You Are Never Too Old To Be Used By God with Connie Haydock

Connie: I’m thrilled to death to be here.

Ray: Thrilled to death. Alright, so first of all, I’m holding your card, Providence Proton. Tell us about Providence

Proton. What is it, how’d it get its start, and what do you do?

Connie: We’re gonna be here for a while.

Ray: Alright.

Connie: And I’m honored to be here and humbled that I’m here also.

Ray: It’s an honor, Sir.

Connie: I could not believe when I had this opportunity to come. But God is good. Protons are an advanced form of radiation, mostly for treatments of tumors that are cancerous and this is simply a cancer, tumorous cancer eradicator. The difference in photons and in protons is that photons has been around forever, and that’s the normal radiation that a person receives at the time they have cancer. And 52% of the people that have cancer are trading with some type of radiation. At this point in time, protons has been around for a long time; it was discovered by the Department of Defense in 1945. So that’s how long protons has been identified, but only in medicine for probably the last 20 years, but it has taken a long time for it to catch on.

The actual difference in the two is that photons, even though it has a lot of good things for it, and eliminating the bad things, when you receive photons, the regular radiation, when it goes into your body, it starts eradicating everything that it touches. It cannot be controlled. It goes in one side and comes back out the other. Everything that it comes in contact with, it destroys, good cells and the bad cells together. A lot of times the bad cells will return, will turn around and become cancerous again, and the good cells will do the same. Or it can, depending on where the location is, it could do damage to very vital organs. Protons, you can’t move them, but you can direct them. And I’m not going to go into all the details on that because it’s scientific, and you need to look at it on a board to understand it. But if you can take for instance, when a, when a regular radiation goes in your body, it’s going in at 100% of its energy. When a proton goes into your body, it’s going in at a minimal amount of energy; just enough to direct it directly to the tumor.

Ray: The actual tumor; the actual cancerous tumor.

Connie: The actual cancerous tumor itself. And when it goes there, we won’t go into a lot of detail on this either, but it delivers all of the energy into that tumor until it is eradicated. Now, it doesn’t do it at one time. Like photons, regular radiation, it has to go in a number of different times. And it depends on the size of the tumor; it depends on the age of the person and the size of the person as to how many treatments you’ll have to have. And maybe if we have enough time, I can tell you some of the advancements that are being made on that through different research facilities.

Ray: Let me, let me stop you just for a second. Because this is an audio program, we can’t do drawings on a board. So let me tell you the word picture that’s in my mind for our audience about what I just heard. If I’m close, tell me if I’m close. If I’m off base, tell me I’m off base. It sounds and feels to me like, the radiation, the standard, what we would know is radiation is almost like carpet bombing. We’ve got a target, but there’s a lot of collateral damage that occurs as a result of that bomb being dropped. Is that so far an accurate picture?

Connie: In fact, that’s very good.

Ray: Okay, and then on the proton side, it’s more like a pinpoint laser, a smart bomb, if you will, hitting with extreme accuracy that when it hits the target, you can dial and regulate the intensity upon which it treats that tumor in that spot, almost like a volume dial up and down. Did I get close?

Connie: You are totally on target.

Ray: Alright.

Connie: Yes, that is, in fact, I’ve not heard that. That is a great way to describe what we do.

Ray: Well, I’m glad you’re here today to learn from me, Connie.

Connie: I’m changing my presentation.

Ray: Never know what’s gonna happen here at Bottom Line Faith.

Connie: Usually, when I give these presentations, I have pictures.

Ray: Exactly. Exactly. And so that’s why I had word pictures in my mind, and I was trying to convey to you what I was hearing. I just wanted to make sure that I was hearing correctly, and so maybe that would help our audience because we don’t have the advantage here of those pictures. So that’s fantastic. And so in medicine, this is a fairly new, you say, the last 20 years perfecting this science. What kind of success percentages and ratios are we experiencing? And why are we not hearing more about this yet?

Connie: That’s one of the problems that we have in medicine. Unfortunately, new devices, it takes a long time before they are accepted, and they have to go through all kinds of generations of testing and proving that they are worthy of doing what they say they’re going to do and all this kind of stuff.

Ray: At Providence Proton, you haven’t actually, of course, invented the technology, but in that in that chain of processes to get it to treatment, what exactly is the role of your company? What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to, you know, get these units in hospitals in different locations? Are you trying to do the marketing of the technology? Help us understand Providence Proton?

Connie: Yes, yes. And yes.

Ray: All those things.

Connie: All those things?

Ray: I’m on a roll today. Alright.

Connie: No, we have nothing to do with the manufacturing of the equipment itself. Yeah, there are only eight facilities in the world that manufacturer protons, only one in the United States. And they’re not successful yet.

Ray: Is this like a nuclear type?

Connie: It’s totally nuclear. It is totally nuclear. In fact, when the beam is generated in a cyclotron, and you know, that’s just a piece of large equipment that spins certain things around that generate energy, when it comes out of there, going through the magnets, which are what shapes the beam, they’re traveling at two-thirds of speed of light. So, you know, that thing is really moving forward. Now, you think, what’s that going to do to your body when it goes in? You don’t know it; you’re actually only on the table for less than a minute getting the treatment. But there’s another 10-15 minutes of preparation, getting you placed in the right areas, and I just kind of got off where we were going on that.

But our company, Providence Proton, is a developer of the clinical side. So we partner with hospitals, some are clinics, that it’d have to be a very large clinic, most of it partnering with hospitals that don’t have the financial resources, which most do not, to spend $60 million on a one-room facility. And so we’re the developer, we partner with the hospital, we bring the equity pieces, we bring the people that are the technicians to train them. So that’s what we do. We are developers of proton centers.

Ray: Okay. And so if I’m listening to this interview, I would be like, extraordinarily excited about this, this technology and what I’m hearing because one of the things you haven’t said yet is that we talked about offline is someone gets this treatment, and they literally could go to work that day, right? They can resume their normal life immediately after treatment, unlike chemo, unlike the other traditional. Am I understanding it correctly?

Connie: You’re exactly correct. The difference, another difference in photons is photons; we talked about destroys things, which is bad for the body, you know, protons do not. But when you get up off the table from your treatment, you go back to work, you go play golf, you go jogging, you can do whatever you want to, and 96% of the situations, it’s not always 100%. Anything in medicine, it depends on the size of the tumor, the size of the person, locations, and these types of things.

Ray: Overall health number of factors there, right?

Connie: Exactly.

Ray: So if I’m listening, I’m like, wow, this is so exciting, and, you know, why am I not hearing about this? Why is this not all across the country? You’ve talked to us about the cost in this and so forth. What do you think is the likelihood that say, 5 years from now, 10 years from now, this technology is going to be more widely available, and it will be commonplace or much more commonplace for everyday people to get this for their cancer treatment? What are your thoughts around that?

Connie: I believe that that is exactly what will be taking place. There will be ways that the costs can be reduced, insurance companies as they continue to see more and more success as they are already seeing now, and make more approval for the treatments themselves, as it’s projected that by 2020, we will have already seen about a 20% increase from now just at that period of time of people that can qualify and be treated. If we ever get to the point that we can get to 30%, which is just around the corner, then you’ll see a huge difference in the eradication of cancerous tumors.

Ray: Get that flywheel momentum going. That’s what right now you’re just in the early stages of getting that flywheel rolling, right? And it’s just the heavy lifting right now. It’s that you’re creating a whole new, I mean, literally, you’re disrupting an industry. You’re disrupting and transforming healthcare as it relates to cancer treatments. And what I’m excited about is you view this as your ministry. So talk to us about that. Why do you view this as your ministry?

Connie: Well, it wasn’t anything that I had planned on doing. fact, I had semi-retired, oh, gosh, 15 years ago, and planned on playing a lot of golf, which I was doing. I never really wanted to totally retire. That just is not in my makeup for whatever reason. I don’t think it’s biblical, for one.

Ray: There you go.

Connie: And so I got a call from a company that knew that I had some background in nuclear medicine. And they had, and I knew about the company, and they were upside down. They had serious financial problems and wanted me to come and see if I could straighten it out for them. That’s not who I am, and that’s not what I do. And so my answer was, sorry, appreciate it. Not interested. Fast forward. I kept getting calls. Finally, I decided, okay, I’ll come up and look, and I did, and I still said no. But I met one of the employees there that is a dear friend of mine now, and I think you may know him: Bill Hart.

Ray: I do.

Connie: Bill Hart worked for that company, and Bill Hart convinced me.

Ray: He’s a good salesman.

Connie: Yes, he is. Yes, he is. And then a godly man and one of my dearest friends now, but I saw where they had made a lot of errors, and because they didn’t know what to do, as far as financing properly was concerned. So I told him I’d look into it and I did, and I was able to expand their business successfully. Brought some money in, but they still had six other facilities that were upside down. I put a new one in for them, so I thought, okay, now then, I’m going to go fix your other six, of which I did.

But then I found out, unfortunately, there was a situation where there was a little dishonesty. They hadn’t told me everything, and I found out that their situation was different from what I had been led to believe it was. So I said, Adios. Goodbye, I’m not going to do it anymore. I’m out of here. You either need to bankrupt, or you can sell the company, and that’s going to be extremely difficult. Would I help you sell the company? No. I’m gone. I don’t know; God had to be in this because I get a couple more calls from them, we’re trying to sell the company, we got some prospects, would you come and help us? And the answer was no. Finally, I said okay.

Ray: They just kept wearing on you.

Connie: They kept wearing; they wore me out. And so I went and sat down with them in a, in a, in a conversation with another company that had interest, and they were failing, asked me to take over, we worked it out to sell the company, they couldn’t come up with the money; the other company couldn’t. Well, anyway, long story short, I ended up spending another eight months there. And I sold the company to Cardinal Health, the largest nuclear medicine company in the country, maybe in the world. And so they came out real good. And I was finished. Well, I had heard of protons and nuclear medicine, obviously, I mean, because of the nuclear medicine company, and they were talking about going into protons., I wanted nothing to do with it. I was through there, gone, same thing happens again. Connie, would you come up and help us with protons? And the only reason that I did was because one of the people that I knew, and Bill Hart was gone by now; he had nothing to do with it. And so I looked into it. And I was fascinated with it. But I found out that the people they were dealing with were for real, and they had an interest in there. So I help them raise a little money and do a little bit to get them along.

Well, as it worked out, they failed again, but that company came to me and said, we’re going to do protons, and we’re going to do them with you. And so that’s how I got involved in it. And so we started working together to do it. And we ended up not being able to do it with that company. And I’m not going to mention that. But they didn’t want to do it the way that I felt like it needed to be done financially. So I had put together a company and here’s the reason that I think, that I know that God had anointed us and the ones that are involved in this company to do it. It takes a lot of money to start a company when you’re involved in something that you’re going to end up with a $60 to $100 million project. I didn’t have that kind of money, never even thought about having it. Well, it was strange; a couple of people heard about what I was doing, said we would like to invest in your company. I wasn’t even thinking about raising money at the time. So that got me serious. Went to an attorney, we put together a package, and from that point on, all of the start-up money that we needed to start that company came in. I mean, God just laid it out for us. And you know, what an exciting time that was; I got chills right now just thinking about it. But God anointed us. He anointed everybody that was with us, we all got together, we were on our knees, praying about it. More and more money comes in without us going to solicit it. So we had a company, and then we started recruiting the right kind of people that we needed as far as the technology was concerned, and they all came.

Ray: Sounds like God’s finger is all over this, and we’re in the next 5 to 10 years, we’re going to be hearing big things, big things to God’s glory. And that’s what I love, Connie, is that’s where your heart is. This is for God’s glory. This is to bring the kingdom on earth, to save lives, enrich the quality of life. Why the name Providence Proton, okay? I’m just; you got my curiosity piqued.

Connie: Alright. When we were trying, my attorney and I, we were trying to figure up a name that had pro in it. Proton, something Proton, and we went through dozens of names one afternoon, wrote them down. And nothing really fit and made good sense. The next morning, I’m having my prayer time, and I’m going through my daily devotionals with a man who’s one of my favorites in the world. And you’ll never believe what the topic was that day.

Ray: I bet I could guess.

Connie: Providence. Can you believe that?

Ray: I can; I can believe that actually.

Connie: I just said thank you Lord, and bingo. I called my attorney and said, we got a name. He said, oh, yes, cause he’s a believer also. But that’s how the name came about that. And also, the truth behind this whole thing is that when you look at what we are doing, we are healing the sick and the lost, cause this is going to be a ministry. It is a ministry, and in every facility that we’re building, we will have a chapel and we will have trained counselors that will sit down and visit with every patient that comes in there, believer or not, cause when you’ve got cancer, and you’re going in there, I don’t care who you are. You’re scared; you’re scared to death. So we want to try to do everything we can to put those people that are believers to pray with them, give them as much comfort as we possibly can, and those that are not, we want to do the same thing.

Ray: Now I have chills. This is so encouraging. I am so grateful that we’ve we’re having this conversation. Folks, we are speaking right now with Connie Haydock. He is the chairman and founder of Providence Proton in Birmingham, Alabama, and literally, they’re going to change the world. They’re going to; they’re going to bring God’s kingdom to this earth in the treatment of cancer and restoring families and lives and winning souls. Here’s what I’d like to do. Can I, how old are you, Connie?

Connie: 77.

Ray: 77 years old and in my mind you might have thought at this stage in your life, home on the beach, taking it easy, playing golf, those sorts of things but that’s not what God had for you. You’re finishing strong; you’re finishing strong, and I just want to encourage and bless you for that. So here’s what I’d like to ask you to do real quick: I’d like you to give a word of encouragement. We might have a listener or listeners right now who maybe are at a point of life where they’re not sure that God has a use for them, they may think that their season of ministry has come and gone, maybe they don’t know that next big thing that God has for them and maybe they’re frustrated, discouraged, or whatever. What encouragement, Connie, could you give to that person listening right now who just doesn’t feel like they know what God has for them?

Connie: My children asked me one time, dad, just exactly what is it you do? Well I was president of a securities company, and that securities company, we were dealmakers, you know. People come to us; we’ve got an opportunity to do something, we put the package together, the financial package together, the capital stack, and all of that. And so I went from one deal to another deal to another deal, to another deal. It’s kind of funny. My cousin, who’s a CPA’s mother, asked him one time, can Connie not keep a job? But in doing so, it is like a new job over and over and over. And I never thought about this until just now. But, you know, my life has been starting new jobs over and over and over. And each time, you know, I’m seeking because I’ve been a believer for 45 years.

I was not raised as a believer. But I became a believer when I was 32, and it was one of these wild situations. But I’m always asking the Lord just exactly what is it you want me to do? And sometimes you don’t get an answer, but I think in all these years I’ve compiled, I finally came up with what works for me, and in my prayer every morning, one of the main things that I want to make sure that I’m doing is that God, I am being totally and completely obedient to you. And as long as I’m being obedient to God, I’m walking with Him, and I’m following him. But the other thing on being in business, you got situations that come up that you don’t understand what’s going on, and what are you going to do? You’re going to concentrate on those issues, and I’m guilty of having done that forever. I’ve finally found peace in those kind of situations when I quit concentrating or begging God for this, to do this and do that and concentrate on the cross. When I do that, I don’t worry about the rest of it. And so folks, the answer is obedience and loving God and concentrating and remember what he did for you on the cross.

Ray: Phenomenal, phenomenal insights. Connie, thank you so much. I assume it’s okay to give out the website if folks want to learn more?

Connie: Oh, please do.

Ray: Please do, right? So if you want to learn more about Connie and this amazing company that God is calling him to build and to grow to literally change the world, literally, visit providenceproton.com. Well, Connie, believe it or not, we are at the end of our time together, and I’m hoping we get another conversation at some point soon. Because as Paul Harvey says, I want to hear the rest of the story, right? I want to hear what God is doing here, and I want to come back, and we’ll do this again.

But for this conversation, we’re nearing the end. And we have one question that we always ask every guest here at Bottom Line Faith; we call it our 4:23 question. If you’re a regular listener, you know what I’m about to say. But if you’re a first-time listener, check this out. In Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23, here’s what Solomon has to say: Above all else, guard your heart, for from it flows the wellspring of life. All of life comes out of our heart: our motives, our intentions, and, and our dreams, and those sorts of things, okay? And so Connie, here’s what I’d like to ask. Let’s just dial the clock forward, and whenever that day would be, you’re approaching the end of this side of eternity and you have a chance to gather your family, your loved ones, your friends, those who are most precious to you here on earth, and you have a chance to pass along, like Solomon, your main piece of advice, that above all else advice. So if you’d complete this sentence for me: above all else…

Connie: On my knees, a number of years ago, when I was searching for some things, I was saved. The Lord spoke to me when I asked him what is it that you want from me? And he called me he didn’t want anything from me; he just wanted all of me.

Ray: So your above all else advice is God just wants us.

Connie: Oh, absolutely. Totally and completely. That’s something that you learn after having been around for a while because you think there’s so many things you got to do for God. God doesn’t ask us to do anything. He just wants us, and then we’ll do it.

Ray: Awesome. Folks, I just, I have been so encouraged by my conversation, and now you’re entering into this conversation with us here at Bottom Line Faith with Connie Haydock. Check out Providence Proton; learn what they’re doing; you’re going to be hearing about this. Check them out online at providenceproton.com. And Connie, thank you so much for coming and being on the program today. You just kind of like, we have a saying where I’m from: you blessed my socks off today.

Connie: Well, you blessed mine by allowing me to be here. This is something I never planned on and didn’t know anything about, and I am the one that is humbled and blessed for giving me this opportunity. Thank you so much, and God bless you.

Ray: Fantastic. Well, folks, another incredible guest here. God continues to surprise and amaze us here at Bottom Line Faith. This is such a cool thing that we get to do and talking with these amazing followers of Jesus that are literally living out their faith in business and in the marketplace and today has been one of my all-time favorite episodes here, so listen, let me just do a couple housekeeping things as we wrap up today’s program.

If you haven’t already, scroll down to the bottom of bottomlinefaith.org. That is our website: bottomlinefaith.org. Scroll down at the bottom, subscribe, and you get to hear conversations along these lines every week here on this program. Also, visit our website at truthatwork.org. Truth At Work hosts the Bottom Line Faith program, and if you’re a Christian, business owner, president, CEO, and you’re interested in what it might be like to be in community of like-minded believers in business, we have roundtable groups across the country, dozens of cities, hundreds of companies and members involved with our program. Go to truthatwork.org; click on that tab there that says Roundtables; check it out; get in touch with us; we’d love to have a conversation. Well, folks, until next time, I just want to encourage you, live out your faith, share Jesus in the marketplace, be encouraged, you’re not alone. And we hope to see you again soon at Bottom Line Faith. This is Ray Hilbert saying so long and God bless.