Faith In The Zone - John Saucier - 5/12/2024

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Sunday, May 12th, 2024

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
Why do you have it? Showsme? A song has been a mystery
on my life. I've been toldI'm alone at the end of the nine?
Will only you other? Not quite? Will Lolla naviget it? Yet
it turns out you're the ones youare looking for all this time. I'm

(00:31):
just tell you all about sound thesame. Welcome to Faith in the Zone,
a show about sports and faith andwhen the two come together and the
lives that are affected. Faith inthe Zone is brought to you by book
Side Baptist Church. Let's turn itover to Mike McGivern and Pastor Ken Keltner

(00:56):
Only I'm the Big nine twenty atyour iHeartRadio app. Welcome to Faith in
the Zone. I'm the Big nineto twenty in your iHeart Radio App.
I am Mike McGivern alongside the headpastor at Brookside a Baptist Church, Pastor
Ken Keltner. We're coming from theDonovan of Jorganson Heating and Cooling Studios.
You're going to tear your air conditioneron right here it comes. Make sure

(01:19):
if there are any issues, goto Donovan Jorgensen dot com. They have
helped number of people that are friendsof mine, my family, members,
and they've been out to my housea few times. Donovan Jorgenson dot com,
Pastor, how you been, I'mdoing well. I might need to
call them myself too. They areso Pastor. Every time I go to

(01:41):
that building and I do a lotof work with those guys, somebody within
the building goes, hey, man, thanks for Faith in the zone.
Two weeks ago, you had thisguy at where They're like, they're so
happy to be a part of this. It's a great company, the largest
employee owned HVAC company in the stateof Wisconsin. So anytime you have somebody
out, they're they're they're an owner. They're an owner of the company,

(02:04):
and uh, they'll take really goodcare of you. Might not want to
use my name, might want touse somebody else's. No, I'm only
kidd you can use my name.Hey, I'm Pastor ken who Pastor kenn
from Faith in You know what?Because I tell people, but the numbers
go way up when you when Pastorken Is is out of town. So

(02:25):
I have to tell you we ourspecial guest we had on when we're at
the other radio station a while ago, and he was actually a lead that
that your son Keith had given usuh when Keith is still living an achron
and he had given us our guest, and and I reached back out to

(02:46):
John. And this was a whileago, a month and a half,
and one thing happened, another thinghappened, and we had some issues here
and and finally I think we're gonnabe okay. I'm not sure. No
whistling. I'm not whistling today likeI was last week. And I appreciate
the patience that John has had,not only the patients but pastor. If

(03:09):
I showed you the text messages thatJohn sent me last week with people and
guests that we might get on faithin the zone. It's not Tom Roy
yet, but it's close. It'sclose. Our special guest. He is
the founder and director of Team Jam. He is John Saucier. John,
how you been. I'm doing well. I've been through some a rough month

(03:32):
in the family, but we're gettingback to work for the Lord. Yeah,
praying for you and your family.I know that it's been a rough
month for sure. As we talkto John, teamjam dot org. Teamjam
dot org, if you have anyinterest in learning more about some of the
things that they're doing, how theydid it, who's involved with it,

(03:53):
and their mission is to invest inyoung lives in order to develop servant leaders.
And there's more to their mission.We'll get into that, but John,
can you kind of start with whereyou grew up and where you're living
now and how Team Jam came about. Grew up in Medina, Ohio,
lived for the Lord while I wasin high school. Got to see Christ

(04:15):
reach my friends, reached into myfriend's lives and turn their lives around.
While I was in high school,to our track team, we used to
wear shirts that set running for Jesus. There's a nice little story behind it,
and we've continued that tradition to thisday in other cities and other track
programs. And then I went toNew Jersey where I was a youth pastor
there and got involved at Pemmerton HighSchool where we had a couple outstanding athletes

(04:40):
there, in particular IRV Smith andEd Smith, who made it to the
NFL and Minor League baseball, didboth, and then came back to Ohio
and was a youth pastor for acouple of years before I started Team Jam
in nineteen ninety. You were alsoa juvenile officer, correct, Yeah,
simultaneously. When I left being ayouth pastor in nineteen ninety, I thought

(05:00):
it'd be a June officer for year. Tube My prayer was, Lord,
just give me a chance to talkto kids without having to deal with all
the extra stuff. And boy,if you're do an officer, kids will
be brought right to you and lockedin a room with you and escape.
Hey, pastor, you know you'rethe you're the youth pastor right now,

(05:21):
brooks side. Maybe you should learnsomething. Just get him in the room,
lock them in and say here wego. Well I did it and
reverse. If you're a juvenile officer, first you learn a lot that you
don't get in Bible. Collegy.Yeah, I I've been the Only thing
I did was I kidnapped all thekids one morning for an activity. We
set it up with their parents.Kidnapped them like at three am and before

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I got home that day. Sothat was the biggest activity we ever had.
Before I got home that day,my house was totally papered. They
were not happy. Let's put itthat way. Who did it? The
parents are the kids I had youthworkers. Parents were all in on it.
My parents probably loved it, butthe kids. Now, they did
not like it. No, Ibet not hey Johnny on Faith in the

(06:06):
Zone and it's pretty similar to whenwe had John a while ago. The
second segment, we'll ask you toshare your testimony. Prior to that,
what we wanted to do is tolearn more about Team Jam and kind of
how it started in some of thethings that you guys are trying to accomplish.
Well. When I was a youthpastor in Cleveland in the late nineteen

(06:27):
eighties, we decided to take advantageof Word of Life's basketball tournaments. I
don't know if you remember. Theyhad a Worldlife Basketball Marathon all over the
country, and so there were somerules of how many kids you could have
that actually played basketball for the schoolteam. And when I was announcing it
to my youth group, there wasa young man who had some learning difficulties
and actually was ostracized by society alittle bit. But he was a foster

(06:49):
kid named Desmond who took the challengeand he invited his brother who was living
in a separate home, and hisbrother invited a bunch of kids from their
notable basketball players from Cleveland public schoolsand it was off. We were already
involved with a number of top basketballplayers in Cleveland. Just from that first

(07:13):
basketball tournament. I continue to followup on them in local schools. My
time at that church in Cleveland endedin nineteen ninety, but I was still
connected to a little over twenty highschools, just because it was impossible to
go to everybody's home, but Icould go to a school and see the
kids at lunchtime and there after schoolactivities before schools, Bible studies, stuff

(07:34):
like that. And there was oneparticular school, sol In High School in
Ohio. They had a bunch ofreally good baseball players. And one day
after I was no longer a youthpastor or, a bunch of kids called
me up and said, are youcoming to the baseball game? And I
said, no, I don't thinkyou know you heard. I'm not the
youth pastor at that church anymore.And they go, oh, that's too

(07:56):
bad. So you come to thebaseball game. And that's when I realized
I had a decision to make it. Am I really about the Lord or
just about a career? And soI went to the baseball game. Continue
to keep in touch with them,and they continue to introduce me to more
people and then I started doing youknow, Word of Life basketball tournaments,
just as as a guy, adude in the community that knew a bunch

(08:20):
of people. And then with thelocal Baptist church organizations that did the same
thing, the GARBC, and thenI had to make a decision, is
this really a viable ministry? DoI need to get support? And so
I started shopping it around the FCA, Word of Life, Athletes in Action,
Campus Crusade, Young Life, andeverybody had the same model. Raised

(08:41):
a certain amount of money, youknow, it could spread up the tree,
and there was limitations. I hadto do certain things, certain fundraisers,
and I that's not what I'm tryingto do. I just try to
have accountability. So I contacted alocal church that I knew and said,
would you be my mission board.You don't have to give me any money,
just hold me auntable and if Ido receive any money, then you

(09:01):
would process it as a nonprofit.And that's all the more we did,
and we just kept reaching kids whonever went to church. We're trying to
find unchurched young men, you know, I uh yeah, you're shaking your
head past here, because that whathe's talking about is so needed. And

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when he said, look, we'relooking for unchurched kids. There are a
lot of groups that you know,people that I know that we've talked with,
that they have a specific look.We we want kids that are already
Christians to join our team. Well, you know that's great. I'm okay
with that. But for the guysthat are saying, look, we're going

(09:45):
to do the extra step, We'regoing to do the extra work, and
for kids who have never picked upthe Bible or have never been to church
and never heard the good word,let's get those kids and then show them
the way of Look, we're gonnalie you to play basketball, but we
also want you to be part ofthis part of our lives. And I
think that there's something different about thatto me. Yeah, John, I

(10:09):
tell you that's I mean, that'swhat I was doing in Colorado. My
boys have done that that. Youknow, Keith was on the campus of
Akron and you know my son upin New Jersey was active in the you
know, public school with basketball,and it's all it's all to make contacts,
to be able to to encourage themand to share with them the greatest

(10:33):
message of all, and that's Christcan be your savior. I loved it
when you said, you know,they called you, when did you come
to the baseball game? You go, well, I'm not at the churchy
when they go, well, honestlybad, but hey, can you come
to the baseball game? Because that'sexactly kids they I'm telling you want to
make a huge deposit in their life, you go their ball games. I

(10:54):
mean, they want you to comeand watch and play. Bottom line,
that's what they want. Do youremember, go ahead, go ahead,
John. If they believe you're interestedin them, then of course they're going
to tell you every time they're doingsomething good. Exactly. Hey, do
you remember the story about a youngguy that I coached, Darius, who
was at our church. You rememberhim played in youth football and you showed

(11:18):
up and he like stopped what hewas doing that like they were playing,
and he ran over to you andhe was like hey, and the coach
is yelling at me. He goes, no, that's my pastor, and
he go play and he ran andgot an interception and he took him to
the house and he was so happythat you were there. And you know

(11:39):
coaching he's he's not married and goingto have a child. I don't know
if you know that Darius is doinggreat, He's doing really well. But
I remember that and he was justso over the top excited that you would
show up to his football game.Oh yeah, and so that that is
exactly how you did. You alreadya great minister, John by showing Hey,

(12:01):
I love you kids, I'm gonnabe there for you. I'm gonna
watch your games. During our conversation, teamjam dot org, teamjam dot org,
and our special guest is the founderand director of Team Jam. He's
John Sauce Heer. Hey, John, how did you get guys then?
Because I'm on your website and there'sa lot of guys that are that are
involved with you as you know,directors or associate director, board of directors,

(12:28):
guys that have certainly jumped in tobe involved on some leadership roles.
Was that a difficult self for youto get guys involved? Well, they
came up through the program, soit's not hard for them to want to
be involved with something they had suchan impact on their life. Boy,
Oh boy, that's huge. Whatyear did you start Team Jam? Nineteen

(12:50):
ninety one officially, but I wasdoing things in the fall of nineteen ninety
or in the spring even in nineteenninety. Just by way of the story,
I just so, John, areyou are you in some of the
colleges now? Are you strictly kindof in the high schools? I mean,
how are you working through all that? Well, this is a full

(13:11):
time mission or ministry, but Idon't get nobody gets compensation from it.
Everybody does that as a volunteer.Our budget is all for you know,
the expenses that it takes to eitherget places or take care of somebody or
help somebody, or rescue or teach, you know, the technology that needed
to do you know, talk topeople on the phone or zooms or whatever.

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So everybody has had the model ofwe just do it. It's we
have a circle of influence and wejust take advantage of the time we already
have with people to do it.Not a lot of these guys, A
lot of these guys are notable,so they get asked to speak as well,
So that adds to it. Butthen there's guys like Tony Stockman who
become a coach of a basketball teamat a Christian college, Columbia International,

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so he gets to do it allthe time while still being involved with our
ministry, networking, visiting that typeof thing, and the other guys are
pretty much northeast Ohio. How manyschools or are you are? Are you
able to get into the colleges too? Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't finish
your the answer to your question.I've been involved with as many colleges as

(14:18):
I want to be. I justcan't be at all the ones that you
can be at for you know,for a while, we're doing some things
at Auburn even though as long waysaway or Winthrop University. I was involved
with Akron for a little while asa football chaplain and for a long time
maybe fifteen years that's or longer forthe as a basketball chaplain. Then I

(14:39):
helped out with different Kent State theirfootball chapels for a while. And then
you know, we guests speak atdifferent places because guys on the team will
tell their chaplain, Hey, youknow my guys are in the area,
can they speak or share? Andthen we've done small group Bible studies in
different schools. But it's just youknow, obviously geography limits you are you

(15:01):
are you still based in Ohio?Then now I'm living in Florida now and
now I'm getting involved in northeastern Florida. There's over fifty guys that either led
to Christ or developed strong relationship withthat live in Florida, as well as
the guys that I still visit everytwo months in northeast Ohio, and we're
trying to maintain a network now insteadof me trying to find the next high

(15:22):
school kid, even though I'm stillinvolved with a handful of them, We're
trying to reconnect with all the hopes. There are some Team Jam guys that
hear this program and we're trying toreconnect with each guy, find out what
they're doing, have them reconnected withother guys that are like minded, have
similar experiences, and keep that circleof resources available to everyone. Ken we

(15:43):
are talking with John Sassey. He'sa founder and director of Team Jam.
If you go to teamjam dot orgfor any information or questions that you have.
Hey, John, when you gotto Florida, was it difficult to
get Team Jam and get going intothe things you wanted to do or was
it easier because the template that youhad built in Ohio was something that you

(16:07):
could show. Every place is differentand you can't just assume that what you
did in one place works at another. Everything has its own like combination.
To open the safe here, Iused a different resource. It was a
community service organization called Kowanas, whichis actually has a nice respect for God

(16:30):
and allows God to be used inthe programs that we have for the kids
after school. So we donate scholarshipsand different things for the school. So
I used their reputation and FCA's reputationto get involved with the schools here,
and that was a lot faster thanme doing it by myself in Ohio.
So now you know I have morethan I can handle already, even though

(16:55):
I just got here. Man,good for you. What and when you
say north of Florida, we're inFlora. Where are you living? I
live in Flagler County in a citycalled Palm Coast. There's two major high
schools here in Matansas and Flagler PalmPalm Coast or public schools. And it's
just north of Daytona Beach and justsouth of Saint Augustine, right on the
coast. How long have you beenin Florida four and a half years now?

(17:19):
Do you miss the Ohio winters?I absolutely miss it. I miss
it so much. Hey, rememberyou're not supposed to. You're not supposed
to you're not supposed to lie onon faith in the zone. I can
tell you that I have a brotherlives in brother in Tarban Springs, and
other brother in Sarasota. And thebrother in Sarasota, brother in Tarbin Springs

(17:41):
loves twelve months out of the yearin Florida. The other the other brothers
like they they bought a place upin Birmingham, Michigan as their summer home
because he said, I can't.I can't stand the summers in Florida.
It's just too much. And sohe'll and I said, look, if
you know, if you need meto live in the winter in in uh
in Michigan and then in the summersin Florida, you know, I'll take

(18:02):
over your houses. And he said, no, you will not, So
no chance at that. Hey,guys, let's get to a break.
Other side of the break, we'regonna ask John to share his testimony.
And I look forward to that.And at the end of the show,
the last segment, we're gonna askJohn this. And he didn't know I'm
gonna tea him up right now.But all the uniforms he's ever put on
in his entire life. If weput him in a closet and you got

(18:25):
to pick one out to get onemore game with that team, what uniform
does he pick and who does heplay against? And why? And we'll
ask John that at the end ofthe show. This is Faith in the
Zone. I'm the Big nine twentyand your iHeart Radio App. Say more
now with Faith in the Zone,discover how sports and faith come together.

(18:47):
Faith in the Zone is brought toyou by BIC Automotive. Let's turn it
back over to Mike mcgibb and PastorKen Keltner only I'm a Big nine twenty
and your right Heart Radio App.Welcome back to Faith in the Zone on
the Big nine twenty in your iHeartRadio App by Mike McGivern alongside Pastor Ken

(19:07):
Countner from Brookside Baptist Church, comingfrom the Donovan and Jordansen Heating and Cooling
Studios. Hey, things are goinggood at Brookside. I thought, yeah,
great, Yeah, you're getting you'rewhat's what's the next book in line?
Here? Wait? Where are yougoing after we're done with fans?
Yeah we've been there a bit.Oh yeah we haven't. We'll go into

(19:30):
second crinthins really yeah, we're goingto go all right. I was just
wondering, you know, summertime verse. Yeah, it's uh, there's some
This last I'll tell you what thislast Sunday you were on fire. I
thought, well done. I was, Yeah, it was really good.
It was really good. Plus Iwas, well, I missed a little
of it because I was busy withall my girlfriends there at that being the

(19:52):
valet driver. You know, Idon't park many cars, but I do
help some girls out of the car. Manky. Yeah, well, well
there's a thin line between love andhate. I can tell you that.
Our special guest, and I'm sopleased that he was able to join us
today. He's the founder and directorof Team Jam, John Sassier. If
you go to teamjam dot org teamjamdot org, you can find out all

(20:18):
about what they're about and some ofthe things they're doing. Hey, John,
the second segment is our favorite.We get a chance to ask our
guests for their testimony and if you'dbe so kind please well, as a
religious kid, we went to churchand I had my first communion and things
like that. I was about tenyears old and two doors down from us
on our street on Ridge Drive andMedina, the street with all the legends

(20:42):
there. In Medina, there's amissionary that moved in by the name of
Dave Torel, and he and hiswife Bev got busy evangelizing right away during
their one year that they were onfurlough there. And they had a boy
that was ten years old as well, also Dave, and we would play
sports or whatever together and one dayhe asked me, Hey, are you

(21:03):
saved? And I said, Idon't know. I don't know what that
is. He goes, So Isaid, what is it? He goes,
I don't know either, but Iknow you got to be saved to
go to Heaven. And that wasit. That was all I got.
I didn't know anything else. Butone night, when I was alone,
I asked Jesus to save me.And I tell I share that often with
people because we've made it very complicatedhow to surrender to Christ. But I

(21:27):
knew I didn't know anything else butwho to go to and that I needed
to be saved. And then afterthat I started learning. I went to
church with him and Bible studies.There's a a teacher named Bob Peters.
There's also a basketball coach for MedinaHigh School who had a Bible study before
school, and his sons were myage, and we all went to this

(21:48):
Bible study before school, so westarted to really have an active presence amongst
our peers, athletes and all.And that's around the time I decided I
wanted to, you know, becomea minister. What's interesting about that Dave
Toro is he was at a tryoutwith the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a
catcher in the fifties, and hewas going to sign and the next day

(22:11):
he decided to put it off fora day to go home and talk about
it, pray about with his mom. And when he came back to the
next day, he caught a foultip that split the the webbing between his
thumb and his forefinger, and sohe didn't sign that day because he was
injured. And then he went toBible College and became a missionary and all
that, and then all these yearslater I ended up becoming a chaplain in

(22:34):
minor league baseball, kind of fulfillinga better purpose than what he initially had
had. And it was fun toshare that with him many years later.
Hey, John, thank you forthat you had talked in the first segment
about a track made and there wasa kid I think he was worried run
for Jesus T shirt. And Iknow that on the website and doing some

(23:00):
some research on you and your lifethat when you saw that kid in that
track me wearing that, that wassomething that changed some direction in your life.
Yeah. We were at a meetwhere it was mostly suburb schools,
so there's only one African American kidrunning. He happened to be the best

(23:21):
distance runner in the state. Sowhen you're running indoors, it's not an
a two mile race would be eightmile eight laps outdoors, but indoors it
was like a million and five lapsThesus one in Forever. And he had
stenciled on his shirts. We didn'trun with jerseys back then in the indoor
wasn't as developed as and now.But he had stenciled on his shirt running

(23:41):
for Jesus. Now I was.I was pretty good time. I was
one of the captains. I hadhad owned or shared five school records at
the time, you know, atby time in my end of my senior
year, and then a couple otherguys were captains who were Christianas too,
and we're watching him run and we'relike, he's the only one that looks
like him. And yet he evengoes even farther and puts himself out there

(24:03):
in Nagelium saying count him with Jesus, and we're like, man, if
he can do that, we gotto do it because we at least have
peers, you know. So therewas eleven of us that ended up printing
our own shirts that year, andthat's what we wore the day of every
track meet, and since then we'vebeen printing them up, giving them out

(24:25):
like candy to anybody that's a runnerthat wants to be known as being associated
with Jesus. So you know onthe website we got some of those pictures.
There are several different states, andthat's that's awesome. Hey, With
the amount of years that you spentand Pastor, I think I'm probably going
to ask you the same question onthis. The difference between working with kids

(24:52):
now that are sixteen, seventeen,eighteen years old compared to when you started
this ninety two, John, thedifference between working with kids at that age
do you see a big difference?Is it? Is it all social media?
At this point that the differences ordo you do you see that that
kids have, they seem to growup really quick. To me, Uh,

(25:18):
when I was working in the detentioncenter, I saw the extreme acceleration
of crime. A kid that wasin there for rape early on was a
person who was a claught having sexwith his girlfriend and you know, he
got in trouble with the family,but he wasn't attacking somebody. By the
time I was done, it wasgrotesque raping of the most you know,

(25:41):
unimaginable type of experiences, situations.It was I won't even describe it on
the air, but so I've seenthat. But as far as sensitivity and
receptivity to God, it's really tome, it's almost easier because so at
least when I started, I wasyounger, I was in the community with

(26:03):
them. Now I'm so much older, I'm not part of the community.
My kids aren't their friends. Andyet the kids still respond to you showing
them one of the five love languages, being there, one of the seven
windows of opportunity, which are theseven big windows that people experience where they
actually need a relationship or need connectedto God, like when somebody dies or

(26:23):
somebody is born, or somebody movesto a new location, or they have
success or failure or relationship breakup.So seven windows, if you make an
effort during those times up to seventimes. Study shows seven times will create
a friend forever. I have foundit used to take me six or seven
efforts. Now it only takes methree or four because there's that little face

(26:45):
to face effort because it's all socialmedia. So to me, if you're
willing to get outside your doors andestablish that interaction and then use social media
after that, parents or kids arelooking for somebody they could trust. Pastor.
Your same question to you, youknow you were you were? And

(27:07):
I go fround with this, youbeing a youth pastor, but you know
you you you wo had been ayouth pastor for a while and until we
get a new youth pastor at Brookside, you jumped into that role. Do
you see a difference working with thesekids nowadays. Well, A little bit
of the issue for me, Mikeis I'm not I don't get out like
I did when I was a fulltime youth guy. I could be at

(27:30):
the schools. I still do goto the games and watch them and so
forth, But uh, I justthat's the one thing that kills me.
I don't get the one on onecontact with new kids that I really would
like to have. But I wouldsay that I still see what John is
saying that kids. Kids are hungryfor something, you know. I mean,

(27:52):
they're looking for something and they tryto find it in different places and
it still is empty, right youknow. So uh my one, my
one regret is that I cannot getout there and just go to the schools
and hang out. You heard howJohn, and he was so honest with
this answer, how he misses theOhio winters. Maybe he'd like to I'd

(28:17):
like to come up to Wisconsin andand interview for the youth pastor job at
Brookside Baptist Church. We're taking heart, Hey John, I'll send you a
one way ticket. Come on up, Come on up. We love you.
You could. You'd be a bigBadger fan, a big Packer fan,
all seventy five degrees up here todaytoday, I think snowflakes tomorrow.

(28:41):
But you you come on back here, Hey John? Did you miss that
part of your life? And Ithink you're doing a lot of the same
stuff that you were doing as ayouth pastor. But when you were a
youth pastor at a church, youdid you miss that time in your life
at all being a youth Well Iwas. I did it. Three different
churches, three different experiences. Therewas one the one in New Jersey that

(29:04):
was just a spectacular experience, justto be involved in the community. The
pastor was heavily involved. The kidslooked at the church as being the center
of the community. It was anold church that was in the center of
the town and it was really fantastic. I didn't feel like you were just
putting out activities. But as Igot older and saw different churches that were

(29:25):
I felt like I was being acruise ship director and I didn't like that.
It almost made me physically ill.But when I go into a community
school or places that already have kidscollected, and I do the role of
the youth pastor, which is observethe need, meet the need, don't
try to take them anywhere, justmeet them where they're at. I find

(29:45):
that they'll follow me anywhere to thechurch, to attend church, to a
youth event, to a Bible studyand a home. They'll go anywhere with
you because you have a relationship.And I have never ceased to have that
available. So I would say beingworking with youth makes you feel like you're
still a youth minister forever. You'renot aging when reality, when you look

(30:07):
in the mirror, you're like,why why are they talking to me my
grandfather? But at the same time, the direction of that infrequent that they
want truth to know and then they'rehappy to be with you. Well,
John, I tend to think thattoo, that you know, for twenty
years I work with teens and andhey, I feel young. I feel

(30:29):
like I can go out there.In my mind, I feel that way.
Yeah, in my body it breaksin so some teens. A few
years ago I wasn't even really workingon with the teens. They said,
Hey, we're going to play someindoor soccer after church on Sunday nights.
They go, sign me up.I go out there and I tell Kathy
I said, I've never felt soI mean, you know, uncoordinated in
my whole life. I said,I'm chasing this one guy who has the
ball, he's dribbling. I'm chasinghim. I hear one of his guys

(30:52):
from the bench goes, hey,man, you got plenty of time.
He's slow. I was like,oh, if I could be another twenty
seven or twenty eight or just dowhat My brother did you know he's still
playing baseball at seventy, but heplays against guys sixty five and older.
So I'm like, and he's acatcher, John, And I said,

(31:12):
hey, can you still throw guysout? He's like, I can one
hop it and get these guys there'sseventy. So maybe that's the idea is
go find soccer league with gotta knowwhatever it be forty five and older or
whatever. I don't know how oldyou are. How old man, I'm
gonna be sixty six this summer.Man, don't tell terry year old.

(31:34):
She will say that's not old,that's not old. That's probably I can't
try to tell her that, butshe's like, no, it is not
old. Hey, John, reallyquick, before we get to a break,
how much when you when you goto some of these schools, how
much sports do you guys do youstart and bring in when you start?

(31:56):
We're talking about Team Jam and againwe're talking to the founder and director of
Team Jam. You can go toteamjam dot org. They were in Ohio
for a long time. John,the last four years now is in Florida,
Northern Florida and he's uh, he'sworking Team jam In in the Florida
market as well. How much didyou talk about sports and do you still
do you put together tournaments or anythinglike that. No, I'm I'm trying

(32:22):
to stay in my lane. There'ssome guys like Matt Futz, who's a
high school basketball coach at at CVCAin Ohio, who played college basketball,
and Sean Lazarus who played football forMichigan and Dante Booker who played football for
Auburn, and all those guys playedyou know, different levels of pro.
Unfortunately, they're they're good if theyif they share their their expertise and want

(32:46):
to coach, they should because that'sthat they have something special offer. Now
that I've been around enough, likeI might feel like I know sports,
but I really just need to dowhat I'm good at, and that is
bring people around that are good atgiving athletic advice or tournaments or AAU teams.
And I'm the guy that helps peoplefind find Christ or redirector life or

(33:09):
get out of serious trouble or counselthem. That's that's my role now.
And I used to think, oh, nobody's gonna want to talk to me
if I do just that. Butin reality, I have more people wanting
to talk to me about that thaneven the sports. But the sports get
me in the door. Hey.Well, but by the way, why
why Florida? What made you movefrom Mohire to Florida. Well, we're

(33:32):
vacations here all the time, sowe decided we will live here in vacation
in Ohio. Versus how many timesyou've been on vacation here in the last
four years. I think I've beenin the north either someplace in the middle
like Pennsylvania, New York, orOhio about every two months for the last

(33:53):
four years. And then there's otherspots like out west Texas. I'm trying
to visit all the guys that aredoing something for God. So I got
some spots on the list to visit, like Louisiana and Texas and Alabama,
Pensacola, Missouri. I don't knowif I said that right. Yeah,
he didn't say Wisconsin or Oklahoma.Why is that you think I should have

(34:14):
said Oklahoma. I do need tobe out there at Norman Norman, Oklahoma,
and then Wisconsin. I was therefor a retreat in southern Wisconsin one
time, so I can make OhUniversity Wisconsin. Are you near there?
Yeah, like forty five minutes toan hour something like that. Well,
then i'll be I'll be in Wisconsinsoon. Then we're looking for you.
Hey, yeah, well we'll tayou can launch Michael biden Man, Why

(34:37):
does he always say that he's gotan expense account? The deacons will sign
off anything you need, right,No, they will not. Hey,
let's get to a break other sideof the break Coil continue our conversation with
John Sascia. He is the founderand director of Team Jam. Go to
teamjam dot org again. Their missionis to invest in young lives in order

(34:59):
to develop leaders, develop the spiritual, physical, educational, emotional needs,
introduce them to faith in Jesus Christas a key component to their long term
development. That's the mission statement ofTeam Jam. This is Faith in the
Zone. I'm the Big nine twentyin your iHeart Radio apps about sign say

(35:30):
welcome back to Faith in the Zone, a show about sports and faith and
when the two come together. Faithin the Zone is brought to you by
Donovan and Jorgensen, Heating and Kulan. Let's continue with Michael Gibbs and Pastor
Ken Kiltner, only on the Bignine twenty and your iHeart Radio App.
Welcome back to Faith in the Zoneon the Big nine twenty in your iHeart

(35:52):
Radio App. I'm Mike mcgiver alongsidePastor Ken Keltner, the confident, very
confident Pastor Ken Caltner from Brookside BaptistChurch, coming from the Donovant Jorgensen Heating
and Cooling Studios. Our special guestman. This has been fun. I
wish he's a good one. He'sa good one. I say that a

(36:13):
lot, don't he good? Iwish people could hear us during the breaks.
I'll tell you what, Yeah,you're a confident man. Why don't
you I just I'll just you know, yeah, Okay, okay. It
must be all the prep stuff Igive you that you never read. Our
special guest is John Sauce here again. He's the founder director of Team Jam.

(36:37):
You know John, when people wouldI tell people that we do a
show called Faith in His Zone untilthey hear it, you know, they
think, oh they open, youknow, open the book, go to
the King James book and go toyou know, Book of Ephesians and talk
about putting on the full armor.Man. We we do have some fun
here, man, we do.Second and two obviously is the most important,

(37:00):
I think, because everybody's got astory, and you know, everybody,
at least just about everybody we've everhad, knows the day, knows
the time of year type thing onwhen they accept it and why, and
and you know, we've had guyslike john The worst thing they ever do
is steal a candy bar. Andguys like me, I have to put

(37:23):
you and Johnson, I would bein the other category, you know,
all the way down the mile rightone on one side or the other.
But the fact that you know,the Lord met me where I was at,
came to a dark, dark place. Man, he came right in
the door when he was asked comeon, and he met me right where

(37:44):
I was at and said, okay, it's time to get to work.
Let's go. And uh, hey, John when when when we talked the
last segment about kids dealing with kids, is it different now? And I
wonder if you'll agree with this.I, as a basketball coach, realized
that if I was coaching a kidwho had both parents in the home,

(38:06):
could I could I could express myselfto that young man pretty harshly right.
And then if I had kids thatcame from a single parent, especially a
mom, I had to kind ofwatch it because I had to put my
arm around the kid and show themsome love rather than you know, letting
him have it to what I reallywanted to say to him, because he

(38:28):
had at least some of the kidsthat I coached learned how to deal with
their emotions from their mom and whenthey had the dad and the mom,
and a lot of times dads aretougher on their boys, and so I
could, you know, I couldreally kind of put my foot there and
let him have it. And I'mwondering if you see that, and if

(38:49):
you saw that when you were acorrectional officers, well, that the kids
that have two parents in the homeyou could deal with a little bit differently.
Yeah, I think that's a goodpoint. If I had both parents
to deal with and I would prettymuch just be talking to the dad,
and even if he came at mepretty strong, we could work it out

(39:09):
pretty quickly. If it was justdealing with just a single parent and a
mother, then she's going to bedoing what mothers are supposed to be doing,
which is nurture. And protect andlove and for her to hear me
being harsh with her baby. Youknow, she might see me before practice

(39:29):
say to me before practice, Hey, he's disrespecting me at home. You
got to be hard on challenge himand give a conversation. And then I
do that. By the end ofpractice, she's like, how dare you
do that to my son? SoI could see your point. Hey,
John, I know you probably havemany of these, but we only have
time for one quick one can yougive us? Man? I was praying

(39:53):
asking God to open this or getme in touch with this person or whatever,
and boom, God did it.And do you have a time that
you just remember that? Man,this is what God did and was just
just phenomenal to watch God at work. Yeah, there's two stories that pop
into my head. There's I putthem on the internet as much as I

(40:14):
can too, so I don't disrespectGod's work because there's been so many.
But one of them in particular wasa kid at Kent State football who was
really i'll sayd the athlete played onmy AU basketball. He had a bacterial
disease or whatever. He's at thehospital and every Saturday morning I would sit
with his dad and in Cleveland whilehis son was in a coma, and

(40:36):
then I would go in and prayfor him. And I was praying each
time, Lord, we need amiracle. It just looks so hopeless,
you know, and I'm not evendon't even know how to pray about it.
And then one of those visits,I don't know if it was a
tenth or the fifteenth or the twentieth, but one of those visits, the
kid opened his eyes and yelled atme, what did you just do to
me? And I jump back,and the nurses ran forward and the doctors

(40:59):
ran for and they're like, whatdid you do? Was do? I
thought they were yelling at me becauseI like unplugged the machine orthing, and
I just like, I just prayedfor him. I didn't know. And
he started healing after that, andthen we played catch football in the room.
His name was Tim Ross, andthe big articles in the newspaper about
him. And we've since gone separateways, but I'll never forget God exceedingly

(41:22):
abundantly above all that I asked oreven believed could happen, you know,
bringing that party from the dead.The other one was a young man I
was involved with a number of highschools, and Kyle Moras was like on
the first teams, and he's theone introduced me to Dante. Booker and
his younger brother Chad started playing fora team called Akron Saint Vincent, Saint

(41:42):
Mary and Akron and their family friendKeith Dambrodt was the high school coach at
the time, and Keith says,Hey, I got some guys you need
to spend time with their freshmen.Two of these have been through some rough
times and I need to spend anextra time. I'm like, Keith,
I'm already doing all these other guyson your team games. I know,
but I think this one's going tobe special. He spent a little more

(42:05):
time with us and one of theone of those players was Willie McGhee,
who ended up being an athletic directorlater on at St. Pencissaint Mary and
now runs at a lot of athleticsand stuff for I Promise School for Lebron
and the other the other young manwas Lebron James, and remember talking to
him over and over again about Christ'sTrue chapels and Bible studies at lunchtime and

(42:27):
one on one and practices and thewhole world was attacking him, and I
was getting angry that I had tocompete with all this because I knew what
was at stake because he was sosuch a big deal so soon, and
unfortunately we were, you know,competing with that. And then there was
a time time period where I justsaid, well, Lord, you're going
to be the savior, not me, and I have to surrender to that

(42:50):
and watch what you're going to do. And one day he came up to
me, he goes, Hey,how come we talk to everybody else but
me. I just been waiting forthat moment, Matt. I've been ready.
Look, I have a folder foryou for stuff. I was waiting
for it, to talk to youabout him. We had a couple of
times where we talked one on oneabout you need to be onndred percent surrendered.
Now. I even have a videoof him at the close close of
the senior game when when they hadone state championship and the mythical you know,

(43:15):
national championship where he says, Iwant to first thank my Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ and heeds everything tome, so wow, and then he's
talking about that the last a lot. The first couple of years and I
in contact with all his friends whoare still believers and doing things in the
community. He's got a lot ofweight on his shoulder. He's tempted and
drawn a lot of different places.No, you bet, hey, I'm

(43:37):
praying until the end. Amen tothat. John. We got to get
to a break. On other sideof the break, we'll ask John that
last question. This is Faith inthe Zone on the Big nine twenty in
your iHeart Radio App. Times justback to Faith in the Zone brought to

(44:00):
you by Donovan and Jorgensen, Heatingand Cooling, BIC Automotive and Brookside Baptist
Church. Here's Mike McGivern and PastorKen Kelder only on the Big nine twenty
Man your Rightheart Radio app. Welcomeback to Faith in the Zone on the
Big nine twenty and your iHeartRadio App. Hey guys, we've got a short
segment here and we want to askJohn Sauce here again, our special guest,

(44:23):
the founder and director of Team Jam, that question all the uniforms you've
ever put on, John, weput him in a closet. You get
to pick one uniform out. Whatuniform do you pick? Who do you
play against and why Oh, there'sonly one choice really, and that's putting
on that running for Jesus shirt hopefullya size medium instead and run against anybody

(44:45):
you know under the name of Christ. But if I was going to pick
a team name, that would beStreetsboro Youth Baseball as a coach and to
be able to coach my sons.Again, Yeah, amen to that.
So that's not your That wasn't youranswer. You said my pasture. You're

(45:05):
all confident, all like you know, you know, you didn't know what
was it Madonna High or not?Was it junior? It would have been
media, but it was it wouldhave been in track. Yeah, it
would have been running for medina oreven in college. I would love to
run my national final one hundred meter. Again, I didn't train properly for
it. I worked too hard.I wasn't peaking. Man, Why did

(45:29):
you run in track? What wasyour best? Did you? Oh?
My best? What it was?It was good for the day, but
it was hundred meters. It wasten to seven. Yeah, I do
that in my sleep. I doit. For Give me forty meters and
we'll see. It's all. He'srunning to the fridge or not. Yeah,
trust me? Or if Terry's chasingme. You know, if I

(45:51):
did each other, I could runpretty quick at that point for sure.
Hey, John, I really appreciateyour time, brother, and I have
to say thank you again. Youknow the text messages after I asked you
last week if there's anybody that youmight be able to help us out with,
because thank you know, I thinkthe people at Brooksite Baptist Church,

(46:12):
and I think are sponsors, guyslike Donavan and Jorgansen and and Bic Automotive
for the sponsorships. And sometimes it'shard to find guests that are willing to
give us forty five minutes. Andand John, I thank you for all
the recommendations that you gave me lastweek. And I'll be I'll be talking
to you here in the next coupleof days about getting some phone numbers for

(46:34):
those guys. Again. He's JohnSassy, the founder and director of Team
Jam. Go to Team jam dotorg. Pastors. Good to see you.
Have a good week. Yep,thank you, Mike, John,
thank you, Hey John, thankyou so much for Yeah, thanks for
your time, brother, have agreat week. Thank you you bet.
This is Faith in the Zone onthe Big nine twenty and your iHeart radio

(46:55):
app. Same you've been listening toFaith in the Zone, brought to you
by Brookside Baptist Church, thought ofit in Jargonson Heating and Cooling and Bic
Automotive. Faith in the Zone airsevery Sunday morning at eight am, only
on the Big nine twenty and youriHeartRadio app