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Thurs. Aug. 19, ‘21 - Enjoyed breakfast at Family Greenville Restaurant and look what was right in their backyard. Video and photos don’t do it justice. God’s work is simply breathtaking!!! (at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CSxGImtHFbE/?utm_medium=tumblr

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Pennsylvania “PETE” trip! Love the God touches in our Airbnb… (at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CSxFElpHTPm/?utm_medium=tumblr

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SOCIAL DISTANCING: Nothing New! ~ by Fred David Kenney, Jr.

While I was growing up, my father would sometimes recite the phrase “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” As a child, I just assumed that he came up with that nugget of wisdom. To my surprise, I later realized that it was used by many people. In college, one of my professors asked a question and I responded with this phrase and she then responded in French, “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” and then she attributed the phrase to the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr-1849. Now, I was fairly well versed in the Scripture at this point in my life, and I was thinking that Karr got his idea from Solomon’s Ecclesiastes 1:9 - What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

And again, Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes 3:15 - That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

We currently find ourselves in a “new” global crisis that leaves us feeling like we are in uncharted waters. We have a virus/ plague that has killed many, we have been forced to wear masks, many are locked up in our states/ towns/ and homes. We also have had to practice social distancing. This last practice has created many new challenges for us as people.

We are social creatures, and we tend to feel safer, better, & happier when we have contact with our families and friends. This concept of staying away from people has produced some heartbreaking results. I have family members that had not hugged one another for over a year. To not feel the touch of someone you love can be very difficult. I can’t help but wonder if this is a contributing factor in depression and suicide among so many people today. The touch from a person can reassure when no words can be found. The touch, like a pat on the back, can instill confidence to run faster or try harder. We now see what life is like without a touch. However, to reference Solomon and Karr, if you think social distancing is something new, think again.

There is a Story from the Bible that involves a woman who had an issue with bleeding for 12 years (Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48). This physical problem would have rendered her “Unclean” according to the law of Moses. This means that she would have to announce her presence. No one could touch her without potential contamination, and she would, by law, have to social distance. Look at what the law says:

Leviticus 15:25-30 - If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness. As in the days of her impurity, she shall be unclean. 26 Every bed on which she lies, all the days of her discharge, shall be to her as the bed of her impurity. And everything on which she sits shall be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her menstrual impurity. 27 And whoever touches these things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

One of my favorite Bible study techniques is to put myself in a bible characters shoes, or perhaps I should say, sandals. When I try to imagine what this poor woman had to deal with, what she felt, and what she possibly prayed for, it’s becomes overwhelming.

Here we are told that she was unclean. This “uncleanness” separated her, as well as the people she was in contact with from a Holy God. No one would intentionally touch her or be near her for fear of her uncleanness disqualifying them with God. Fear is a powerful motivator. It’s not only possible but probable that no one embraced, hugged, kissed, or even loved her because of this condition for 12 years. Let’s just stop, take a few seconds and let that soak in. 12 years no touch? We are just now beginning to see the adverse effects of social distancing on our world. We have only been at it 12 months!

Clearly, she felt like she needed to get this problem fixed (Mark 5:25-26; Luke 8:43-44). What about her hope-less-ness? Perhaps she was hopeless after the experts failed repeatedly. I am pretty sure the word- bumbed would be an insufficient adjective.

With no money left all she had was hope in God. Why was she with, or at least just outside, the crowd when Jesus came by? Perhaps she heard about how He healed so many. Did she pray for help from God? Most likely she did.

We are not told why she was there with the rest of the people. All we do know is that a crowd of people was pushing up against Jesus and the disciples as they were returning from their stormy trip. What she would see and hear next convinced her to take action.

A man approached Jesus as He was making His way through the crowd. He fell down and begged Jesus to come and just touch and heal his dying daughter. Jesus agreed and began to go with this man named Jairus. The bleeding woman saw this whole interaction and thought that if she could touch Jesus, she would also be healed. Her faith In God and the man of God (Jesus) was now moving from potential to kinetic!

Faith that doesn’t produce action is just a spoken faith. For example, anyone can say they have faith in a chair to hold them up. That is potential/ academic faith. It is when they sit on the chair that their spoken-academic faith becomes kinetic or exercised. Conversely, faith is only as good as the object that one places it in. For instance, if the chair was broken/ ready to collapse and not reliable it wouldn’t matter how great someone’s faith was, it still would not hold them up. Likewise, if Jesus was not Messiah, her faith to be healed would be a letdown like the broken chair. Oh, but Jesus IS Messiah!

Again, I ask you to take a few seconds and really put yourself in her sandals. This was her chance to finally be free of the condemnation and shame she had faced for 12 years. She suffered for as long as Jairus’ daughter was alive. Here Jesus is right in front of her but legally and socially it was as if He was miles away. She decided to pursue Jesus with everything she had, no matter what the cost. She decided to bypass the social distancing mandates and made her way through the crowd. She timed it so Jesus would be right where she could reach out and touch Him. As soon as she did Jesus stopped and asked, “Who touched Me?” Again, put yourself in her sandals. She just broke all kinds of rules to touch Him and was now caught. Even compounding the situation is the fact that only family members are allowed to touch the fringe or tassels of a Jewish man’s prayer shawl/tallit. So, she was now in trouble for something not even related to uncleanness. She could be stoned for such an egregious transgression. She was accustomed to shame, continual disappointment, perhaps even scorn. Now she was guilty and caught in front of everyone to see. She realized that she was discovered. She was trembling when she came to Jesus and confessed why she did what she did. She was also immediately healed and probably elated with incredible joy. What an interesting combination of emotions.

Look at what Jesus calls her: Luke 8:48 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

This is the only place in the gospels that Jesus calls someone daughter. This nullified the regulation that she broke by touching His tallit! He took away her guilt, shame, and transgressions with one word! It was also radical that He was talking to a woman, non-family member in front of everyone. This was not done. His word to her, “Daughter” made it all void!

Possibly the first human touch she had in 12 long years was that from God Himself! Have you ever felt like you have no hope? Perhaps you know what it is like to feel guilty beyond repair? Or maybe you have only a “said faith” that isn’t yet kinetic. I would strongly encourage you that Jesus is not far from anyone of us! When we reach out for Him, we will find Him. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:35)! This woman’s kinetic faith not only resulted in her physical, societal, and legal healing; it placed her story in glorious history. Let us now have a radical faith in Christ that creates movement (Kinetic) toward Him! That we would regard the things of man and this world as nothing compared to finding healing, peace, forgiveness, strength, and probably most importantly, family in Him! Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life, and the more things change in our broken world, the more that fact remains the same! ~ FDKjr

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MUSIC, AN EARLY LOVE —

MORE CONSTRUCTION NEWS - By Fred David Kenney, Jr.

"Music has been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. My earliest memories are of an incredibly pleasing sound that I would come to identify as music. Little did I know that it was an extraordinary gift from God on the same level as taste for a favorite food, the aroma of a beloved flower, or sight of the most beautiful artwork. The power of music to support a point, set a mood, paint a sonic picture, or prepare the heart to hear the Word of God (my favorite kind of music), should never be underestimated.

I vividly remember one of my earliest experiences with music. It was when I was perhaps two or three years old. I recall intensely looking at a flat, black, round disc that had a red circle in the center with a small hole in the middle. The disc had smooth, shiny, thin lines that circled the center. The red circle, close to the center, had printed marks & symbols on it as well. I noticed that I would start to hear pleasing sounds and voices every time my parents would place it up on top of a big machine box. Then sound would start to come from black boxes in the room. Sometimes I would hear sounds that took me on a wonderful ride in my mind because of how they were put together. The experience was both beautiful and intriguing at the same time. I was not particularly interested in what it meant, who made it, or how they made it. I just knew that I liked hearing the sound that came from the black boxes in my father’s den when I would go into that room with him.

I also remember an unfortunate incident from this period of my life that was a real eye-opener. In addition to the flat, black, round discs in my father’s den, he also had a large number of smaller, thin, rectangular boxes that looked like something like a sandwich but was solid. On the top, flat part of this box was usually a picture of someone or something. Those same kinds of printed marks were also all over the top flat part, usually near the picture. On one side of this box was an opening with a brown/ black strip of something that was fun to pull out of the box. In fact, there was also a wheel that would spin under this brown/black strip of fun material. Now, I bet you thought I was going to tell you about how I pulled every inch of that material out of the box. No, well, I DID do that one time, but that isn’t the real incident. You see, my father would often take one of these smaller, thin, rectangular boxes and apparently feed the mouth of that same big machine box on to which he put the flat, black, round discs. The same great sound would then come from the boxes in the room when he did this! I think I understood what I needed to do! I needed to feed the big box!

Now, I loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a child, I still do...(they are often my secret weapon energy boost right before a play performance). Well, one day, my mother made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I wanted to hear some of that pleasing sound in my father’s den so I decided to do something for myself and not ask for any help. I looked at the flat, black, round discs but couldn’t get anything to happen. I then looked for the smaller boxes with the fun-to-pull material, but it looked like my father put them away and out of my reach. So, being the kind, sharing child that I was, I decided to feed the machine box my peanut butter and jelly sandwich! Yea, I did. I jammed it in and waited. Nothing happened so after trying every button on the machine box I finally gave up and went into a different room to play. Now, the time gap here is a bit of a blur, but I think it was a day or two when my father went into his den to relax and make the machine box make sound. To my great surprise, he was not happy at all! (THAT is probably a gross understatement.) At this point in my story, I need to make sure you are all still with me here, I mean, I feel as though I need to clarify what just happened for the millennials out there that grew up with Mp3s and digital music. I put my peanut butter and jelly sandwich into my father’s 8-track cassette player! So, when he went to play his favorite Wes Montgomery or Miles Davis 8-track cassette all he heard was a muffled mush-mash of awful sound that smelled like strawberry jam! In my defense, I was only two or three years old. It’s a good think Pop could fix anything. He repaired, or should I say cleaned the 8-track cassette player and I was soon back in my sonic wonderland.

From those earliest days I remember the way music would impact my mood. I absolutely loved listening to instrumental jazz. I remember thinking about the complexity of the different songs. I distinctly recall being curious about the different sections of the song. I didn’t understand the concept of a verse, chorus, or bridge but I could feel that there were different parts to the journey I was on and how the song would often circle back to the main parts.

I also remember, with great fondness, a special group of records. These were black, and the red circle in the middle had black and white letters that I later learned spelled Columbia, and Mahalia Jackson. My Mother had a collection of gospel records and I loved listening to them as well. They blessed my young soul.

I would grow up and learn how to play, compose, record, and perform music. I played secular music for many years and then about 21 years ago I began writing and recording Christian music. It just made sense that I would use whatever the Lord gave me for His work.

Pastor Fred Kenney, Jr. (a.k.a. Teddy) in one of the very first performances of Genesis "JOE".

The very first Plays On Word production we did is called Genesis “JOE”. The first song came to me as I was sitting at my piano. The song is called “Lord, I Trust You.” I got the chorus and verse parts first with an overwhelming sense of sadness. I just played and the chords took form. Then the pre-chorus part of the song came to me and it felt very hopeful in the midst of the darker part of the verse. I ran upstairs to play it for my bride, Katie. She was moved by the instrumental. I told her that I thought it was something for the “Thing” I was working on. As of that time she had no idea that I was working on a full-blown play. I wasn’t even sure what it would be like. I was working out the jail scene for the play where Joseph was forgotten by the cup bearer and left in prison for two years. I felt the sadness and knew that this was the part of the play to try to insert some music. Up to that point, I didn’t know if there would be a musical component to the “Thing” I was working on.

The song was, as my dear brother Reverend Joe Santucci calls it, “Haunting, yet with great hope.” The line, “If I could remember what the Lord has done for me, then I could remember what it was like to be happy” still chokes me up at performances. God is SO good, and we need to often be reminded of that when we are in the midst of a trial. To recall and remember what He has done changes our perspective even if it doesn’t change our immediate circumstances. This is one of the concepts that this song brings to the audience.

I remember performing this play and song at a very small church in NJ. I didn’t have the band with me. It was just me and the piano. I really acted out the lines of the song from the piano. What I mean is, Joseph sang that song from his heart. Every eye in the place was watered with tears. Moving tears for Joseph’s plight and moving tears of hope and joy in God!

Much more could be said about the music in the play performances. I hope to do more behind the scenes posts soon. The songs in the plays are not just thrown in for filler or as an afterthought. These songs each have a role to play in shaping the mood and assisting in the overall journey we all experience at a Plays On Word production. Currently, I have the finale of the “Dan” play written and mostly recorded. Yea, I am kind of backwards on this. The ending first? Hey, I’m just an employee here. I just do what I’m told.  

It is a privilege to share my joy of this pleasing sound, that we call music, with you. Since I can remember, I have been drawn to this incredible gift from God. It is my hope that the power of the music from the Plays On Word performances will help in taking you deeper into the Word of God!"

~ FDKjr

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GREGORY J. LOVE, Treasurer/ CFO — MEET THE BOARD of TRUSTEES!

"From the time I saw Ted's first play I knew that others had to share in this wonderful teaching of the Bible. When they graciously asked me to be a part of Plays On Word, I prayerfully accepted. Katie & Ted's passion, faith and vision in the direction of this mission is inspiring. I want to continue to provide any support I can to help grow this ministry."

Greg is a Villanova University graduate with 36 years of professional experience for the state of New Jersey.  Greg spent 25 of those years as a top-level manager in state operated hospitals and institutions.  During that tenure, Greg had the opportunity to hold the positions of CFO, COO and CEO; all which required a copious knowledge of financial management, budgeting and cost containment.  In addition, Greg holds extensive experience in investing, facilities management and strategic planning development.

In 1980, Greg started his own tax practice part-time and transitioned to a full-service accounting and tax practice at Mazur’s Accounting Service in 2015.

Greg has served as a member of several Boards including: Hope Community Church - Treasurer Promenade Condominium Association - Treasurer Borough of Manasquan Planning Board - Environmental Liaison Borough of Manasquan Environmental Commission – Chairman

A favorite Bible quote of Greg’s is Matthew 4:19 (ESV) – And He said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. When asked about Plays On Word Theater, Greg will tell you, “This ministry is and will continue to create disciples!”  

We are pleased to continue this work gleaning from Greg’s expertise and wise counsel.

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What a Blessed Day! #GivingTuesday kicked off our End Of Year fundraising campaign to help continue to make an impact for the Kingdom. This year, our end of year goal is to raise $8,500 for replacement of failing computers, adequate storage and to produce the music from our plays, that so many have asked for. Learn the details by clicking on the “End of Year Giving” link in bio. There’s no time like the present to make a gift, help others, and be part of a movement for Christ! Thank you for the continued love, prayers and support we receive to allow us to minister in stages across America! #GivingTuesday2019 #playsonword #fredkenneyjr #jesusisking #jesusislord https://www.instagram.com/p/B5o1573gEdV/?igshid=1jvxce2mww4no

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Monday, May 6: Traveling to the first Cali performance @calvarynexus In Camarillo. Had to pick up the boat in Pasadena...yup, we actually shipped the boat! #onemanplay #onemanplays #liveonstage #touringmissionary #playsonword #ontheroad #fredkenneyjr (at Camarillo, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxLM9DkAZ-Y/?igshid=15iqw5kr23jbh

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THURSDAY: First leg of our trip before we start the official California Week Tour for Plays On Word, May 6, 7 & 10th, Camarillo, CA! Check the IGTV icon & Facebook for full video! #junipercasita #onemanplay #onemanplays #playsonword #fredkenneyjr #sneakpeak (at Joshua Tree, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxGeFYdAGRE/?igshid=1qoc6dletrw5e