Christian Review Magazine Issue 3 - March 2015 | Page 38

thought that it would be easier to
serve the Lord in a hut in Africa
than in a comfy home in America
where I was afraid I would be
tempted to live a mediocre
lifestyle. I think I had also
romanticized the role of a
missionary. I imagined myself in a
world where I would be the
hero - swooping in to save the
poor children from the slums or
risking my life to spread the
gospel like I imagined when I was
seven. The thing is…God began to
show me the sinfulness of my own
heart. I realized that in several of
my imagined scenarios, I was the
one being praised and receiving
the glory. God made it very plain
to me that if my life was going to
count for anything, my motto
would have to be: more of Him
and less of me. And let’s just say
there was a lot of “me” I was
going to have to get rid of.

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So, I told the Lord I was willing to
do things His way, and I promised
Him I would go wherever He
wanted to send me. And do you
know what He said? Tupelo,
Mississippi. That’s right. Not
China, Sudan or Ethiopia but
Tupelo, Mississippi the
headquarters of the American
Family Association (AFA.)
AFA was originally founded in
1977 by a country preacher named
Don Wildmon. One day, Don sat
down to watch TV with his family
disgusted by the filth that was on,
that he decided to do something
about it. Don believed that the
purpose of television ought to be
to “inspire, uplift and encourage.”
So for years, AFA fought hard to
clean up America’s airwaves by
removing negative programming.
But now, AFA was ready to try a
new tactic. Not just removing the
bad, but producing the good.

They had decided to start a media
division with the hope of one day
producing feature films that
would impact culture in a positive
way.
I started working for AFA in 2009.
Our small team produced many
short films, commercials and
documentaries and learned so
much along the way. It was always
encouraging to hear stories about
the lives that were touched by the
products we were producing. We
continued to hone our craft and
invest in the equipment needed
and every single project we saw
the production value increase
exponentially.
And then in 2012, the leadership
of AFA approached me with the
idea of writing a feature film. They
were looking to invest in a story
that would reflect the core
messages AFA believed. I was

Kendra with her brother and
co-writer/producer/director, Jeremy
Photo: Faith Dawson