The Gospel In The Game Sports Podcast
Conversation and stories about real athletes and the journey thru sport, faith and life.
Connecting athletes, sports families and the church. Build bridges and telling real stories to help repair, build and grow people.
Hosts Dan Dromarsky and Dave Dawson
The Gospel In The Game Sports Podcast
Nicole Hensley - Faith and Sport Journey
From the vault. Recorded in 2019 this episode shares the story of faith and sport from Nicole Hensley. Have you ever wondered how faith and sports intersect in the lives of top athletes? Olympic gold medalist and renowned goaltender Nicole Hensley joins us to share her incredible journey from a hockey-loving kid in Missouri to the world stage. Learn about Nicole's own path into the sport. Nicole opens up about her transition from skater to full-time goalie by age 12 and the inspiring rise of women's hockey in the United States.
In our heartfelt conversation, Nicole will delve into a topic that's close to her heart: the intersection of faith and athletics. Hear firsthand how family played a pivotal role in nurturing both her athletic and spiritual growth, and the challenges she faced maintaining her faith through college and professional sports. We also explore the powerful influence of social media in connecting athletes with a global audience, and the supportive community within women's hockey that fosters accountability and spiritual resilience.
Building trust and sharing one's faith within a team is no easy feat, but Nicole discusses the importance of being genuine and approachable. She shares her experiences of courageously speaking about her beliefs and the strength she finds in prayer. We also tackle the pressures of social media on young athletes, emphasizing the vital importance of recognizing one's self-worth beyond online validation. With insights on balancing parenting and nurturing faith, this episode from our 2018 archive is packed with valuable lessons for athletes, parents, and anyone interested in the beautiful blend of sports and faith.
Welcome to the Gospel. In the Game sports podcast, I'm your host, dan Dramarski, usually co-hosted with Dave Dawson, but today we're bringing you a very special episode from the vault. And you might say to yourself you guys have a vault. What type of vault? Well, this is an interview vault. You guys have a vault what type of vault? Well, this is a interview vault.
Speaker 1:About five years ago, we started interviewing professional athletes from many different sports, many different backgrounds, and this was one of our favorites, so we thought we would bring this one to you first. And this was an interview five years ago, as mentioned, with Nicole Hensley. Nicole Hensley is the first championship goaltender in the Professional Women's Hockey League, the PWHL Team Minnesota. She's also an Olympic gold medalist, winning gold in 2018 and a silver in 2022. She also has several world championship medals, including three gold medals in 2023, 2017 and 2016,. And a few silvers as well.
Speaker 1:Nicole is a wonderful young lady. She has a lot of hockey experience and she has a. You know what? She just loves to talk about the Lord. She also loves to talk about sport, and I think you're really going to enjoy this episode. So join me now, grab a seat and enjoy our interview with Nicole Hensley. Welcome to the Gospel in the Game. We'd like to welcome our very special guest, and it's not Dave. No, I'm not special. My mom told me that once when I was five. It went to your head. Yeah, so we don't call each other that. Instead, today, the special one, nicole Hensley, a tried and true American goalie, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Hi guys, Thanks for having me on today.
Speaker 1:We're very excited to have you on today, especially Dave's excited to have you on today. He was telling me everything he knows about women's hockey and after about eight minutes of that he explained what he didn't know about american hockey uh, with the ladies. And that was very little. He knows a lot, so we got a few great questions for you I need dan to introduce me a job interviews.
Speaker 3:Uh, first dates, everything from now on. Yeah, it's not about me, though that's funny that.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 3:Well, you said you were in Missouri, so we'll start there. We'll talk a lot about women's hockey, but what's this experience been like to be immersed in the culture of Stanley Cup phenomena in Missouri right now?
Speaker 2:It's been an absolute blast. The city of St Louis has been just on fire, I feel like ever, since they won in Game 7. The city's had a plethora of baseball championships, but this being the first time the Stanley Cup's been here. The hockey fans here are amazing and the game's really growing in this part of the country right now, so the Blues honestly couldn't have timed it any better, and I think after that game you're going to see even more kids this fall girls and boys suiting up, trying hockey for the first time.
Speaker 1:Now trying hockey for the first time. The question for you, for me, starting off, is when did you start playing hockey?
Speaker 2:for you? For me, starting off is when did you start playing hockey? So my story also has Stanley Cup ties. So I'm originally from Colorado and I started playing hockey right after the Adelines won the Cup in 2001. So I was seven years old. I had a friend across the street that was always out rollerblading and playing street hockey and one day he asked if I wanted to join him and I was like yeah, sure, and kind of took off from there and eventually he asked his dad, asked my parents oh, why don't you let her try it for real on the ice? And kind of never looked back.
Speaker 1:Now did you start as a goalie?
Speaker 2:No, not off the bat. I was a skater. And then our team kind of passed the pads around and so I got to try one game and started to kind of like it, but still wasn't sure I liked doing both. So I kind of did a couple seasons doing both and then, I think, u-12s I finally switched to being a full-time goalie.
Speaker 3:Now it's pretty well known that the game of hockey in the US has exploded over the last five years. You look at the international tournaments. The caliber of American players coming out, women's and men's, is phenomenal. What's it like as somebody? Maybe people who haven't been to the US and aren't as familiar People in Canada can relate, because there's U8, u10, u12, there's so many teams in so many cities. What is it like? Are there a lot of street hockey games going on around there? Is it pretty close?
Speaker 3:to exploding, as it has in Canada, obviously.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's what's kind of cool about it is there are some new rinks going up in St Louis currently they're building two new rinks that'll have each have at least two sheets of ice, and so you're seeing the growth that way, from that standpoint.
Speaker 2:And then on the coast, like on the West Coast, I have a lot of friends that play roller hockey out there and kids get into that at a young age and then switch over to ice as they get older. So it's kind of a couple different ways that it's growing and coming together, but I think it's been really good. The growth's been really good for the female game recently too. I think the Olympics and the way that game ended in a shootout really sparked a ton of interest from girls around the country. So it's not only growing on the boys' side but on the girls' side as well.
Speaker 3:What does that mean for you just to be a part of that? You talked about getting immersed in the game at a young age, and you don't have to get into the topic of women's hockey too far to talk about being able to assert yourselves as role models for young ladies, right? So maybe it's more on the side of. What does that mean to you to see that women's game growing and more young girls to get involved in it and seeing it as a pathway to choose? That's going to be a great platform for them.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think that's one thing that we as professional hockey players talk about. A lot is young girls can't dream of what they don't see. So for the fact that the NHL Network has picked up a lot of the international competition lately between Canada and the US is huge and I think moving forward that's kind of what we're looking for eventually down the road for pro hockey as a whole. For women you know, if you look at, with the World Cup going on right now, what that's going to do for girls' soccer across the US, because it's on TV, it's visible, the girls can see it. And same with, I believe, the NWSL, the Women's Soccer League, just signed a deal for their games to be on ESPN coming up. That's huge for women's sports in general. And then you know we see the growth that soccer's had and I think that's kind of what we're trying to mirror.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, soccer is a huge sport, even in lovely, warm Canada, but you know one of the fastest scoring sports is female hockey. Talking a little bit about the hockey side of things, let's talk a little bit about the faith side of things. This is the gospel in the game. Tell us a little bit about your faith. We often refer to things our Christian faith like as an active faith, and how I got connected with you was through social media and I saw that you were a Christian athlete who was active in your faith.
Speaker 2:Tell me about that yeah, I mean uh, uh.
Speaker 2:God has has given me a ton of gifts over the course of my life and and uh, absolutely one of them is the ability he's given me physically to to play hockey and and to play it at a high and. And, uh, absolutely one of them is is the ability he's giving me physically to to play hockey and and to play it at a high level. And, uh, you know, with that, I think, does come some responsibility of being a role model. And and with uh, you know you said it social media. It's, it's awesome to be able to, you know, connect with so many people all over the world in general on social media, but then to have the opportunity to do it with your faith is is huge, um, you know.
Speaker 2:So, like, obviously, um, you know, just posting a verse here or there and maybe somebody asked a question about it, maybe, you know it sparks a conversation with a friend. Um, you know, those are great things and obviously that that carries over carries over, you know, in everyday life as well. I try to do my best to get my Bible every single day. I have a devotional I'm following right now and, just, you know, try and get in there and spend, you know, a good 20 to 30 minutes every day just with with God and try and listen and, you know, see how he wants me to grow that day.
Speaker 1:Now, when we participate in sports and social media and all these things, there are foundational building blocks that have brought you to this point. When you were growing up, was there someone that was influential on your life, or maybe in your church or your family, that really helped encourage you to become the athlete the person you are today?
Speaker 2:um, I mean definitely my parents, uh, my parents, you know they were the ones getting up early with me, um, taking me to the rink at 5 am. They were the ones, um, you know, taking me to the rink at 5 am. They were the ones, you know, taking me to the soccer field and between, while I was growing up, and they were the ones taking me to church. You know, I grew up in a Christian household and we went to church every Sunday. You know, we did vacation Bible schools, we worked vacation Bible schools, we volunteered in church. So I was very blessed to grow up in a household where God was a main focus for our family.
Speaker 2:And you know, growing up, when you're going to church and stuff, you're like, oh, I don't want to get up early on Sunday, you know, and a lot of it's just kind of you're going because your parents say you're going and that's kind of how I was growing up and that's kind of how I was growing up.
Speaker 2:But then kind of, actually, when I got into college and I started to, you know you're on your own a little bit, you're not being forced to go to church every Sunday and what are you going to do? And I was even more blessed that there were six or seven girls on my team that are Christians as well and we started doing Bible studies and things like that as a team before every game, and so that was kind of when my faith really took off and became a little bit more my own. I was baptized in high school and then kind of rolled on from there, and in college, especially with these girls, is kind of where my faith took off and it wasn't out of necessarily obligation anymore or, you know, parents make you go to church. It was I want to do this Like. I want to grow my faith, I want to have that relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 3:Now Dan mentioned earlier that I mean it's well known, women's hockey is, I think I don't know if officially, but probably the fastest growing sport in North America. The mass amounts of women getting involved in the sport is phenomenal. I mentioned prior that I spent a lot of time covering and following women's hockey. Now I also spent a lot of time covering football and the stories of Christian athletes in football are pretty widespread. Same with baseball. Men's hockey circles a little bit smaller, smaller when you talk about women's hockey, from the circles I've been connected to, it doesn't seem to be as common with women that have spoken in their faith. How have you found that for yourself and what are some of those circles like in women's hockey?
Speaker 2:and to hold you accountable and keep you on the straight path, yeah, I think you're right in saying it is a little bit smaller.
Speaker 2:It's a smaller group of people but, like I said, I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by quite a few going through school and then on the Olympic team. Gigi Marvin was a great role model and her and I spent a lot of time together. Kind of you know, there's a lot of difficulties in a year preparing for the Olympics. There's a lot of expectation, there's a lot of other people watching you saying this or that, there's a lot of where do I fit into this team? And so Gigi and I, you know, spent a lot of time like working together, working through our bibles and kind of you know, trying to answer those questions of why are we playing and trying to stay focused on. You know, we're more worried about what God thinks of us rather than what this coach thinks of us or that teammate or this or that. So I think it's definitely a little bit smaller overall, but I think there are some very genuine Christians that you know are just looking to share their faith and find that community as well and a great privilege.
Speaker 3:I imagine to be one of those ones to share that platform and be known as someone that has faith. Right, I think maybe it might suffice to say you know, if you look at football, you can think of a number of different players oh, that guy's a Christian. When you think of women's hockey, is it kind of cool that you think, well, okay, I know Nicole Hensley's a Christian, but do you feel that as like? Wow, that's a cool privilege.
Speaker 2:I guess I don't know that I care about it. Yeah, I just think you know, no matter what I think, when you're fortunate enough to be in the position I'm in, you do need to be a role model for those younger kids. And you know, for me that stems more from my faith, necessarily, than hockey. So that's kind of the way I approach it.
Speaker 3:I actually got a follow-up. I was like I want to go somewhere else, but then I took that road. So sorry, dan, this isn't the day, show you know what, though I I love.
Speaker 1:I just want to put an exclamation mark on that, nicole, because you said, really in the words you said, that your identity is found with who you are in christ, not because you're a hockey player, and I think that's something that we often forget, and often athletes or personalities, anyone that we might see, we see them as a Ryan Carpenter we had the privilege of talking with, and he emphasized the point that he's a person before he's a player, and you're like wow, that was awesome. Thanks for sharing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I think that's something a lot of Christian athletes battle. A lot is and athletes in general put so much emphasis on this is who I am. If I don't hit this home run, if I don't score this goal, if I don't make this save, I'm worth less. And I think that was something I I had to battle through a lot, you know, in in college and then with the national team as well. It's it's you know, it's not a battle that's you know, done one day and you just a hundred percent like know who you belong to. It's something you constantly battle and constantly lean on Jesus to pull that out of you and remind you that you are his.
Speaker 3:We'll talk about the gold medal stuff in a second. There's one thing that I read in doing my research on you today that I was kind of intrigued by, because I think, as believers, we're all a community of people that are just broken, that have found something outside of themselves that is the truth, and then that we believe is the truth and helps us to navigate through situations. I read something about how in your younger years, you had a bit of a temper on the ice and you were, you know, navigating through that. How did the lord enter in and allow you to experience a little bit of victory in that area, and maybe how would teammates help support you in that as well?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think, um, it was probably one of those, you know, you keep smack talking during games and then you get scored on, but I really think that's the best idea, like does this really make a lot of sense? And just kind of like, probably probably really doesn't. And then, um, uh, I think also through, like me as a person I, I am kind of a perfectionist and that kind of rolls into how I am on the ice too. I want, you know, I don't want to just make the save, I want to make it perfectly, I want to do everything, you know, perfect. And so that was something that I had to had to battle through a lot too.
Speaker 2:That God was like, hey, you're just not perfect, like that's just the way it is, sorry. And then, you know, it was kind of, um, learning to deal with those kinds of failures. And I think when I kind of took that expectation, that perfection expectation, off myself, I think that kind of changed a lot of things, which it did change my temper, because I wasn't, you know, smacking my stick over the crossbar because I got scored on, because, like, it's going to happen, I'm not perfect, no goal is perfect and you know, more often than not, you're going to get scored on rather than get a shutout. So you know, learning to just let those things roll off your back was a huge advantage for me after that?
Speaker 1:Well, wait a minute. You heard it here first. The lady who got a shutout in the Olympic tournament said that there's no perfect goalie. And, by the way, the shutout word is an S word. In our house we call it the S word Because his son no perfect goalie. And, by the way, the shout-out word is an S word. In our house we call it the S word Because his son's a goalie, my son's a goalie, and all the time my wife is just like. No one says the S word on game day. That is the S word. You cannot say it. So there we go.
Speaker 2:Yep, same thing in our house.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Let's talk a little bit about the olympics. Um, you're on a national stage, you're on an international stage. There are stresses and there's pressure. I'm a chaplain, a hockey chaplain. A lot of things that we talk about with junior players is the stress outside of the game and in the game, that stress on a big level, like, on a way, big level. How do you deal with that as a Christian athlete, as a person? Is it the same way that you deal with the stress that you manage day-to-day in your practices and your training and your family life? What do you do?
Speaker 2:um, I mean, I think I think some of it is is you do kind of have to tune out some of the social media stuff. You know you're not going on there looking at what other people say about you A or your teammates A, because it doesn't matter. We, we kind of went into that, the 23 of us, and it was we were fortunate to have really great leaders who had been through the Olympics, you know, one or two times before that. That knew that. You know we needed to focus on the 23 people in the room and anyone outside of that room, whether they were saying good or bad things about our team as a whole or individuals. That was not. That was not going to help us. It was it.
Speaker 2:What mattered was what the 23 people in that room thought and did and how they acted and interacted with each other. Um, and so that was kind of um, we had great guidance from our, from our leaders as a, as a team, and and, yeah, I think, um, I kind of handled it pretty much the same way. I may have been like posting a cool picture about what we did that day as a team, but it wasn't like I was sitting there reading the comments or reading a news story on our team or this, that or whatever. It was just kind of you know us focused on our group.
Speaker 3:Where have you found in your journey with, maybe, interactions with your teammates. You said often you've been surrounded with some Christian community. What, to you, has been that great gateway to share the gospel in and amongst your peers and amongst your teammates? When a question comes up, often as a guy, I've been around the game of hockey a long time. I've been broadcasting for over a decade. I've had the privilege to work with professional athletes, the men that I know. Their gateways are often through infidelity and through addiction, where they can say, hey, you know what You're struggling with, this. Let me pray for you. And that's a light for the gospel. Where for you has been that inroad for some of your peers to be like you know what there's actually a Jesus who loves you and who died for you.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what, and sometimes it's even simple too. Sometimes it's a scripture verse on your helmet or a scripture verse on your stick. Yeah, what is it? I'm curious. That's a really good question.
Speaker 2:I think for me it's been building relationships and building trust with those teammates or those people that have become close friends.
Speaker 2:And I think some people may be scared to ask you those questions, or don't want to hear the answers to begin with, or are scared that you're going to judge them for what they say. So I think you know, the first thing you have to do is be able to build that relationship with teammates and then, um, I kind of find that that, um, I mean, my parents always said growing up um, your job's to plant the seed, your job is not to you force this down somebody's throat. And so, you know, as that's kind of how I try, I try to kind of leave it up to kind of that person as we build that trust. Like, you know, if they ask me a question and I'm like you know, light bulb, boom, we're going, and you know, just try to be honest with them. Um, you know, just try to be honest with them. And I think it also helps when, um, what I've noticed is when you're not afraid to admit to people that you know, yeah, I don't know all the answers.
Speaker 2:Or you know, that's a good question, like let's go, let's look that up in my bible, because I don't actually know the answer to that. And I think when people hear that you don't have all the answers and you're willing to learn with them, I I think that's kind of where, um, a you build even more trust with that person, because they're like, oh, they didn't just sit here and, you know, tell me I'm wrong, or tell me this, tell me that you're working through whatever it is with them and you're like, yeah, this is, this is actually what it says. So cool, thanks, thanks for teaching me something today, you know, and I think kind of being able to go back and forth with that person, but I think building the relationships has been the biggest thing for me- Now maybe you have some advice for other women's hockey players out there who have that faith and maybe feel a little bit intimidated to be able to open up and do those things.
Speaker 3:You know, I've always loved the idea of the Lord puts people in situations because he wants to accomplish certain things, and I know there's a lot of fear sometimes associated with just stepping out and going hey, I believe this or whatever. I don't know players maybe bantam players who were in the locker room immersed in conversations to be able to either, you know, not put their foot down necessarily, but just be able to be known as that person who's approachable but a believer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think. I think that that is always the tough people feel like they're in a tough spot or they don't want to ruin the fun for everybody else or they don't want to. You know, I think I think the biggest thing you have to remember is when you speak about the gospel, you're not speaking from you. That's not when you go to have those conversations, especially I especially trying to pray before them like lord, like please help me, because I don't even know what to say right now. I need so much help in that I'm going to step up and say this or do this or any of those things. I think the biggest thing you have to remember is that the strength isn't coming from you, like you know, it's coming. It's coming from from Jesus. It's coming from God, from Jesus. It's coming from God. It's coming from the Holy Spirit working in you to.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe not, you're not moving mountains that day, but those mountains might move down the road because you planted a seed. So I think that's the biggest thing is, you know, and one thing I've actually, in my devotionals, have been kind of really had kind of had my eyes open the past couple weeks, is when you look at the things the disciples went through and were not scared to go around, to go out and continue to to share the good news. It's incredible, like I sometimes, you know, when I think about being scared being scared to share those kind of things it's like, okay, what's the worst gonna probably happen to me? This person just might not want to speak to me anymore, whereas they were putting their lives on the line every day.
Speaker 2:And there are people now that are they're doing that all over the world but, you know, when you think about the grand scheme of things and you risking not talking to this person because they may not like you anymore, versus, this person may never hear the good news. If you don't do this now, Amen. That's where it's like geez, this is A a bigger deal than I thought it was and B the consequences do not outweigh the rewards in any way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's stepping out in that faith that all of a sudden makes a lot. Should I go talk to Jimmy over there? And stepping out in that faith, it all of a sudden makes a lot of. Should I go talk to Jimmy over there, or am I supposed to step out on the water and step out in faith? It just doesn't seem like it's like, like you said, like the disciples had. Wow, the disciples can do that why can't. I do this.
Speaker 2:That's a perfect perfect example.
Speaker 1:Now let's rewind the clock a little bit more back to your younger self. We are talking to a lot of young athletes and talking to a lot of young parents. You talked about these great building blocks that you have of family and parents that encourage you with your faith. What are some of the things that you can speak to? To the parents that are listening to this broadcast podcast, whatever cast we want to include, to encourage them to say you know what, when I grew up, it was really important that my mom and dad did this, because it sure helped me later on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think my parents did a very good job of not just forcing it down my sister I have one sister, brittany not forcing it down our throats Like this is what we do, this is what we're doing. You don't have a say, you don't this, you don't that. Yes, we were going to church every Sunday. Yes, we were going to church every Sunday, but there were weeks where it was like, hey, do you want to go to whatever church event was going on that week. It's like I'm kind of tough. Okay. Well, I think not trying to overdo it is the big thing. Because if you think about as a person, when you're pressured into doing things, you're less likely to do them down the road, right, like if, if you never give your kid candy ever and then they get away from you. They don't have the candy they can, right. So I think trying to find that balance of you know, even as a parent with your kid, it's still you're just, you're planting seeds, god is going to work with that child how God wants to work with that child.
Speaker 2:You're planting seeds. God is going to work with that child how God wants to work with that child and you're not. You literally dragging them by their coat to church isn't going to help them down the road find their faith. If that makes sense, I think there has to be a balance of yeah, we're going to do this or we're going to do that, or we're going to talk about this or have this family discussion. Do this or we're going to do that, or we're going to talk about this or have this family discussion. But at the same time, you know you have to give the kid a little leeway to find their own way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's that persuasion is better than force, and we won't take that snippet and say that you endorse candy.
Speaker 3:We try to ask every show what would you tell your 16-year-old self now? But I want to kind of turn that on its side a little bit and obviously, as two men interviewing a young lady, we don't know everything about the struggles that a young woman does face, but we're inundated with this world of image and portrayal and trying to vanity, so to speak. So you talked about social media. Let's talk a bit about Instagram, and you know everybody is trying to search for that affirmation on Instagram. Get this great selfie here, that picture there. David cooked a great steak. Yeah, exactly, I had a joke with somebody yesterday about before the Internet existed. You used to mail people letters.
Speaker 3:So you get a letter in the mail that says I missed it today and you know, portraying this image on Instagram and maybe not feeling so validated as a human being. What words would untie your faith into that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I personally am so happy that Twitter and Instagram and Facebook weren't really things till I was in college and Instagram and Facebook weren't really things till I was in college. It is tough to grow up as a kid right now with all this technology, being able to see you know everyone else's best life. I think that would be the biggest thing for me is you have to remember that everything you're seeing on social media somebody put there because they looked good in it, because they did something cool. You're seeing everyone's best life. You're not seeing the struggles they went through or the fact that they just went out on that boat for 10 minutes to get a picture on the boat. They didn't actually do anything fun, you didn't actually do something.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. So true, so true out.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. So true, so true. So I think I think that's the I think that's a big part of it is is remembering that you're only seeing everyone else's best life. You're not seeing, you know the struggles that person is going through and, at the same time, um, you know, I mean, I'm just as guilty of it as the next person posting things, and how many likes they get on this, how many likes they get on that. And I think, um, me and my friends actually, uh, on my team in Buffalo this year had a great um, uh, just had a great outlook on social media with, with the likes, uh, we always had little reminders, just joking with each other. You're worth more than your likes and it sounds like a small thing, but then,
Speaker 2:we would sit there and be like, yeah, you're right, it doesn't matter what that person from Ohio that I've never met before, it doesn't matter if they like my photo or not. Also, I would just recommend take a. Just take, you know, one day at a time, or three days at a time, however long, and just like, try not to go on it, you know, and see how much better you feel, see how different you feel, because there is a difference. So I think that would be my advice is like try and take a day where you don't use it, and then you'll be like, huh, how much better is this.
Speaker 1:Now, do you have a favorite Bible verse? Is there a go-to verse?
Speaker 2:Yes, my favorite Bible verse is Psalm 144.1, and it is Praise. Be to the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.
Speaker 1:Awesome, love it. Well, we have two conditions of being part of this show. One is that you get to be a future guest with us again. We get to follow up with you and you get to tell us all the wonderful things that the Lord is doing, because that's really what we're looking forward to in heaven we get to hear all these wonderful testimonies on what the Lord, jesus Christ, has done for us. And the other thing is it's Pat Dan's beard because he needs some oil in there as well.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:It'd be beard envy over here. And the second condition is that we get to pray for you before you go. So let's just take a minute and let's pray for you. Heavenly Father, we just pray for Nicole and we thank you so much for her willingness to join us on the show today. And, lord, we just pray that you would be with her and bless her. And, lord, that you would use her in a mighty way for your glory. Lord, that anyone that would be listening, whether they be young or old, parents or players, lord, that you would take the words that are spoken today in our talk, that you would, by your spirit, affect their hearts and draw them to yourself. And, lord, we just pray that you would be willing to use us today for your glory and your purposes. Jesus name, we pray, amen. Well, I hope you enjoyed that interview as much as I did with Nicole Hensley. About five years ago, we interviewed her and I'm sure you're going to enjoy our follow-up interview with her and hearing just a little bit about the exciting things that are happening in her life.
Speaker 1:You can follow us on social media. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. You can also find us wherever podcasts are available. Please do like, follow and share with anyone, young or old, or anyone that you think might be interested in this podcast. Also, give us some feedback If you want to see a guest on this podcast or if you have a certain subject that you would like covered. We are always up for suggestions. Thank you for joining us with this edition of the Gospel and the Game. Special interview from the vault with Nicole Hensley. I'm Dan jomarski, and always with me here is dave dawson. Thanks for listening everyone.
