Prayer Requests

Hello Everyone! WE ARE IN NEED OF PRAYER!!!

1.) For Chase and Brian's schedule to open up so we can get our BTS and three other interviews done as soon as possible.
2.) For God to multiply our time! With the editing phase kicking in, we are in need of the Lord's strength to carry us through this season of post production.
3.) For God to provide side editors to help our main editor, Nathan Webster.
4.) For God's favor! I truly believe this documentary is going to touch many lives for the Lord's Kingdom!

Blessings,
Stephanie

UPDATE ON CA

Dear Friends! I’m so sorry for not posting like I wanted to... It was sooo crazy! Okay, so here is the long update!
Monday: My crew and I got up early and ate a McDonald’s breakfast in the hotel room, had our morning devotions and just prayed that the Lord would have His way and that He would get the glory through this project. Then we all headed to Nick’s house. It was so exciting to see him again! Alan, Brian and Jacob got to meet Nick for the very first time. Some of us followed Nick to his office to get footage of him at work in his work surroundings. We had a full day of shooting interviews relating to the Life Without Limbs ministry, his testimony and to who he is as a person. We had an amazing time just hanging out with Nick, eating pizza with him and enjoyed talking and catching up on what’s been going on in our lives. Alan did such a great job interviewing Nick and Nick did an excellent job opening up to Alan, we captured a lot of good stuff! The Lord was definitely directing Chase and Brian’s (my cinematographers) hands and Kay’s (my photographer) hands as they persistently concentrated on each shot and interview section. They were on the go constantly! With having everyone doing what needed to be done. That gave me the opportunity to sit and listen and to make sure that all the particulars questions and certain discussions were unfolding. With this being my first time to direct a documentary, it was hard a times, but I learned so much. I was feel so blessed with a team that backed me up and was there to help me with anything. It’s going to be great working with them on the post production part.
Later, that evening, the team and I headed out to go grab some dinner at a small Mexican restaurant to chill until it was time to head to Nick’s house to spend some fun time with him. When we got to Nick’s house, and got out of our two PT Cruiser’s, we could hear loud music playing. We walked inside and there was Nick playing all his favorite songs on his computer’s play list. He had a stereo that had surround sound which made us sing out hearts out, we laughed a lot watching Nick lip-syncing to Josh Groban songs, Michael Buble and to some older tunes.. I just sat in his house, in awe, that God truly was putting this whole thing together. We talked about doing the work of the Lord, living out the mission that He has specifically assigned us to, running the race, not giving up and being persistent in our daily walk with Him. Our sharing time was so rich and beneficial. We were going to watch a movie, but decided not to…all of us were so happy we didn’t. It was an amazing evening!

Okay, so we drove back to the hotel, relaxed, and then went to bed. :) We knew we had a full day ahead of us!

Tuesday: LOL! All of us had a difficult time climbing out of our comfy beds. But, eventually we made it to Nick’s house and cooked a yummy breakfast for him. We made pancakes and cooked up some sausage, had toppings that consisted of butter/syrup melted together, whip cream, strawberries and blackberries. We ate outside on his patio and enjoyed the fresh air. After breakfast, we got some footage of us hanging out with Nick on the couch and got some group snapshots on Nick’s favorite red chair. Every moment spent there was so memorable!
Nick had a lunch meeting and so we all took our time to get prepared for the “measure of a man,” interview that we were going to be doing later on, got some rest, went location scouting, picked up lunch and then headed to the park to meet up with Nick and Kyle (one of Nick’s caregivers). The interview went really, really well! I was encouraged by everything Alan and Nick addressed and was touched by the way they presented the questions, answers and how they interacted with each other.

Afterwards, we headed to a local golf course and got to see Nick putt! It was amazing! I got to golf some as well…but really…I stink at golf! :P Our next stop was Nick’s Uncle Batta’s house, which was actually located by Paramount mountain (the real Paramount mountain). Chase and Brian exclaimed, “Guys, this is like a filmmaker’s holy ground!” We all cracked up! Oh wow, with being Texans, we were all enthralled by the gorgeous scenery of the mountains! Chase and Brian were able to get footage of Nick swimming and him doing his back flip. I was the only brave girl who decided to be adventurous and take a swim as well! Later on, Uncle Batta came out and started sharing some advice that we all were so appreciative about. He is so wise and has such a beautiful heart for the Lord. For me personally, what he said was what I needed to hear, it truly reinforced what I have been trying to walk out. God is so good about bringing certain people to say specific things that His sons and daughters need to hear.

Then it was time to say goodbye. It was definitely hard for me, I cried later on. Just thinking how fast the trip went and how awesome our Lord truly is! His hand is so mighty! His ways are so above our ways and thoughts so above our thoughts! He is good!
We all hugged and took photos, grabbed a bite to eat with Kyle at a California Pizza Kitchen, headed back to the hotel to regroup, pack up and then crash for the night.

Right now, I’m on the plane, heading back home. I’m tired of course, but I feel so energized to put my all in every area of this project. I believe that the Lord is going to use this film to touch my generation, and Lord willing, others. To bring revelation to the men in our time, to be the mighty men that the Lord is calling them to be. The measure of a man, is not how tall you stand, how wealthy or how intelligent you are, because I’ve found the measure of a man, and it’s what inside the heart that counts. (Taken from the song by 4Him, “Measure of a Man.”)

Now: Right now, the plans are for me and my producer, Saphrin, to meet twice a week to log and look through all the footage that we have shot and then forward it all to our main editor, Nathan Webster. Saphrin and I have also talked about possibly traveling to some of the film festivals around the US to help promote and connect with other filmmakers who would be willing to help with the marketing aspect. We have a lot of work cut out for us. But, we are sooooo excited and thrilled that we are apart of this project, to be able to assist in the advancement of His Kingdom through the arena of media. I still find it mind boggling that I’m directing this documentary. I guess it’s because filming is not my cup of tea, or my greatest passion. I’m truly doing this because of passion behind the content of this film, the calling I felt from the Lord to do this and because of the vision and mission of Nick’s ministry. It’s the Lord directing and orchestrating this documentary! I truly would not be able to do this without Christ and my amazing crew! Thank you Saphrin! You are the best producer ever!!! :) Thank you Chase, Brian, Alan, Mom, Kay and Jacob! You are all incredible!!! :) I’m looking forward to working side by side with ya’ll in the months that follow.

Nick, thank you so much for giving us those two days! It was such a tremendous blessing and all of us enjoyed every minute of it! Thank you so much for your hospitality. You truly made all of us feel at home! Also, Monday night was so much fun, and yes, I’m glad we didn’t do a movie too! We’ll be praying for you and your ministry!

Alrighty friends, I’ll close for now, but I will keep posting weekly, keeping each of you informed on the process of this production adventure. Thank you so much for your prayers and e-mails of encouragement! Keep up the praying!

Because He Lives,
Steph

Monday: CA Update Morning

Hello Dear Friends!!! :) Right now, I'm posting from Nick's house! We got here safe and sound and got some footage of Nick doing his morning duties and now he is at a meeting at his Life Without Limbs office. The crew and I are heading out to eat and this afternoon will be full of interviews with Nick at his house and possibly at a park. I'll post more later.

Stephanie

Sunday: CA Update

Hello Again! :)

Okay, so this morning we got up early and Saphrin and I headed to Wal-Mart to get juice and ran by McDonald’s to get some breakfast foods for everyone. After we ate, all of us came together for a devotional time, each of us prayed for the person on our right and spent the morning in thinking and sharing. Then we packed up and headed to Hollywood to get some interviews for the documentary.

As far as the interviews, Saphrin and Alan were able to get around eight people total to talk to in relation to the, “measure of a man,” “roles of man,” and what “true success is in a person’s life.” We were able to capture a lot of footage and enjoyed every minute of being able to ask people what their own personal thoughts were. It was very hard at first with the responses we received, but as time went on, people started getting interested with the project and were more open to being interviewed by Saphrin and Alan.

We were out on the Sunset strip, all afternoon, and afterwards we packed up and went in search of a place to eat. We found a pizza and pasta place that had amazing food! We were all very grateful to sit, laugh and relax after a long afternoon of worrying about our very expensive equipment and having to move our cars every hour so that we wouldn’t have our cars towed.

Then we headed out to find a beach! That’s when things got interesting… LOL! We got extremely lost, confused, worried and had to do SO MANY u-turns that it became a riot! We laughed so hard and just decided to roll down the windows, turn up the music and just sing our little hearts out! Finally, after an hour and fifteen minutes of driving randomly, we eventually made it to our desired destination! It was a beautiful beach, quite dark outside but still it was worth it to put our feet in the icy water and run aimlessly.

Now, we are back at the hotel, we are all pretty wiped but very excited about our plans for tomorrow! We have to be at Nick’s house around 7:30am and shoot until dinner. We have a full day ahead of us packed with questions, places to go, people to meet. Nick has a meeting around 9am at his Life Without Limbs office and Tuesday will come before we know it.

This trip has been so God ordained and so exciting for me to see everything falling into place. I just still can’t believe it’s all happening! Prayer has been our strength that has been carrying us through. Please continue to pray for us. Cover this project in prayer from the safety of us traveling, to God’s favor resting upon this documentary, from the words that are spoken to who sees this film in the future. We want every aspect of this project to be glorifying to the Lord!

I’m going to close for now, blessings all,
Stephanie

CA: Saturday Update

Hello dear friends!

This morning brought us to an early start. Rather, a late one as we never went to sleep! So much too do and so much to talk about. J But the Lord has carried us through these two sleepless days!

We actually got through security filming our crew without the faxes we needed, without the equipment we needed. It was crazy getting all the bags and things together but we had a blast at the same time, just thinking of finally getting to CA after all this waiting. The plane ride went well. Some got to catch a few winks and some didn’t. When we arrived at LAX Airport, we headed to the car rental place and I got to drive a silver PT Cruiser and my Mom got to drive a cream one! All of us crammed our luggage in the two vehicles and headed out to find a place to eat. We found a Chipotle, talked and then skedaddled to our hotel. Come to find out the rooms we had reserved wasn’t reserved because of us doing it over the internet. It was kind of frustrating but eventually things paned out and we were able to get two rooms with each having a king bed and a roll away bed.

This afternoon, we all gathered around and had devotions, prayed for each other and opened up to the things that had been stirring on our hearts and minds. Afterwards, we relaxed at the pool and just allowed ourselves to catch up on rest. We chatted and then headed out to meet a friend of Kayleen’s for dinner at a place called, Islands. On our way back to the hotel we laughed a lot and shared funny stories!

Some of us chose to exercise a little (Saphrin and I and Chase came later on) to get the wiggles out. Now, here I am typing up the happenings of the day and just so overjoyed with how everything is falling into place. As I’m typing, I’m surrounded by my dear friends here in the lobby, this is the only place where we have internet access…they are talking about our plans for tomorrow and what we are wanting to accomplish as far as shooting. My Mom’s asleep, she is so tired! But, she’s been absolutely an amazing Crew Mom! There for us to pray, to encourage and to hug!
Okay, so now I’m going to close because my eyes are about to close.

Blessings,
Stephanie

Leaving For CA!

Hey Everyone! My crew and I are leaving my house around 6am for the airport! :) Kayleen, Chase, Brian and Saphrin will be spending the night at my house tonight so that way we will be ready for tomorrow! I'm pretty sure we will go out for a late Wal-Mart adventure to get tapes, and anything else we need before we fly out! I'll be posting every night to keep ya'll informed on the details!

Blessings,
Stephanie