May 22, 2024 • 47 mins
Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Sunday, May 19th, 2024
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(00:07):
Why do you have it? Showsme. He's always been a mystery on
High Life. I've been told I'malone at the end of the nine?
Will all of you other? Notquite? Will alla naviget it? Ye,
buddy, it turns out they're theones you are looking for all this
(00:29):
time. I'm just life show tellall everybody a loll about sun the same.
Welcome to Faith in the Zone,a show about sports and faith and
when the two come together and thelives that are affected. Faith in the
Zone is brought to you by bookSide Baptist Church. Let's turn it over
(00:53):
to Mike mcgiffren and Pastor Ken Keltneronly on the Big nine twenty at your
iHeartRadio app Welcome to Faith in theZone on the Big nine twenty and your
iHeart Radio absence. I'm Mike McGivernalongside Pastor Ken Keltner for books Side Baptist
Church. We're coming from the Donovanto Jordans and heat and cooling studios.
(01:14):
As you turn on your air conditioning, trust me and I know Pastor last
week you said, Hey, Imight need to call those guys. I
was just there and uh, that'sa really good, really good organization.
Three different three different offices, onein New Berland, one in West Dallas,
one of mcgonaco. And they'll takegood care of you. Did you
tell them you tell him I mightbe calling? Yeah, they said,
(01:34):
who I said, No, mycoas got faith in the zone. Mike,
you're the only one. You knowwhat I think they said. I
think they said, well, onlylisten when he's out of town. That's
what that's when the shows it's reallyOh, man, hey in the hall
today, Billy Schmid, he knewwho you were. Oh yeah, that
(01:55):
was hey, Thank you, Billy. I loved it. Yeah, that
was awesome. You asked her youwant him to be on the He's got
to end up coming to Brookside BaptistChurch for at least one service before he
could be on the softball team,right, exactly. Well, I'll talk
to Billy on that. Yeah,there you go. I'm sure he can
hit the ball off further than that. I can't. But that's not saying
much. How'd you guys? Doyou guys? This week? And so
(02:17):
we lost? He's as bad asthe week before. No, it was
not as bad as the week before. That was good, we made progress.
Good. I actually threw some strikes. I didn't walk ten guys in.
Hey, I got asked to playon the team that you play against
next week. So and I'm comingright up the middle. I'm coming right
(02:37):
up the middle. So you better, you better be ready to go.
I'm just kidding. I mean,it's four minutes into the show and I've
lied like eight times already. Ineed to stop that. Hey, I'm
excited about today's guest pastor so Johnfrom Team JAMP and I said this last
week. He's not Tom Roy,but he came through with a number of
(02:58):
guests. If we want to haveon faith in his own and immediately,
you know, Eli Atkins is onethat I reached out to right away,
and I did some research on himand did a bunch of research on his
daughter. And we'll have some timeto talk about his daughter. I think
I beat her in one hundred thetwo hundred and track, even though she's
(03:19):
she is an All American, afreshman All American from South Carolina. She
she turned down the scholarship to Wisconsin. So I got we got to talk
to our guests about what she wasthinking with that she had a better badger.
Yeah, right right here in ourbackyard. But instead now she's she's
she's with Sarah. South Carolina hada great year. Our special guest for
the entire hour, and again wewant to thank John over a team jam
(03:44):
Eli Atkins, Eli, how youbeen. I've been good? Man?
How are you good? You gottabe so proud of your daughter. Man,
what a year she's at. Yeah, I'm super, super proud,
first year freshman, like you said, all American men, I couldn't be
happier man. And we'll get toit. We'll talk more about her and
and what it's like up in theup in the stands, because I did
(04:05):
you coach her and all in highschool I've Coachedaiah said she was five,
as though we started training when shewas five. And when she's running for
South Carolina, you got to beup in the stands. You're not down
on the on the sideline, areyou now? I'm up in the stands.
But Coach Hall, the head coach, always called her, text me,
let me know what's going on.So we got a great relationship.
(04:27):
It's harder to be in the standsthan it is down on the sidelines,
isn't that? It's very hard,very hard. I agree with that.
I you know when when my sonplayed college basketball, Pass used to come
and want to sit next to meduring games. I don't get away from
me, like, don't sit byme, I you know, go away.
I just want to sit by myselfand yell at him on my own.
(04:48):
And Toyo was a lot harder.I coached him in high school and
then to sit in the stands duringcollege was awfully difficult. Hey, can
we talk a little bit about Eli? Where did you up and where'd you
go to high school and college?So? I grew up in Orville,
Ohio Smucker's Jelly we High School.There my eighth grade, my ninth grade,
(05:11):
tenth grade year played basketball, rantrack. Basketball A lot of people
don't know was my first love,and so I played basketball. Then I
found out I was super fast,So I started running track. Left Orville,
went up to Akron, Ohio,went to Booklem High School for a
year, ran track there, hadgreat accomplishments, and then pretty much got
(05:33):
recruited by Copley High School. Andmy last year I went to Copley High
School. College. God had otherplans. I had a lot of offers
on the table when I didn't winState, A lot of coaches walked away
from me and so that I wasgoing to go to Akron. You coached
PJ, but PJ had left thatyear to go be a state patrol.
(05:56):
So I missed college all together.Man, wow, man, hey,
how did how did you get hookedup with with John over at at Team
Jam? Was that when you werean Akron? Yeah? I was in
Akron, Ohio. Actually I wasat booked to high school. I think
he came out to one of ourtrack meets. Me and John talk.
We met. I went to oneof the Bible class I think it was
(06:17):
at the y MCA and Akron andit's been all great from there and John
just sponsored me all the way throughhigh school. If it wasn't from Team
Jam, I never would have ranin Buffalo, New York. I never
would have ran in Kentucky. Inever would have ran all around the US
if John and Team Jam didn't sponsorme. Man, he was on last
(06:38):
week. You're like what and he'sbeen on a couple of times. What
a good man? And you wantto talk about a guy that has that
servant leadership heart that just continues togive back to people in his community.
I was, I'm so impressed withhim. And again we had him on
a couple of years ago. WellI think he was living in Ohio then
and now living in Florida, andhe just continues this ministry. Yes,
(07:02):
man, he's a he's an awesomeguy. Like they sec championships last week
and John here be up, Hey, I will be there and lo and
behold I look up looking down atthe stands. I was like, hey,
John, and he was right there, man, and we had a
great conversation, uh, trying tokeep teen jam going. Also here in
Kansas City, Missouri, Hey,Elisha, what uh? What events were
(07:28):
you were your specialty there in highschool with track, the one and two,
the one and two hundred? Sowhat what was what was your time?
What was your best time in onehundred? My best time in one
hundred was ten twenty three? Sohow about here, you'd have to give
me twenty thirty? Ya, like, what kind of lead? Could we
(07:50):
stop halfway? Take a break?Seventy? Man? Come on, I
would if he gave me seventy,I would beat him. No, I
don't think, yes, I would. Yeah, I think I was still
catch you at seven. Maybe ifthey gave you a ninety meter, Hey,
Hey Alicia, Hey, Hey Lasha, I already loved this interview.
(08:11):
Man, that's util No. Hey, remember you're you're my guest. You're
supposed to be nice to me.I can tell you. I know this.
I know if I got seventy fromfrom his daughter, I wouldn't beat
her. I'm looking at at someof the things she'd twenty twenty four NCAA
Indoor Champion, the four by fourhundred, twenty twenty four Indoor First Team
(08:35):
All American, twenty twenty four IndoorFirst Team All SEC, and SEC is
no joke when it comes to trackand field, Right does she does she
run the one hundred also? Oris it just the relay? No?
She runs the one two four?Well what's her best time in the one
hundred? Best time in one hundredis eleven twenty six. Okay, so
(08:58):
she's a little behind you. Yeah, I would assume you've told her that
a couple of times. No,she can actually beat me. Now,
you know if I'm forty one,so I don't have the legs and stamina
that I used to have. Canyou hit? You still hit a jump
shot? Oh? Yeah, Idon't miss. There we go my kind
of guy, right, there.Well, if we don't play with Pastor
(09:22):
because he'll look you off, I'llpass you the ball. I'll give you
that. I'll give the ball ifyou can't miss your my kind of teammate.
Okay, talk a little bit aboutmoving around to some different high schools
and when you were in high school. Was that difficult for you or was
that something that that worked out reallywell? It was very difficult for me
because you know, it's hard tomake friends. You know, I make
(09:45):
friends here in Orville. Now Igot to leave and go to Akron,
make friends at Atron Booth through.Now I gotta lead there and go to
Copley. You know Booth there wasn'tinter city school. Copley was a suburb
school and Orville was a suburb school. So I was back and forth and
very difficult because I'm a PK preacher'skid, so I'm used to moving.
But at the same time, youknow those long friend relationships that you can
(10:09):
say, oh, I went toschool with them since I was in elementary,
I didn't have that. Hey,it's was it difficult being a PK.
You know, I coached all thepastors kids in basketball, and you
know there are times that you know, it was difficult for them to be
a preacher's kid. They wanted tofool the ride a little bit. It
was like, hey, you can't, don't do that, Pastor Ken's gonna
(10:31):
get a Saturday'd laugh. And wasthat a difficult thing for you? Oh,
it was kind of difficult, yes, because the expectations of a preacher
kids is they're they're basically almost perfect, and that just wasn't the case for
me and my sisters and brothers.I mean, we're human just like anybody
else. We're gonna make the samemistakes just by anybody else, you know.
(10:54):
And so yes, it was verydifficult because people would say, well,
Eli, why are you doing that? Ain't you ain't your dad preacher?
And yeah, he's a preacher,but I'm still a normal kid.
At the same time, Hey,Eli, what I've heard is that preacher's
kids either end up in the ministryor they end up in prison. I
agree, I mean that that thatis a true fact. But if you
(11:18):
if you compare that to just anybodyelse that's not a PK, you know,
you almost have the same outcome.You know, it may be just
a different way of life. Theymay not be in the ministry, but
they may be helping kids. Yeah, they may be tied to a ministry,
you know. And then you gotthe other ones who just in the
world and you know, tough timesgot them and now they're in prison.
(11:41):
And so I think either way,you know, balance itself out out.
We're talking Atkins and Eli U highschool athlete. His daughter is a big
time athlete. We'll talk about her, I think segment three. He's also
running a Tier track club is thename of it? Who started to your
(12:01):
track club? So top Tier wasstarted by moona lee out of Kansas City.
She started she's a little living yetshe was l s U most decorated
athlete ever and so she started fora lot of any kids really, but
we got a lot of inner citykids. And so now that we're running
because she's coaching out in Texas ata small school and so she can't do
(12:24):
both. So we're over it andactually building it right now, Eli,
How difficult was it for zid toto pick I know she had committed I
think to Kentucky, but then TimHall went to South Carolina and she followed
him. Was that a difficult processfor her and your family? With with
(12:45):
boy? She had she had hada lot of offers on the table.
Difficult to make that decision for her. H No, it wasn't difficult because
our prayer was God. You youknow, it's like a chalkboard when the
teachers marked all the wrong answer andthat's what we praised God, if it's
not in your will, please markit off. And you know, we
couldn't make the decision because I meanevery sec school I basically reached out to
(13:09):
him. So when we narrowed itdown to five, I think we had
Georgia, we had Florida, Texas, Texas, A and M and Kentucky.
And so the story how God didit was amazing, and so we
narrowed it down signed with Kentucky,and God was like, you know what,
It's like God was playing chess.He waited for a while, He
(13:33):
made a strategic move and said,okay, Tim Hall left. Tim called
me two days or a week maybebefore he was your ad a transition and
say, hey, I think I'mto be leaving and I just wanted to
let you know. And he leftme at that, you know, And
so I called him once he madethe transition and talked to Theiahziah started crying
(13:56):
because he had already planned to goto Kentucky. She said, off her
stuff for a dorn. A lotof people from Missouri was going to Kentucky.
And so what happened was we prayedabout it. She cried for a
few days, and then she said, Dad, I want to follow Tim
Hall. And so we ended upat South Carolina. Man, that's great.
(14:16):
You know. I love the factthat the loyalty obviously that he showed
to you to call you a coupleof days in advance, and the loyalty
that she had for him. Doesshe love the campus and love the school.
She loves the campus. She lovesthe school. She just don't love
being as far away from me andher mother. Yeah, are you living
(14:39):
in Kansas You're living in Kansas Citynowadays? Yes, sir, I'm can
City Chiefs all day. Hold on, what about those Royals? Them royals
are playing good this year. Yeah, they beat the Bruers a couple of
times. You're right, I gotnothing for you. I can't rip on
the Chiefs for sure. The Royalsjust beat my brows, so I can't
(15:00):
rip on that as well. Hey, guys, we're going to get to
a break on other side of thebreak, we'll continue with our special guests.
He's Eli Atkins. He is runningtop tier track club and a big
time athlete in high school. Andhis daughter right now is a big time
athlete at South Carolina and we'll talkmore about her as the show goes on.
(15:22):
And we want to thank John fromTeam Jam. You heard Eli talk
about Team Jam and what the impactthat John and that group had on his
life growing up, and I thankhim for the introduction. This is Faith
in the Zone on the Big ninetwenty in your iHeart Radio Appay more now
(15:43):
with Faith in the Zone, discoverhow sports and faith come together. Faith
in the Zone is brought to youby BIC Automotive. Let's turn it back
over to Mike mcgibber and Pastor KenKeldner. Only I'm a Big nine twenty
and you're right Heart Radio. Welcomeback to Faith in the Zone on the
(16:04):
Big nine twenty and your Ihearting Radioapp. Mike Begivern alongside Pastor Ken Keltner.
He's the head pastor at Brookside BaptistChurch. Coming from the Donovan and
Jorgansen Heating and Cooling Studios. Hey, the the Men's Choir sounded pretty good
on Sunday. Yeah, that's whatThat's what my wife told me. Somebody
(16:26):
said, your wife was kind ofsmirking at you while you're up there singing.
No. I wasn't up there singingno, no me she was.
They said that she was smirking atmate. Well, you know what's really
funny is uh is Brian Lepinski's wife. And I forgot her name, Andrea.
Andrea the choir was practicing before churchand she said, you know where
Pastor Ken is And I said,he's the tone deaf one, the one
(16:49):
who's off tea up in the front. Well, she laughed for about five
minutes, and I said, youmight not want to tell him that I
said that, but if you wantto say that, that would be awesome.
Uh. Yeah, you guys soundedgood. Yeah, that's what Kathy
said. You were mouthing the words, which is I think perfect. It's
called lip synk you did a goodjob of lipsync. Our special guest today
(17:12):
he is Eli Atkins. He's apastor's kid. He is living in Kansas
City, Ohio. No Kansas City, Missouri, Ohio. Kansas City,
Missouri, and he is helped runtop tier track club there and again we
want to thank John from Team jamEli. The second segment, we always
ask our guests to share their testimonyand if you would be so kind,
(17:37):
alrighty, so let's take it allthe way back. I think I was
ten years ag old. I waslistening to my dad preaching. I just
felt I didn't know it was theHoly Spirit at the time, but I
felt something moving on the inside ofme. And I ended up going up
and saying that I wanted to besaved. And so it went through the
routine of having me say what Ineeded to say in order to be saved,
(18:00):
except Jesus Christ as my personal Satanist. So then the Holy Spirit really
began to move inside of me asI grew older. And when I was
sixteen, I was sitting there.I remember my Daddy had organized and it
was called a New Life's Church.And I was sitting there and just client
tears running down my eyes and Iwas like, Gods, like, I'm
(18:22):
calling you to preach, and Iwas like, absolutely not. This is
nothing that I want to do.I've seen my dad struggle in churches.
I've seen how they treated my father. I said, I do not want
to do this, and before Iknow it, without knowing, I was
sitting up there answer my calling tothe ministry. And so after I answered
my calling to the ministry, Ibegan preaching and began develop my gifts and
(18:48):
preaching. And now down forty oneI've been preaching so long. I actually
have a ministry here in Kansas City. It's called the Real Church, and
it's called reaching equip thing to affectingknives. And so we reached the unchurched.
We want to stick with them,we disciple them, and I have
here in Kansas City. I haveother opportunities to go other places, but
(19:11):
God has kept me here because it'sso much to do, uh here in
Kansas City. As far as ministrypass, did you I'm sorry that to
cut you off. Did you hearwhen he said we're we're, we're we
are helping and going and finding theunchurch? Very similar to what John said
(19:32):
last week with Team jam and wehad that conversation about I. I.
You know, there's some Christian schoolsthat that only look for Christian basketball players,
and you know, guys that thathave already fully accepted and they can
quote scripture and and then there areother schools and we had we had Ed
Gomes from Liberty on who was withtheir football program, and he said,
(19:55):
no, no, no, we'lltake those boys. We definitely will take
those football players that have been churchedup since they were ten. But the
guys that haven't, we're still becausewe're trying to make a difference in their
life. And I love, Ireally love what Eli just said about real
church. We're looking for the unchurched. We're looking for those people so that
(20:15):
we can share the good news.Yeah, and Eli, that's what all
believers should be doing. I meanthat was you know, our our Lord
and Savior's last commandment to us.And really it should be our first concern
that we're to go out and bewitnesses uh in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria
that are most parts of the earth. And unfortunately a lot of Christians Uh,
(20:40):
I think want to be undercover,don't want people to know that they're
an actual believer. And man,the way this world's going, we know
what's going to happen, and weneed to warn people that there's a point
in time in their life that they'regoing to stand before God and be held
accountable. And we want to givethat message of hope to folks that they
can live with God one day onlythrough their through his son Jesus, who
(21:03):
paid the ultimate sacrifice for us.That's right, that's right, And I
think and I believe that. Youknow, when when people say church,
a lot of people look at thebuilding, and that's just not the case.
We are the church, and soas the church, we have to
get uh, we have to moveabove these four walls. We have to
move out of these four walls andtake the church to the unchurched. Because
(21:25):
if we don't take the church tothe unchurched, the world is just going
to grab them and and and thatwe're going to lose them. And so
that's why it's so important for evangelism, for sports ministry, for everybody to
work together to save the unchurched,because if we're not reaching the unchurched,
and then not only that, takingthe step further disciple them, what what
(21:45):
are we really doing as a church. We're just sitting in the church getting
fat on His word and not feedingnobody else. Yeah, exactly, I
like what you said. You knowa lot of missions trips we've gone on,
we have put the ball out thereand had sports type camps and things
like that to to really be ableto use as a platform to reach people
(22:08):
with the gospel. And and Isee that highly, you know, successful
because you put a ball out there, kids want to kids want to come
and they want to play and youand you have an opportunity and obviously Team
Jam and what you're doing right nowwith with track and so forth, your
God's using you to give you thatplatform. You know, Mike, We've
(22:32):
had Tony Dungeon and he talked about, Hey, football was my platform,
you know, with with being ableto get the gospel message out. And
so Eli, this is a notonly are you a pastor, God's given
you a platform in athletics to reallyconnect with young people and see them understand
there's a difference in your life versusothers that they've seen. And it all
(22:55):
comes back to Jesus absolutely absolutely,Hey, Eli, would when you were
sixteen and having tears come down yourcheek and you saying no, no,
that's not what I want to do. I think it's funny because you know,
sometimes as men and I did thisfor you know, most of my
life, Eli, I hold lota second, No, no, Lord,
(23:17):
I know what's best for me.I know what's best. Let me
do this my way, and thenit doesn't work that I'm like, okay,
I need your help now. AndI think that that's funny at sixteen,
that the Holy Spirit was moving insideof you to say, hey,
look, this is what I wantyou to do. And was that a
difficult place for a sixteen year oldkid who was big time athlete at that
(23:41):
point to say, Lord, I'vegot some things I need to accomplish sure
that I want to accomplish in mylife before I get to that. Yes,
it was a huge challenge because youknow, at sixteen, you're like,
well, I ain't know my otherfriends, I'm not you know,
in the ministry, they're not preaching. They're not having to go to church
(24:02):
every Sunday and go to Sunday schooland be there and do this, or
have to study and prepare for amessage. You know, I just wanted
to be a kid, but Godsaid, you know what, you can
be a kid, but I stillhave other stuff for you to do.
And so I don't think I'll bewhere I am right now if I didn't
walk in that calling when I wassixteen. Is your father still with us?
(24:26):
Yes, Yes, he's still withus. He's in Little Rock,
Arkansas. He planted a church outin Arkansas, a House of Transformation,
and so we talked every good day, probably three times a day. How
many how many years has he beenin ministry? Eli? All my life
plus some So I'm forty one,so over forty one years. Man,
good for him. He's got tobe so proud of you right now.
(24:49):
Yes, sir, he's very proud. Man. I mean, there's so
many different roles that I could havebeen down, and I did try to
go down, but you know,he never gave up on me. He
always say I kept looking towards theheels from which comes my help, because
all my help came from God.And so he just kept me in prayer
and kept me in prayer because alot of people don't know. But when
(25:11):
I was sixteen, I had ababy, my oldest daughter, Zaria,
and so by my wife, whichwe're married now. We've been mad at
for twenty one years, and alot of people looked at me funny,
It's like, oh, he's supposedto be a preacher. Well he don't
had a baby. And you know, they just started talking and really got
me wondering, like, Okay,God did you really call me or or
was it just me? Because peoplewas questioning me, it made me question
(25:34):
myself, Wow, well you passedyou. You know, it's it's look
and it's hard. And we've hadsome conversations to be a pastor. And
even when they when when your sonswere little, right, if something would
happen and they were younger and somebodywould be misbehaving that church, you know,
(25:56):
it's well who did that? Well, you know Kurt did it.
His youngest is Kurt. He wasalways in trouble. But you know,
you know I caught him running inchurch one Sunday and I called him over
and I go Kurt, and heknew, he knew. He comes walking
over and goes, hey, Dad, I just want you to know I
was running after that boy to tellhim you don't run in church. That
(26:18):
that's that sounds normal. That soundsKurt. That sounds just like Kurt.
To me, Eli that that hadto be a difficult time obviously with with
your father. But man, he'suh, he's got to be so so
proud. Like I said, hashe heard you? He's heard you preach?
I'm sure correct, Yes, he'sheard me preach multiple times. Because
I preached, you know, Ipreached throughout the city a lot. I
(26:41):
preached at his church when he planteda church also here in Kansas City called
the Tree of My Church. Uh, and I preach all over the city.
So yeah, he hears me quitea bit. Hey is your wife
saying Mickey? Yeah, her nameis Mickey Aiken Man. So, uh,
you guys met early. Huh?Were you high school sweethearts? We
(27:02):
was? We met in Sunday schoolat my dad's church in Orville, Ohio.
We met at Sunday school class andwe just, you know that stare
we fall in love, and Iwas like, yeah, this is gonna
be my wife one day. Andlo and behold my wife. We got
two wonderful kids, and we werewe still on our honeymoon after twenty one
years. Yeah. I like hearingthat, how long you've been married?
(27:26):
But we're getting ready to go onforty one. I'd say, I'm still
on my honeymoon. We're on fortyas well. Yeah, all right,
let's move on. Hold on,she's still on her honeymoon. How's that?
My god? Hey, I wentto high school with my wife Eli
(27:47):
and and she was like real popularcaptain of cheerleading, called and asked me
out the day after graduating from highschool. And we've been holding hands ever
since. So's what it's about.Well, and it's not been the road
for her, you know, ithasn't. And I thank God that that
she Uh, she saw something tome that I didn't see a long time
ago. And and God met mewhere I was at and said, enough
(28:11):
of that nonsense for you. Gottawe gotta move now, got to go
to work on this stuff. SoI thank her for I thank her for
that with you said you have twokids? Correct? Yes? And was
Zaria? Was she an athlete aswell? Zaria was a volleyball player.
She could have went to college,uh for volleyball, but she decided to
(28:34):
go for journalism, and so shewent for journalism. And she's she's more
of my model actor person. Soshe's very good at speaking. She was
in debating high school. Uh,she's very good at articulating her words.
She's such a smart, beautiful younglady. So she's modeling. She's about
(28:56):
to start acting in this play comeI think next month. And so she's
really busy. Hey, pastors,so yeah, I can tell you that
you don't you knew that his kidswould be athletes because he was an athlete
and his wife competed in volleyball,track and field, and she was a
cheerleader at all in Ohio, atOhio and uh Man. I. You
(29:19):
know, one daughter is a volleyballplayer, the other one's track and field.
Hey were were they multi sport athletesin high school? Zaya was just
played volleyball. She was really goodat volleyball. She's a liberal, Zia.
She was a multi sport. Sheplayed volleyball, which honestly a lot
of people don't know, but volleyballwas her first love. She's very good
(29:42):
at volleyball. But one year,her eighth grade year, I think she
went up for he came down andbroke her legs. Oh, and so
it broke her tibia ball and soshe had to misstrack that school year plus
the summer, and so she cameback her ninth grade year, that's when
(30:02):
COVID hit. So she had tosit out again, and so she started
to getting That's when the mental partsprobably playing with her mind, and it
was a big issue. But wedid, with God help we bounce back.
Hey, Eli, last question andwe'll get to a break word.
You had talked about real church inKansas City, the church that that you're
at and helping run. Can youtalk to me a little bit about the
(30:26):
outreach and how much does I've notbeen to Kansas City? Is there a
lot of areas in Kansas City thatthat needs your help? Yes, it's
the inner city is really bad.I mean, if you look at the
Inner City school district, you probablyhave a thirty to forty homeless rate amongst
students. And so you know theyneed help, they need mentorship, they
(30:49):
can't afford to pay their fees.They you know, the spiritual peace,
we definitely can give it to them, but we also want to make sure
we feed them and clothe them andlove them first. Because I use this
like an example. John three sixteensays, for God, so love then
he gazed, and we try togive and then loved. But we have
to love them first and then give, and so I used that as my
(31:14):
motto, and that that's exactly whatwe do. Pastor, if you remember
John from Team Jam when he talkedabout when he left as the youth pastor
of this church, and he hada kid call and said, you come
into our game. And he saidno, you didn't understand. I'm not
the youth pastor there anymore. Andthey go, yeah, yeah, it
doesn't. Are you coming to ourgame? And that's kind of what Eli's
(31:34):
talking about here, right, It'sit's we got to love these kids.
I would assume me live. Ifyou get the chance to go see you
know, some of the kids thatthat you're talking to, if they're playing
basketball, running track, if youget a chance to go see them compete,
you're sitting in the front row,Yes, sir, I actually because
everybody knows me. I'm on thefield. You know, I'm right there
(31:56):
with them. I'm right there motivatingthem. Even when they're having a bad
game. I still push him.And so because I want to be the
example that they don't have at home. Yeah, and many times these young
people don't have anybody really coming outto watch him do anything. I've been
shocked, Uh you know, Iwas in even a suburban area school in
(32:16):
Denver, and I was shocked thatparents just didn't even come out and watch
their kids play. Yeah, unbelievable. I think there are times that our
kids had had wished that we would. So I don't think like when I
got on the court you know,to wipe the floor off, you know.
Yeah, Eli, wait, we'replaying in the state semi final championship,
(32:37):
and and and pastor grabs the mobto get out and start yelling at
his kids. I was whispering,whispering. I couldn't hear it. I
could hear it. I'm like,what are you doing? And his son
said to the rough, hey,get this guy off the court man.
Yeah, yeah, he was.He was a good fan. I could
(32:57):
tell you that we're going to getto a break our special guest, and
he's a good one. Eli Atkins. He is in Kansas City right now.
And again want to thank John fromTeam Jam for the introduction. We'll
get you a break. The otherside of the break will continue our conversation
with Eli. This is Faith inthe Zone. I'm the Big nine twenty
in your iHeart Radio app just aboutSun Say welcome back to Faith in the
(33:31):
Zone, a show about sports andfaith and when the two come together.
Faith in the Zone has brought toyou by Donovan and Jorgensen, Heating and
Coolan. Let's continue with Michael Gibbonsand Pastor Ken Keltner only on the Big
nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app,welcome back to Faith in the Zone.
(33:51):
I'm the Big nine twenty in youriHeart Radio apps. He's Pastor Ken Keltner
from the Brooks Side Baptist Church.I'm just the other guy. Oh,
all the time pastors out of Faithin his zone. Yeah, we know,
Mike mcgiven, who's the other guycoming from the town of in the
Jorganson Heated and Cooling studios. Eliatkins Man, what a great guest pastor.
(34:14):
When he talked about turning his lifeover at ten but not completely understanding,
but by sixteen, he's got tearsflowing down. I saw you shaking
your head, and and the factthat the Lord has made it so easy
and people want to complicate this thing, that it's made it so easy that
a ten year old or like you, a six year old can understand this
(34:36):
and then they start to grow.I think it's one of the better lines
that you set on Faith in theZone that kids at that age they're not
one hundred percent sure, but theyunderstand what the basic premise of this is.
Oh absolutely, I mean God madethe Gospel easy enough for a child
to understand it. I remember probablyMike being seven or eight, you know,
(34:57):
I grew up in Oklahoma there inTulsa, and and I remember my
dad came out one day and Iwas digging. I was digging up the
backyard. And you know, mydad was Eli. He was military,
came to Christ in the military,and then he served. Uh he served
as a pastor for about fifty years. And uh, he came out in
the back he was pastor at thattime. He goes, said, what
(35:20):
are you doing. You're digging upthe backyard. I got daddy, Daddy,
I'm digging to hell. And hegoes, no, that's not how
we're going to reach him, son, That's not how we're going to reach
him. And Uh, I rememberI really I was. I was involved
in everything in the church. Uh, you know, janitorial cleaning. I
mean, I think my dad firedme three times in that process. But
(35:43):
he always took me back because hesaid, I can't have anybody from the
church because it's hard to fire them. But you you don't do the job,
I can fire you. But butI you know, I really had
a burden for ministry. But man, after I got a Bible college,
Eli, I just really struggled andI fought the Lord. I didn't I
said I'm willing to do anything butbe a youth pastor. And that was
(36:04):
because I'd had an issue with ayouth pastor and I thought, man,
I never want to do this,and that's exactly what God wanted me to
do. And uh. And itwasn't until I really submitted and said God,
okay, I'm not going to fightyou anymore. You have all of
me. And then I went intoyouth ministry and I did that for about
twenty years and still doing a littlebit of it. He's we don't have
(36:25):
a youth hey, Eli, wedon't have a youth pastor right now at
Brookshide. And Pastor's been Uh,Pastor's been kind enough to jump in and
play football and oh yeah yeah.In fact, we had we had a
Turkey Bowl my first year here acouple of years ago, doing it cat
and my wife said, you surelyare not going out there to play football.
(36:46):
Go absolutely, I am. ButI got to tell you, the
older I get, it's not thebetter I it was the better I was
because the older I get, man, I feel so uncoordinated. I caught
a pass and I thought I couldturn around and run. I tripped over
my feet, felt on my two. So no, it didn't go well.
Eli, you're playing half court nowadays? Or are you still running full
(37:07):
in basketball? Oh? I'm runningto the free throw line and that's it.
Well, I only get to thethree point lives, so you're getting
farther than me. I'm not boxinganybody else, None of that for sure.
Hey, Eli, when when youget a chance to go see your
daughter? And we had talked alittle about about Zaiah Atkins. She's a
(37:30):
freshman at University of South Carolina andif the first team All SEC and the
indoor NCAA indoor champion in the fourby four hundred, when when when she
got to South Carolina, did youhave a feeling like she was going to
be able to compete at that levelas a freshman. I knew she was
(37:52):
gonna be able to compete, butI also knew she was gonna be in
the middle of a pack. Nowin my mind that I wanted her to
do. I wanted her to goand be number one like she was in
Missouri, because you know, theyare as the fastest that's in history that
ever came out of Missouri. She'snever lost the race in Missouri, and
so I knew that she was gonnabe good, but I also knew in
(38:15):
reality it was gonna take some workfor her to get back to the top.
Hey. Hey, school wise,academically, she's doing pretty well,
right. Yeah, she started civilcivil engineering and I think she finished with
a three point oh at three pointtwo or something like that. And so
it was a struggle though, becauseyou know, engineering has a lot of
(38:37):
math class and so uh, shestruggled mentally with the sports workload balance.
And so I'm just so g gladthat I instilled Christ in her because that
balanced her all out. Hey,kit, one more question with her.
(38:57):
Have you had the conversations? Obviously, there's a long way from home,
and sometimes when pastors kids get oncampus, you know, they start there's
a lot of temptation there to getinvolved with with some stuff that they probably
shouldn't be getting involved in. Wereyou able to have that conversation with her?
You know what, I didn't haveto have the conversation with her,
because Theiah is the type of personis when I say she's she's christ driven.
(39:23):
She don't hang around a lot ofpeople. She make wonderful decisions,
and I mean we have never hadthat problem with aiah because she's just kind
of an introvert. You know,if she feels like it's not of God
or is not what God wants herto do, she's definitely not going to
do it. And so I thankGod that she's like that. But you
(39:45):
haven't have to have that conversation.Eli. Has she been able to get
involved in, you know, insome Christian organizations in the local church there
in Columbia. Yeah, she goesfort Citing Passenger Travis Church. She's a
part of the SCA when she canmake it there because you know, I
was a part of SCA here inKansas City because the headquarters here, I
(40:06):
was the urban director. And soyeah, so she's very involved. Well,
we'd love to invite her to bea guest on on the Faith and
Zone. We love having you know, kids at that age that are that
are strong enough and willing enough tocome on a radio show on a secular
sports station here in Milwaukee and andshare their testimony and and stand up and
(40:29):
say, look, I'm I'm I'mnot you know, I'm not nervous about
giving you who I am and whatI believe. And if you know,
once once I send you this show, if you would share it with her
and and let her know that anyinterest, we would love to to invite
her on as a guest pastor.We're going to get to a guys will
get to a break and the otherside of the break is always our last
(40:52):
segment. We will ask our guesthe's Eli Atkins. He is uh running
top tier track club in Kansas City. Is a pastor? He's about to
plant another church in Kansas City.We'll ask them all the uniforms he's ever
put on. You think he's pickingtrack or do you think he's picking basketball?
By the way, I would sayhe's gonna pick basketball, I'm gonna
(41:13):
go track. Oh I knew youwould. I'm just going out, Eli
Hadkins. This is Faith in theZone on the Big nine twenty in your
iHeart Radio App. I'm just backto Faith in the Zone, brought to
(41:37):
you by Donovan and Jorgensen Heating andCoolant, b I C Automotive and book
Side Baptist Church. Here's Mike McGivernand Pastor ken Kelball only on the Big
nine twenty and your iHeart Radio App. Welcome back to Faith in the Zone
on the Big nine twenty in youriHeartRadio app. I'm Mike McGivern alongside the
(41:57):
radio veteran he used to head pastorat Brookside Baptist Church, Pastor Ken Keeltner
talking about clocks and you're just probablysaying, do you look at the clock
on Sunday morning when you're preaching?You should? Eli, he goes long,
man. He's one of those Baptistministers. Come on, Eli,
(42:19):
tell me you don't go long.Hey. He goes long man. Just
when he starts taking a breath,I think he's starting to kind of wind
down a little bit. He goes, all right, let's get into this
part, and I'm kind of lookingcome on, man, let's go.
You gotta get going here. It'skickoff from one one preacher to another.
Eli. You know what it's likethat clock is moving so fast. I
(42:42):
feel like many times I'm gonna swallowmy tongue. I'm talking so fast.
Are we talking about the same clock? Yeah? Same clock? Okay,
I'm just kidding. You do agreat job, pastor. You know there
are some people from church that sayto me, you really shouldn't mess You
mess with pastor too much on faithin his zone. I love it so
I I love I mean, Mikeis like a like a brother. He's
(43:05):
like family to me. So Ilove I love all of it. All
right. So the people from Brookshad that yell at me. You heard
that, he said, You're okay, I'm fine with I shorten up the
sermon a little bit. I'm justkidding, Hey, Eli, this last
segment, man, I love it. We started this as a throwaway question
a couple of years ago. Allthe uniforms you've ever put out of your
(43:27):
entire life. We put him ina closet. You get to pick one
uniform out. What uniform is it? Who do you play against? And
why? I am going to pickup my Coppily track uniform. Bang.
The reason why is my senior year. I got beat by this kid named
Steven Kendall. I'll never forget hisname. I've never been beaten up until
(43:52):
I got to State. He beatme, and I just would love to
race him again. What what whatevent was that he beat It was one
hundred meters. I ran the worsthundred meters in my entire high school career.
What do you think happened that morning? Eli? Honestly, I think
(44:13):
I overtrained. I overtrained at thetime. My coach, his name is
Billy. We did a lot ofstuff and I just don't feel like I
was ready and I didn't get outmy blocks. And Steven Kendall Stephen got
out his box and beat me.I think he went ten to seven.
I went eleven two. No,I haven't ran eleven since junior high school.
(44:36):
Wow. You know, I thinkone of the problems why I struggled
in softball maybe I overtrained for thechurch softball team. I doubt that.
I doubt that. I mean,I mean, my only track experience was
in college with the Intermurals, andthey came. I was sitting there in
the hallway and a guy comes togo, hey, man, we need
you, we need you in thetwo hundred. In about fifteen minutes,
(44:59):
I go, oh, oh,okay. I go out there and I'm
running the first leg of this relay. I gotta run two hundred. I'm
telling you, Eli, the firsthundred I was flying. The second hundred,
my legs were so heavy by thetime I got got the batons and
my next guy, I mean,they were setting up for hurdles when when
our last guy came in and theyblamed it on me and I took the
(45:22):
blame. Man, That's that's awesome. Did you hey, did you know
Stephen Kendall prior to that race?Much? Yes, I've got new m
because you know, my coach wassaying, no, this is the fastest
kid that's going to be coming outof this area. But doing this during
the year, he's never ran afaster time than me, you know,
(45:43):
And so I beat him once andthen once we got the state he beat
me in that. I've never seenhim again. Wow. Hey, last
question before we get going, howare things that Top tier track club?
Do you have enough kids participating?Are you still enjoying doing that? Yeah?
Top tier? We still got alot of kids. I mean,
we still have a one hundred rateof getting all the keyds scholarships, whether
(46:07):
it's D one, D two,D three school. Everybody's going to college
and everybody's still doing good. Everybody'sstill fall up with us in the summertime
when they don't break, they comeand work out at the gym, and
so we're still building those relationships becausewhen we say a lifetime of discipleship,
that's what we're being Amen. Yeah, no doubt. You know, John
(46:28):
was talking last week about wearing shirtsrunning for Jesus. I don't know if
if you got any any of thekids at Top Tier Track Club where it's
we're in T shirts running for Jesus. Keep up the good work obviously that
the Lord has put the servant leadershiphard in you and uh, keep keep
keep it up in Kansas City.Eli, it's great to have you on
(46:50):
as a guest. Yes, sir, appreciate it. You got it.
Thanks for listening, Pastor, havea great week. Yeah, thank you,
and thank you Eli. Have agreat week. Everybody. This is
Fame in the Zone on the Bignine twenty and your iHeart Radio app.
Say you've been listening to Faith inthe Zone, brought to you by Brookside
Baptist Church, thought of it inJargonson Heating and Cooling and Bic Automotive.
(47:15):
Faith in the Zone airs every Sundaymorning at eight am only on the Big
nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
Why do you have it? Showsme. He's always been a mystery on
High Life. I've been told I'malone at the end of the nine?
Will all of you other? Notquite? Will alla naviget it? Ye,
buddy, it turns out they're theones you are looking for all this
(00:29):
time. I'm just life show tellall everybody a loll about sun the same.
Welcome to Faith in the Zone,a show about sports and faith and
when the two come together and thelives that are affected. Faith in the
Zone is brought to you by bookSide Baptist Church. Let's turn it over
(00:53):
to Mike mcgiffren and Pastor Ken Keltneronly on the Big nine twenty at your
iHeartRadio app Welcome to Faith in theZone on the Big nine twenty and your
iHeart Radio absence. I'm Mike McGivernalongside Pastor Ken Keltner for books Side Baptist
Church. We're coming from the Donovanto Jordans and heat and cooling studios.
(01:14):
As you turn on your air conditioning, trust me and I know Pastor last
week you said, Hey, Imight need to call those guys. I
was just there and uh, that'sa really good, really good organization.
Three different three different offices, onein New Berland, one in West Dallas,
one of mcgonaco. And they'll takegood care of you. Did you
tell them you tell him I mightbe calling? Yeah, they said,
(01:34):
who I said, No, mycoas got faith in the zone. Mike,
you're the only one. You knowwhat I think they said. I
think they said, well, onlylisten when he's out of town. That's
what that's when the shows it's reallyOh, man, hey in the hall
today, Billy Schmid, he knewwho you were. Oh yeah, that
(01:55):
was hey, Thank you, Billy. I loved it. Yeah, that
was awesome. You asked her youwant him to be on the He's got
to end up coming to Brookside BaptistChurch for at least one service before he
could be on the softball team,right, exactly. Well, I'll talk
to Billy on that. Yeah,there you go. I'm sure he can
hit the ball off further than that. I can't. But that's not saying
much. How'd you guys? Doyou guys? This week? And so
(02:17):
we lost? He's as bad asthe week before. No, it was
not as bad as the week before. That was good, we made progress.
Good. I actually threw some strikes. I didn't walk ten guys in.
Hey, I got asked to playon the team that you play against
next week. So and I'm comingright up the middle. I'm coming right
(02:37):
up the middle. So you better, you better be ready to go.
I'm just kidding. I mean,it's four minutes into the show and I've
lied like eight times already. Ineed to stop that. Hey, I'm
excited about today's guest pastor so Johnfrom Team JAMP and I said this last
week. He's not Tom Roy,but he came through with a number of
(02:58):
guests. If we want to haveon faith in his own and immediately,
you know, Eli Atkins is onethat I reached out to right away,
and I did some research on himand did a bunch of research on his
daughter. And we'll have some timeto talk about his daughter. I think
I beat her in one hundred thetwo hundred and track, even though she's
(03:19):
she is an All American, afreshman All American from South Carolina. She
she turned down the scholarship to Wisconsin. So I got we got to talk
to our guests about what she wasthinking with that she had a better badger.
Yeah, right right here in ourbackyard. But instead now she's she's
she's with Sarah. South Carolina hada great year. Our special guest for
the entire hour, and again wewant to thank John over a team jam
(03:44):
Eli Atkins, Eli, how youbeen. I've been good? Man?
How are you good? You gottabe so proud of your daughter. Man,
what a year she's at. Yeah, I'm super, super proud,
first year freshman, like you said, all American men, I couldn't be
happier man. And we'll get toit. We'll talk more about her and
and what it's like up in theup in the stands, because I did
(04:05):
you coach her and all in highschool I've Coachedaiah said she was five,
as though we started training when shewas five. And when she's running for
South Carolina, you got to beup in the stands. You're not down
on the on the sideline, areyou now? I'm up in the stands.
But Coach Hall, the head coach, always called her, text me,
let me know what's going on.So we got a great relationship.
(04:27):
It's harder to be in the standsthan it is down on the sidelines,
isn't that? It's very hard,very hard. I agree with that.
I you know when when my sonplayed college basketball, Pass used to come
and want to sit next to meduring games. I don't get away from
me, like, don't sit byme, I you know, go away.
I just want to sit by myselfand yell at him on my own.
(04:48):
And Toyo was a lot harder.I coached him in high school and
then to sit in the stands duringcollege was awfully difficult. Hey, can
we talk a little bit about Eli? Where did you up and where'd you
go to high school and college?So? I grew up in Orville,
Ohio Smucker's Jelly we High School.There my eighth grade, my ninth grade,
(05:11):
tenth grade year played basketball, rantrack. Basketball A lot of people
don't know was my first love,and so I played basketball. Then I
found out I was super fast,So I started running track. Left Orville,
went up to Akron, Ohio,went to Booklem High School for a
year, ran track there, hadgreat accomplishments, and then pretty much got
(05:33):
recruited by Copley High School. Andmy last year I went to Copley High
School. College. God had otherplans. I had a lot of offers
on the table when I didn't winState, A lot of coaches walked away
from me and so that I wasgoing to go to Akron. You coached
PJ, but PJ had left thatyear to go be a state patrol.
(05:56):
So I missed college all together.Man, wow, man, hey,
how did how did you get hookedup with with John over at at Team
Jam? Was that when you werean Akron? Yeah? I was in
Akron, Ohio. Actually I wasat booked to high school. I think
he came out to one of ourtrack meets. Me and John talk.
We met. I went to oneof the Bible class I think it was
(06:17):
at the y MCA and Akron andit's been all great from there and John
just sponsored me all the way throughhigh school. If it wasn't from Team
Jam, I never would have ranin Buffalo, New York. I never
would have ran in Kentucky. Inever would have ran all around the US
if John and Team Jam didn't sponsorme. Man, he was on last
(06:38):
week. You're like what and he'sbeen on a couple of times. What
a good man? And you wantto talk about a guy that has that
servant leadership heart that just continues togive back to people in his community.
I was, I'm so impressed withhim. And again we had him on
a couple of years ago. WellI think he was living in Ohio then
and now living in Florida, andhe just continues this ministry. Yes,
(07:02):
man, he's a he's an awesomeguy. Like they sec championships last week
and John here be up, Hey, I will be there and lo and
behold I look up looking down atthe stands. I was like, hey,
John, and he was right there, man, and we had a
great conversation, uh, trying tokeep teen jam going. Also here in
Kansas City, Missouri, Hey,Elisha, what uh? What events were
(07:28):
you were your specialty there in highschool with track, the one and two,
the one and two hundred? Sowhat what was what was your time?
What was your best time in onehundred? My best time in one
hundred was ten twenty three? Sohow about here, you'd have to give
me twenty thirty? Ya, like, what kind of lead? Could we
(07:50):
stop halfway? Take a break?Seventy? Man? Come on, I
would if he gave me seventy,I would beat him. No, I
don't think, yes, I would. Yeah, I think I was still
catch you at seven. Maybe ifthey gave you a ninety meter, Hey,
Hey Alicia, Hey, Hey Lasha, I already loved this interview.
(08:11):
Man, that's util No. Hey, remember you're you're my guest. You're
supposed to be nice to me.I can tell you. I know this.
I know if I got seventy fromfrom his daughter, I wouldn't beat
her. I'm looking at at someof the things she'd twenty twenty four NCAA
Indoor Champion, the four by fourhundred, twenty twenty four Indoor First Team
(08:35):
All American, twenty twenty four IndoorFirst Team All SEC, and SEC is
no joke when it comes to trackand field, Right does she does she
run the one hundred also? Oris it just the relay? No?
She runs the one two four?Well what's her best time in the one
hundred? Best time in one hundredis eleven twenty six. Okay, so
(08:58):
she's a little behind you. Yeah, I would assume you've told her that
a couple of times. No,she can actually beat me. Now,
you know if I'm forty one,so I don't have the legs and stamina
that I used to have. Canyou hit? You still hit a jump
shot? Oh? Yeah, Idon't miss. There we go my kind
of guy, right, there.Well, if we don't play with Pastor
(09:22):
because he'll look you off, I'llpass you the ball. I'll give you
that. I'll give the ball ifyou can't miss your my kind of teammate.
Okay, talk a little bit aboutmoving around to some different high schools
and when you were in high school. Was that difficult for you or was
that something that that worked out reallywell? It was very difficult for me
because you know, it's hard tomake friends. You know, I make
(09:45):
friends here in Orville. Now Igot to leave and go to Akron,
make friends at Atron Booth through.Now I gotta lead there and go to
Copley. You know Booth there wasn'tinter city school. Copley was a suburb
school and Orville was a suburb school. So I was back and forth and
very difficult because I'm a PK preacher'skid, so I'm used to moving.
But at the same time, youknow those long friend relationships that you can
(10:09):
say, oh, I went toschool with them since I was in elementary,
I didn't have that. Hey,it's was it difficult being a PK.
You know, I coached all thepastors kids in basketball, and you
know there are times that you know, it was difficult for them to be
a preacher's kid. They wanted tofool the ride a little bit. It
was like, hey, you can't, don't do that, Pastor Ken's gonna
(10:31):
get a Saturday'd laugh. And wasthat a difficult thing for you? Oh,
it was kind of difficult, yes, because the expectations of a preacher
kids is they're they're basically almost perfect, and that just wasn't the case for
me and my sisters and brothers.I mean, we're human just like anybody
else. We're gonna make the samemistakes just by anybody else, you know.
(10:54):
And so yes, it was verydifficult because people would say, well,
Eli, why are you doing that? Ain't you ain't your dad preacher?
And yeah, he's a preacher,but I'm still a normal kid.
At the same time, Hey,Eli, what I've heard is that preacher's
kids either end up in the ministryor they end up in prison. I
agree, I mean that that thatis a true fact. But if you
(11:18):
if you compare that to just anybodyelse that's not a PK, you know,
you almost have the same outcome.You know, it may be just
a different way of life. Theymay not be in the ministry, but
they may be helping kids. Yeah, they may be tied to a ministry,
you know. And then you gotthe other ones who just in the
world and you know, tough timesgot them and now they're in prison.
(11:41):
And so I think either way,you know, balance itself out out.
We're talking Atkins and Eli U highschool athlete. His daughter is a big
time athlete. We'll talk about her, I think segment three. He's also
running a Tier track club is thename of it? Who started to your
(12:01):
track club? So top Tier wasstarted by moona lee out of Kansas City.
She started she's a little living yetshe was l s U most decorated
athlete ever and so she started fora lot of any kids really, but
we got a lot of inner citykids. And so now that we're running
because she's coaching out in Texas ata small school and so she can't do
(12:24):
both. So we're over it andactually building it right now, Eli,
How difficult was it for zid toto pick I know she had committed I
think to Kentucky, but then TimHall went to South Carolina and she followed
him. Was that a difficult processfor her and your family? With with
(12:45):
boy? She had she had hada lot of offers on the table.
Difficult to make that decision for her. H No, it wasn't difficult because
our prayer was God. You youknow, it's like a chalkboard when the
teachers marked all the wrong answer andthat's what we praised God, if it's
not in your will, please markit off. And you know, we
couldn't make the decision because I meanevery sec school I basically reached out to
(13:09):
him. So when we narrowed itdown to five, I think we had
Georgia, we had Florida, Texas, Texas, A and M and Kentucky.
And so the story how God didit was amazing, and so we
narrowed it down signed with Kentucky,and God was like, you know what,
It's like God was playing chess.He waited for a while, He
(13:33):
made a strategic move and said,okay, Tim Hall left. Tim called
me two days or a week maybebefore he was your ad a transition and
say, hey, I think I'mto be leaving and I just wanted to
let you know. And he leftme at that, you know, And
so I called him once he madethe transition and talked to Theiahziah started crying
(13:56):
because he had already planned to goto Kentucky. She said, off her
stuff for a dorn. A lotof people from Missouri was going to Kentucky.
And so what happened was we prayedabout it. She cried for a
few days, and then she said, Dad, I want to follow Tim
Hall. And so we ended upat South Carolina. Man, that's great.
(14:16):
You know. I love the factthat the loyalty obviously that he showed
to you to call you a coupleof days in advance, and the loyalty
that she had for him. Doesshe love the campus and love the school.
She loves the campus. She lovesthe school. She just don't love
being as far away from me andher mother. Yeah, are you living
(14:39):
in Kansas You're living in Kansas Citynowadays? Yes, sir, I'm can
City Chiefs all day. Hold on, what about those Royals? Them royals
are playing good this year. Yeah, they beat the Bruers a couple of
times. You're right, I gotnothing for you. I can't rip on
the Chiefs for sure. The Royalsjust beat my brows, so I can't
(15:00):
rip on that as well. Hey, guys, we're going to get to
a break on other side of thebreak, we'll continue with our special guests.
He's Eli Atkins. He is runningtop tier track club and a big
time athlete in high school. Andhis daughter right now is a big time
athlete at South Carolina and we'll talkmore about her as the show goes on.
(15:22):
And we want to thank John fromTeam Jam. You heard Eli talk
about Team Jam and what the impactthat John and that group had on his
life growing up, and I thankhim for the introduction. This is Faith
in the Zone on the Big ninetwenty in your iHeart Radio Appay more now
(15:43):
with Faith in the Zone, discoverhow sports and faith come together. Faith
in the Zone is brought to youby BIC Automotive. Let's turn it back
over to Mike mcgibber and Pastor KenKeldner. Only I'm a Big nine twenty
and you're right Heart Radio. Welcomeback to Faith in the Zone on the
(16:04):
Big nine twenty and your Ihearting Radioapp. Mike Begivern alongside Pastor Ken Keltner.
He's the head pastor at Brookside BaptistChurch. Coming from the Donovan and
Jorgansen Heating and Cooling Studios. Hey, the the Men's Choir sounded pretty good
on Sunday. Yeah, that's whatThat's what my wife told me. Somebody
(16:26):
said, your wife was kind ofsmirking at you while you're up there singing.
No. I wasn't up there singingno, no me she was.
They said that she was smirking atmate. Well, you know what's really
funny is uh is Brian Lepinski's wife. And I forgot her name, Andrea.
Andrea the choir was practicing before churchand she said, you know where
Pastor Ken is And I said,he's the tone deaf one, the one
(16:49):
who's off tea up in the front. Well, she laughed for about five
minutes, and I said, youmight not want to tell him that I
said that, but if you wantto say that, that would be awesome.
Uh. Yeah, you guys soundedgood. Yeah, that's what Kathy
said. You were mouthing the words, which is I think perfect. It's
called lip synk you did a goodjob of lipsync. Our special guest today
(17:12):
he is Eli Atkins. He's apastor's kid. He is living in Kansas
City, Ohio. No Kansas City, Missouri, Ohio. Kansas City,
Missouri, and he is helped runtop tier track club there and again we
want to thank John from Team jamEli. The second segment, we always
ask our guests to share their testimonyand if you would be so kind,
(17:37):
alrighty, so let's take it allthe way back. I think I was
ten years ag old. I waslistening to my dad preaching. I just
felt I didn't know it was theHoly Spirit at the time, but I
felt something moving on the inside ofme. And I ended up going up
and saying that I wanted to besaved. And so it went through the
routine of having me say what Ineeded to say in order to be saved,
(18:00):
except Jesus Christ as my personal Satanist. So then the Holy Spirit really
began to move inside of me asI grew older. And when I was
sixteen, I was sitting there.I remember my Daddy had organized and it
was called a New Life's Church.And I was sitting there and just client
tears running down my eyes and Iwas like, Gods, like, I'm
(18:22):
calling you to preach, and Iwas like, absolutely not. This is
nothing that I want to do.I've seen my dad struggle in churches.
I've seen how they treated my father. I said, I do not want
to do this, and before Iknow it, without knowing, I was
sitting up there answer my calling tothe ministry. And so after I answered
my calling to the ministry, Ibegan preaching and began develop my gifts and
(18:48):
preaching. And now down forty oneI've been preaching so long. I actually
have a ministry here in Kansas City. It's called the Real Church, and
it's called reaching equip thing to affectingknives. And so we reached the unchurched.
We want to stick with them,we disciple them, and I have
here in Kansas City. I haveother opportunities to go other places, but
(19:11):
God has kept me here because it'sso much to do, uh here in
Kansas City. As far as ministrypass, did you I'm sorry that to
cut you off. Did you hearwhen he said we're we're, we're we
are helping and going and finding theunchurch? Very similar to what John said
(19:32):
last week with Team jam and wehad that conversation about I. I.
You know, there's some Christian schoolsthat that only look for Christian basketball players,
and you know, guys that thathave already fully accepted and they can
quote scripture and and then there areother schools and we had we had Ed
Gomes from Liberty on who was withtheir football program, and he said,
(19:55):
no, no, no, we'lltake those boys. We definitely will take
those football players that have been churchedup since they were ten. But the
guys that haven't, we're still becausewe're trying to make a difference in their
life. And I love, Ireally love what Eli just said about real
church. We're looking for the unchurched. We're looking for those people so that
(20:15):
we can share the good news.Yeah, and Eli, that's what all
believers should be doing. I meanthat was you know, our our Lord
and Savior's last commandment to us.And really it should be our first concern
that we're to go out and bewitnesses uh in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria
that are most parts of the earth. And unfortunately a lot of Christians Uh,
(20:40):
I think want to be undercover,don't want people to know that they're
an actual believer. And man,the way this world's going, we know
what's going to happen, and weneed to warn people that there's a point
in time in their life that they'regoing to stand before God and be held
accountable. And we want to givethat message of hope to folks that they
can live with God one day onlythrough their through his son Jesus, who
(21:03):
paid the ultimate sacrifice for us.That's right, that's right, And I
think and I believe that. Youknow, when when people say church,
a lot of people look at thebuilding, and that's just not the case.
We are the church, and soas the church, we have to
get uh, we have to moveabove these four walls. We have to
move out of these four walls andtake the church to the unchurched. Because
(21:25):
if we don't take the church tothe unchurched, the world is just going
to grab them and and and thatwe're going to lose them. And so
that's why it's so important for evangelism, for sports ministry, for everybody to
work together to save the unchurched,because if we're not reaching the unchurched,
and then not only that, takingthe step further disciple them, what what
(21:45):
are we really doing as a church. We're just sitting in the church getting
fat on His word and not feedingnobody else. Yeah, exactly, I
like what you said. You knowa lot of missions trips we've gone on,
we have put the ball out thereand had sports type camps and things
like that to to really be ableto use as a platform to reach people
(22:08):
with the gospel. And and Isee that highly, you know, successful
because you put a ball out there, kids want to kids want to come
and they want to play and youand you have an opportunity and obviously Team
Jam and what you're doing right nowwith with track and so forth, your
God's using you to give you thatplatform. You know, Mike, We've
(22:32):
had Tony Dungeon and he talked about, Hey, football was my platform,
you know, with with being ableto get the gospel message out. And
so Eli, this is a notonly are you a pastor, God's given
you a platform in athletics to reallyconnect with young people and see them understand
there's a difference in your life versusothers that they've seen. And it all
(22:55):
comes back to Jesus absolutely absolutely,Hey, Eli, would when you were
sixteen and having tears come down yourcheek and you saying no, no,
that's not what I want to do. I think it's funny because you know,
sometimes as men and I did thisfor you know, most of my
life, Eli, I hold lota second, No, no, Lord,
(23:17):
I know what's best for me.I know what's best. Let me
do this my way, and thenit doesn't work that I'm like, okay,
I need your help now. AndI think that that's funny at sixteen,
that the Holy Spirit was moving insideof you to say, hey,
look, this is what I wantyou to do. And was that a
difficult place for a sixteen year oldkid who was big time athlete at that
(23:41):
point to say, Lord, I'vegot some things I need to accomplish sure
that I want to accomplish in mylife before I get to that. Yes,
it was a huge challenge because youknow, at sixteen, you're like,
well, I ain't know my otherfriends, I'm not you know,
in the ministry, they're not preaching. They're not having to go to church
(24:02):
every Sunday and go to Sunday schooland be there and do this, or
have to study and prepare for amessage. You know, I just wanted
to be a kid, but Godsaid, you know what, you can
be a kid, but I stillhave other stuff for you to do.
And so I don't think I'll bewhere I am right now if I didn't
walk in that calling when I wassixteen. Is your father still with us?
(24:26):
Yes, Yes, he's still withus. He's in Little Rock,
Arkansas. He planted a church outin Arkansas, a House of Transformation,
and so we talked every good day, probably three times a day. How
many how many years has he beenin ministry? Eli? All my life
plus some So I'm forty one,so over forty one years. Man,
good for him. He's got tobe so proud of you right now.
(24:49):
Yes, sir, he's very proud. Man. I mean, there's so
many different roles that I could havebeen down, and I did try to
go down, but you know,he never gave up on me. He
always say I kept looking towards theheels from which comes my help, because
all my help came from God.And so he just kept me in prayer
and kept me in prayer because alot of people don't know. But when
(25:11):
I was sixteen, I had ababy, my oldest daughter, Zaria,
and so by my wife, whichwe're married now. We've been mad at
for twenty one years, and alot of people looked at me funny,
It's like, oh, he's supposedto be a preacher. Well he don't
had a baby. And you know, they just started talking and really got
me wondering, like, Okay,God did you really call me or or
was it just me? Because peoplewas questioning me, it made me question
(25:34):
myself, Wow, well you passedyou. You know, it's it's look
and it's hard. And we've hadsome conversations to be a pastor. And
even when they when when your sonswere little, right, if something would
happen and they were younger and somebodywould be misbehaving that church, you know,
(25:56):
it's well who did that? Well, you know Kurt did it.
His youngest is Kurt. He wasalways in trouble. But you know,
you know I caught him running inchurch one Sunday and I called him over
and I go Kurt, and heknew, he knew. He comes walking
over and goes, hey, Dad, I just want you to know I
was running after that boy to tellhim you don't run in church. That
(26:18):
that's that sounds normal. That soundsKurt. That sounds just like Kurt.
To me, Eli that that hadto be a difficult time obviously with with
your father. But man, he'suh, he's got to be so so
proud. Like I said, hashe heard you? He's heard you preach?
I'm sure correct, Yes, he'sheard me preach multiple times. Because
I preached, you know, Ipreached throughout the city a lot. I
(26:41):
preached at his church when he planteda church also here in Kansas City called
the Tree of My Church. Uh, and I preach all over the city.
So yeah, he hears me quitea bit. Hey is your wife
saying Mickey? Yeah, her nameis Mickey Aiken Man. So, uh,
you guys met early. Huh?Were you high school sweethearts? We
(27:02):
was? We met in Sunday schoolat my dad's church in Orville, Ohio.
We met at Sunday school class andwe just, you know that stare
we fall in love, and Iwas like, yeah, this is gonna
be my wife one day. Andlo and behold my wife. We got
two wonderful kids, and we werewe still on our honeymoon after twenty one
years. Yeah. I like hearingthat, how long you've been married?
(27:26):
But we're getting ready to go onforty one. I'd say, I'm still
on my honeymoon. We're on fortyas well. Yeah, all right,
let's move on. Hold on,she's still on her honeymoon. How's that?
My god? Hey, I wentto high school with my wife Eli
(27:47):
and and she was like real popularcaptain of cheerleading, called and asked me
out the day after graduating from highschool. And we've been holding hands ever
since. So's what it's about.Well, and it's not been the road
for her, you know, ithasn't. And I thank God that that
she Uh, she saw something tome that I didn't see a long time
ago. And and God met mewhere I was at and said, enough
(28:11):
of that nonsense for you. Gottawe gotta move now, got to go
to work on this stuff. SoI thank her for I thank her for
that with you said you have twokids? Correct? Yes? And was
Zaria? Was she an athlete aswell? Zaria was a volleyball player.
She could have went to college,uh for volleyball, but she decided to
(28:34):
go for journalism, and so shewent for journalism. And she's she's more
of my model actor person. Soshe's very good at speaking. She was
in debating high school. Uh,she's very good at articulating her words.
She's such a smart, beautiful younglady. So she's modeling. She's about
(28:56):
to start acting in this play comeI think next month. And so she's
really busy. Hey, pastors,so yeah, I can tell you that
you don't you knew that his kidswould be athletes because he was an athlete
and his wife competed in volleyball,track and field, and she was a
cheerleader at all in Ohio, atOhio and uh Man. I. You
(29:19):
know, one daughter is a volleyballplayer, the other one's track and field.
Hey were were they multi sport athletesin high school? Zaya was just
played volleyball. She was really goodat volleyball. She's a liberal, Zia.
She was a multi sport. Sheplayed volleyball, which honestly a lot
of people don't know, but volleyballwas her first love. She's very good
(29:42):
at volleyball. But one year,her eighth grade year, I think she
went up for he came down andbroke her legs. Oh, and so
it broke her tibia ball and soshe had to misstrack that school year plus
the summer, and so she cameback her ninth grade year, that's when
(30:02):
COVID hit. So she had tosit out again, and so she started
to getting That's when the mental partsprobably playing with her mind, and it
was a big issue. But wedid, with God help we bounce back.
Hey, Eli, last question andwe'll get to a break word.
You had talked about real church inKansas City, the church that that you're
at and helping run. Can youtalk to me a little bit about the
(30:26):
outreach and how much does I've notbeen to Kansas City? Is there a
lot of areas in Kansas City thatthat needs your help? Yes, it's
the inner city is really bad.I mean, if you look at the
Inner City school district, you probablyhave a thirty to forty homeless rate amongst
students. And so you know theyneed help, they need mentorship, they
(30:49):
can't afford to pay their fees.They you know, the spiritual peace,
we definitely can give it to them, but we also want to make sure
we feed them and clothe them andlove them first. Because I use this
like an example. John three sixteensays, for God, so love then
he gazed, and we try togive and then loved. But we have
to love them first and then give, and so I used that as my
(31:14):
motto, and that that's exactly whatwe do. Pastor, if you remember
John from Team Jam when he talkedabout when he left as the youth pastor
of this church, and he hada kid call and said, you come
into our game. And he saidno, you didn't understand. I'm not
the youth pastor there anymore. Andthey go, yeah, yeah, it
doesn't. Are you coming to ourgame? And that's kind of what Eli's
(31:34):
talking about here, right, It'sit's we got to love these kids.
I would assume me live. Ifyou get the chance to go see you
know, some of the kids thatthat you're talking to, if they're playing
basketball, running track, if youget a chance to go see them compete,
you're sitting in the front row,Yes, sir, I actually because
everybody knows me. I'm on thefield. You know, I'm right there
(31:56):
with them. I'm right there motivatingthem. Even when they're having a bad
game. I still push him.And so because I want to be the
example that they don't have at home. Yeah, and many times these young
people don't have anybody really coming outto watch him do anything. I've been
shocked, Uh you know, Iwas in even a suburban area school in
(32:16):
Denver, and I was shocked thatparents just didn't even come out and watch
their kids play. Yeah, unbelievable. I think there are times that our
kids had had wished that we would. So I don't think like when I
got on the court you know,to wipe the floor off, you know.
Yeah, Eli, wait, we'replaying in the state semi final championship,
(32:37):
and and and pastor grabs the mobto get out and start yelling at
his kids. I was whispering,whispering. I couldn't hear it. I
could hear it. I'm like,what are you doing? And his son
said to the rough, hey,get this guy off the court man.
Yeah, yeah, he was.He was a good fan. I could
(32:57):
tell you that we're going to getto a break our special guest, and
he's a good one. Eli Atkins. He is in Kansas City right now.
And again want to thank John fromTeam Jam for the introduction. We'll
get you a break. The otherside of the break will continue our conversation
with Eli. This is Faith inthe Zone. I'm the Big nine twenty
in your iHeart Radio app just aboutSun Say welcome back to Faith in the
(33:31):
Zone, a show about sports andfaith and when the two come together.
Faith in the Zone has brought toyou by Donovan and Jorgensen, Heating and
Coolan. Let's continue with Michael Gibbonsand Pastor Ken Keltner only on the Big
nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app,welcome back to Faith in the Zone.
(33:51):
I'm the Big nine twenty in youriHeart Radio apps. He's Pastor Ken Keltner
from the Brooks Side Baptist Church.I'm just the other guy. Oh,
all the time pastors out of Faithin his zone. Yeah, we know,
Mike mcgiven, who's the other guycoming from the town of in the
Jorganson Heated and Cooling studios. Eliatkins Man, what a great guest pastor.
(34:14):
When he talked about turning his lifeover at ten but not completely understanding,
but by sixteen, he's got tearsflowing down. I saw you shaking
your head, and and the factthat the Lord has made it so easy
and people want to complicate this thing, that it's made it so easy that
a ten year old or like you, a six year old can understand this
(34:36):
and then they start to grow.I think it's one of the better lines
that you set on Faith in theZone that kids at that age they're not
one hundred percent sure, but theyunderstand what the basic premise of this is.
Oh absolutely, I mean God madethe Gospel easy enough for a child
to understand it. I remember probablyMike being seven or eight, you know,
(34:57):
I grew up in Oklahoma there inTulsa, and and I remember my
dad came out one day and Iwas digging. I was digging up the
backyard. And you know, mydad was Eli. He was military,
came to Christ in the military,and then he served. Uh he served
as a pastor for about fifty years. And uh, he came out in
the back he was pastor at thattime. He goes, said, what
(35:20):
are you doing. You're digging upthe backyard. I got daddy, Daddy,
I'm digging to hell. And hegoes, no, that's not how
we're going to reach him, son, That's not how we're going to reach
him. And Uh, I rememberI really I was. I was involved
in everything in the church. Uh, you know, janitorial cleaning. I
mean, I think my dad firedme three times in that process. But
(35:43):
he always took me back because hesaid, I can't have anybody from the
church because it's hard to fire them. But you you don't do the job,
I can fire you. But butI you know, I really had
a burden for ministry. But man, after I got a Bible college,
Eli, I just really struggled andI fought the Lord. I didn't I
said I'm willing to do anything butbe a youth pastor. And that was
(36:04):
because I'd had an issue with ayouth pastor and I thought, man,
I never want to do this,and that's exactly what God wanted me to
do. And uh. And itwasn't until I really submitted and said God,
okay, I'm not going to fightyou anymore. You have all of
me. And then I went intoyouth ministry and I did that for about
twenty years and still doing a littlebit of it. He's we don't have
(36:25):
a youth hey, Eli, wedon't have a youth pastor right now at
Brookshide. And Pastor's been Uh,Pastor's been kind enough to jump in and
play football and oh yeah yeah.In fact, we had we had a
Turkey Bowl my first year here acouple of years ago, doing it cat
and my wife said, you surelyare not going out there to play football.
(36:46):
Go absolutely, I am. ButI got to tell you, the
older I get, it's not thebetter I it was the better I was
because the older I get, man, I feel so uncoordinated. I caught
a pass and I thought I couldturn around and run. I tripped over
my feet, felt on my two. So no, it didn't go well.
Eli, you're playing half court nowadays? Or are you still running full
(37:07):
in basketball? Oh? I'm runningto the free throw line and that's it.
Well, I only get to thethree point lives, so you're getting
farther than me. I'm not boxinganybody else, None of that for sure.
Hey, Eli, when when youget a chance to go see your
daughter? And we had talked alittle about about Zaiah Atkins. She's a
(37:30):
freshman at University of South Carolina andif the first team All SEC and the
indoor NCAA indoor champion in the fourby four hundred, when when when she
got to South Carolina, did youhave a feeling like she was going to
be able to compete at that levelas a freshman. I knew she was
(37:52):
gonna be able to compete, butI also knew she was gonna be in
the middle of a pack. Nowin my mind that I wanted her to
do. I wanted her to goand be number one like she was in
Missouri, because you know, theyare as the fastest that's in history that
ever came out of Missouri. She'snever lost the race in Missouri, and
so I knew that she was gonnabe good, but I also knew in
(38:15):
reality it was gonna take some workfor her to get back to the top.
Hey. Hey, school wise,academically, she's doing pretty well,
right. Yeah, she started civilcivil engineering and I think she finished with
a three point oh at three pointtwo or something like that. And so
it was a struggle though, becauseyou know, engineering has a lot of
(38:37):
math class and so uh, shestruggled mentally with the sports workload balance.
And so I'm just so g gladthat I instilled Christ in her because that
balanced her all out. Hey,kit, one more question with her.
(38:57):
Have you had the conversations? Obviously, there's a long way from home,
and sometimes when pastors kids get oncampus, you know, they start there's
a lot of temptation there to getinvolved with with some stuff that they probably
shouldn't be getting involved in. Wereyou able to have that conversation with her?
You know what, I didn't haveto have the conversation with her,
because Theiah is the type of personis when I say she's she's christ driven.
(39:23):
She don't hang around a lot ofpeople. She make wonderful decisions,
and I mean we have never hadthat problem with aiah because she's just kind
of an introvert. You know,if she feels like it's not of God
or is not what God wants herto do, she's definitely not going to
do it. And so I thankGod that she's like that. But you
(39:45):
haven't have to have that conversation.Eli. Has she been able to get
involved in, you know, insome Christian organizations in the local church there
in Columbia. Yeah, she goesfort Citing Passenger Travis Church. She's a
part of the SCA when she canmake it there because you know, I
was a part of SCA here inKansas City because the headquarters here, I
(40:06):
was the urban director. And soyeah, so she's very involved. Well,
we'd love to invite her to bea guest on on the Faith and
Zone. We love having you know, kids at that age that are that
are strong enough and willing enough tocome on a radio show on a secular
sports station here in Milwaukee and andshare their testimony and and stand up and
(40:29):
say, look, I'm I'm I'mnot you know, I'm not nervous about
giving you who I am and whatI believe. And if you know,
once once I send you this show, if you would share it with her
and and let her know that anyinterest, we would love to to invite
her on as a guest pastor.We're going to get to a guys will
get to a break and the otherside of the break is always our last
(40:52):
segment. We will ask our guesthe's Eli Atkins. He is uh running
top tier track club in Kansas City. Is a pastor? He's about to
plant another church in Kansas City.We'll ask them all the uniforms he's ever
put on. You think he's pickingtrack or do you think he's picking basketball?
By the way, I would sayhe's gonna pick basketball, I'm gonna
(41:13):
go track. Oh I knew youwould. I'm just going out, Eli
Hadkins. This is Faith in theZone on the Big nine twenty in your
iHeart Radio App. I'm just backto Faith in the Zone, brought to
(41:37):
you by Donovan and Jorgensen Heating andCoolant, b I C Automotive and book
Side Baptist Church. Here's Mike McGivernand Pastor ken Kelball only on the Big
nine twenty and your iHeart Radio App. Welcome back to Faith in the Zone
on the Big nine twenty in youriHeartRadio app. I'm Mike McGivern alongside the
(41:57):
radio veteran he used to head pastorat Brookside Baptist Church, Pastor Ken Keeltner
talking about clocks and you're just probablysaying, do you look at the clock
on Sunday morning when you're preaching?You should? Eli, he goes long,
man. He's one of those Baptistministers. Come on, Eli,
(42:19):
tell me you don't go long.Hey. He goes long man. Just
when he starts taking a breath,I think he's starting to kind of wind
down a little bit. He goes, all right, let's get into this
part, and I'm kind of lookingcome on, man, let's go.
You gotta get going here. It'skickoff from one one preacher to another.
Eli. You know what it's likethat clock is moving so fast. I
(42:42):
feel like many times I'm gonna swallowmy tongue. I'm talking so fast.
Are we talking about the same clock? Yeah? Same clock? Okay,
I'm just kidding. You do agreat job, pastor. You know there
are some people from church that sayto me, you really shouldn't mess You
mess with pastor too much on faithin his zone. I love it so
I I love I mean, Mikeis like a like a brother. He's
(43:05):
like family to me. So Ilove I love all of it. All
right. So the people from Brookshad that yell at me. You heard
that, he said, You're okay, I'm fine with I shorten up the
sermon a little bit. I'm justkidding, Hey, Eli, this last
segment, man, I love it. We started this as a throwaway question
a couple of years ago. Allthe uniforms you've ever put out of your
(43:27):
entire life. We put him ina closet. You get to pick one
uniform out. What uniform is it? Who do you play against? And
why? I am going to pickup my Coppily track uniform. Bang.
The reason why is my senior year. I got beat by this kid named
Steven Kendall. I'll never forget hisname. I've never been beaten up until
(43:52):
I got to State. He beatme, and I just would love to
race him again. What what whatevent was that he beat It was one
hundred meters. I ran the worsthundred meters in my entire high school career.
What do you think happened that morning? Eli? Honestly, I think
(44:13):
I overtrained. I overtrained at thetime. My coach, his name is
Billy. We did a lot ofstuff and I just don't feel like I
was ready and I didn't get outmy blocks. And Steven Kendall Stephen got
out his box and beat me.I think he went ten to seven.
I went eleven two. No,I haven't ran eleven since junior high school.
(44:36):
Wow. You know, I thinkone of the problems why I struggled
in softball maybe I overtrained for thechurch softball team. I doubt that.
I doubt that. I mean,I mean, my only track experience was
in college with the Intermurals, andthey came. I was sitting there in
the hallway and a guy comes togo, hey, man, we need
you, we need you in thetwo hundred. In about fifteen minutes,
(44:59):
I go, oh, oh,okay. I go out there and I'm
running the first leg of this relay. I gotta run two hundred. I'm
telling you, Eli, the firsthundred I was flying. The second hundred,
my legs were so heavy by thetime I got got the batons and
my next guy, I mean,they were setting up for hurdles when when
our last guy came in and theyblamed it on me and I took the
(45:22):
blame. Man, That's that's awesome. Did you hey, did you know
Stephen Kendall prior to that race?Much? Yes, I've got new m
because you know, my coach wassaying, no, this is the fastest
kid that's going to be coming outof this area. But doing this during
the year, he's never ran afaster time than me, you know,
(45:43):
And so I beat him once andthen once we got the state he beat
me in that. I've never seenhim again. Wow. Hey, last
question before we get going, howare things that Top tier track club?
Do you have enough kids participating?Are you still enjoying doing that? Yeah?
Top tier? We still got alot of kids. I mean,
we still have a one hundred rateof getting all the keyds scholarships, whether
(46:07):
it's D one, D two,D three school. Everybody's going to college
and everybody's still doing good. Everybody'sstill fall up with us in the summertime
when they don't break, they comeand work out at the gym, and
so we're still building those relationships becausewhen we say a lifetime of discipleship,
that's what we're being Amen. Yeah, no doubt. You know, John
(46:28):
was talking last week about wearing shirtsrunning for Jesus. I don't know if
if you got any any of thekids at Top Tier Track Club where it's
we're in T shirts running for Jesus. Keep up the good work obviously that
the Lord has put the servant leadershiphard in you and uh, keep keep
keep it up in Kansas City.Eli, it's great to have you on
(46:50):
as a guest. Yes, sir, appreciate it. You got it.
Thanks for listening, Pastor, havea great week. Yeah, thank you,
and thank you Eli. Have agreat week. Everybody. This is
Fame in the Zone on the Bignine twenty and your iHeart Radio app.
Say you've been listening to Faith inthe Zone, brought to you by Brookside
Baptist Church, thought of it inJargonson Heating and Cooling and Bic Automotive.
(47:15):
Faith in the Zone airs every Sundaymorning at eight am only on the Big
nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
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