SQuire Rushnell & Louise DuART share their Godwinks!
Updated: Sep 18
SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuART
Impressionist and comedian Louise DuART shared the stage with Tim Conway and Harvey Corman for over ten years. SQuire Rushnell was an ABC network executive that brought "Good Morning America" to #1 and launched Emmy award winning "School House Rock". Their lives have been filled with Godwinks.
What are Godwinks?
You'll not only hear about what they are, you will hear some incredible true life stories that demonstrate their power. This husband and wife team, SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuART are a couple of the most engaging story tellers I have ever met. And every story is true and documented. You'll hear Stasha's amazing story of Emmett Kelly, the worlds most famous "Sad Faced" clown. Plus Joyce Meyer's wash rags prayer. And both Louise and SQuire will share some personal Godwinks that changed their lives. Godwinks can be big, or small but they are happening all around us, all the time. We just have to pay attention.
These two have authored over 12 best selling Godwink books, have produced 4 Godwink Christmas movies on Hallmark and just this year their story "Rescued by Ruby" has become one the mosts watched movies of all time on Netflix .
One of their passion projects is uncovering the power of couples who pray together...their books "Couples who Pray" and the "40 Day Prayer Challenge" share the power of partnered prayer. You can learn all about it on their website http://www.PrayStay.com.
I encourage you to engage in their inspiring work by checking out their website;
(And purchase any of their books with personal autographs)
Join the Godwinkers Facebook group by searching for Godwinkers and sign up.
All their books are available on Amazon, Godwinks Christmas Movies are available at the Hallmark Channel and "Rescued by Ruby" is streaming on Netflix.
This episode is a little longer than usual (well there were to guests after all) but it is fun and inspirational and one of the best one's yet. Enjoy.
LOUISE DUART & SQUIRE RUSHNELL AT A GLANCE
Comedic Impressionist • ABC Network Executive • Authors • Executive Producers • Christian Storytellers
Topics
God Winks • Faith • Prayer • Divine alignment • Marriage • Miracles • Comedy • Christian storytelling • Hallmark • Netflix • Rescued by Ruby • Pray Together Stay Together
Their Faith Journey
Louise: Catholic upbringing → Personal crisis → Accepting Christ → Healing experience → Comedy career → Meeting Squire → Shared ministry
Squire: Childhood belief → Son's medical crisis → Prayer → Deeper faith → Bible study → Meeting Louise → God Winks ministry
This Episode Explores
What a God Wink is
How Squire Rushnell coined the term
The God Wink that brought Louise and Squire together
Louise's journey from homemaker to comedian
Squire's experience with his critically ill infant son
The remarkable story of Stacia and Emmett Kelly
Why God Winks can bring hope during sorrow
How Louise and Squire use storytelling to share faith
Their Pray Together Stay Together ministry
Their work with Hallmark and Netflix
The story behind Rescued by Ruby
Their continuing ministry to help people recognize God's work
Questions Answered
Who are Louise DuArt and Squire Rushnell?
What is a God Wink?
How did Squire Rushnell come up with the term God Wink?
How did Louise DuArt become a comedian?
How did Louise and Squire meet?
What happened to Squire Rushnell's son?
How did prayer change Squire's faith?
What is Pray Together Stay Together?
Why do Louise and Squire encourage couples to pray together?
What is the story of Stacia and Emmett Kelly?
How did God Winks become movies?
What is Rescued by Ruby?
How can people recognize God Winks in their own lives?
Core Message
Louise DuArt and Squire Rushnell believe God is often at work through seemingly impossible circumstances. They call these moments “God Winks”—unexpected points of divine alignment that can bring faith, hope, comfort and encouragement.
Podcast Transcript: Louise DuArt & Squire Rushnell on God Winks, Faith & Prayer
Amazing Greats with Ric Hansen
Introduction
Ric Hansen:Well, hello to my podcast family here on Amazing Greats. It's Ric Hansen here. Thank you for joining us once again.
And today, oh man, we have got some great guests. It's a couple—a power couple. He was a network executive; she's a comedian. They have both written books, they've executive-produced movies, they have a Facebook page, they have a store. I mean, this is a couple that just keeps blazing a new trail.
And I loved every second of our conversation, and I think you will too.
Join us as I introduce you to Louise DuArt and Squire Rushnell on Amazing Greats.
Well, here we are on Amazing Greats, the podcast, and I have two special guests with us today. This is kind of exciting because it's the first time I've done a podcast with two people, so this is going to be interesting. And I know I've seen you guys on podcasts and interviews and so forth, so I know this works well.
You guys are great, and the only question will be whether I can get through it. Okay, so here we go.
Louise DuArt:We do everything together.
Squire Rushnell:That's right.
Louise DuArt:I know, isn't that great? Well, actually, they don't call us Squire and Louise. We're known as “Squeeze,” because we're always together, never separate.
Squire Rushnell:So you can talk to a singular person or the two of us, and you have your choice.
Ric Hansen:Whoever has the appropriate answer will just spit it out, right?
Okay. So we're all the way from Puget Sound in Washington State to Martha's Vineyard. It's about as far as we can get away from one another physically, but it's great to have you here.
I love that we're sitting in your home in Martha's Vineyard, and it's so warm and cozy. Thank you for being with us today.
Let me introduce you first with all of the embarrassing stuff about your credentials in a nutshell, and then we're going to talk more about that as well.
We're talking with Louise DuArt and Squire Rushnell.
Louise is known as one of the world's best comedic impressionists. You worked 10 years on stage and on TV with a couple of the other greats, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway. You have like a hundred impressions that you do, and we may even ask you to do a couple a little later.
You've also had your own talk show on the ABC Family Channel for, what was it, 10 years, eight years, eight seasons, something like that.
And Squire Rushnell, a successful executive at ABC. You were the guy that they attribute the fact that Good Morning America became number one in the country at one point. You're the father of an Emmy Award-winning Schoolhouse Rock! as a part of the ABC After School Specials.
And you're credited with coining the phrase “God Winks,” which we're going to find out a whole lot more about here in just a couple of minutes.
And so that's where we're going to launch. I want to know—tell us the definition. I know you've said this so many times and in so many ways. But what is a God Wink?
What Is a God Wink?
Squire Rushnell:Well, a God Wink is one of those little coincidences that you know isn't.
And in fact, if you look up “coincidence” in the dictionary, it says two extraordinary events coming together without an apparent cause.
Well, a God Wink is two extraordinary events coming together with a cause, and that cause is divine.
We had no idea when we started kicking around what was a coincidence when I was writing the first book, When God Winks. We tried to figure out what it was. If people say there's no coincidence to coincidence, well, then what the heck do you call it?
And so we had no idea that we were really filling a vacancy in the language—that there was no word for what a God Wink is now.
Something you think is a coincidence, but it isn't, and you know that it comes from God. That is a God Wink.
And so the word, because it filled that vacancy, went into the language very, very quickly.
Well, quickly, I say quickly, but it was 20 years ago.
But I think we are at that tipping point where “God Wink” is now becoming pretty much a household word.
Five years on the Today Show helped, and four seasons of the number-one Godwink Christmas movies on Hallmark have helped. Rescued by Ruby on Netflix has helped, and just basically doing 12 books that have put it into the marketplace.
And word of mouth is really what has helped the most.
Ric Hansen:Absolutely. And I think at one point you said it might be in the dictionary soon, and I don't know if it is or isn't. I don't know that for sure.
But it did bother me that my autocorrect still wants to break them apart. It still doesn't want to call it God Winks, you know. So that bothers me.
But yeah, it has become a household word, and it's because of the great work that you guys have done.
And you mentioned a few of the things that I wanted to mention, which is all the books and the movies. And you both have been the executive producers of those four movies.
Tell us how the books moved from books to movies. Was that something they approached you about, or how did all that come together?
From Books to Movies
Squire Rushnell:Well, I think in the beginning, I've always been a storyteller, I guess, coming out of ABC, coming out of radio in the beginning.
I've always loved storytelling, and I always pictured every one of these stories as a mini-movie. And so I saw it playing out like that.
But I was always scared to death of going to ABC, where I worked for 20 years, or CBS or NBC, where I have colleagues and friends, because I know that network executives are innately bullies.
I used to be one, you know.
Louise DuArt:You used to be one!
Squire Rushnell:And so I don't like that title. Change that, you know.
I was always a little wary about going to a network where you get signed up and then they have the right to change things.
And I started thinking that God Wink word could get turned into “Tiddlywinks.”
But Hallmark, it struck me, was always the perfect brand match—that their brand came out of family and wonderful family relationships.
And I also had admired Bill Abbott, who had been the CEO who had really built the network into the number-one dramatic channel in the world.
And so I just felt that that was a good fit.
And so we prayed about it. We pray about everything.
As a matter of fact, it was an event for Pat Boone that led us to our first meeting at Hallmark with Randy Pope.
Now, God Wink and Pope—there's also an angel in this story, all right.
Louise DuArt:A guy named Dan Angel.
Squire Rushnell:So there was a Squire, a Pope and an Angel.
Louise DuArt:Yeah. I was asked to perform at Pat's 80th birthday party, and it was then that we had an appointment. We made an appointment with Hallmark, and they loved the idea of the God Winks. It was really in their wheelhouse.
But the fact is that they're not just good stories—they're real stories. Every story is true.
So at the end of each movie, you see the actual people that it happened to, and it just connected with their audiences.
Every time they would air a Godwink Christmas, it would be number one, and people would say the same thing: “It gave me so much hope.”
And then when they saw the real people, it's like, “Oh my gosh, that could be me.”
So I think that just inspired us to keep writing.
And then one of the funny things that happened—how God works—it was a God Wink.
We had actually pitched, you know, when you go to Hallmark, you pitch like three different movie ideas, and they'll pick one of them.
And we knew that Bill Abbott loved dogs, so we had this great dog story about Ruby, a rescue dog, rescued by a Rhode Island police officer.
So we pitched that, and they turned it down.
Squire Rushnell:So they went with another one, which was fine, but it wasn't Bill. It was one of his lieutenants who was second-guessing Bill.
He says now that he would have never turned that down.
Louise DuArt:Well, because Bill loves dogs so much, and he doesn't like to see them in jeopardy. Well, in the first act, Ruby's about to be euthanized.
Squire Rushnell:Almost the first scene.
Louise DuArt:So we got a call from our producing partner, Dan Angel. We told him what happened.
He said, “I can't believe that they turned it down.”
He said, “Well, listen, I'll call you back. I'm at a meeting with Netflix.”
So he calls us after the meeting, and he says, “You're not going to believe this. This is a real God Wink.”
He said, “I pitched all the movies,” because he does movies on his own, “all the movies, and they turned every one of them down. And I got up to leave and I said, ‘Well, I have one more.’”
And he pitched the Ruby the dog story, and he must have done a good job because they started crying.
And they said, “That's the one we want.”
So we get to do Rescued by Ruby.
And I have to be honest with you, Netflix was great. They left us alone. It's a G-rated movie, very family.
Squire Rushnell:How many of those?
Louise DuArt:I know, because, you know—
But we weren't really surprised because we knew that the audience would embrace such a beautiful, hopeful story.
But it was number two in the world for the first 28 days, and then number one with kids. So it did so well.
And for us, it was like a dream come true because, as much as we love Hallmark, we want to continue to do work on Hallmark.
Netflix was the number-one streamer. So 220 million households it gets into, and all around the world, people saw it.
And Ruby was number two all around the world, and it showed us that people want hope, no matter what country—every single country.
Squire Rushnell:And about a hundred countries, we were either number one or number two. And so that was a fascinating experience in real time—to a network that reached, at that moment, 222 million households.
And you could look at it in real time: in Sri Lanka we're number one; in Australia—
And that was just this year, that was early 2022, right?
Ric Hansen:It was still available on Netflix?
Squire Rushnell:Oh yeah, still doing it.
Yeah, IMDb has called it the third-best Netflix movie of the year.
Ric Hansen:Wow. I love that.
Louise DuArt:No, it's just a God thing, truly. It was a God Wink for sure.
Pat Boone and Partnered Prayer
Ric Hansen:That's what I love about you, and I love your story and all the stories that you tell.
By the way, Pat Boone, I don't know if you know this, was one of my guests on Amazing Greats and told his whole life story. In fact, he's a great talker, great storyteller.
And so we split that up in two and had Pat Boone One and Pat Boone Two in two different podcasts. But what a great guy he was!
And yeah, it's interesting that you bring him up, and he's a friend of yours as well.
Louise DuArt:Yes, he is. And we loved Mama Shirley. We loved her so much. She was great. She was the one who called me and asked me to perform at Pat's 80th.
Squire Rushnell:She loved two things about us before she met us, because her daughter had seen us perform in a church.
Louise DuArt:It was Cherry. I think it was Cherry Booth.
Squire Rushnell:Yeah, we knew Debbie from before. Squire did before I worked with her.
Louise DuArt:Squire, you could talk about Debbie in a second.
Squire Rushnell:Yeah, but we saw her at one of your shows with her. But anyway, we loved the fact that she loved God Winks and she loved partnered prayer, which is an advocacy that we have, where we advocate two people praying together for five minutes a day for 40 days.
Amazing things happen.
Louise's Impressions
Ric Hansen:Amazing. And so did you do your impersonations at the 80th?
Louise DuArt:I did a little Joan Rivers. “Can we talk here?” You know, how to do my Joan Rivers, you know what I'm saying?
I did some George Burns. I closed with my George Burns.
And I did a little Judge Judy and some others. I did a slew of them. You have no idea.
I actually have a piece in my act where I have 25 celebrities get locked in an elevator.
Ric Hansen:I've seen it. It's fantastic. It is absolutely amazing.
So they go back and forth, and it's like, oh man, and I love it. And they kind of tell a story with one another, right, in the elevator.
Louise DuArt:Yeah. It's a little schizophrenic.
Squire Rushnell:Six of my best friends are simple.
Louise DuArt:I had a dream the other night that I got to go to the Academy Awards, and I was so excited because all my favorite stars were there from film and television.
We got into this backstage elevator with all of them, and all of a sudden the elevator door is going to stop.
Ric Hansen:We're talking with Squire Rushnell and Louise DuArt with some amazing God Wink stories.
Squire Rushnell:Now, Ric, let me ask you something. Does this make sense? I never know who I'm waking up next to.
Louise DuArt:We have no idea, babe.
Ric Hansen:Amongst them, you know, I did a list—there's like a hundred or something that you can do. But yeah, Joan Rivers, Cher, Bart Simpson, Judge Judy, Barbra Streisand, Barbara Walters.
Do a little Barbara Walters for us.
Louise DuArt:Well, I love Barbara Walters. You know, I've interviewed everyone from Ronald Reagan to Robert Redford, from Marshall McLuhan to Roger Rabbit.
How Louise and Squire Met
Ric Hansen:Oh my goodness.
Well, this is so great. So the two of you—and I'd love to share this story as well—the fact that you're even together as one is through a God Wink that was pretty amazing in and of itself, right?
How did you guys come together?
Squire Rushnell:Well, the first time I met Louise was a long time ago—almost 50 years ago.
I was running children's television at ABC, and in my first marriage, I had two little girls, like seven and nine.
There was a show that was playing at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum, and it was one of those costume shows like Sesame Street Goes Down the Road, with characters and so forth.
And this was done by Sid and Marty Krofft, and it was based upon H.R. Pufnstuf, one of the big hits at that time.
So I was there among 2,000 young kids screaming.
And when the star of that show came on the stage, burst on the stage with a green face, a long nose and a wart on it, I realized that that was somebody very exciting.
It was Witchiepoo.
But whoever that character was was somebody who was very dynamic. I had no idea what her name was.
About two weeks later, I was in a meeting with the Kroffts again, and they said, “Well, look, we're working on this wraparound group that we want to have for Saturday morning, kind of a group that would tie together the whole Saturday morning schedule, like jingles on a radio station.”
That was my idea.
And so they created this group called Captain Cool and the Kongs, kind of a ripoff of KISS at that time, with a lot of face paint and fancy costumes.
But they were missing a comedian.
And so I said, “What about the girl who played Witchiepoo?”
They said, “Okay, well, let's go get her.”
The guy in the suit wants that girl—the network suit.
Anyway, I knew nothing about any of that except that about two months later we were doing a presentation to our advertisers in New York about all of the fall programs on the schedule.
And we always put together this wonderful little party for the advertisers, invited them to bring their kids.
And so that was a big attraction for the agencies and always gave us a little edge over the other two networks.
And so we had Captain Cool and the Kongs, and that was the first time I had ever met Louise DuArt.
And another kind of—I don't know whether it's God Wink-y or not—but that party was the first event at a new restaurant in New York City.
It was Windows on the World at the top of the World Trade Center.
Their first event, our party, was the first time I ever met Louise.
We thought about that a lot after 9/11.
Louise DuArt:Yeah. When we met, Squire gave me my first break in television.
I mean, I was so grateful to him. Of course, he was the network executive, I was a lowly little actor, but he was so nice to all the underlings.
He always had time for people, and he was just such a nice guy.
I would write to him, and in those days we didn't have email; we actually had to write letters.
I would write to him every so often just to give an update of what was happening in my career, and he was always nice enough to write back.
We'd see each other once in a while, like if I was doing a talk show or something, we'd run into each other.
Squire Rushnell:Or if you were on Good Morning America one time, or in the green room, right? ABC affiliate meetings and that kind of thing.
Louise DuArt:But I was doing a Broadway show called Dream Stuff, and a fellow came backstage.
The stage manager said, “There's a gentleman named Squire Rushnell who's in the audience. He wants to see you after the show.”
And I said, “Oh my gosh, he's the guy who gave me my first break. If it wasn't for him, I'd never be in the business.”
Unbeknownst to me, Squire, who was supposed to go to Canada that weekend—here's the God Wink coming—with his son.
He has a brain-injured son, and with brain-injured kids, you can't just say, “We're going to do this,” and then switch, you know, do a switcheroo. They get focused on something.
Well, he was supposed to go to Canada with some meetings, and he was going to take Grant on some wonderful little family outings.
Then the meeting got canceled at the last minute.
So he said to Grant, “Well, let's go to a Broadway musical,” because Grant loves musicals.
And he opens up the New York Times, he sees Dream Stuff with my name, Louise DuArt.
“Oh, it's an old friend. Let's go see her.”
Well, when the show ended that night, I saw him in the foyer.
I looked at him and I just knew in my heart.
Now, we'd both been divorced for a while.
I knew that he was the one God had for me.
And we went out for coffee.
We've had coffee every day since.
But here's the amazing God Wink:
That was the last performance of the show. We closed that night.
Squire Rushnell:So if I had come along the next day, this God Wink wouldn't have happened.
And that's the way divine alignment works in our lives.
Divine alignment is when two events take place and there's a crossroads. There's always a God Wink there.
It's like that moment that you met the girl that you ended up marrying.
It was the time that you got to a place, and if you had been there five minutes earlier or five minutes later, you wouldn't have met the person who gave you your first job, opened up your career, opened up your faith, changed your life.
God uses divine alignment to nudge us into place so He can deliver us God Winks.
And that's what happened to us.
The Story of Stacia and Emmett Kelly
Ric Hansen:Amazing. I love that story.
And there are so many stories that you have uncovered since you started all of this.
If you could pick out one and just say, “Here's a God Wink story that just blew me away,” besides your own, that ended up either in a movie or a book—or just give us one of the greatest God Wink stories you've got.
Squire Rushnell:Well, I think—are you thinking David and Tony?
No, I'm thinking Stacia, because that's short and to the point.
Louise DuArt:I think Stacia, yeah. I think that's a fun one.
Squire Rushnell:All right. Stacia is a story about a young girl who was in her early 20s, working in Denver, Colorado.
She grew up in a show-business background, and she got one of those phone calls in the middle of the night that her dad had died of a heart attack.
And so she rushed to pack a bag, rushed to the airport, bought a ticket, went on the plane, picked up a morning paper, and sat down in the seat next to the window.
She opened up the paper, and there was her father's picture:
Emmett Kelly, world-famous clown, Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus, dead at 80.
She sat there and looked at that headline and just felt so sad.
She was on her way to Sarasota, Florida, to be with her mother and her siblings.
And then she reached into a bag, just a little memorabilia that she had thrown into it, and she pulled out an old newspaper, a yellow newspaper.
Now, her father, Emmett Kelly, was the clown who had the sad face.
All other clowns had grins from ear to ear, but Emmett Kelly always had a sad face.
And it was so endearing, and that's why he was with Ringling Brothers for 20 years, their number-one clown.
But he always had a rule: never be caught in a photograph with anything but his trademark face.
Never let anybody see the sad-faced clown smiling.
And he was successful all of his life except for one time.
He was being interviewed by an AP photographer and was backstage at a theater somewhere.
The phone rang, and it said, “It's for you, Emmett.”
And so he gets up and he talks to the person.
“Hi, Doctor.”
And the doctor says, “Congratulations, Emmett. You are the father of a new baby girl.”
And he went like this, and the photographer went, “Click.”
And the next day that newspaper, that picture, went out to newspapers all around the globe.
It was the only picture ever taken of the sad-faced clown smiling.
And so as Stacia pulled out that old yellow newspaper and opened it up, it was that treasured picture.
And suddenly, as she looked at it, she saw something that she had never seen before.
You know how God gives you the ability to see things at the right time that you have never seen before, that have been right in front of you?
She saw what he was smiling about.
He was smiling about her.
And she began to cry.
There was a man seated next to her.
He leaned over and said, “Miss, are you okay?”
And she said, “Yes.”
She pointed to the picture and said, “My father died last night.”
He turned white.
He said, “You're not going to believe this. I'm the photographer who took that picture 25 years ago.”
Ric Hansen:Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
Squire Rushnell:I know. He said he was so happy that day. He loved that you were born.
And that relationship began a new friendship because a few months later, when Stacia got married, she hired him to come and be the photographer for her wedding.
I know. That's how God Winks work.
God Winks come along when they are impossible. They come along and defy any odds, because with God there are no odds.
And they always bring you comfort.
When the Prayer Isn't Answered
Ric Hansen:Always.
And I think one of the things that I saw you say, and I just want to bring it up quickly here, is that God Winks can be big, big deals, or they could be little deals.
Oh, little bitty ones.
But He's winking.
So God Wink is, as you said, kind of a word that really brings home the idea of a God nudge or an answered prayer.
Nobody had really found that word until now that works, and it works for all of that.
But what about the times when people think, “Gosh, where's God now? Where's God's Wink now? Why isn't my prayer answered?”
Is there a response to that? Is there a way to try to get by that?
Squire Rushnell:Well, you don't blame God for anything.
And I do believe that the most God Wink stories that we receive—we receive them all the time over our Facebook God Wink pages.
Louise does a private group with like 20,000 private-group fans, and they all share prayer.
And on the God Wink Facebook page, I always share stories.
And those stories are always coming in.
But the vast majority, I think, of stories are at times of sorrow, because I think that's when we are, number one, maybe more prepared.
We may be more humble, more vulnerable when we've lost someone we love.
And so we're open to receive God Winks.
God Winks happen when we allow them to happen.
A lot of people say, “Well, I've never had a God Wink.”
Well, probably you haven't allowed it, you know?
And so those things are right there in front of us that we didn't see before.
But when we look for them—“When you seek Me, you will find Me,” says the Scriptures.
And when you seek God Winks, you will see them.
And once you see them, you keep on seeing them.
They'll happen all the time.
But that's what I believe. I think that at those times of sorrow, that's when God comes in and He also gives us more God Winks.
He gives us those messages of hope, and they're messages of comfort.
Louise DuArt:Yeah. And His Word says He never leaves us or forsakes us.
And I know oftentimes people say, “Where are You, God? Where were You when I lost my child? Where were You when I was in that fire?”
And it—you just—it's so difficult.
But we live in the world, He says, but we're not of the world.
And this time on earth is really but a blink of an eye.
But He tells us we will have trials and tribulations. We will. I mean, that's just the way the world is.
But there is something awaiting us that's so beautiful.
And all those tears that we shed, He says He actually bottles them up.
So He loves us so much, and He's with us during the most trying, horrible times.
And we can be kind of just, “Oh well, just get over it.”
But you don't get over it.
You get on with it, but you never get over it.
But the one thing about God Winks is they are messages of hope.
And there was an old evangelist years ago in the 1600s that said, “When I pray, coincidences happen. When I don't, they don't.”
He didn't know the word God Winks. We can't blame him for that.
But when you pray—and we know this to be true—when you pray, God Winks happen more often.
It's, you know, “In all your ways acknowledge Me, and I'll direct your steps.”
And God Winks are like those little gifts left at your doorstep, but you have to open the door and open your gifts.
So when you acknowledge God in everything, you see them all the time.
We were just listening to Joyce Meyer, who loves God Winks.
And she was saying to God one day, “How come I don't get God Winks? I used to get them all the time. How come I don't get them right now?”
And God said to her, “Joyce, I give them to you all the time. You're just so used to them now.”
And so I think that's—we get used to it.
I mean, Squire and I, we always will say, “Oh, thank you.”
We want to acknowledge, “Thank you, God.”
The Joyce Meyer Washcloth Story
Squire Rushnell:Yeah. And do you want to tell—is it okay if you tell that Joyce Meyer washcloth story?
Louise DuArt:Well, she and her husband, Dave, were just dirt poor.
And she was praying, and she needed 12 wash rags.
She said that she prayed for everything, you know, everything.
But she needed 12 wash rags.
And she thought, “Well, you know, that seems so silly, but I need them.”
And she said the next day there's a knock at the door, and there's a woman who said, “I don't know. God just told me you needed these.”
And she gave her the 12 wash rags.
And she said that increased her faith so much.
And I think that's what God Winks do.
They're faith builders.
So she never forgot that.
And I think if we journal our God Winks, you will see.
If you journal them every time you get one and date it, when you look back a month from now, you will be amazed at how many God Winks you have.
And it'll really increase your faith and give you so much more hope and encouragement.
The Shallow End of the Pool
Ric Hansen:And one of the things that you said along the way, and I picked up on it because I think it's so true, and that is that for skeptics and for new believers, the God Wink idea, the concept of the God Wink, is kind of the shallow end of the pool.
It's the opportunity to see God at work in real time, in real life, right?
Squire Rushnell:Yeah, that's exactly.
And that was brought home one day with the best compliment we ever had from a pastor, Jim Reeves, in Faith Community Church in West Covina, outside of L.A.
We were having lunch and he was so excited. We were just getting the Hallmark movie, and he was just so glad and everything else.
And he said, “Oh gosh, you know what I love about you guys? You're so shallow.”
And he said, “No, no, no, I didn't mean that.”
He says, “No, no, no, no. We pastors bring them into the deep end; you bring them into the shallow end.”
And we said, “Yeah, right. We love that. We are shallow people.”
Listen, Schoolhouse Rock! is for shallow people.
That was three minutes of history in between Bugs Bunny and Scooby-Doo on Saturday morning and learning “Conjunction Junction, what's your function?”
And that's my whole background.
Louise DuArt:Yeah, “Conjunction Junction, what's your function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses. Conjunction Junction, how's the function? I got three favorite cards that get most of my job done.”
Recognizing God's Work
Ric Hansen:Ric Hansen here with Louise DuArt and Squire Rushnell as they share their amazing journeys—shallow end of the pool.
I have a buddy of mine who, speaking of journaling, has a pile of rocks.
Every time there's a God Wink, he adds a rock to the pile, and this pile continues to grow.
And so he has an opportunity to see before his very eyes what all of the things that God has done for him are.
Squire Rushnell:So I love it.
Oh, you know what I'd love? I'd love him to write me and tell me that and send me a picture of that rock.
Oh my gosh, that's fabulous.
We'll blast that out to our fans.
Ric Hansen:I will do that. His name's Chris Balashotis, and I will have him connect back to you.
Squire Rushnell:Great. Yes. Squire at GodWinks.com. Or he'd rather write to Louise—Louise at GodWinks.com.
Louise's Faith Journey
Ric Hansen:So let's jump into—we always like to find out the personal stories, and I want to get both of your personal stories.
But where did—let's maybe start with Louise. Where did you first find Jesus? When did He enter your life? Was it like a lightning-bolt kind of an affair? Or how did you become—
Louise DuArt:Well, it's interesting.
There were maybe five or six different people who told me about the Lord.
And I was brought up Catholic, but I was starting to get into show business and I just didn't have time for that, you know.
But then my husband left me suddenly, my first husband, and I was devastated.
And my sister-in-law told me, “You need Jesus.”
She had just accepted the Lord.
And so I did accept Christ.
And then the next day I went to a church called Saint Joseph's Catholic Church, and I went in there, but it was a charismatic Catholic church.
And there was singing and there was so much joy, and it was just an amazing place.
And there was a priest, Father Lou Gavoni, who said, “God is healing people.”
And I never heard that.
And then he said, “There's someone who just accepted Christ who has a lump on their left hand, on their ring finger, and God is going to heal it right now.”
And he wants you to know that He's given you a miracle, so you'll remember that when you go through difficult times in life.
Remember, just claim it in the name of the Lord.
You'll feel a heat going through your hand.
And I didn't know what that meant. Claim it in the name of the Lord. I didn't know what even what that meant.
But all of a sudden, I felt this heat going through my hand.
I had had a lump, and my sister-in-law and I watched the lump disappear.
Ric Hansen:No way.
Louise DuArt:I had a miracle.
And let me just tell you something. That's just one of countless miracles that God has done in my life.
But my career started really because when my husband left, I didn't know what to do.
How am I going to pay the bills? Because he left me for another woman.
We won't get into all the dirty details.
But what happened was I was praying with some friends, and they said, “Louise, you do all those wacky voices for us.”
I just had a talent to do voices, never thought I could do it professionally.
“Why don't you go down to one of those comedy clubs, see if you can do it for a living?”
So I'm thinking their cheese had slipped off the crackers.
Like, I'm a homemaker, San Fernando Valley. I'm not gonna—
So what happened was during the night, I felt the Lord speaking so strongly, like, “What have you got to lose? What have you got to lose? Just go down there.”
And He gave me the courage to drive down Sunset Boulevard to the Comedy Store.
Got on stage, did some impressions.
It was open-mic night, so the nonprofessionals could have like five minutes.
Unbeknownst to me, Star Search scouts were in the audience, there to see 10 other comics.
And they saw me and they put me on the show.
And Donna Summer was switching the channels one night, and she saw Star Search, this wacky woman doing these crazy voices, and she calls her manager, Susan Mineo, and she says, “Get me that girl to be my opening act.”
And that is how it began.
Oh my God. Talk about a God plan.
Squire Rushnell:Housewife in the San Fernando Valley to opening act at the theater.
Louise DuArt:Yeah. And who knew? Only God knew.
And by the way, when I would pray, God—I was believing or not, I don't sound like, but I was painfully shy.
And that's why I did voices, because I escaped into other people.
But God had spoken to my heart saying, “I'm going to give you voices to reach many people.”
And I thought He meant, you know, a voice to reach people about the Lord because I loved Him.
I didn't know He meant literally.
But I also didn't know that He had Squire waiting in the wings for me seven years later, and that we would get together and it would be the love of my life, and that He would use us in this way.
Ric Hansen:Who was the first voice you did at that comedy club?
Louise DuArt:Oh, probably—I think it was Joan. I have to say, I love Joan Rivers. I do. I really do.
And I think I did Katharine Hepburn.
Louise DuArt:And I did Jane Fonda. I did Jane Fonda and Katharine Hepburn doing a little thing together.
You know what I'm saying? Thank you.
Squire's Faith Journey
Ric Hansen:All right, Squire, you're up. Tell me where you found God.
Squire Rushnell:Well, I always thought I knew God, because I grew up in a little hick town called Adams Center, 25 miles from the Canadian border.
And I just—I always prayed.
My mother sent me to church with my paper-route money, and I had to go and put something in the plate.
And so I just thought I believed in God.
But when I came face-to-face with a major crisis in my life, I realized that I really didn't know much about God.
And I had never read the Bible.
And that crisis that I had was when you go into the hospital to have a baby, you expect that you're going to come out and hand out cigars and just have a joyful time.
You never expect that you're going to go into the hospital and the doctor is going to say, “I'm sorry, your baby was born in cardiac arrest. If he lives, he will probably have severe brain damage.”
And so I was standing over his incubator at Lenox Hill Hospital.
My prior wife had had a cesarean section, so she couldn't even see the baby.
And there he was in the incubator.
I counted 18 different tubes and wires coming out of his body.
There was one tube that went into his mouth and all these other wires, and there was a meter there that I finally figured out what it meant—that he was doing 5% of the breathing, and the machine was doing 95% of the breathing.
That wasn't good.
And so I just started thinking things like, “What do you do? What does a responsible father do at a time like this?”
And I started thinking, “Where do I even bury a child in New York City when I haven't figured out where my family's getting buried?”
We had never talked about that.
And a lady came up to me who I really think was an angelic messenger on Earth, who said something that was kind of weird.
She said, “Have you thought of taking a picture of your baby?”
And I looked at her oddly. I'm thinking, here's a child with 18 different tubes and wires coming out of him.
And then she finished the sentence.
She said, “I came into this hospital a year ago and my baby was stillborn. I left the hospital and I had no evidence that I had ever given birth to a baby.”
Well, I did take a picture.
But I also realized that my child, my little boy, is still alive.
And instead of worrying about where I'm going to bury this child, maybe I'd better start praying to God to save this child.
And I just begged God to save this child.
Well, I committed to praying over that incubator around the clock.
And it was on the second day, about five o'clock in the morning, and not many people were in the neonatal unit at Lenox Hill Hospital.
And all of a sudden his body started to shake.
And I called the nurse over, and she said, “Oh my goodness, he's having a seizure.”
She went to run to get a doctor.
And now I was looking and praying over my little boy and saying, “God, please save him.”
Then I saw something that was startling.
Through that tube that was coming out of his throat—it was a transparent tube—I saw something dark that was moving through it.
You see, when my son was in utero, he had inhaled his own body waste, and they called that meconium.
And so his little lungs were clogged with his own body waste.
And I don't believe they could even operate on a little baby for that, and that's why he was in such straits.
But this dark substance was going through the tube.
God was casting off what was in his lungs.
And the evidence of that was that meter, which went from 5% breathing on his own up to 20, up to 30.
And by the time he was 48 hours old, at about 8:30 in the morning, he was breathing 50% on his own.
And they said he was the miracle baby of Lenox Hill Hospital.
I pledged myself to God on that day.
And fortunately, I then met Louise about maybe 10 years after that, and she was skilled at the Bible and she led me into it.
And we began praying together every single day.
And we now have a ministry called Pray Together Stay Together, because I saw the power of prayer in that experience.
And there was no question about it: God exists.
Pray Together Stay Together
Ric Hansen:Thank you. Thank you for that story.
And may I say, you both are such great storytellers. I mean, you bring us right in and make it real, and I really appreciate that.
So let's talk about couples praying together, then—the book—because I think that was a bit of a departure from your God Wink, but at the same time still certainly devoted to God.
How did that all come about? You guys pray together every single day, right?
Squire Rushnell:Oh, every day.
And we saw the power in that.
And we knew that when we prayed, we were in the presence of God, where there was the three of us.
A lot of decisions that we make in our lives were because of the discernment that He would give us in our prayer.
So we just went out and tried to find other couples saying, “Do you guys pray together?”
Louise DuArt:And we told them the power of it.
And so it started like kind of a little group of friends that started praying together, and they were coming back saying, “Wow, this prayer thing is really amazing.”
And so then we decided we were going to go and find evidence, which we couldn't find.
Evidence about what happens when people pray together at least five minutes a day for 40 days consistently.
We couldn't find any evidence, any research.
We went to Barna.
Squire Rushnell:So we went to George Barna.
Barna has a company that did all the research for a lot of big churches.
So we wormed our way into meeting George Barna, and we said, “George, we'd love to talk to you about research on people praying together.”
And he said, “In 25 years I've never done any research on that—praying consistently together, people praying consistently together.”
And so we said, “Well, how come?”
He said, “Nobody's ever asked me.”
And so that led us to Baylor University, the Institute for Studies of Religion, which does many of these research studies.
And we got to the head of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion and we asked him about research of people praying together.
And he said, “I'm also ashamed we've never done a study on what happens when people pray together consistently.”
He said, “But we'll start now.”
“If you can collect the data, if you can get the research, we'll do the research studies. And if you can get the people together to pray together and do the studies and so forth, we will do the evaluation.”
So we have been collecting research data for about 10 years now.
We want to get it up to like five or six thousand people who have prayed together so we really have a body of evidence.
And so far, just a little bit of data that we do have—things like showing appreciation goes up by 30% to each other, and the fear of divorce drops to zero when you start praying together, and then romance skyrockets up 21%.
That always gets the attention of guys. I don't know why that is.
But anyway, if you go to PrayStay.com or .org, either one, that will tell you everything you want to know about Pray Together Stay Together, our ministry.
And we work with Sermon.net, we work with Baylor, and you can take the survey with churches like Gateway Church, Joel Osteen's church, Ernard's church, a whole number of big churches.
Or you can take the survey just by yourself, so that you're not a part of that group.
What They're Doing Now
Ric Hansen:Fun, inspiring and full of wisdom.
We're talking with our guests Squire Rushnell and Louise DuArt.
This has been absolutely incredible.
But before we end this conversation, I want to make sure that everybody knows all of the things that you're into and up to right now, and the way that we can support what you're doing.
Louise DuArt:God Winkers is one of them—the Facebook people talk about this.
We're working on some children's books, and then another one we want to do, of course, is for teens and for kids: how to teach kids how to look for the God Winks in their life.
Because so many parents would say to us, “You know, we love these stories.”
And so many God Winks have happened, like people like Joyce Meyer and others, and ourselves when we were kids.
God Winks happened. We just didn't know what to call them.
So we want other kids to be encouraged.
I mean, our whole ministry is really to, as the Great Commission is, preach the Gospel throughout the world.
We might not do it in a conventional way.
We do it through stories, and we are the conduits for other people's testimonies.
Squire Rushnell:We just feel privileged that people will tell us their testimony and we get to share it with the world.
We're the blabbermouths!
So we're just going to keep doing movies.
We have the fifth Hallmark movie in development at this point, and Netflix is very pleased with Rescued by Ruby.
There's a lot of interest from a lot of places. We're very excited.
So if anybody wants to join the God Winkers on Facebook, Louise's group—we urge people to do that.
Or come to GodWinks.com and sign up for the Wink Letter, which comes out twice a week, which is kind of like the Wink Story of the Week.
It's just a little pick-me-up story that you get right in your email twice a week.
We'd just love to have as many come on board as you can.
Ric Hansen:And you've got the store.
I was hopefully going to get myself a God Wink cap before—
Louise DuArt:Oh, we have to send you one!
Squire Rushnell:You have to. Give us your email.
The store's on GodWinks.com as well, right?
Louise DuArt:Yes, GodWinks.com.
We have hats. We have all 12 books.
The thing about our books—you can get these books cheaper at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, no question about it.
We love to have people go to those stores.
But if you want to have it autographed, if you want every book autographed by Louise and me, there's a book plate that's in the front of the book.
We also have free cards, and then you can pick out a free greeting card—Christmas card, special-day card, Valentine's card, all of those cards.
And you can pick out from 20 different cards to go with the book if you want to give it to somebody.
Ric Hansen:Thank you for being here. God bless you and all the work you're doing.
Louise DuArt:Thanks, Ric.
Squire Rushnell:Thank you. Thank you so much.
Ric, you were a great interviewer, and he was so right!
Ric Hansen:Thanks kindly. God bless. Take care.
Was that great or what?
Every second of that conversation was inspiring and so entertaining.
To our friends Louise DuArt and Squire Rushnell, thank you so much for being a part of the show and the podcast here at Amazing Greats.
And to you, our audience, our listeners, thank you so much for being here today.
Remember, if you liked it, click Like or Subscribe. That helps too.
And let's spread the word about these great testimonials from famous folks like our good friends Louise and Squire.
Have a great week. God bless.
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