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A Difference-Making Leader of Men
He’s a football-coaching fixture! Leslie Frazier’s reputation is the standard for leadership, revered for his success with defenses and respected for his heart of compassion. He stands elite as a Black College Football Hall of Famer, who has also won Super Bowls as both player and coach. After 34 straight years of football, he comes off a sabbatical as the Seattle Seahawks new assistant head coach.
Question: “Coach. I’ve got to ask the defensive genius in the current passing league, is it best to prioritize the front or the back end of that defense?”
Leslie Frazier: “Of course, I played in the secondary. (Yeah.) One of the greatest defenses ever. But it starts with the front, Tom. We had a great front in Chicago, guys that are in the Hall of Fame now. And today's NFL is no different. If you can get your front right, it's going to improve your secondary, along with your linebacker. So I'm a firm believer, get the front right. Uh, it'll, it'll make you better.”
Question: “25 years of NFL coaching experience. What drew you specifically to the opportunity in Seattle?”
Leslie Frazier: “Well it goes back from my relationship with Mike McDonald. Mike and I worked together with the Baltimore Ravens and we had a good relationship and we've kind of kept in communication over the years. And when he got the head-coaching job here in Seattle, he called me up and asked me, he said, ‘Leslie, will you come and help me’? I have such respect and love for Mike. I just sense that this was the right move at this stage of my life. And I'm so thankful, Tom, that I accepted this opportunity.”
Question: “35 years of consecutive years of coaching before the sabbatical, so what did life look like breaking that routine?”
Leslie Frazier: “When you've been doing something, uh, for as long as I have every fall - it was definitely different and challenging in some ways. But I ended up doing some TV stuff with the NFL network that was great, that kept me around pro football and, kept those relationships going. But it also gave me a chance to get even closer, to the Lord during my time away from football. I was able to do some things family wise that I had not been able to do in the past, especially in the fall. I got a chance to see how other people live. You just think that the whole world revolves around football. That's not, not the case. So it was, it was good in a lot of ways.”
Question: “What does an assistant head coach bring specifically to that position?”
Leslie Frazier: “The fact that I've been a head coach before, been a defensive coordinator, been a position coach. More and more owners are, are hiring, first time head coaches and very young head coaches who need someone to walk alongside them, to maybe have a word to say here or there, but also build a relationship with the players, because in that head coach's role, I mean, you're the CEO you are, you can't really get into nuts and bolts of the everyday. And that's where one of the areas why I think can help Mike, is we're building relationships with our players”
Question: “Like a lot of professions. Coach. When one role has to take a backseat to a primary, how difficult is it to embrace a selflessness in a arena that rewards high success?”
Leslie Frazier: “Yeah, that’s a great question, man. This role, Tom, is probably not for everyone, 'cause you are truly a servant in this role. When I was a coordinator, you're tied to that and everyone associates that side of the ball with you. Whereas now in this role, you're kind of in the background, you have to be okay with that. And I am, uh, thankful, uh, that God opened this door.”
Question: “How does the impact of fatherlessness literally reach a player, a coaching staff, on the field of performance?”
Leslie Frazier: “A lot of times a coach becomes a father figure for those players. And I was one of those young athletes growing up without a father in a home. I could relate to a lot of our players who didn't have that male presence or that direction. My grandmother, who had a major influence on my life, in so many different areas, raised me. It puts a premium, Tom, on us as coaches to be the right type of leaders - understanding that it’s much more than X’s and O’s. We have a chance to impact, uh, some players, uh, for eternity”
Question: “What can society learn coach about a group of men that walk united in diversity going after the same goal?”
Leslie Frazier: “Yeah! This type of environment where you have so many people from so many different backgrounds, that don't necessarily look like you, but yet we have to be unified in our purpose. What I'm hoping Tom that here in Seattle, because of the spiritual leadership that's on our ball club, where it's not just about wins and losses, but it's also about developing people. Christ has put you in this position and in this place for a time such as this, to make a difference for the kingdom, be able to impact and influence people in a way, that is not ordinary. It's with a spiritual emphasis.
Question: “How does biblical wisdom coach up this NFL coach to help coach up?”
Leslie Frazier: “Everything's based on my belief in scripture. Which means I have to stay in the word on a daily basis. I have to be in prayer, I have to be in a mentor relationship, uh, where someone can hold accountable what I believe, but having that belief in the Bible - that's the driving point to what I do and what I say and how I act and how I interact with people. That's the foundation”
Question: “When scripture speaks of God giving you a refugee, what does that look like for you?”
Leslie Frazier: “For me, what I’m doing now, allows me an opportunity to make a difference in so many lives to impact people for our savior - where people may not remember some of your deeds, but they remember how you made them feel on a daily basis. They may not remember some of the words that you had to say, but they remember the impact that you had. But doing it for this reason, Tom - to follow the gospel. And I think if you keep that in mind and realize what your purpose is, you have the chance to have a long-term impact.”
Miracle Woman Dies and Visits Heaven
“They called a code and they come running in. I was above my body. I could see them doing chest compressions. I could see them, all the nurses around. I could smell the most beautiful flowers I've ever smelled. And then I heard music. And when I opened my eyes, I knew where I was. I knew I was in Heaven.”
In 2019, Charlotte Holmes was having a routine checkup with her cardiologist when her blood pressure spiked to 234 over 134. “My heart doctor said, ‘You're not going home. We're going to put you in the hospital. We've got to get that blood pressure down. It's got to come down. You're in a – you're in a – having another stroke or you're going to have a heart attack. They put me in a room and started an IV just to, you know, try to get that blood pressure down.”
Charlotte’s husband Danny stayed with her while the hospital staff tended to her. “Immediately, you know, they called this code and they – everybody started rushing in,” Danny says. “They just started working on her. And my feeling was, you know, I thought, ‘Boy, I'm wondering if I'm even going to be able to bring her home.’”
Charlotte began describing things to Danny. “She started talking about the flowers,” says Danny. “Well, I looked around and I knew there was no flowers in that room. That's when I knew she was not in this world when that was going on.”
Then Charlotte’s heart stopped. For the next 11 minutes, she was clinically dead. “I was above my body. I could see Danny standing in the corner,” she says. “He had backed up. I could see them, all the nurses around. And then I opened my eyes. I looked around at the beauty. I could see the trees, I could see the grass. And everything was swaying with the music. Because everything in Heaven worships God. I can't convey to you what Heaven looked like, cause it's so above what we could even imagine, a million times.”
Charlotte says she was led into heaven by angels. “There is no fear. It's like pure joy. When the angels take over, there is no fear. When you are going home, it's pure joy.”
She says she then began to recognize deceased family members. “I saw my mom. I saw my dad. I saw my sister. I saw family members standing behind. I saw saints of old. See, they didn't look old. They didn't look sick. None of them wore glasses,” Charlotte recalls. “They looked like they were in their 30s. But yet it says in the scriptures, ‘We will be known as we were known.’ I know them. There, in their new bodies, they looked wonderful.”
What Charlotte saw after that, however, shocked her.
“Standing behind my mom and dad was a light so bright. I couldn’t look upon it. So bright. But I knew it was my Heavenly Father. I saw a toddler. And I can remember thinking, ‘Who is this?’ And I heard my father say to me, my Heavenly Father say to me, ‘It's your child.’ I lost that child. I was 5-1/2 months pregnant. I can remember them holding the baby up and saying, ‘Charlotte, it's a boy.’ Then he was gone. So when I saw this toddler, I said, ‘God, how is that possible?’ He says, ‘They continue to grow in Heaven. But there's no time. It's eternity.’ So 48 years, and here my child, our child, is a toddler.”
Then God chose to show her one more thing. “God took me to the edge of Hell, and I looked down and the smell –rotten flesh. That's what it smelled like, and screams,” she says. “After seeing the beauty of Heaven, the contrast of seeing Hell is almost unbearable. And He says, ‘I show you this to tell you if some of them do not change their ways, this is where they shall reside. I heard my Father say, ‘You have time to go back and share.’”
As quickly as she had gone to heaven, Charlotte’s spirit came back. “I felt myself being drawn into my body. I felt the pain, where I hadn't felt pain. I felt the sorrow.” Danny said, ‘They came running in and your eye blinked.’ And he said, ‘I knew then I was going to get to bring you home.’”
Charlotte made a full recovery and was released from the hospital after two weeks. She has been sharing her story since then: in public appearances and with everyone she comes into contact with. “People need hope. They want to know that there really is something out there. They want to know that everything's okay,” Charlotte says. “I have been privileged to bring people to Christ, as He asked me to. All the authority that He had, He has given to us, in the name of Jesus Christ. Not because of who we are. God promises, He said if it were not so, He would’ve told you. But He's gone to prepare us a place, and it’s more real than you can imagine. I can look you square in the eye and tell you for sure, ‘Heaven is real.’”
Unsafe!
Chiapas, Mexico
Elena was expecting her second child. She lives with her husband and 5-year-old son in a rural community in Mexico. There, water is scarce. “The water we collect is far from home,” Elaina told us. “About 40 minutes’ walk each way. Before I was pregnant, I carried a heavy bucket on a difficult path. In our minds we thought we would do this forever.”
Unfortunately, the water they collect is not safe to drink. “My son got sick with diarrhea. Sometimes he vomited. We got stomach cramps and diarrhea too. I’m terrified every time I gave him water to drink because there is not money for medicine if he gets sick.”
Elena was also frightened about what the bad water might do to her unborn baby. So, her husband rode two hours by motorcycle to buy bottled water for her. “He spends a lot of money every two days...we can’t afford that.”
Then, thanks to YOU, Operation Blessing provided all 26 households in Elena’s community with rain water harvesting systems. Each tank stores and purifies up to 1,300 gallons of water.
Elena recently gave birth to a baby boy and now all will have clean water to wash, bathe, and drink!
“Now we have clean water at home! I drink whenever I want and give it to my children knowing they won’t get sick anymore. Thank you—you have changed our lives!” she said.
Inspired by an Animated Bible Story
14-year-old, Ju Ju, from Myanmar was walking across a bridge with a friend when two men attacked them. “They grabbed our shirts from behind and told us to kneel,” Ju Ju recalled. “I tried to run away, but one guy showed me his knife and said, ‘Sit down or I’ll kill you.’”
As the men decided what to do with the girls, Ju Ju had a desperate thought. “I thought they would sell us to sex traffickers. I thought about jumping off the bridge even though I might die.”
At that moment she remembered a CBN Superbook episode she had recently watched about Daniel. “In the Superbook story, God protected Daniel in the lion’s den. I prayed, ‘God, protect me. I don’t want to die.’ I did not stop praying.”
Ju Ju was a Buddhist. A friend had invited her to an after-school program supported by CBN’s Orphan’s Promise. While there she watched other Superbook episodes. As she crouched on the bridge, she wondered if God would deliver them like he had saved Daniel. Then one of the men turned and spoke to her. “He looked at me and told the other man to release us! He said we were too young and innocent. The other man agreed to let us go!”
The next day, Ju Ju told her teacher what happened and asked if she could pray to become a Christian. “I almost died, but Jesus saved me from that dangerous situation. He is always with His children. I want Him to be near me all the time!” she said.
Ju Ju’s mom has also started praying to Jesus. And her younger siblings now go to Sunday School to watch Superbook too. “Superbook continues to help us to know God more,” she added. “I am so happy that I am His child. Thank you for bringing Superbook to us!”
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