10 Days Film Tour
10 Days Film Tour
Out of a simple conversation over chips and salsa, the idea of a 10 Days Documentary was started. At the time, it was a crazy idea. And to be clear, it is still a crazy idea.
The idea of a feature length documentary came from a desire to tell the story of what God was doing with 10 Days in hundreds of places around the globe. Eventually, we framed the film around the question, “What happens when people pray in an extraordinary way?”
Our small team of four traveled through five countries to document the answer to this question. The team consisted of Jared, Director; Jamin, Director of Photography; Jonathan, Producer; and Kirk, Producer.
Our travels allowed us to hear testimonies from Connecticut, Mumbai, Karimnagar, Kampala, Jinja, Islamabad, and Jerusalem.
As we traveled, God highlighted people who had testimonies that helped answer the question, “What happens when people pray extraordinary prayers?” but God also added to our own stories of how He answers when we pray.
India
Travel to India has become more and more strict. In fact, being a Christian in India is getting harder. Historically, the government has tolerated Christians, even though it is a Hindu government. But as time passes, they are getting stricter with the Christians. We have seen persecution happen in the remote areas but the government is starting to encourage bands of young men to confront pastors in their churches. Most of the time, these encounters leave the pastor and his congregation injured and questioning why God would allow any of this.
My friends and I got the privilege to visit these believers. While I don’t think this answers the questions about why God would allow these attacks, the tenancy of these brothers and sisters in the face of persecution strengthened our faith. These attacks are slowly moving from the rural parts of India into the cities. Even so, there were so many believers eager to give their testimonies.
Uganda
We had a bit of a rest from the tense situation in India as we traveled to Uganda. Uganda is known as a Christian nation, and has even seen some of its own persecution from the World Bank over it’s new “Anti-LGBTQ” law. For us it was a breath of fresh air. Jamin noted when we rode from the airport to the hotel that the atmosphere was lighter, and the air smelled fresher.
The presence of God abounded in the nation, and very prolifically with our hosts. We were privileged to be able to do interviews and spend time with our friends Anthony, Edward and Faith, Peter, and Victoria who are all part of a ministry called Intercessors for Uganda. We were amazed by many stories of answered prayer and touched by their love for their nation. On our last day in country, we drove to Jinja on Lake Victoria, at the headwaters of the Nile River. While there, we were able to meet Mary Mudega who runs a house of prayer in Jinja. We also took a trip up to a beautiful prayer mountain that overlooks the headwaters. As a former place of witchcraft, this mountaintop has been completely dedicated to Jesus and is now a beautiful retreat and resting place for pastors.
Our time was short in Uganda, and after only 63 hours, we jumped onto the 8th airplane of this trip and headed for Pakistan.
Pakistan
I don’t consider myself naive on most days. When it came to Pakistan, I was naive. I won’t say the rest of the team was, since I don’t want to be insulting, but I would wager they were right there with me. I had built an image of what Pakistan was going to be. It would be a tough Islamic state where we would be questioned by common people on the street and would be required to have our cover story well sorted.
Pakistan has seen its share of persecution. The most recent are the tragedies of 26 churches burned and bulldozed. While we weren’t traveling directly to these locations, we still felt a bit of trepidation as we boarded the plane.
To enter all of these countries, we needed to have visas. Pakistan and India have been at each other’s throats. On the Pakistani visa application, we had to list countries we had visited in the last five years. Our two producers had to list that we had visited India back in March. After a short prayer, we sent off our applications.
Jonathan’s visa was returned with questions. While all our visa applications asked for additional information, only Jonathan’s came back asking if he was coming to Pakistan for religious reasons. How do you say “yes” without saying yes? When this visa was returned, our team was still in India. We took time the next morning to worship and ask God in a moment of silence what we should do. Our plan B was to send Jonathan on to Jerusalem while the rest went to Pakistan. But after our time with the Lord, we agreed that the team should continue onto Pakistan as planned.
Expecting to be stopped shortly after deplaning, we continued to grab our bags and exited the airport in Islamabad. Instead of an interrogation, God blessed us with an incredible welcome from our friends. When God walks before you, all your misconceived notions fly out the window.
“When God walks before you, all your misconceived notions fly out the window”
I’m not the biggest fan of catchy Christian phases, such as the one I just used. Often, I feel they don’t do justice to the situation. For instance, when you read “When God walks before you…” did you think about the divine situations or the amount of prayer that must have gone into our trip? This isn’t your fault. The fault probably lies with the author you are stuck with.
God walked before us. The local believers had also been praying for our trip. They prayed that we wouldn’t be noticed by the wrong people and that our trip would be fruitful. Along with the locals, we had an amazing team of intercessors praying over us leading up to and during our trip.
“When God walks before you, all your misconceived notions fly out the window!”
Even as we took that hour to worship and ask God about our trip to Pakistan, there were believers all around the globe praying for wisdom as well. And where two or more are gathered in His name, He is there. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matt 7:7)
Our time in Pakistan was anointed. We were blessed to worship with our brothers and sisters in churches multiple times. While our creative geniuses filmed, Jonathan and I got to pray over a multitude of people.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to pray for people after a church service, I highly recommend you open yourself up to that. I don’t normally see myself as the most qualified person. In fact, if I had my way, I would want to kneel down and ask each of the believers to pray over me.
However, God uses us. “But when [The Holy Spirit] calls you, your personality isn’t taken into consideration” (Ps. Tim Ross) The Lord sent us to represent the believers from the other nations. We got to stand in for the other nations and show the Pakistani believers that the rest of the world sees them and stands along with them.
If you are ever offered an opportunity to pray over others, don’t hesitate.
The last evening in Pakistan saw a tired group of men gathered in a country estate for a picnic. The night before most of our hosts had gotten 1-2 hours of sleep. And we weren’t much better off. Conversation was halting.
It was after a moment of silence, Jonathan asked if any of the Pakistanis would want to write prayers for us to place in the Western Wall in Jerusalem, our next stop. Israeli-Pakistani relationship is understandably cold. No Israeli visas are granted to Pakistanis.
In another moment of being emissaries, the 10 Days Documentary team got to place prayers from our Pakistani brothers in the Western Wall and pray the relationships would improve. We asked that God would allow our Pakistani brothers and sisters to place their own prayers on the wall.
JERUSALEM
While we were only able to stay in Jerusalem for one day, it was an incredible day. Most of the city was shut-down because of Yom Kippur, and children were playing openly in the middle of city-streets that would usually be filled with cars. Our host, Michael, took us up on the Temple Mount. Jonathan was carrying a Bible in his backpack that was confiscated by security—no prayer and no Bibles at this Muslim site. However, as we walked by the Dome of the Rock and looked out the Eastern Gate, now sealed shut, where the Messiah is supposed to enter the city, all the security in the world couldn’t keep us from sensing God’s presence as it landed on our group and praising God as we anticipated the Lord’s Return.
We started the trip trying to answer the question of what happens when people pray extraordinary prayers. God met us as we traveled. And we got to hearmany incredible stories stories but also got to be an answer to some of those questions ourselves.
I leave you with one challenge. If you truly wish to know the answer, instead of waiting for the documentary, pray extraordinary prayers and see how God answers that question in your life.