Godwinks

And this is how wonderful the Lord is. He actually gave me a talent to do these voices, so I can get in front of audiences and be able to talk about the Lord. I ended up being on women of faith for years as a guest speaker, but I got to talk about the very thing God wanted me to say. I was always faith-related guy at the network 20 years at ABC. I always felt as though I had to really stay on that line. And remind myself I'm the guy who brought you a schoolhouse rock. Welcome to Faithly Stories, the podcast that brings you inspiring tales from conversations with church leaders. As they navigate the peaks and valleys of their faith journeys through their ministry work and everyday life, brought to you by Faithly, an online community committed to empowering church leaders. Learn more at Faithly.co. Get ready to be uplifted and inspired on the Faithly Stories podcast. All right, there we go. It works. Well, welcome to Faithly Stories, Squire, Rushnell, and Louise Duarte. Oh, thank you. It was so thrilled to be with you. Yes. I love your podcast. Yes. I really do. Thank you. I love the name too. Faithly, yes. Well, you know what? You got to put the faith right in there. So everyone knows what this is all about. And what I learned is when you add the Lee LY to anything, well, it makes it more high tech. So how about that? Oh, I see. Yeah. We should say God won't Lee. And there you go. Well, that's the perfect way to start this conversation. As I was saying to YouTube before we started recording, I've been looking for this word for a long time. I don't believe in coincidences either. I believe that the Lord is in everything. And I've always struggled with the words for it. You know, it's not a coincidence. Is it a God incidents? God wink just captures it perfectly. So Squire, maybe we can start with you. How did you come up with it? When did you come up with it? Well, it was over 20 years ago. And it was the same struggle that you're having. Because I was running good morning America. I would stand in the back of the control room. And every time I'd hear a reporter starting a story with ironically today, I'd wonder is that one of those little coincidences that isn't a coincidence story. And then as we gathered the thoughts about doing maybe doing a book, we went out and we started talking to people about it. And many people would say, well, what do you call a coincidence that isn't a coincidence? So we spent six months praying and talking to everybody standing still, and asking, what is a coincidence that isn't a coincidence? And one day, that little word just floated into mind. God winked. We thought, wow, that sounds like fun. It doesn't sound churchy. Doesn't sound threatening. And the first manuscript for the first book that eventually was called When God Winks, which is over 20 years ago now, because it was just before 9-11 that that book came out. When we were descending the manuscript yet. And so we took all the coincidence words and basically threw them out, put in the God wink name and it fit. But even more important than that, Alicia, people found that it fit immediately into the language. They knew it, they knew what it was for, and it just fit. And so it has been drifting and dripping and dropping into the language for 20 years now. And we've helped it along with the Today Show series for five years, with four Hallmark movies, the fifth one on the runway, our Netflix movie, and 13 books, our 13th book, of course, just out. And so we really believe that God has been preparing us for a time such as this. That this is the time that the culture is really ready for an explosion of godliness and faith and the great awakenings. And, and that it is, it is time for God to introduce this new word in a big way. So we feel as though we're right at that dipping point. I'm getting excited to hear all of that's choir. Now tell me is it true that God thinks is in the dictionary now? In some. Yeah. Although our trade market turning says don't do that. But we we happen we're working for God and and and and and and our job for God is to get that word into the language. You know, I can say that Godwinks are like gifts left at your doorstep. Our job is to get you to open the door, open your gift. Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's something you said a squire as you started to describe Godwinks really struck me. You said it's not churchy. Ah, no. That's important right when you're trying to draw people in. You're trying to get them to open the door. It can't be too churchy. It can't be too corny. And it would make sense that like you would get that as someone who's been in television and media for a really really long time. Well, yes, I was always a faith related guy at the network and at 20 years at ABC. And and it I always felt as though I had to really stay on that line and remind myself I'm the guy who brought your school house rock. So everything should be simple. Very simple. Of course it never is. Yes. Now Louise, can we turn to you? You're a comedian and an impressionist. And I've heard your journalist impression. Don't even ask me. Alicia, please. I can't. I won't. You can pull every hair out of my head. I am not going to do Joe Rivers for you. No, no, no. I mean, I was the biggest fan. And when I heard you do the impression, I thought, well, that's a whole lot of talent that the two of you. Oh, my. I never know. I'm waking up next to Alicia. Where is? Now Louise, I couldn't have asked where this question, but I'm going to ask you this question. How in the entertainment industry as a comedian, as an impressionist, how do you balance bringing your faith into a space that's really quite a secular space? Yeah. Well, that's a very interesting question because it is a balance. You know, we live in the world, but we're not off the world. I mean, years ago when I was praying, I had another husband who left me and I said to God, God, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? I want to do something for you, Lord. And as clear as day, he said, I'm going to give you new voices. And I thought that was strange. I thought, oh, I'm going to have a voice for God, but I heard new voices to reach many people. And this is how wonderful the Lord is. He actually gave me a talent to do these voices so I can get in front of audiences that then I can, you know, do television shows and be able to talk about the Lord. I ended up being on women of faith for a year as a guest speaker. And I got to talk about, I got to do some of my act, but I got to talk about the very thing God wanted me to say. But I had to have those voices to do what I did for him to be able to work through me. It was just bizarre how we work sometimes. Wow. So did that come to you a little later in life or had you had you practiced voices and done some of that work earlier on? Well, again, you know, all things work together for good. I was brought up in a very strict Italian household and my mother would say to me and my brother, you kids, you know, remember, children should be seen and not heard. So she was very domineering. So my brother became a stutter. What I did is I kind of escaped and became other people. And I'm almost ashamed to say this on your show. But when I was in elementary school, I could impersonate my friends' mothers. And I could get them out of school for the day by calling up the nurses off. And you know, this is pretty wine stains matter. He can't come to school today. He's at menopause. You know, sometimes I get mixed up. But anyway, so I did have a talent and I became very popular, but it wasn't till later on when my husband, again, thank you, Jesus, that he left me because look what he gave me waiting in the wings. My husband leaves. And all my friends on the street in Woodland Hills, I said, what am I going to do? How am I going to pay the mortgage? They said, why don't you go down to one of those comedy clubs and do those funny voices that you do for us when we're having coffee. Well, I thought this was crazy, but I went to bed that night and the Holy Spirit worked in my heart, worked in my heart. And it was like I had to do it as scared as I was. The comedy store in Sunset Boulevard got an open mic night. They called me up on stage. I started, I think I didn't find Russia. I did a little share, you know what I'm saying. And I even did a little George Barnes. I did the 100 year old man George Boyd. And unbeknownst to me, Starser Scouts were in the audience. They saw me. And instead of the other comics they were there to see, they put me on the show, Donna Summer was switching the channels that night. She sees this crazy woman on Starser, calls her managers, says, get me that girl to be my opening act. And that's how my career started. Donna was a great mentor for me because she loved the Lord. And I traveled with her for over two years and it was just a glorious time. The Lord just did amazing things. So many Godwigs. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Wow. Well, the Lord certainly lined things up for you. That is so clear. So do you, I mean, I know you probably don't like to play favorites, but do you have a favorite character to do? Well, I'm in the business. I believe because of Carol Burnett. I used to watch the Carol Burnett show. And, you know, I, you know, Holy Child was just loved her. You know, she's one of my favorites. And I love when she did that little Tarzan yell, I'll do it for her. Oh, love, would she pull her ear? And as a little girl growing up, my Italian mother used to bring me to the Catholic church. And she's saved me in her thick Boston accent. He has a quota, light a candle for the Sozin purgatory. And I knew I only had one prayer and I light a candle and I'd always say the same thing. Please God, I just want to meet Carol Burnett. Please God, I just want to meet Carol Burnett. Years later, God answered the prayers of that little girl because I was doing a variety show on TV. And I was doing an impression of Carol. The next day, the phone rang. It was Carol Burnett. And she said, Hi, Louise. This is Carol Burnett. I got your number from your agents. And I would love to meet you. I went to meet her. It was the greatest day of my life. And when I went into my car and I just looked up to heaven and I said, Oh, God, if I could just meet Tim and Harvey now. And another God wink, Tim called me in Harvey. We're doing a show together. They asked me to be on the show. And I did that for 12 years working, doing sketches. I was the cheap version of Carol Burnett, if you want to be honest, but, but it was, it was the most wonderful time. Yeah. And God wink, God wink, God wink. Yeah, absolutely. Well, so it strikes me just listening to you talk Louise that, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if people thought, well, your gift isn't speaking. But there's something, there's a connection between speaking and listening. And it strikes me that you're a really incredible listener. Like you have to listen so well and so deeply to imbibe these voices and then to speak them. And that is very perceptive. Very perceptive. Yeah. And so I just, I wonder if you might just be like your gift might really be listening. Yeah. And that really is the heart of this, the gift that you have in doing these impressions and your voice gift. Well, it's embodying the person. It's like you have to, it went, when I know when I've got it, it's when I can think like them. Yes. You know, when I started doing Catherine Hepburn, I just, you know, I just in the voice. And then after a while, I could stop thinking like, alright, who's just quite frightening at first. You know, it's like you, you just embody them. And you do, you start thinking like I kind of know how Joan Rivers would have thought. Unfortunately. Well, so I wonder if you and Squire might actually share this gift of embodying people, of really understanding them, of listening deeply to them. And now I'm going to transition to your new book, Godwinks for moms, because as I was reading it, I thought, man, these two really understand moms. I'm a mom. I've got little, little kids. I've got a seven, five and two year old. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I'm really in the, in the thick of things right now, but I was, I was reading it. I thought like these two really get the heart of the mom. You can really embody it. What made you decide to write this 13th Godwinks book for moms? Well, you know, we usually listen to God to ask him what he needs to have us do next. And this particular time we were listening to God. And I felt that he was saying, I think it's time for you to do a book about Godwink principles, because you've been on this journey for a long time. Your readers have been contributing all kinds of important principles, such as during times of uncertainty. A Godwink is a tangible connection to an unseen God. You know, principles like that. So we went into our publisher assignment at Schuster and we told him, that's what we wanted to do. And then they said, God told us that he wants you to do a book called Godwinks for moms. And of course, we jumped up and down and said, whatever you want. And we came back and we didn't know if we could, if we had a lot of mom stories. But as with every single book, when we're given the assignment, God just opens the doors. And Godwinks start coming to us. Godwink stories start coming to us on that particular topic. And over the next weekend, we spent, you know, a good number of hours searching through our files and our Facebook communications. And we had 40 stories that were on the list of possible. Not all of them are in the book, but we found better ones along the way and so forth. But that's how it evolves. Wow. And so the Lord confirmed for you through these wings. Yeah. While you were preparing the book that, yeah, this is, this is the path you're doing what he wants you to do. Yeah, yeah. And when we started writing it was, it was a pretty easy book to write. Yeah. Yeah. We had four months to do it and we pretty much got it done within that period of time. Yeah. Would you mind sharing maybe one of your favorite stories from the Godwinks for moms book? Well, let me do the Mary Alexander story. It's a beautiful story and it's also kind of tight and sometimes I go a little long. So let's do the Mary story. Mary, Mary was approaching Mother's Day with great sadness. She was the mother of two sons and she knew that this year she was only going to get one Mother's Day card from her children. And she was so sad because her son Jason had died suddenly. He had a heart condition that nobody knew he had. And she just, she just was so devastated by that. And then she was thinking about it. She thought he was the son who not to put down the other son, but he just happened to be the one that always fussed over Mother's Day. One who made these little craft things when he was a little kid and then he became a teenager. It's been an hour at the drugstore in front of that card counter picking out the exact one. She felt so bad. She thought, I've just got to get this off my mind because it's going to devastate me this coming into Mother's Day. So she thought, I know what I'll do. I will dive into drudgery. There's that closet downstairs that I've been threatening to to clean out for 10 years. She went down to the closet and she reached saw this old cardboard box and started reaching in and throwing magazines and things on the floor. And then her hand touched something. She pulled it out. It was an envelope, unstamped to the local newspaper that had gone out of business 20 years ago. And it was in a child's handwriting. She sat right down on the floor. She opened it up. It was a contest form. My mother is the best mom because she thought, oh my gosh, who wrote this? And she rushed her eyes down to look and see it was Jason age 12. She thought, oh my gosh, she looked up and she read when he had written. I'm getting caught up in this moment. And she cried and she thought, oh my gosh, this is the most wonderful God wink that I am experiencing. Because with God at his side, Jason in heaven has directed me to this card that he had written to me after all. So many years before. Yeah. That's another state card. Yeah, wow. Like I said, as a mother, myself, like that story hits right here. And it's really these stories that lead us to the Lord. Stories and, you know, to use a more churchy word for it, testimonies. Yes, they really, they increase faith. The increase faith. Yeah. And another nice churchy word is parables. They're like little parables of today. That's right. So gosh, 13 dot winks books. The readers who have been reading along with you all along through your series. What do you hope they get out of this one that maybe they haven't gotten out of previous Godwinks books? Well, I hope we touch their hearts more than we have in the past because that's always a major goal to touch their hearts. We learned things when we have our hearts touched. Even if we have a hard shell around us, that shell starts to crack and open when we are touched in the heart. And I think because mothers are universal, they are. Even though it's a mother's day kind of book and it's an evergreen book. And these stories touch your heart. And I hope that every single one touches everybody's heart. You know, moms pour out their hearts. They just pour everything out to their children to their, you know, their family to their church, the community. And we believe that moms have more Godwinks than anybody because they're always so open. They're open to, is there something wrong with my child or my husband, they're very sensitive to that. And so they're sensitive to Godwinks. And our goal has always been to just let them know they are on a GPS, God's positioning system. He's never going to leave him alone, no matter how tired they get, whether they're in joyful times or the depths of despair. God is not going to let go of them. He's always with them. And he loves to give us these Godwinks, these little signs of hope along our path, letting us know that like when you're like when you were a little kid at the time, when you were a little kid at the dining room table and all the big people are there and grandma, someone you love, gives you a little wink. You didn't ask what it meant. You knew it meant I'm thinking about you. I love you. And that's what a Godwink is. I love that. So beautiful. If I may, I'd love to shift gears now and ask about another ministry that your spearheading, pray together. I'm really intrigued by this essentially marriage prayer ministry, because as I mentioned to you before we started recording here on the faith lead platform in the faith of the community, there's been a real interest in marriage ministry and marriage ministry resources. So I'd love to hear more about this. How did, how did this start for you to? Well, you know, and really started probably by my wife and God working as a conspiracy. Well, it started early because squire was married twice before. Yes, Mrs. Rushnell, the third. And because I was married before. And so we had broken marriages. And when we came together, yeah, we just started praying. We started praying together. And those words, husband and wives praying together had never been spoken anywhere that I had ever heard it. I never heard that in a church. I know that I know that church is from old prayer. But I think the culture of our churches is to promote the women's Bible study and the men's Bible study women of faith and the and the promise keepers. And there is just this culture where it isn't a habit for pastors to encourage husbands and wives to pray together. And that is what we found out quickly the moment we started going out to churches. We'd often see very quickly as we go to a church, the size of Lakewood where they would bring in 30 or 40 pastors to visit the lady that does funny voices in the guy brought his go out rock. Because they had something to say and we'd say, you know, given our background, I'm not so sure that we should be qualified to come here and talk to you about prayer. But wait, we're talking about partner prayer. Husbands and wives praying together, family members praying together, friends praying together, but our main focus is on couples who pray together. Because we have discovered that when you do pray together, you stay together. And that became the name also of our 501 C3 pray together, stay together. But as we started on this journey, we started realizing Louise and I when we started praying together, it was it was like throwing a sponge in a bathtub and expanded. It wasn't the sum of one plus one equals two. It was greater than that. It was one plus one equals a lot. And we, and maybe we were more conscious of the prayers being answered. But we certainly saw that there was a cause and an effect. And then as we talked to people about it, people in the church, they'd say, gee, how do you do it? We said, what do you mean? How do you do it? Well, how do you pray together? Do you have a have a room you go to? You have secret words you say? And we realize that we needed to take people by the hands and say, it's a simple process. And usually it's the woman who is going to go, they're ready to go because women are always ahead of men. You know that little girl toddlers walk before male toddlers. That's a reason for that. God made them that way. Okay, so women are always ahead of men. And so women are always kind of at the forefront of this idea of partnered prayer. And the men are always kind of, I wonder what, what, what, you know, this sounds vulnerable. You know, I don't know. I don't know. I'm good. I'm good. And so it's always a challenge. The man thinks that it's a bridge, like the golden cave bridge, you're asking him to walk across. I don't know about that. I don't know. But once you put your foot on that bridge instantly, it becomes a footpath. It is nothing, but a little bridge from your heart to your spouse's heart. And you know, we talked about Donna Somer before, who was just such a great, wonderful Christian woman. She and Bruce, her husband, did take, we called it at the praise day challenge. She said what they did is they would leave their weapons outside the door. So it would go into this sacred place and become spiritually naked. She said, were they were so vulnerable to each other and just opened up to each other and obviously it because God was in the center. And it just changed their whole dynamic of their marriage. And we hear that all the time. It's just incredible what happens. Yeah. And you described, or how maybe Donna described being vulnerable as being spiritually naked. I think that's so important. And I sense that in you two, as you shared why you started, pray together, stay together, sharing your own marriage pain, your own marriage history. I think it was Pastor Rick Warren who said out of your greatest pain will be your greatest ministry. Yeah. And it really, I mean, I see that again and again from those who are leading great ministries, like the two of you. Now, when you two started your marriage, did you pray together right away, or is it something that you found along the way? No, we prayed right away, right away. I knew because I had prayed for 20 years for my other husband to come to know the Lord, which you never did. And I just wanted someone, I wanted my husband to pray with. I used to take my kids to church and I would look at these couples and they they'd have like this silent communication. This love, this like love language that was silent, but you knew it was there. And I said, God, I want that. I want that so much. And God gave me the husband that I prayed for. It just wasn't the one I thought it was going to be. So it was walking into my life right away. We started praying. And right away, we started seeing his direction or clarity. We started seeing prayer. We started seeing miracles happen. And he wants to do that for everyone that we call our first book was called couples who pray the most intimate act between a man and a woman. And it really, really is. But when you invite God into a marriage, you will people it blows their socks off. And what we did is that we knew that there had to be like research about this. We went everywhere finally come to Bailey University. And Baylor is doing with us the first empirical study of what happens when couples pray consistently. And the preliminary studies are. Appreciation, delight go up by 30 30% romance goes up by 21% arguments crumble the fear of divorce goes to zero. So it's the preliminary data right and we're actually we've been the gathering source mom and pop ministry here to gather the data and and pour it into of Baylor. When we get to 5,000 or 10,000 surveys. That's when we're going to say, OK, now let's let's open this up and really analyze it all and see what the results are. But Baylor has been great. But it's phenomenal that the first place we went was to Barna and who does all of the great church surveys and so forth. And and he said in 25 years I've never done a study on what happens when couples pray together. Well, how come George this will nobody ever ask me what we got the Baylor University and they said the same thing nobody ever asked them. But they said we're going to come alongside you right now. And so it is it it we as I mentioned before it is the culture. It's the culture of churches and it's almost a discovery when when we talked to them about partner prayer. It's it's like I gosh. That sounds like a new idea. Well, we didn't come up with this idea. Jesus did. It was in Matthew. Remember we're two of you agree upon anything my father and heaven will give it to you. So this is Jesus's idea. You know, it was interesting. You mentioned Rick Warren. We went to Rick Warren's church and we were sitting there with pastors and told him what we wanted to do. And someone was bold enough one of the pastors to say, OK, be honest. How many of you pastors pray with your spouse every day. And I think there were 15 pastors there was only about 20% about 20% raised their hands. Yeah, yeah, I'm not surprised to hear that. I think we all tend to think about prayer a little bit more individualistically. Right. Yes. And so I'm not surprised to hear that. But square you quoted Matthew were two or more. Right. Like it's it's right there in scripture. And you're gathering the evidence for it with which I think is so phenomenal. There's a story that I want to tell about about that. Can I just do that? I want to because on the same thing about pastors not just not thinking about it, you know, one of the greatest pastors in America, I think in the last 20 years or so that we've just heard other pastors admire was Tim Keller in New York, Tim Keller. And a very area died, but it was just after 9, 11 that there was such a cloud of of discouragement and sorrow hanging over New York City. And Kathy has wife had suffered from Crohn's disease for a good number of years. And apparently one of the issues with Crohn's disease is that it kind of promotes or it invites a darkness. It's a feeling of, you know, being lost and not knowing how to get out of it. And she said to Tim, I need to have you do something with me because I don't think I can survive this time of darkness in New York and without your help. Well, of course, honey, what? She said, I need to have you pray with me every single day. And he said, well, of course, honey. And she said, I need to have you pray with me every single day. And he said, well, of course, you know, and you can just imagine him, well, you know, I'm going to get the weddings. I got the church lamp. We have to fix. Whatever is going on. And so she says to him, wisdom of a wife, imagine that you had an incurable disease. And the doctor said, take this pill every single day and you will live a long life. Would you forget sometimes, would you be too busy sometimes or would you make room for this pill? Would this become a non-negotiable habit in your life? And Tim Keller said that was such logical evidence right in front of me that I said, of course, we can make room five minutes a day. How much time is that? And so that is what happened. And when I interviewed him for one of the books where we put that story, actually 15 years had gone by in Tim Keller said, we still pray every single day. And it has taken us through every storm. It has taken us through every joy. It has taken us on this journey where we just didn't realize that we were not connecting with each other in the way that God wanted us to. Guys, I'm inspired. I want to hang up the Zoom, call my husband, drag him out of work and just pray together. I mean, it's something that, like, as soon as someone says, you should pray together as a couple. As soon as someone says, like, five minutes a day, as soon as someone says, of course, this is the most important thing. I'm like, yeah, yeah, but it's hard. And you need to be reminded. You need to be told. And I think you need resources to you need someone to say, well, this is how we did it. And this is one thing. So talk about that for we have we have a lot of church pastors, a lot of church leaders who listen to this podcast. If they're looking for resources, something to put in front of their congregation, what do you have for them? Well, you can go to praiseday.com right now. And you can see the survey that Baylor has done. People can take the 40 day challenge right now. We don't even see it. It goes right to Baylor, the social scientist there. Yeah, we've never seen any of the surveys. We just see the results of it. And, but when what we built into this is a my prayer score, because basically Baylor did the survey, the questionnaire, and, and then you take the same questionnaire at the end of 40 days. You all kinds of reminders along the way and so on and so forth. But on the 40th day, when you do the second survey, you automatically get an email called my prayer score. And they're in simple bar graphs. Remember this the schoolhouse rock guy simple bar graphs. In the beginning, your arguments per week were way up here. In the end, your arguments per week were way down here. And that was reversed on things like how often do you say appreciative things to each other and have conversations and so on and so forth. What we're doing is is that we're taking all of this knowledge, all of this experience and and everything that we have gathered together, all the testimonies that are on our praise day dot org site or praise day dot com, either one. And we are putting it into a television series called the pray stay challenge. And very simply, we will follow six couples who are in some form of crisis in their marriage. Maybe it's just it's not going anywhere. It's just we we're going through the motions and we have a nice marriage, but it's not a great. But when you go through the 40 day challenge, praying together five minutes a day, I promise you, it cannot be bad. It cannot be worse than it was at the beginning. It always is going to improve. And what we're saying is is that this television series will reduce the divorce rate in America when we follow these six couples. And then, but it's also going to be fun because we'll have a celebrity host talking to them. We'll also see the raw part. We'll see the heartfelt part of the counselor joy. There will be counselors will have pastoral counselors counselors and and and and at the end of six weeks, we'll see how everybody has improved. And then we start a new cycle with the new celebrity series, a new celebrity host couples. And and we already have one network that is in development with us that you would know very, very well. And we're thinking that we can put together a consortium of networks to be able to put this series together. And the number of people who are so excited about it is unbelievable. You can even add one more person to that list. Well, we got a call one day from church of the Highlands and Alabama. And they said, we want to fly you guys out because we have all these small groups. Well, tons, they had such a ton of small groups at the time they had 60,000 members at church of the Highlands. And they said that over 80% of the people are members of small groups. And the number one popular small group was couples who pray our first book. So because there's a study guide in the book. And so they flew us out there and they brought us to someone's house and they had about 50 couples there. They put us on directors chairs and they said, we just want you to hear the testimonies. And the two of us were just like boo-hooing. I mean, it was amazing. There were marriages that were basically, you know, driving to, you know, their lawyer and took them off the cliff. And then the most precious thing, I think, were the families that said, my, our children notice the difference. They would say, Dad, why are you mom smiling so much? Are you laughing a lot? It affects the whole family. And you know, in the churches, we, I know the churches want to do this, but they've got so many things on their plate. But when you think about the husband and wife, that's the nucleus. That's where it all begins. That's the legacy starts there. We, we actually, when we were writing this book, we got a call from Denzel Washington's wife, Pauletta Washington, not to drop names. But she found out we were writing this book and she said, I've got to be a part of this book. She wrote her own story because she said, when I was a kid growing up, I saw my parents praying. She said, it had such a profound effect on me. And now on my marriage and my children's marriages, she said, it's a legacy that we leave. And so, you know, we're hoping to get her maybe involved in this TV series. We'll see what happens. And we'd be great if we could get Denzel. Please, Jesus, we're praying. So there's celebrities Darrell and Tracy strawberry. They're going to do a, some little video for us for the sizzle reel. And, and of course Darrell strawberry, a huge, huge superhero in the sports world. And who had, you know, the greatest highs and the lowest lows. And, and it wasn't until he found that that whole that was within him was for God. And it wasn't for all the things that he tried to put into it to make him feel comfortable and, and can satisfy you know. And, and whether it was the big cars, the big house, all the flash, all the whatever, nothing, nothing could fill that hole until he put Jesus in that place. And that was the moment that he came to the Lord. And, and he met in rehab in rehab, Tracy, who was, who was there. And they were both in rehab. And they came together. And they had this faith that they bonded together with it. And they, they made the commitment that they were going to use their faith and their experiences for the betterment of people who are still struggling in some place or another. And so, but what Tracy was telling us the other day was that moment when she wanted to talk to Darrell about praying together. Remember I said it's a, the guys are slow to the party. The bridge is too long. I don't want to be vulnerable. And, and so she said to him, Darrell. We are on the verge of our third divorce. We're having some issues. You had three. And this will be my third one. We are on the verge of that. We must pray together. And he was stone faced. She said, I need to have you pray with me now. And she put out two hands. We need to pray together. And he was silent. And then he reached up and he gave her one pinky. His pinky finger. And so she said, I think God is telling me to take that. And so she took that pinky. And she put her pinky and his pinky. And within days it started going to a hand. And then it went to two hands. And then pretty soon he was laying out the Bible. He was making the coffee. And that's the way it always happens with men. They are slow to the party. Well, once they get to that party, they are taking charge out of the family once again. And so Darryl and Tracy magnificent marriage marriage and great ministry. Yeah. Well, so I started this line of questioning by asking, well, what resources do you have to offer? What guidance? And we just got it right there from from the strawberries start with the pinky. And well, there's so much to unpack in everything that you said, I'll just sort of restate a couple of things. So for folks who are interested in bringing praise day to their churches, to their congregations, they should go to praystate.org or praystate.com. It sounds like they can link to your book, which has a study guide. It sounds like maybe there's some guidance and other resources there. Lots of videos. Yes. Yes. And it sounds like perhaps that people, if they want to, can participate in your survey there. It's a 40 days survey. It sounds like. And not only will they be a part of the overall results that Baylor University is trying to capture to show the impact of prayer, but they can see the impact of prayer in their own marriages. Is that right? That is correct. That is, that is wonderful. Yeah. And when we do this show, praystate challenge, it'll have an app. And one of the features of the app is that that my prayer score is now going to be not just at the beginning and the end, but at various points along the way. So that anybody, anybody who has the app can now take the survey and get their score as they are going alone. I mean, we all love to to play golf and and bowl and things like that. But imagine if you had no score card. Well, this is now you got a score card with the my prayer challenge. And yeah, it's simple, you know, it's simple. Years ago, a pastor said to us one time, he said, you know, I love you guys because you're so shallow. And he said, well, I didn't mean that. I mean, you take him in the shallow when us pastors take him into the deep end. And that's. And we said, yeah, well, that's it. Yeah. And then you does funny voices. The guy abroad, you said, schoolhouse. We are shallow. We're very happy. You know what you are? You're your people who know how to bring the Lord to where people are and meet them where they are. And I mean, is it safe to say this show that you're putting together? It's a reality TV show. Yes, it is. It's the opposite of the housewives of New Jersey. Well, it actually, it is the exact opposite. But you're bringing your bring faith and prayer and your saving marriages in reality television. I mean, I don't know anything that could be cooler and more exciting and more relevant than that. So what's the timeline? Talk to us about when we can expect to see this, you know, hit whatever network you end up signing. Well, we are, I would say that we're very much on a fast track. Yeah. And we have, we have most of the elements that we need to put together. We know that we've got to create the app. We've got to create certain things, but we're pulling together the last of the elements. So, and, you know, in the television business, you kind of move pretty quickly right now, if hallmark or Netflix gave us a movie pickup, we could have it on the air in January, you know. And, and so this kind of a series, we could have it on the air in January and we could be, we could be going forward or we could back up from 40 days from Easter and on, you know, and just start Ash Wednesday started, you know, that kind of thing. So I think that it may well be on the air as early as January. Yeah. Now, that's so exciting. Well, I'll be really looking forward to that. Right. You know, I don't want to keep you guys all day. So maybe I can wrap it up with with one question, which is that you two are leading so much. Your ministry is so multifaceted. How can folks track with you and what you're doing? Do you have a website? It sounds like you're on Facebook. Yeah. We are on Facebook. We have almost a half a million followers on Facebook and Godwinks.com. Godwinks.com. That's which the weeds spends her primary time on that. Also she contributes to the other one. And then Godwinks. And that's Godwinkers. And then that's a private group. And then Godwinks Facebook.com slash Godwinks. That's been a very strong storytelling base, whereas the Godwinkers is more prayer based. And, and so we're just moving quickly together on that. It's interesting because people say, where do you get these Godwinks stories? So we were in prayer one day. And after a prayer time, I said, just squire, squire. I just have such a strong feeling. The Lord is saying we should do a book about dogs. And he says, honey, we don't even have a dog. I said, I know, but I said, I just feel so, so strong. The Holy Spirit is just impressing upon me. So he said, well, where are we going to get the, you know, the dog? We could do dogs like as a center of the Godwink, but where are we going to get the dog stories in the very next day open up my Facebook page, Godwinkers. And someone says, hey, did you see this great story of a canine officer who adopts this, this dog named Ruby. And it was the most amazing Godwink story. I read it. I told squire. He called the principal people. We sold that to Netflix. That was our first Netflix movie, rescue by Ruby. And it is one of the top family faith movies on that. Your kids would love it. Oh, rescue by Ruby came about. Oh, yes, yes. A Godwink dogwink. Yes, but it was through us praying together. See when when a couple praise because it's like, you know, close you get to the top radio tower, the clearer the voice comes. And if you pray every single day, you start hearing the voice of God, much clearer than you did maybe at the beginning. And that's what we're finding now is that his direction, his clarity, it's, it's, it's like crystal clear now. And that's why when he said, I want you to do something with dogs, even though we didn't understand it. We knew that, okay, if God was impressing that upon us, then we need to do that. Wow. Well, somehow you've just pulled together like the Holy Spirit nudges social media using your community on Facebook. You're like, you're pulling in Netflix. And of course, prayers at the center of it. And it all comes together. And you're, you just, you have something really from the Lord to offer to the world. It's really so beautiful. Gosh, I can really sit here and talk to you to for like 12 hours. I probably leave it there for today. I want to thank you so much for dropping on the podcast. It really has blessed me. I've learned so much in this conversation. There's so much to look forward to you to have so much energy, so many ideas. And you're just so willing to be used by the Lord to bless everyone around you. So thank you. Thank you. And the one thing I forgot to mention is when Godwinks.com is our website. Godwinks.com. Godwinks.com. So you can join our wink letter or like a regular news letter. We call it the wink letter. And you can find out what's going on. The wink letter. I love it. I will subscribe as soon as we're done talking. Thank you, Squire. Thank you. Oh, we appreciate you. God bless you. Thanks. Bye-bye. Thank you for tuning in to the Faithly Stories podcast. We pray this episode gave you the encouragement you needed to continue on your journey. The Faithly Stories podcast is brought to you by Faithly, an online community committed to empowering church leaders, pastors, staff, and volunteers. The Faithly Digital Platform offers innovative and practical tools and resources to enhance connection, foster collaboration, and promote growth within the church and ministry space. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review our podcast to help reach more listeners like you. Stay tuned for more uplifting tales from the Frontlines of Ministry on the Faithly podcast. 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