousins is going nuts right now because he that's his team and that's his era, he loved them, man. I think that's what made him love uh the Minnesota Vikings. But most important of all, of all the accolades I could give this guy, like out of all the things I could say about this guy, and I could continue. There's many things I could say, but the most important is that he is a man of God. Since I have known him, he is a man of God that loves Jesus. So check it out. We're gonna check out Gary Quazo right now. I love it. Thank you so much for doing this. What this is uh this is absolutely a uh a major blessing for us, and uh welcome to plays on word radio, Mr. Gary Quazo. I have often said, when I grow up, I want I want to be like you. Yeah, so when I grow up, amen. For those that might not know, Gary, Gary is well, let me say this. First and foremost, Gary is one of the uh he's an early supporter of plays on word. He is he's uh helped us out when we really need really needed help, and he's uh we we are so grateful for your advice, your contributions. You you came down when we were over at the church in Tom's River, you came and did our uh men's retreat for us, and you came to one of the plays we did over there. Yeah, and and Tom, we we did our Pete play. Yep, the boot. And I think up until that point, you only knew me as like an athlete. You're right. And and you can and I'll never forget it. As long as I live, you came up to me and said, Wow, Ted, uh, I didn't know you could beat up on the piano like that. Right, right, right. So, yeah, it's been that's a while back. Do you remember any of that play? Did anything stick out to you when we did that? When you had the boat and you're in the boat and I do remember that. Yeah, we went through the uh, I guess you could say it's the gospel according to Peter. Now, uh, those that don't know you, I started to say, you know, I've always known you as a man of God. When I was a little kid in the 70s, I went to Shore Christian Center. I think that's where we first met. I believe so. Short Christian Center. I was one of those kids running around, and I remember hearing the name Gary Quazo, Gary Quazo. Then I come to find out that you are an NFL player. You played in the NFL. Now, was it from 62 to 73? Is that correct?
SPEAKER_02:Uh, I think it was 63 to 72.
SPEAKER_05:63, 72, okay. I'm I'm a little bit backwards. Yeah, so you wow, you played when it was that was that was real men back then playing, man. I mean, you didn't have you didn't have the a lot of these in the grasp rules and uh sure you know different things that we have that we have today. I had the privilege of watching a Super Bowl with you a few years back. I believe Tom Brady was in it. And let me tell you, it watching watching the Super Bowl with you, that was one of the highlights of my uh viewing any football games ever because of your insight. I remember you saying, Watch watch how he's throwing the ball. Look at that, watch notice how he's throwing the ball, he's throwing the ball high. And he's you noticed all these different things that and I played football, but I didn't you just had it at a such a you had it at the level that you played in the NFL.
SPEAKER_02:Well, for Tom Brady, Tom Brady was a little yeah, it was too many things wrong.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I was blessed how you were technically breaking the the game down for me. It was that was um a major blessing for me. So so tell me something though. I know Short Christian Center, that's where we first met. And then of course you got involved with F FCA. Maybe we'll talk about that. But can can we go back how how how does Gary Quazo, how does he meet Jesus? How does he what what is your story?
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's it starts out very little, you know. I just um when I first heard about Jesus, I certainly believed that he was uh who he was and honored him uh from the time I can remember, five, six years old. Um, but I never understood the grace gospel. I I was always under a uh a legalistic type uh religion where I had to do this and had to do that and had to do this. And then I wound up with the Baltimore cults in 1963, and one of the fellows uh that I roomed with in training camp, not that year, but the next year, uh he had a Bible. Uh and I never we never we had a Bible in the house, but it was a big one that nobody read. It just sat there. It was, I think like most of the family Bibles that, you know, especially the kind of church I was in, and the Bible wasn't the uh wasn't the main feature of any of our teachings or studies. So I I somewhere in there I had uh we were at a camp um in Virginia, and another fellow came along named Carol Dale. You know, he played with the Green Green Bay Packers, and he carried his Bible with him. I was uh I don't know, I went to his room. He had a Bible and um I think I was rooming with him, yeah. He had a Bible and he was reading it. And I thought, you know, there's something to this, I guess, because both these guys are different. Uh and I think it was the impression I had that because in pro athletics you have a lot of uh a lot of the world, so to speak, as opposed to the spirit. And so this contrast to these two guys, and we got into a prayer circle uh at this camp. It was a camp for uh uh young kids, and we went downstairs in a prayer circle to pray, and uh it was coming around the circle coming, and I knew it was coming to me. And I had never prayed in a group out loud. I'd kind of always had a very private prayer life, private spiritual life. So my turn came, and I I'm sure I said something, I don't remember what, but I just after it was over, I was very convicted that I really didn't understand that as well. I needed to uh understand more of a relationship with God on a personal level rather than just uh kind of I I can't explain even the word, but it was different. Yeah so I went to the room that night with Carol and talked to him at length till I don't know, it was maybe two to two o'clock in the morning. So I had a problem with um my wife was pregnant with our second child, and our first child had uh German measles, and the doctor doctor recommended that we abort the child, and we weren't gonna do that. And so we were gonna have the babies, and if he if it pray became healthy. Well, Carol said, I'll pray for you. And oh gosh, that that was something, you know, I've people say that, and I don't know if they really mean it all the time. And so I went uh I was trading from the Baltimore Colts to the New Orleans Saints that year, and I was um after the season, uh the see the Saints season was over right away, but Green Bay was all right in the playoffs, and I was back in Memphis, Tennessee, where I was going to dental school in the offseason, and Carol called the house that week. I wasn't home, Peggy got the call. I don't think uh even understood why, you know. I don't know what that was about, but I know she told me he called and that he was praying and he wanted to know how the baby was. The baby was uh what healthy in December, early December. But to think that he had prayed all that time, wow, it was on his list or whatever how he did, really impressed me. So then the Bible became a part of my my quest to understand uh salvation. And I trying to put these pieces together after the fact, Ted, is hard to understand because I know it just kept it kept happening where I, you know, I I was I you know, I get the verses in the Bible that were, for by grace are you saved through faith, it's not of yourself. It's of God, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. And in verse 1 John, you can know you have eternal life as opposed to I was always, you know, I will find out if I have eternal life after I die. It was kind of the way I was taught in the church that I was in. So I think it was uh such a a relief and a blessing to understand that you can have eternal life, know it on this earth. You can you're saved by grace, not faith, not what you do, what he did, and to honor God uh with my life, which I try to do.
SPEAKER_05:Amen.
SPEAKER_02:Amen.
SPEAKER_05:Amen to that. You you certainly have. I mean, you've influenced uh just a great number of people. Even when I was a little kid, I said, I I know I know that guy's a man of God. I know he's a man of God. And then I got to know you even better as an adult. And like I said, when I grow up, I want to be like Gary Quazo, man. That's that was like the goal, you know. And then I had the the privilege of actually going to the four winds farm and and seeing you on your tractor. And I was like, this guy, he's the Marlborough man. He's the I mean, he's the wow. I could I couldn't believe it, man. I was so amazed because here you are on your tractor, and you were like, I don't I I would have thought, if I didn't know, I would have thought you were in your 30s at the time. I'm like, this guy's unstoppable. I don't know where he gets the energy from. Amen. I uh hey, you know, this uh I I say Maranatha every day. Lord, please, please come back. You know, that's a that is that's a great story, how the Lord was working in your life and how he used people that were close to you.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, and the way they when they lived, you know, was just their their testimony of their faith was how they were. They were just uh men of their whole value system was spiritually oriented as opposed to the worldly what the Bible talks about, you know, you're not of the world, but of the spirit and of you know, to have heavenly visions of where why we're here and what we need to do with it, you know.
SPEAKER_05:Very and you you could see it just night and day difference because I mean you were you played with the didn't you weren't the purple people eaters on your team? Or you were their teams?
SPEAKER_02:When I was with the Vikings, yeah, I was.
SPEAKER_05:You were with the Vikings. You you were uh with the the Colts too, right?
SPEAKER_02:With the the Colts? I started with the Colts, Ted, and uh backed up John Unitis for four years, and then uh went to one one year with the Saints in expansion, and then back to the Vikings in the uh trade. Uh was there four years, uh started for two of them, and uh we won our division for four years, and we had a great defensive team too. You know, we had the like you say, the Purple People guys. Yeah, Eleanor, Marshall, let's see, it was uh Paige Eleanor, Marshall, and Larson. Yeah, they were quite a quite a really good players. Yeah, those guys.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, that that's uh that's next level. But it but what the amazing thing that sticks out is how you ended up drawing closer to the Lord in the midst of of playing at the the highest levels there. Um I still have your baseball card, it's a football card, but it's it's you know, you call it but it's interesting on that card, you're you're getting sacked or you're getting pummeled. You want to explain that? You know the card, the FCA card I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_02:And that's the testimony card that I made, yeah. And uh it was kind of just I thought the the word sacked. I was in a I don't know, one time God impressed upon me that I needed to have a testimony card. Uh just I give them out now. I have a new one now. It's a little little, I'm not quite getting knocked over like that. But the I was getting knocked hit by somebody and I was going, and I titled it sacked, and it was just the idea that life is about, you know, when you when you get down, you where you turn, you know, getting up and you know, get up and again. And it's only God uses everything for good in our lives. And I know that I I've had some um moments where you know you've been beat your uh playoff game where you got beat by the 49ers, and uh I was really discouraged, but that's sports, you know, and I I think uh looking back, I I think I could handle it a lot better now with the brain I have now than I did then. But I was in dental and orthodox school in the offseason, and these guys today they train year-round, which I would I would have loved to have done that because I think physically it was a better way to play. But uh in my day and era, they you know, we didn't we didn't make anywhere near the money these guys make. I mean, I I you know I signed, I was drafted, I was traded for two number one draft picks, which uh you could imagine what I would have gotten in today's salary. Oh man. But I you know, I I think I signed for uh with the Vikings for like 65,000. I mean it sounds crazy, like the I think the ball boys, the ball boys probably get that kind of money, you know. But it was a lot then, yeah. And of course it was a lot more in terms of spendable money, but it just was so different. Uh in terms of yeah, the the millions and all that stuff for you know quarterbacks. It's just I don't know. It's probably a good thing I never did, because I don't think I would have got a dental school. I don't my life would have been different. Right. I don't know about handling that much money at that money at that young age, this NIL stuff with uh high school players and college players now is it's a little dangerous, you know, to uh to get these kids a whole bunch of money before they've done life much, you know, and then it can really kill their incentive. Plus, their the loyalty to a team is is just forget about it.
SPEAKER_05:It's gone.
SPEAKER_02:It's just gone, totally, totally gone.
SPEAKER_05:I remember my uncle told me that, and I I almost didn't believe him. He told me this in the early 80s, late 70s, maybe. He said, you know, a lot of the NFL players they they'll have like a job in the offseason. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Most of them. That's amazing. Like the thought of that today, I can I can't imagine because you have back up backups of backups that are are making all kinds of money, you know, making a decent living.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:It was a different it was a different game. I I venture to say it was probably uh it was a more violent game. It was uh, you know, you had real real men play the purple people eaters. I mean, come on. Not I'm not knocking today's players, but um the era that you uh came up in, it just it it seems so much harder.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I I think another thing, it it's kind of you know, as you as you watch it and you look back, just you remember uh a guy would score a touchdown and hand the ball to the ref kind of deal. You know, act like you've been there before. And uh all the celebrating and stuff that's just going on, it just it takes away, I think, from and it gives you a bad example. I I don't know, I I don't like it, I'll tell you the truth. I'd probably be part of it if I was there then. But I I don't I don't think it's uh I don't think it's a good thing. Um that to first they ruled it out. Remember in college? I think they had it ruled it out, and and then but then they start, you know, I don't can't imagine during the week they if we score, we'll get down and we'll pretend we're rowing or something. I I don't know how did they do that? But Grant was a coach of mine in Minnesota. Man, he would have never put up with that stuff. No, I don't think I don't think. Or Don Don Schuler was my and then Lombardi, and I was in that era. They they had control to where stuff like that would never have happened. Right. But as soon as I guess we had the sack dance kind of stuff started, uh, I guess it was Gastino in the U.S.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah. The New York Sack Exchange. That was the 82, 83, I think.
SPEAKER_02:And that all started that started this the celebrating stuff, and I don't know. I I it got out of hand, I think. But it's it's one of the things it's almost lost.
SPEAKER_05:Wait, uh let me think. Uh though those that are listening probably will I can feel them sending an email. You had Billy White Choose Johnson before that, remember? So Billy White Choose Johnson, he had the he did that funny dance in the in the end zone. Uh but it was few and far between. It wasn't like it is today. Every single every game, every player doing some.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Drawing um it's very it's it's very like look at me kind of stuff, which is probably not the healthiest thing for kids, you know.
SPEAKER_05:I think I think you said it though. I mean, uh I guess I I don't know if it's to blame free agency, but if you the the loyalty to the team, it doesn't seem to you don't see guys coaches don't have it either, coaches lose. And I don't know, I don't know where that comes from, but the team aspect and the loyalty to the team, I don't know. It just seems like there's this flashiness, look at me, look at me, look at me.
SPEAKER_02:And you know, you have the well, and the following, you know, the following, the the internet stuff, the how many followers you get, and that's really key to the uh NIL stuff. Yeah, I don't know there's a special I watched on LSU, how they these guys get the most followers, they then they get the most money on LIL because then they get the most advertising. And I gosh, there was like I don't know how many thousands of the the uh young girl that's a gymnast in LSU, she's yeah made a fortune a fortune just because of her following, you know. I mean that's and so I think the dancing around stuff is to to say here, look at me, and so I can get more following. So unhealthy sports kind of thing. But I mean being old, being old, it sounds like it's bitterness, but I don't think so. I think it takes away from the game, you know.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I I I will I will defer to your assessment of that. So, but you uh you have been on the Lord's team as long as I've known you. Tell me about uh Fellowship of Christian athletes. Because we we plan to get Harry on here at some point. Oh, good. You know, but tell me yeah, what how did you get involved with that?
SPEAKER_02:It started with um, I think Raymond might have got me uh invited to an FCA camp in Colorado. I don't know how I got out there, but I was there. And uh, you know, the gospel was in it clearly. Uh and it's still at the time I was thinking, well, why did they talk about it? Why don't you just go to church? You know, it was like and I I kind of struggled through why everybody was so public about their faith, which I think I think people that watch this, if you know it's very I I not that I didn't believe, it's just that I didn't know if I, you know, talking about it and then not understanding grace either at that time. I was very legalistic about had to make every, you know, every event that the church told me to do. But then I got involved with FCA. Then when I came back to New Jersey in 1973 to start my orthodontic practice, a pastor from I had signed a football card um for a kid in my office, and he showed it to a pastor, a local pastor, and he came into my office, is there anything you were like to do? You know, I said, Well, I've got all this FCA stuff in this drawer. I've been really busy starting my practice learning, but I really would like to get the FCA started, you know, in New Jersey. So we got um the national office contacted, and they we fellow named Wynn Lembright, who just passed away. I went to his funeral a couple months ago. He came out and we brought in a uh Bruce Coseman who you know, uh Ted. He was our first FCA director. And we started the FCA there. Uh that was right around you know, early 70s. Wow. Lady or I'm not sure the exact dates, but I do remember doing that pretty early in my dental career. And Bruce did a great job. We just couldn't raise money very well. It was a real problem. And so we actually that's a problem with many ministries. Okay, we went into this thing called the red zone and they took away our you know, our whatever they have, you know, what you know, as far as you're connected to the national. Then they sent another fella out, Bob Atkins, and he was there for a while. And then Harry became uh I talked to Harry somewhere in there where Bob was kind of wavering and going to somewhere else, and we got Harry started, and uh it's a story after that. He's got about 150 chapters, I think, in high school New Jersey. And and he's he he was he he's just a real man of God that does this wonderful job. So that's it's blossomed in New Jersey really well.
SPEAKER_05:And it's and it's it's amazing. It started right there and your dentist office, basically. I mean they did, they did.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And look, you look at the lives touch. I've actually had the privilege of doing uh a camp with with uh Bruce and Vinny Whitehead and and Harry. Right. You know, Harry was one uh he directed it, but um, you know, all these guys are guys that uh I've I've looked up to and I'm so grateful to have had them in my life. I wish I wish I would have had you guys in my life when I was a teenager. It would have saved me a whole world of extracurricular hurt and nonsense. But there are many people many uh young people that have been impacted through the Ministry of Fellowship Grant and Athletes.
SPEAKER_02:I'm down here in Florida now, and we've just got uh wonderful ministry going here, FCA-wise, uh in the in the uh Collier County, multiple high schools. We got a director down here, uh Charlie Weatherby, who coached the Napian here uh Naval Academy. Yeah and he he's our full-time director, and he's you know one of my closest friends. And we uh have got this since he got here, he has I don't can't none of the I don't know how many chapters we've increased, but I just give you a financial increase. We went from about 150,000 to over a million dollars in uh budget. Amen. Banquet wise, banquet wise, we we've had everybody here to speak. Uh this to Dow. Um, let's see, Dabo and Tebow and current cousins, and our banquets have been just great.
SPEAKER_05:This really well uh yeah, let me let me know when you're gonna have another one. I'm gonna see if I can get a ticket to that.
SPEAKER_02:Come well, you you got one, you got one uh coming up with uh Tony Dungey in Jersey. Oh, in Jersey. Well, see I'm in Jersey anymore.
SPEAKER_05:I'm not in Jersey anymore, but uh oh Tony Dungey's gonna be at this one this year.
SPEAKER_02:In Jersey, yes.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, wow. We had Tony here also. Oh my goodness. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we draw about 700 people, Tony Dungey or anybody. We've got some seven or six hundred. We we draw a lot of a lot of people to our banquets.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, that's fantastic. What a blessing. And it, I mean, so much good has come from that uh ministry. If you were to if I was to ask you, and I know this is probably a tough question to get around, can you think of what might be your top couple or top ministry experience? If I said, tell me what a minute something that really impacted you is top of your list. I give you an example. Me, I I went into the prison and we did one of our plays in the prison, and uh, you know, at the end of the play, the Genesis Joe play, what you still need to see, we gotta find a way to do that for you. The Genesis Joe play and and a bunch of the inmates were they gave their life to the Lord right at the end of it. And that was that was a highlight of ministry for me.
SPEAKER_02:Uh, do you have anything that you can think of that was just special and really uh well I the hardest, and you know, I imagine you might remember. I after my son was uh killed in 1990, and uh it was involved in a drug kind of thing and the whole thing. And I wound up uh getting a bunch of letters that he had written to me in his room at the college where he never mailed them to me. And after the funeral, I had prayed the night I had to go down to identify his body in Florida that God would use his life in some way, and I didn't understand how I even prayed that. I just believed the spirit was could led me to think that I just wanted to be reassured that he was a Christian and reassured that God would use his life because I was devastated. Um I and I from that point on, I spoke probably for the next seven or eight years in the high schools in New Jersey, all over, everywhere sharing sharing gospel everywhere because I had no other answers uh for them about drugs. But they wanted me to come to talk about the drugs thing, so they would invite me for that, but they didn't want to hear about the gospel, but I but I didn't want to, I wouldn't go, they would give a disclaimer, but then that came to an end around uh around 2000 when I went back to back schools and they were a junior high and a senior high, and they canceled me out. If I remember exactly, they canceled me out to senior high. They just didn't want you, you know, you mentioning Jesus in a public school was rather really difficult in 1993, four or five, and all that. Not that it's any easier now. Yeah. Um but so that that was that would say would be the highlights of my my uh ministry life. And then pretty much it, you know, I talked with the kids afterwards, um just stay a while, stay and talk to them without the you know, the any of the teachers there. And I really opened my eyes to what was going on in this world with kids, with kids. Yeah, and you know, nowadays it's probably worse because of the internet. But God used that in my life for the crisis, so everything about it was was so bad, but I it made me so sad sometimes when I was speaking about it. In fact, I'm speaking in about a week and a half of the church down here um about you know, similar, you know, basically my testimony, but really what God has used that in my life to to truly change. And then Bruce, when when Bruce came back from to start a church, we started a church in uh you know, Four Winds. Four wins, right. Uh that was uh Ted, I was on the phone with Bruce. He was at he was in ministry school in California with Chuck Smith. And because Bruce was there as an SCA guy, and we were really close friends, and I was talking to him because I'd been down to Charlottesville, Virginia to a PCA church uh that was really just a really great place for me to be to see how a church was really reaching kids and was getting. And I asked Bruce about would he ever come back and start a church in Jersey? I was a little frustrated with the way the churches had been that I'd been to, uh, even though I'm sure they were, I'm sure many people came to the Lord through them. But I just thought it wasn't, I don't know. I liked the, I liked then the Calvary Chapel movement, I didn't know anything about. Matter of fact, uh Greg Lurie, um's father, Oscar, uh, was a uh friend of mine. He was a lawyer, and he actually helped help us with FCA. Uh and he told me I met him outside my office one day, and it's there, and he said, You know, my son led me to the Lord uh just and I didn't know who Greg Lurie was. Wow. That was before I even heard ever heard of Calvary Chapel. And so then when when Bruce came back, he put us through a thing called Shepherd School. You know, we started the church and we had two years of shepherd school, which enabled us to, you know, get a pastor. You know, we were became pastors and uh had ministry uh and it was a great time of studying the Bible. I had never studied the Bible. I really hadn't I didn't know it very well. I knew some, I knew this and that, but we uh Chuck Smith has tapes on the entire Bible. Yeah, and uh we had to listen to them and you know, verse by verse. Um and so it was just a I I was really impressed with the with the Calvary Chapel movement, you know. It's really affected a lot of a lot of America non-denominational churches there and my son Jeff, as you know, is a Calvary pastor. Yeah, and he works with Joel Rosenberg over in Israel and he's in England too. So if you talk about the highlight moments, I would think that was the highlights and yeah, amen.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, amen to that. Hey, that's all the time we've got right now. God willing, if the creek don't rise, we'll be back again next week for another episode of Plays on Word Radio. I hope you enjoyed this kind of uh Thanksgiving best of ish type of episode. We're about to kick off our Christmas Joe tour coming up in a couple weeks. Make sure you try to come out and check us out if you can. This is gonna be a limited run. Alright? And 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_01:This program was made possible by the Playson Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at plazonword.org.
