 Welcome to Hope Today. You know, it falls, we've been having lots of rain in Pittsburgh, wherever you're watching us. I hope it's bright and sunshiney, but you know what, no matter what, we can have that sunshine in our hearts, the sunshine of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can have Hope Today. We're so glad you joined us. I'm Tom, I'm here with Amanda and Sydney. And we have got, we have got a great guest in studio today, Sydney. Yes, we surely do. And you know, coming up on Hope Today, the God story of former Pittsburgh sports broadcaster, John Fedko, the media pioneer, will share how Jesus has led him every step of the way. And you know, I am so excited for all of us just to hear a story. He is so full of passion, so full of faith. I mean, it is incredible. So I'm just really looking forward. I know many of you who are in the Pittsburgh area are very familiar with him. And so we're just really glad that he's gonna share about Jesus and he's serious about Jesus, which I love so much because I know, you know, working in news and in media sometimes it's, it can be demonic. It's not a Jesus field place, but it's so great to know that there's lights that have been shining brightly for the gospel. So super excited. Amen, that passion is so important. And just as Sydney said, not only is he a passion for sports, but passion for Jesus. And just speaking about, you know, God's Word and God's people, I think of Israel right now. And you know, we all, I feel the weightiness. I'm watching, you know, everything I can through CBN or other, you know, God news sources and just trying to stay current in my prayer time and intercession for Israel and for, I pray for just the scales to fall off of eyes that not only would other, you know, Hamas or Hezbollah people have this revelation of Jesus, but that our own Jewish brothers and sisters would have a revelation of Jesus, the true Messiah. Yeah, I mean, I think we need to always think of what is God's purposes in behind, not that God purposed to have this war, but God can bring those good things out of even devastation. We need to pray and continue. I pray that the war would not last long, but I do pray that the evil people that perpetrated the crimes, the people of Hamas that will not repent, that they will be brought to justice, brought out of hiding and brought out of the situation that this would not happen again. We just need to continue in prayer. In fact, why don't we join in prayer right now? Father, we just wanna bring the situation with Israel and Gaza and Hamas to you right now. Lord, I pray, Father, for a quick end to the hostilities and Lord, I pray, Father, that the people that were perpetrating the evil crimes that Hamas did that they would be brought to justice, Lord, and that that organization would be ended. And Father, I pray for the peace of Jerusalem and peace in that situation. And Lord, like Amanda said, we pray for you to bring about your purposes in this, Lord, that all might know you and might know saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We ask it in His name, amen. Sid. You know, one thing I just think about as we see what's shaking and unfolding in our world is that this is the time for us as the body of Christ to arise and shine, you know, arise and shine. And even though there's gross darkness that is filling the earth, it is so important for us to be torch bears of light. We are called to be the ones that are on the forefront. We are the ones that be on the front lines, not only just praying and intercession, but even going out in our neighborhoods, even in the way that we show love and kindness and joy just to other people. You know, I've just been even watching on TikTok and in social media, there's, I even saw actually one of Rosie O'Donnell was just talking about how her children were just like breaking down and crying. And she was just saying like, is there a God? Like what is happening? So I think this is a time for us as the Christians just to be a light, but also to speak the truth. People are hungry, people are desperate, people are searching for answers like never before. So now is the time for us to respond. And I know we have our prayer line that is open at 888-665-4483. You can call us at any time. We are a hope line and we wanna stand with you if you're dealing with fear or even just stand in agreement of what's going on in our world. Because we know Amanda, you know, right now it's time for us to mobilize to come together because I truly believe this is God is moving even in the midst of a Satanist sending out all his tricks. But we know that Jesus is with us and we are greater when we are together. That's right, and Jesus came to seek and save that's what was lost. So as Sydney mentioned our prayer line number, I encourage you to reach out to us, give us names of those people that you know you're believing for God to reach and allow our prayer partners just to intercede and send forth angels on their behalf to rescue them. His desire is to rescue each and every one, Sydney. Yeah, we're really excited. We'll stay tuned with us because when we come back right after the break, we have John Fedko former Pittsburgh broadcaster and he is full of fire and passion and the Holy Spirit. We'll be right back. Cornerstone television exists because of the faithful support of our partners. Thanks to you, we get to proclaim the good news of Jesus both locally and around the world. All this month is our way of saying thanks. We are offering this beautiful and inspirational 16 month calendar for your best gift to see TVN. This special Israel calendar 75th anniversary edition celebrates 75 years of modern Israel as a nation. Each month you'll enjoy a new and beautiful feature of the Holy land. You'll be blessed to see places in the Bible come alive. This 16 month calendar runs from September 2023 to December 2024 and has plenty of space for writing your daily activities. Request the special Israel calendar 75th anniversary edition as our thank you gift when you give to see TVN today. To give call 888-665-4483 or go to ctvn.org slash donate. Hope happens here. The story behind former Pittsburgh sports broadcaster and pioneer John Fedko is one of unwavering faith and trust in Jesus. And he's joining us today to share his heart and a bit of his journey with us John and it's such an honor. Thank you. Really it's great to be on the show. You guys do a wonderful ministry here and you know we could be an end times. I don't say that you know lightly. I mean the book of Revelation. A lot of things are happening. Of course we're all praying for Israel and what's happening there but some of it's perhaps biblical. And so it's so important shows like this that we all come to Christ and that there be a revival especially in this country the greatest country that God's ever created. And you know the founders of this country based the country on Christianity. So I've kind of seen this act. I'm a little man I'm 63 and I've kind of seen this act before things go in cycles and I fortunately grew up in an era where there was a great revival. I went to high school in the 70s and the 70s were a disaster. Really a disaster. But miracles started happening in the late 70s and I like to tell the story about something that kind of affected me. One of the, a guy was completely demonic. Bob Dylan was completely demonic. I mean, he was a rock and roll star. He was living a life of hedonism. And all of a sudden he converted to Christ and he came out with an album called Slow Train Coming. And I don't know if you've heard this album. If you haven't, you need to hear it. Okay, it's not a good one. It's a great one. Divinely inspired. Now I don't know about Bob Dylan, what he's doing now. All I know is Christ inspired him to do this album, Slow Train Coming. And Bob Dylan, all of a sudden converted to Christianity. And then you saw Jerry Falwell in the Moral Majority and you saw the Reagan Revolution. And I lived that. I was growing up and I saw it and you could feel the faith in the country coming back. You could feel it coming back. And there was the young people like myself were all of a sudden coming to Christ and realizing this country was based on Christ. We need that to happen again. We need leaders like you to become that new Moral Majority, become the new Jerry Falwells, become the people that are saying, the country's gotta come back to Christ. If we don't, we're headed for total destruction and a story, okay? And that's kind of my life in a nutshell. I have no talent. I don't say that facetiously. I really don't have any talent, but I have a lot of faith in Christ. And with the faith in Christ comes fearlessness. Throughout the Bible, Jesus said, be not afraid over and over and over again. He said, be not afraid. And for us who read the Bible all the time, that becomes a part of you. And when you have that relationship with Christ, the closer you get to Christ, the more fearlessness you have, you're not afraid. And when you combine faith and fearlessness, you can overcome anything. So you can overcome anything. Give me somebody who has faith and fearlessness and put them up against somebody who has incredible talent, but no faith in fearlessness. The man who has, or woman who has faith and fearlessness, win every time, every single time. So it's so important, those who are listening, you may be someone like me who was not gifted with great amounts of faith, that parable of 10 talents. I was given one talent. You said you were given 10. I was given one. But God's not expecting me to bury it, okay? He's expecting me to take that one piece of talent and use it to bring others to Christ, and just to be an example for others in Christ. And so it's, you know, I don't have any talent. I wasn't blessed with any talent, but I was blessed with the gift of faith. And of course that's a gift that Christ gives all, okay? Equally, equally, we're all blessed with faith. And that's kind of sustained me. And I've had miracle after miracle after miracle happened in my life. And I just spent all my time now thanking God. I could be on my knees 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and I would not be able to thank God enough for the blessings He's given a guy like me, a talentless guy who really had no direction at all before Christ. And then to be able to have the great life I've had, the gifts that God has given me, I'm just forever thankful. And you know, we're all here on earth for really two reasons. One, to praise Christ. That's why we're here. And a story. But also to bring others to Him. Everything else is superfluous. Now we'll say this, the greatest title of a book ever, and this affected me in the 70s, the great running back of the Chicago Bears, Gale Sayers wrote a book, you can look it up on Google. The name of the book is I am Third. Number one's God, number two is family, and far below that is me. So, you know, the most important thing for me is Christ comes first. Nothing else comes second, not my job, not everything else, it's Christ comes first. I wake up in the morning, I read the Bible, I read Scripture because that's what's gonna guide me, okay? And that's the first thing in my life. And then the second thing is my family. I'm a father, so I have to raise five children and I have a wife. And then comes me, you know, then comes me if I got time for that. But don't ever say that you don't have time for God because I have found out the hard way, Sidney, the hard way. If I take God out of my life even for a couple of minutes, destruction, utter disaster happens. And that doesn't mean utter disaster doesn't happen with Christ, but the difference is when you got Christ and utter disaster happens, he shows you a way out. And many times some of the worst things that happen to us end up leading to great things in our life. That has happened over and over and over in life. It's Christ saying pick up that cross. When Jesus says pick up the cross, he means you're gonna have to endure some really rough roads. But when you get to Calvary, that's where miracles begin. Because the victory over death in Calvary. And I remember we had a conversation that you, this whole, like carrying the cross that you learned that at a young age. Can you share that story? Meditate on the passion every day because the passion is such an important story, okay? Where Jesus was condemned for a sinner like me, a worthless wretch who deserves to go to hell. But here's Christ enduring all that pain so that my sins would be forgiven. Then he picks up the cross and he falls all the time, but he has the strength to get up from those falls, okay? And then he gets to Calvary and we're there where Satan is destroyed because he dies and three days later he's resurrected and he shows us the path to eternal salvation. So it's very important, I believe, to meditate on the passion and what Christ gave us, the victory he gave us, the ultimate victory he gave us. And the great thing about Christ is you don't have to do anything to deserve that. That's why he died on a cross. You may be struggling, you may think that everything's falling apart, the world's coming apart, but when you turn to Christ, when you hit your knees is when you'll find your most strength because Jesus will give you, He'll show you that path. Just open that Bible and read it because all the answers are in the Bible. No answers are coming from politicians. No answers are coming from TV stars or rock stars. They're coming from the Bible. They're coming, they're all right there for everybody to, you know, to partake in. And let me, can I give you one miracle story because I wanna get one in. There's a great, I'm a real big fan of music. Love that album, Slow Trade, if you don't have it, get it. I actually have the album on vinyl. But another great, God uses artists and He uses people even as bad as Bob Dylan to bring people to Christ, okay? God took some of the worst people in the Bible and actually, you know, made them really strong people. Garth Brooks wrote a song on answered prayers. And so many times in my life that song has prayed out where I've prayed to God for something, prayed for God and something. I didn't get what I prayed for. I got something better. Or God said, hey, thanks for talking to me. Here's what has to happen. So I was a sports cast in Odessa, Midland in 1983, okay? There were two teams, Odessa, Permian and Midland, 20 miles apart, they were in the playoffs. They were playing in Fort Worth in Dallas. And I was the main sports guy at KOSATV channel seven. And we were gonna fly to those two games and cover the games, Televised One. And it was a rent out of private playing and cover these two games. So we had a meeting the Monday before these two teams were gonna play. Odessa and Midland were playing two separate playoff games and we decided the crew's that we're gonna go. And the news director said, John, we want you to stay back. We want you to anchor the show here. We're gonna send other people to cover the games. And I was like, oh, I wanna go. And he said, well, let me think about it. So I went home and prayed, God, please, please let me go on this road trip. I wanna do the play-by-play of the Permian game. They're playing in Dallas. It's gonna be televised throughout the state. Please let me go. Came back the next day. The news said, no, we want you stay in here. We're gonna send our news anchor. He wants to be the color guy. And we're gonna send another sports guy to do a play-by-play. So I stayed back. So Odessa and Midland won. And they were gonna play each other in the state semifinals in Texas the next week. So it was huge. They both won. And we televised the game and it was big. I got a call at 3 a.m. that Friday morning from my news director, okay? The games had been played. Odessa and the crews were coming back from Texas. I had done the show on the air. I was really disappointed I wasn't at the game. I got a call from 3 a.m. in the news directory. The phone's ringing at 3 a.m. This is John McCall. The plane crashed, they're all dead. Oh my goodness. You're the sports director, they're all dead. The plane crashed, you can look it up, 1983, KOSATV and Odessa. I should have been on that plane. I prayed to be on that plane. All my colleagues died. I'm still alive. Thank God for unanswered prayers. Now I still pray for those people by name that are on the plane, Jeff Schull, Gary Hopper. My colleagues, they're dead. I should have been with them. You have to understand that's a great song on answered prayers. You may be praying for something and praying for something. God is listening to you. He's listening to you. But you don't know what's good for you. He may say, hey, I need you to go this, do this. You wanna do this, here's what I need you to do. But I'll get you there. I'll get you there. And by the way, it'll probably be way better than what you want now. So there's prayers and there's unanswered prayers. But the key word is prayer. That's the key. All prayers are answered in God's way. All prayers are answered. And you will see, this is what's really happened in my life and in your life too and everybody's, that you think, this is how a lot of miracles have happened in my life. You pray, you pray, you pray, you pray, you pray. Things get worse. Pray a little more, things get really worse. You pray a little more, it's going the exact opposite. And then all of a sudden, boom, at the last second you get exactly what you prayed for. Exactly what you prayed for. It happens all the time. It's that perseverance that God wants you to have when it comes to prayer. Prayer, faith, fearlessness. Can you share another story with us of you've seen the miracle of God and that prayer, faith and fearlessness in action? Absolutely, how I got started in the business. So I went to University of Southern California, I graduated a virgin and never been on a date. I was 22 years old and never been on a date. And I was really trying to live a Christ-like life. I was trying my hardest and it's possible. You know, Satan's a liar. He wants to tell you you can't do this, you can. You don't listen to Satan, he's a liar. Satan's never told the truth, it's always a lie, okay? The light is with Christ, okay? You can be saintly, you can control your thoughts. You control what comes in and out of you, you can control what you say, it's possible, okay? So I wanted to get into television and I tended to things very dramatically. This is a true, absolutely true story. I'm not exaggerating. I know sometimes I come off like, oh, this guy's crazy. No, this is absolutely, I'm going to tell you, it's absolutely true. So I told my dad was in the military, he's a really tough guy, but a really great guy. My mom was great, but she was always very overprotective like all moms are. And I graduated from college with about 100 other people that wanted to get into television. And of course she'd hurl, I was in LA, so you're with the most evil and demonic people. You hear all the time, yeah, no shot. It's impossible to get into this industry. Now back in 1992, Cable was just starting. There were 220 TV markets with three network-affiliated stations and all those markets. It was very, very tough to get into television. It was not easy. So I looked at a map at this college of where most TV stations were, and the state of Texas had like 30 TV markets. They had these little towns, Abilene of Deca Midland, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, up to Waco. I mean, they had these little towns everywhere. So I said, I told my parents, I'm going to buy a one-way ticket to Texas. I'm going to get a job in television. And if I don't, I'm not coming back. I'm buying a one-way ticket, mom and dad. So I graduated from college, but I'm not going to buy So I graduated from college, bought a one-way ticket, flew into Odessa Midland, ran out of the car, stayed at a Motel 6, all my knees all night, walked into my first interview, 9 a.m., KOSATV, John McCall's the news director. And I go into the interview, and it lasts about two minutes. I said, I'd like to be a sportscaster. I had a great tape that I made in L.A. And he said, you see that stack over there? It was about to stack this high with two of them. He said, that's 1,000 people that want to be sportscasters. You got no shot at being a sportscaster. You don't start out like this. I said, quickly, got any other jobs? And he said, well, we need a photographer and incredibly our weekend weather guy just gave his notice, we need a weather guy. So, you know, can you do weather? And I said, yeah. Sidney, he didn't ask me, he didn't ask me, he didn't ask me, have you ever done weather? He said, can you do weather? I'd never done weather in my life, okay? So, I see the clocks going down. Do we have to take a break here? No, no, no, we got time. Okay, no problem. So, I've never done weather in my life. So, he quickly shoots back. We'll see you back here at 6 p.m., we're gonna put you on a live audition at 6. And I said, well, can I come in and watch the weather guy put his thing together? And he said, sure. So, I come back at three, the main guy's J. Gordon Lund. Okay, he's a really nice guy, you know, West Texas guy, blackness, and he was super though. And he even said, hey, if I go, I don't want to be weather guy on weekend, I'm gonna have to be filling in, so I'm rooting for you. Let me show you how to do this. Now, this was 1982, it wasn't great technology, okay? So, I had never done a weather cast in my life on TV. But in a chroma key, it was called a chroma key. It was a green screen behind you, and then you would look at monitors. You'd look in this, you could see in the, there was a monitor, you were looking at it in the camera, and then there was a monitor on the side, and you had a weather map that you had to put physically the stuff on. It wasn't digital back then, okay? So, it was, he put the weather map together, then it would be chroma key behind you. So I watched him put it together and everything, and I had to put the thing together. And okay, he put the show together, and I'm praying to God, please God, just let me say anything. And I watched the newscast at six, and at 6.30, they put a mic on me, put me out in the studio like this, and I mean, I see the news director go back and they control him, and here's my man counting down. I don't know what I'm gonna say, I got a mic on, three, two, one. Now you gotta remember, I've never done weather in my life. I have no idea, Sydney, none, what I said for those two minutes. None, light goes off, boom! The news director comes to the blue, flies open, comes over to me, would you like to be our weekend weather guy? And see, without blinking an eye, I said, yeah, but I want a couple of things. I said, I don't care how much money you pay me. He said, I said, I wanna do sports. He said, well, again, I don't have a sports thing. I got a photographer open. I said, I'll do photography three days a week. I'll do your weekend weather, you can pay me for that. On the two days off, I wanna work in the sports department on air. I wanna do stuff that you put on the air for those two days, you don't have to pay me for that. And he looked at me and he goes, are you kidding? I said, no. He put it on his hand and said, congratulations. Welcome to KOSATV, you're our weekend weather photographer, sportscaster. 10,000 dollars a year, that's what I made. I didn't care, because I knew that God was gonna get me out of there, but she did really fast. But that's the kind of fearlessness you have to have and the kind of fearlessness that Christ gives you to do things that you don't think you could do. Sidney, people told me later that year, they're like, you've never done weather before? It's like, the guys that were in the studio said, we thought you had done it for like 15 years. We were even saying, what is this guy doing here? Why is he trying to get a job here? It wasn't, you gotta understand this. And this is what's so important for you to realize if you're out there. You gotta trust me, I don't have any talent. That was not luck, that was not talent that happened to me in that TV studio that day. That was an answer to a prayer. That was a miracle. There's no other way to describe it. It was a miracle. I think if you put me in front of a weather thing right now, I would totally blow up and bomb it. That happened because I had faith in Christ. And when Christ put me in a position where that faith had to pay off, I was ready. I was ready to take on a task that seemed impossible to me. But you know what Christ said? With me, all things are possible. All things are possible. This is so incredible. We just so appreciate your heart, your passion, your stories. And we have just a minute left. Can you pray for someone out there that needs to have that fearless faith in Jesus? Yes, let's do it. Dear Christ, we know that all in the world are our brothers and sisters. The homeless man, the homeless woman, the drug addict, those in despair, those who feel that they have nowhere to turn, those who are struggling financially, those who are struggling with what they think is addiction, those who are struggling with pornography. Christ know that you want to help them and that all you ask, the only thing you ask of anyone out there who is struggling is to ask you, Christ, to help. That's all you ask. You died on a cross for us. Our sins are forgiven. No matter how sinful we have been, right now you will forgive those sins instantly because of the price you paid on the cross. Christ, no matter what, for those who are out there who think that you've sinned too much, addicted to pornography, addicted to drugs, Christ is there. He wants you to get on your knees and come to him and he will lead the way. And it's not gonna be easy, but guess what? He'll give you a path. He'll give you a path to all that counts. The only thing that counts is eternal life with him. That's the only thing. No matter what the struggles are in our lives, let us always keep our eye on what really counts. Eternal life with Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Ah, such a joy. Such a joy. Fantastic. Wonderful. Love here in the stories. I love having a ministry like this where you can come in and talk like this. Little tough to do that on Channel 11 when you're doing Stealer Highlights. That's true. Of course we could pray for the Steelers maybe as well, but I need a lot of prayers. I just want to say. That's a miracle. You're gonna need a miracle there. I just want to say, if you've been watching this program, this is not a TV show. This is a ministry. This is a program where John has just spoken to you. The Lord is speaking to you. Take this day and seek God. Because when you seek God, you're gonna find Him. When you find Him, you're gonna find hope. Have a great day in Him. He loves you tremendously. On tomorrow's Hope Today, discover the keys to overcoming generational curses. Bible teacher and author Alexander Pagani identifies what a generational curse is and how we can break free from their strongholds. That's tomorrow on Hope Today. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers, whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.