October 30, 2024 • 49 mins
After years of filmmaking in Hollywood, Peter Craig found himself at a crossroads where his passion for storytelling met God's calling. Join us as we explore Peter's remarkable journey from a Tinseltown screenwriter to the visionary force behind Moving Works, a ministry dedicated to creating films that honor God. Through a heartfelt conversation, Peter shares his experience of wrestling with personal ambitions that once overshadowed his devotion to following Jesus. Discover how he surrendered his creative pursuits to embrace a mission that glorifies God in every frame.
Embark on an adventurous tale through the Amazon as we recount the unexpected twists and turns of a mission trip that exemplified faith in action. Stranded without a guide in the labyrinthine waterways, a small team transformed a challenging scenario into a powerful testament of worship and community. Witness how their unwavering dedication turned an unplanned detour into a moment of connection, resilience, and spiritual growth. Amidst the darkness of uncertainty, they found light, purpose, and the true essence of ministry in the most unforeseen circumstances.
Experience the transformative power of faith as Pastor Nilton's inspiring story unfolds along the Amazon riverbanks. A profound encounter with a family embracing Christianity led to an exhilarating church-planting movement that spread like wildfire across remote villages. This episode celebrates the beauty of participating in God's work even amidst our imperfections, reflecting on how faith and the Spirit's guidance can ignite a chain reaction of leadership and discipleship. As we ponder our roles in this divine mission, we invite you to join this journey of inspiring change and to connect with our community dedicated to glorifying God in all we do.
Follow @unreachedpodcast on Instagram for more!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven,
with members from every tribe,tongue, people and language
standing in the throne roombefore the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over7,000 unreached people groups
around the world.
For the last six years, myfamily and friends have been on
a journey to find, vet and fundthe task remaining.
(00:28):
Come journey with us to theends of the earth as we share
the supernatural stories of Godat work for the men and women he
has called to reach theunreached.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome, friends, to another episode of the Unreached
Podcast.
I am Clint Hudson, your hostfor today's show, and today on
the show we get the opportunityto travel up the jungle paths of
remote villages in Mali anddown the murky waters of the
Amazon in Brazil, and guiding uson this journey is Peter Craig,
the executive director ofMoving Works.
(01:04):
Journey is Peter Craig, theexecutive director of Moving
Works.
Peter is an award-winningstoryteller, filmmaker, who
transitioned his career, workingwith the likes of Sony Pictures
and NBC Universal, to filmingstories about God, changing
lives around the world.
And since its inception in 2012, moving Works has actually
upheld two spirit-ledconvictions, and that's every
film that they create mustglorify God and it must be given
(01:27):
away for free.
So since the inception ofMoving Works, god has allowed
this ministry to film in over 14countries and produce a library
of short films that has beenseen over 80 million times.
Peter man, that's a lot ofawesome stuff to open up an
episode.
Welcome to the pod man.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Well, I feel a little humbled by that.
I actually don't know if I'lllive up to that.
I'm now realizing that's on ourwebsite.
We need to probably pull thatback a little bit.
But all glory to God and allthat.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes, dude, all right, so walk us through what it's
like to be a filmmaker and makea decision that the gifting that
you have you're only going touse to glorify the Lord.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Well, it sounds easier than it was and,
interestingly enough, it's notas epic as it sounds.
It's actually.
It takes place on the floor ofmy office when I was a writer,
so it's a little bit of a story,but the very simple version of
it is I always desired to makefilms when I was a little kid.
I started making movies when Iwas nine, made a lot of ninja
(02:34):
movies going through high schooland the goal was always making
Hollywood films.
Lord, I want to do that and Godwas gracious.
Out of college I started makingshort films, got into film
festivals, started havingsuccess in that way.
That's how I got to know Austin.
I had a few films at South bySouthwest over the years had
(02:55):
success.
Everyone was like, hey, youknow what about writing a
feature script?
And I was like, okay, I'llwrite a feature script.
So I wrote that and that gotinto the Sundance Screenwriters
Lab and got an agent.
And then my agent was like,let's write one to sell.
I wrote a screenplay thatpeople liked and it sold and I
became what I would call anaccidental writer.
(03:17):
Like, well, I write to makestuff.
And people were asking me well,write stuff and we'll see what
happens.
And so, long story short, Ibecame a writer, doing stuff for
studios for five years.
Now, in the midst of that, andover the span of that five years
, god showed that it was, to behonest, an idol in my life.
(03:38):
It was the thing my prayersgravitated toward, my thoughts
magnetized toward.
It consumed me and God allowedme to see that.
And the more I did it, the moremiserable I became.
So when it comes to thequestion, you know how do you
use your gifts to glorify God.
(03:59):
It went through a lot of sinand repentance, you know, and
God's grace and patience with me.
So, five years laboring,striving, holding with a white
knuckle grip onto this thing Iwanted and God showing me it was
never going to satisfy.
I really relate to the story inthe Exodus of the golden calf.
You know, the Israelites madethis golden calf and claimed
(04:20):
that it was the thing thatrescued them from Egypt.
And if God were to allow themto continue and say into the
promised land with this goldencalf, it would not do them any
good, and praise God that hedidn't.
It was similar in my life.
You know, this idol God didn'twant me to have.
I'd made it and, using thegifts he'd given me.
I even made it.
And it's interesting, theIsraelites made this golden calf
(04:42):
with the resources that Godallowed them to take from Israel
, all the riches, and theycreated something atrocious.
And I had two.
And so God allowed me in Hisgrace and discipline.
It's interesting that grace anddiscipline can go together like
that.
But in His grace and discipline, the thing I wanted he allowed
to become a thorn and bitter andgross.
(05:05):
And so say, on the floor of myoffice, because I mean, almost
every day I was writing a comedyfor Sony Pictures and almost
every day I'd be on the floorweeping and I'm like this is the
dream, you know.
And here I am weeping andbroken.
And God allowed it to break me.
If you want your idol, you know,moses did this.
He took the golden calf andground it up and made the
(05:25):
Israelites drink it, made themdrink it.
It was a bitter taste.
Yeah, it is.
I think God was grinding it upand making me drink it.
And what a grace.
You know you think, oh, that'sjust cruel, and it's like, no,
what a grace, because it's liketaste it.
You know, it's interesting.
Later in scriptures it tastes,and see that the Lord is good.
And here I'm drinking justmetal, bitter metal, which is my
(05:46):
Hollywood career.
And so God gave me a gift and Iwas using it for me and my own
glory and through that processof brokenness.
You know, it's interestingbecause in many occasions I
would say, god, I give you, Igive you my career, and I would
be holding it behind my back asI prayed that I give it to you,
and really it was like justbless me.
I will say the words that'slovely, that God knows the
(06:09):
intent of our heart.
I would say the words that Iwould, with white knuckle grip,
hold it behind my back and notbe letting go and so, but this
time, after about five years ofdefiant, I'm holding on to it.
God, in his grace, allowed meto start to let go and I'm like
this is, it's breaking me and Ihonestly don't want this anymore
(06:30):
.
And so my grip opened and withthat came along just like a need
Lord, there's something wrongwith me.
What do I do?
I started reading scripture.
God took me back to scripture.
I'm seeing Genesis toRevelation.
Do I started reading Scripture?
God took me back to Scripture.
I'm seeing Genesis toRevelation.
It begins with Him alone and itends with all the nations
(06:52):
looking to Christ and worshipingHim.
So, beginning to end, it'sreally about Him and His glory,
not me and mine.
Seeing that at the time, praiseGod for His Spirit working to
draw me back to Him.
And then the narrative ofScripture reminded me what it's
all about.
I was like, okay, god, you knowI don't know what to do, but
here it is, you know, show mewhat to do.
And God was very gracious, overthe span of about nine months,
(07:15):
to show me that He'd given me mygifts to honor Him and make
films that explicitly glorifyHim.
During this time of kind ofrevelation, repentance, a lot of
tears, a lot of counsel, god'sword, all that I was given an
opportunity by a friend.
His name is Justin, and he waslike hey, come with us to Haiti,
(07:37):
we're going to go train pastors, you can come on this mission
trip.
I've never been on a missiontrip before and I was like, okay
, but if I go, I'm going tobring a camera, maybe I'll
document what God is doing inour lives.
So the people that are going,more than anything, like so we
can have like this memento.
Like you know, when you're on atrip like this, I can only
assume God speaks to you indifferent ways.
(07:59):
You might be open, but often Iassume as well that when you
come back you could easilyforget it all.
So I was like I'll go take acamera and document what God
spoke to us so we could havethis.
So I went and went down there,shot came back and I was editing
this little piece, just thislittle mission thing, just for
us, and God spoke to me superduper clearly, and there are a
(08:20):
few equations where he's done.
This spoke right into my heart,you know, and the words were
this is your act of worship.
And it's.
It's funny because it didn'tcome with clarity, it just came
with like a confidence and likean authority.
So it was like in my mind,hearing this, I'm like I don't
know what that means, but itchanges everything.
(08:40):
And so it wasn't like andhere's the, here's the 10 year
plan.
It was just this is your act ofworship.
I was like, okay, god, I'mavailable.
And by this time he hadlovingly beat me up enough to
know that, okay, he's boss.
Whatever he says, I'm justopen-handed.
Now I had a contract with Sonypictures to do something, um,
but I'm like, what do I do withthat and how are we going to
(09:02):
provide?
And it was lovely, god, in hisgrace towards me and my family
at that time.
Two weeks later, my agentcalled.
He's like Sony's bogged downwith some work and they't have
to happen.
But he released the reins to anobligation and provided
(09:28):
simultaneously and gave me afirst real confidence, just
practical confidence that, god,why do I doubt you?
And so, over the next ninemonths, I started traveling,
started documenting, and Godshowed me over that time I want
to make films that glorify Him,that really speak to Him, who he
is, what he says, what he'sdoing around the world, and
(09:50):
stirred my heart to go todifferent countries and document
.
And so, july of 2012, movingWorks came to be, so praise God
for that.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
That is an incredible story.
Thank you so much for sharingthat, and I think a lot of our
audience probably knows a littlebit about my story as a
songwriter, but what they don'tknow is that I had a time on my
office floor the same way thatyou did in your office floor and
specifically, god had revealedto me that songwriting had
become an idol in my life, andI'll never forget the phrase
(10:21):
that he said to me, that Ireally just felt like the Lord
impressed upon my heart.
He said you're more proud ofand excited about what you do
for me than what I did for you,and it just wrecked me because
as an artist, as a songwriter, Iwanted to write these songs
(10:41):
that tell the story of God atwork Very similar, I think, now,
to what you're doing.
I think now to what you'redoing, but it, in and of itself,
had actually become an idol forme.
Where I was, I was just proud ofthe thing that I was doing for
the Lord.
Rather than an act of worship,it had become just an act of
something that I was vanity yes,vanity man.
That's so great, but literallyI stopped writing songs for
about six months and because Icouldn't.
(11:02):
It tasted so bitter, the bittertaste of writing a song my
friends would gather together towrite and I'd be like no, I'm
good, I can't do it.
And God made me drink that idol.
And then, after the fact, uh,when I had gone through this
time of repentance and prayer,um, the first song that I wrote
when we came back was aboutidols and let your praises rise
(11:22):
in every idol fall.
And it was just this act ofsurrender to the Lord and I
think it's it's probably one ofthe most impactful songs we've
ever written, because it'sprobably the hardest one I've
ever had to write, because I hadto walk through that journey.
So, where you are now, as afilmmaker, as an executive
director, it's so hard foughtthat you've got to where you are
and it's just incredible tohear your story and your journey
(11:44):
that you've got to where youare, and it's just incredible to
hear your story and yourjourney of surrender, this act
of surrendering this gift thatGod's clearly given you to tell
stories, but now you'vesurrendered it to say I'm only
going to do this for him, sowalk me through this one thing
that's so compelling to me.
So not only did you decide togo and make films that glorify
God, but also you wanted to givethem away for free.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
The idea was, you know, having gone through my, I
think my journey, I mean, reallyinforms many of, maybe, the
things we hold as convictions inthe ministry and again, god's
design on mine I wouldn't say,oh, this is how I'm going to do
it.
If I'm going to do it, this isalmost like well, if this is
what God wants, we have to do itthis way, and it almost.
(12:26):
It makes faith is interesting.
The way I think about it islike I think the endowment of
faith at any given moment andyou know there's the gift of
faith for certain moments, and Ithink when you experience faith
it's almost like reasonable.
You know you're like this makessense and God's giving you
faith to make it make sense.
And so even the I look back onthe starting of the ministry,
(12:50):
raising support as missionaries,would you know I'd never done
that, but it just made sense.
It wasn't like I am stepping inthis grandiose act of faith and
I'm doing it.
You know I'm like no, this iswhat we have to do.
You know, it just became verypractical.
So I praise God for how he musttake over the Spirit just gives
whatever reason or sensibilityor whatever to something that is
(13:12):
insane and that might be whatfaith is at some point, the idea
of giving everything away forfree would.
My story is about God in hisglory, right, and me wrestling
for glory in the midst of thatand then realizing this has got
to be about God and his gloryright and me wrestling for glory
in the midst of that and thenrealizing this has got to be
about God.
Suddenly, if someone's payingfor it, they might want to
highlight mission or ministry orman or a strategy, and I really
(13:37):
felt strongly about theconviction this has got to be
about Christ.
And the only way to reallyprobably have no binds in that
way is to say, well then, wecannot be hired.
Or if we sell the stuff here,buy this then.
Indeed, I would assume therewould be a temptation to make
(13:58):
stories, tell stories or how wemake it to benefit the consumer.
So what do people want?
It suddenly becomes the thingversus who's paying us up front,
what do they want, or what willthe consumer want, and so the
only way and again, I not eventhought through that much- it
was just, really just we'resupposed to give it away.
(14:20):
And I look back and I'm like,very practically, we knew at
that time it's like this wouldkeep the hero of the story,
christ.
The hero of the story has gotto be Jesus.
So we have to be untethered andGod's going to have to provide,
so there's going to have to belike he's going to have to.
Just, I mean, we got to eat Atthat time.
I had two daughters, a wife,and I praise God for my wife.
(14:40):
I do want to take a moment topraise the Lord for my wife,
because she's the one that satthrough me and my idolatry.
And I had a wife and kids and myprayers and my thoughts always
were gravitating towards thisother thing and she was so
gracious.
And when it came time, goddoing a revelatory work in my
heart repentance, faith, tears,all that, being patient, not
(15:03):
thinking it's another, just whimor whatever, and her support of
that.
And then starting a non-profitnever dreamt of that a ministry
raising support, the support.
So God gave my wife as thishelper to support me in my
seemingly insanity, and so Ipraise God for that.
So he did provide in so manydifferent ways, god.
(15:24):
So I praise God for that.
So he did provide in so manydifferent ways.
God, if we're going to give itaway, you're going to have to
provide.
And he brought along, he ledyou to have the faith to do.
How have you seen him executeon?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
that.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Well, I'm going to probably answer this in a
backwards way, but what I'veseen, first and foremost and I
say this to the people on ourteam at the ministry we're a
small team of four people howI've seen him move the most is
in our own lives.
We're a small team of fourpeople.
How I've seen him move the mostis in our own lives.
I feel the beneficiary of ourministry has been us.
First Stepping into ministry,there might be an instinct to
believe that you know, okay, youget to a certain point in your
(16:21):
spiritual walk that you havesomething to offer the world.
You know, and certainly thereis some qualifying things.
But what I've seen in 12 yearsof ministry is how much God
loves me, how much God loves ourstaff, how much God desires me
to be reminded of His grace andpower and provision and mercy
(16:41):
over and over again.
So I believe I'm in ministrybecause I needed ministry.
God wanted me near to him.
I mean, like in ministry, ifyou're not repenting and
confessing, you know, in anygiven moment you can start
putting your weight on the wrongthing.
Results, effectiveness, reach,you know, or ego, or pride, you
(17:02):
know it's like.
So I'm so thankful God knew inmy heart, my zealous, passionate
, idol factory heart, that heneeded me in this nest of
ministry to kind of, over andover again, see how beautiful he
is, to keep me close to him.
And so he's grown me so much inthe Lord, in ministry.
So, versus, we've reached somany people and this and that
(17:24):
has happened.
Even I blush at your intro.
I'm like I have no, we shouldjust write it's reached Peter
Craig.
This ministry has reached oneperson and it's him.
And over and over again, I meanhow he shaped me, I'm going to
kind of dance around it, butit's like, honestly, he's shown
me and I think this is the fruitof ministry is like he's shown
(17:45):
me more than what we do is howwe do it.
Romans says anything thatdoesn't proceed from faith is
sin, which is a terrifying idea,you know.
It's like, oh my gosh, 99% ofmy life has been sin, I think,
and that means God's grace mustspeak gargantuan.
He's shown me over and overlike, whatever you do, your
instinct is to obsess over whatyou produce, but what he's
(18:08):
looking at is our hearts.
Are you honoring me, worshipingme in faith, in love, in hope,
in joy?
And so he's reached one personand is reaching one person
definitively, it's me.
I know that, and certainly myco-workers.
It's a sanctifying thing beinga minister and he's shaped me
(18:29):
Beyond that, by God's grace.
He's enabled us to connect andreach our story subjects, the
people that we've walkedalongside, to film their stories
, and, honestly, when we get toheaven, if you get a playback
reel, I'm probably going torealize that the majority of the
work that God was doing in ourministry when we get there, I
believe I'll see that actuallyit was a ministry of
(18:51):
encouragement to our storysubjects.
Yes, more than anything, it'slike, oh, we think again
reaching the world and gettingthese videos out.
You said 80 million and I'mlike I have no idea what that
did, but I do know the effect ofwalking through stories with
the people who've experienced.
It has been so encouraging andedifying and sanctifying to them
(19:12):
, and so God would be so lavishto create a ministry just to go
to the small group of peoplearound the world, to partner
with them and honor their story,and that would be enough.
And then, of course, beyondthat, yeah, we get to share
stuff and people get to watchstuff.
I tell the team often Goddoesn't need moving works, he
doesn't need our little movies.
(19:32):
These are crayon drawings.
How beautiful Christ is.
Are you kidding me?
These are crayon drawings.
How beautiful christ is.
Are you kidding me?
These are crayon drawings,these little movies.
And so it's like.
But he wants to participate inwhat his desire is was reaching
the nations.
He wants to participate withhis kids.
I use the analogy of, like youknow, and if I'm, if I'm working
around the house, I'm hammeringin a nail.
My daughter wants toparticipate with me.
(19:53):
I'm gonna let her now.
Will she put the nail in whenshe's a little kid?
Probably not, but I'm going tohave so much joy in seeing her
try.
You know, put that hammer onthe nail and maybe it doesn't
even move.
But a man, what joy the fatherhas even I'm an imperfect father
.
What joy I have in seeing mydaughter trying to put that nail
in.
And then, of course, after shetries, I put the nail in.
(20:15):
I feel like that's ministry.
It's like that's what ministryis.
You know, like we try, clink,clink, clink.
I'm so thankful.
I feel like that's, that's thework of ministry.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Man, what a privilege to think that the father
delights in us, yeah.
That he delights in us, and andpart of delighting in his
creation is you guys going outinto the Amazon, out into Mali,
not only delighting in the workthat you guys are doing, but
communicating to your subjectshow much God delights in them.
So let's do this.
Let's jump from the office andthe film studio into the boat,
(20:50):
take us down to Amazon, talk tous about a trip that you had
specifically to Brazil and whathappened in that trip.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Yeah, we discovered this ministry that's in the
Amazon, church planting ministry, beautiful, disciple-making
brothers and sisters.
We heard stories.
One of the stories that we hadheard is of this pastor His name
is Nilton and so we were likeit would be awesome to go out on
the river.
First of all, it's the Amazon,so that's cool, so there's, and
so we were like it would beawesome to go out on the river.
First of all, it's the Amazon,so that's cool, so there's a
(21:21):
little bit of like this isexciting.
We get to go out there.
But what they do and I recentlyrewatched the film you know,
knowing I'd be talking aboutthis and I had forgotten some of
the details there's 40,000villages and communities along
the Amazon River that are very,very hard to reach.
Now, the Amazon might bedifferent than what we think it
(21:41):
is.
When you're imagining theAmazon, many people might think
of, you know, like very tight,windy, jungle-encompassed river,
but I mean it looks like theocean In some areas.
I mean you can't see the end ofit.
So you're out and it's asprawling like sea is the Amazon
, and so among this massive bodyof water, there's islands,
(22:05):
there's tributaries, there's, Imean, so much diversity in terms
of wildlife, plant life andpeople and culture.
And so what these pastors do?
They go out on boat, days onboat, to find villages that are
unreached or unchurched andpreach the gospel.
And so we're like this is great, we're going to go out with
(22:25):
them and do this.
And so, yeah, and so there's40,000 communities, 35,000 at
the time of the recording of thefilm.
35,000 are either unreached orunchurched.
So I'm sure that number haschanged because I've seen the
work, ethic and the passion andlove of Jesus and the spirit
move.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I'm sure it's much lower Praise God, that's awesome
.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
So we went out there on the Amazon filming story with
Pastor Nielsen.
For decades he has been goingout and just preaching the
gospel, going from shoreline toshoreline, finding villages and
preaching.
And the idea was we were goingto go out there and we're going
to film them going to anunchurched village or unreached
village and preaching the gospelfor the first time.
(23:06):
And it's like what does it looklike for people to hear this
story?
You know what does it look like.
And so you know Pastor Nieltonholds on to the idea that the
gospel is the power of God forsalvation.
The gospel is the story, thegood news.
And so I'm like man, wouldn'tit be fun to see people hear the
gospel for the first time, notknowing their response, you know
(23:28):
, not knowing how the spiritwould you know, move, but it was
.
This was going to be awesome,filming the story.
And so they build their ownboats I'm filming this story.
And so they build their ownboats.
They specifically kind of likethree or maybe two level boats
that they go out on.
And so we went out Day one.
We went out and we went to achurch that had been planted by
(23:50):
them and we went to a churchservice.
The churches are now, of coursewe have an idea what churches
look like.
This is a little different Now.
I grew up on the MississippiRiver in Illinois and we'd go
every weekend to the Mississippiand there'd be cabins on sticks
, you know, just houses onsticks, and so this is kind of I
(24:10):
had some reasonable idea oflike.
Looking at the churches it feltvery familiar.
It's these essentially homes onsticks and they have to be on
sticks because of the riverfloods all the time.
You have to be elevated.
You know 20 feet near orwhatever, or five feet in the
yard, based on where you are onthe land.
So we visited this church, sawlike people worshiping in
(24:31):
portuguese.
I mean, imagine no windows.
This, this was a fun littlething.
We're having a worship service.
They have to start generatorsto get lights in the place at
night.
Bugs are everywhere.
So imagine one light bulb andyou can barely see the light
bulb because of the swarm ofbugs flying around it.
And I'm at the back of thechurch, kind of looking just
(24:54):
seeing.
The Portuguese people arepassionate people.
Now I don't know, you know ifyou're listening, what kind of
church culture you have.
You know whether it's a kind oflike mouth of words, kind of
church, or you're belting thesong, but these people sing, you
know, and they're all into it,which I really love, our
Brazilian brothers and sisters,because just their passion.
(25:15):
So they're worshiping, admiringthis, and in the midst of this,
I swear this, this bat, I meanit's about probably my memory is
probably exaggerating, but itwas big, it was, I mean, like I
would say probably easily, maybea four foot wingspan, flying
through one window and going inout the other because of all the
(25:36):
bugs inside this church, justflying and you're going and no
one's blinking an eye.
We're all worshiping and I'mlike watching from the back, I'm
like what in the world?
My brother's with me, I usuallytook a volunteer hey, will you
come with me, help me?
And so this early days ofministries where we didn't have
just me on the team and he wasthere, and yeah, I just have a
(25:58):
vivid memory of this batwhipping in and out of surface
and people not even looking atit.
This is the Amazon, you know.
And so day one we went andstopped at that church.
Now, day two was where it gotinteresting.
We were going to travel thewhole next day.
And again, you can go days,days.
I mean I don't understand.
So you have the Amazon Riverand you have all these
tributaries, these arms that godeep.
You can go deep in the jungle,deep into an ocean, and then
(26:22):
find an island.
It's so vast.
So we were going to travel, wewere going to meet up with the
pastor.
Here's the point we were goingto travel and meet up with this
pastor who knew of this villagethat was unchurched and they
were going to preach the gospel.
And we got word, as we were kindof trying to leave, that the
pastor, if I remember correctly,had his eye gouged with
(26:44):
something Like I don't know,like a work problem or something
Like.
I mean, he had a medicalemergency that took him out.
So we're waiting to connectwith him.
He was going to show us the way.
Suddenly he's injured and wedon't even know where he is.
We just hear through, you know,cb or something, that this guy
(27:07):
can't join us.
And so we're like, okay, thepastor's kind of figuring out
what to do.
And they're like, suddenly theyhad the firm confidence that
they could find this place.
And so we went out on the riverand as we were out, you know,
day turned into dusk, turnedinto night.
We had no idea where we'regoing.
Apparently we're looking, we'retrying to call the person,
(27:28):
we're trying to Amazon.
No signal, and this is yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Imagine it kind of felt like an infinite maze.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
You're down one stream and then you could take a
left or a right.
Have I seen this one before?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yes, have we come to this fork?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
And there's no street signs, there's no river signs,
you know.
And so I mean it's interestingbecause these men have lived on
the rivers, yet they could belost on the river, looking for
this place, and it became veryobvious that we didn't know
where we're going.
And it's pitch black and allyou have is a little spotlight
on your boat and you're just, Imean, it's just water and jungle
(28:07):
.
They were asking, calling itwasn't working, and so finally
they were like they spotted thislittle dock and this is a dock.
If you spot a dock, this is adock you would pass up, because
it was just precariously perchedalong the river, I mean kind of
angled, weird, small looks,accidental in some respect.
And they're like, well, here'ssomething.
(28:29):
And you know they would knowbetter.
I don't know better.
I'm like we're going there, youknow you can barely see it, but
there's a little dock perch.
You don't see any signs of lifewithin the trees.
Once you walk up the shoreline,you just see blackness and
darkness and you know, you hearthe crickets and you, I don't
know, maybe they weren'tcrickets all the insects and
sounds of the jungle and theriver, and you're like we're
(28:51):
just going to go in there and sothat, indeed, the boats they
travel on are big People, sleepon them, they live on them and,
you know, sleep on hammocks.
So we're sleeping on hammocks,you know, under the night sky
each night.
So it's a pretty big boat.
They pull up and kind of perchand find their way.
They just disappear.
All they did is just get downand just disappear into the
(29:16):
darkness.
And so you're just waiting andyou're like, what are we doing
here?
And at this point in my mindI'm like, well, the story's
changed.
The film was kind of like todocument what God is doing.
And we're going to go to thisplace, and now we can't go to
this place and I don't know whatto film.
It's so dark I can't reallyfilm too much anyway.
And so they come back andthey're like, hey, we found a
(29:36):
cabin, let's go.
And that was just all that wasneeded Signs of life.
There.
We found someone.
And so they came back andthey're like, hey, we're getting
off, this is our location, thisis not where we're supposed to
go, but this was a place to go.
And so all the guys, all thesepastors and what was brilliant
about these guys I should haveshared as we're traveling,
(29:57):
they're worshiping.
We pull over, we eat, weworship.
They got guitars.
It's not like they're justlaboring, they're worshiping.
I go back to my own story andit's like God called me not to
labor but to worship.
It's like this is your act ofworship.
I'm so thankful for thatspecific call of worship.
(30:18):
I sense that in these men actof worship.
I'm so thankful for thatspecific call of worship.
I sense that in these menthey're worshiping.
Is there toil?
Is there labor?
Were they scrubbing the boats?
Were they cooking meals?
Yeah, is it hard?
Yes, but they're worshiping.
And so it's just so, now that Ithink back upon it, and it's
like man, what beautifulexamples for me just to have
witnessed and see their joy ofthe Lord, their worshipful
hearts in difficult places doingthis.
(30:40):
And so, yeah, they got there.
They see this cabin.
Everyone's de-boating I don'tknow if that's a term, but we're
going into the darkness.
I have no idea what we're doing.
But they found this cabin andthey bring a generator.
There's no power.
They bring everything off forthis one cabin and I'm like no,
(31:01):
in my economy I'm working, likewell, we're going to reach a
village and I thought now we'reat a cabin.
It's like this less epic and solong story short.
They set up lights.
They, I mean they kind ofstring lights everywhere.
They get the generator andthere's a lot of work.
And Pastor Nielsen and hisbrothers go in this little cabin
and what I didn't know is whenthey went into the darkness met
(31:23):
these people again, candlelight,I assume.
I have no idea, I don't evenknow, there's no power.
They see these people.
They ask hey, we have some goodnews to share with you about
Jesus, would you want to hear?
And they're like yeah, sure,you know.
It's just like they don't know.
And they're like tell us whatis this?
And so, in the meantime, aswe're setting up, they're going
(31:44):
to get some neighbors so theybring over people into the house
.
Neighbors come home.
Next thing, you know, we have aone room cabin full of people,
you know, and they're just herewaiting to hear what is this
good news?
And Pastor Nielton sits down andjust shares the gospel.
This is in Portuguese.
Now I'm shooting and I lookback and I kick myself.
(32:05):
I should have been shootingthis whole thing.
But in my mind, in my notseeing clearly, I'm like I'll
shoot this, I'll shoot a littlemontage, but I should have just
been recording what was beingspoken in Portuguese.
I don't know what's being said,but he shares the gospel, pulls
open the Bible, everyonehuddled around these small
(32:25):
lights, just listening to theWord of God as he preaches, and
I look back on it and what washappening there is just so
beautiful in our you know,ignorance in our we're lost in
our I shouldn't say our in theiract of faith that just stopping
what was happening is just atransformative thing.
(32:47):
He preached the gospel theentire family comes to christ
and and it was like it wasspoken to me later that the mom
the mother is like the matriarchof the family says this is the
greatest day of our life.
It's like we're just out on theriver and we find this little
(33:09):
lost, yeah, lost.
We don't know where we're going,so like, where can we receive
any glory in this?
We're just lost on the riverand God had an appointment, and
it was like salvation came tothat house, like this is the
greatest day of our life, and sothis family comes to know Jesus
.
Now, this is a moment, so thisis a beginning of faith, so this
(33:31):
is not boom.
See you later.
Now their posture in thisministry, and the ministry is
called Paz International.
It's the name of the ministrynow, that's the name of the
ministry of the pastors at Worldof Boat yes yes, so Paz
International.
Now they work in severaldifferent countries.
They actually send men andwomen from the Amazon to
different countries all over theworld, and so the idea is
(33:52):
obviously indigenous peoplecoming to know Christ, be
discipled and go and serve andplant churches within their own
country and culture and language.
And so this family comes toknow Christ and, of course, or
like, begin the journey.
You know, like this is a momentof revelation for them that I
want this, I want Jesus.
These men come out of theshadows and preach the gospel.
(34:14):
I want what they're offering.
And so it's like what is goingon here.
You know, I'm like what youknow, like, yes, this whole
family wants to repent and bebaptized.
I mean, this is old school, youknow.
It's like repent and believe.
And so, funny enough, the nextthing we do, we go back on our
boat.
We're going to have a reception, and it's like we're going to
have a cake reception.
The guys at some point madecake.
(34:35):
I don't even know how they makecake.
On our boat we had cakes and soit's like we're eating cake and
I'm like this is pretty cool.
This is amazing that thishappened and we're up there for
maybe an hour or two hours, I'mnot sure.
We come back on.
The family comes on.
We're eating cake and talkingand what was really cool this
moment I really rememberdistinctly Pastor Nilton's son
(35:01):
comes up to me and we'rechatting.
He's letting me know whathappened.
So Pastor Nilton doesn't knowEnglish, but his son knows
English.
He's kind of unpacking thiswhole thing, explaining.
This is what the mom said.
These people came to and I'mlike, try asking all these
questions because, you know, Ijust don't know what's going on.
I know what's happening whenthey're preaching the word, but
the response and I'm just bowledover and he says you see that
guy right there and it's the dadof the house and he's like that
(35:22):
guy's going to be a pastor ofthe church.
And I'm like what this guydoesn't know.
It hit him Because when theseguys come and they preach the
gospel, these Brazilian brothersthat I'm with, they don't look
for conversions, they look fordisciple makers, they look for
disciples of Jesus who will makedisciples preach the gospel.
(35:47):
This guy just came to know Jesus.
And what this brother of mine,Pastor Nilton's son, is seeing,
he's like this man's going to bethe pastor of a church, he's
going to lead this church andI'm like this guy doesn't know
what hit him.
He just heard the good news twoseconds ago and now, just
immediately from the beginning,they're seeing something.
They're saying it's not justenough that you come to know
(36:11):
Christ, it's that you follow him, that you share the gospel, and
so it's not just for you.
Yes, immediately, it's alreadylooking beyond them, not like in
some callous sort of way.
So what he says is I'm going tocome back here and I'm going to
disciple him.
And I'm like I don't even knowwhere are we.
Do you know where we are?
You don't know.
You know, and in my mind I'mlike, and it is taking like a
(36:34):
day and a half to get here.
So it's like saying we sharethe gospel with this guy.
I'm going to come here everyweek and again, I don't know,
it's taken a day and a half tofind this place.
I'm going to come and even theobstacles are not obstacles Now,
not to give them, I don't think, undue glory.
I think actually, god hasinstilled such a heart and
(36:55):
passion for Christ, the Spiritand the zeal for the Lord and a
zeal for sharing the beauty ofChrist, that a day and a half
river journey is not even anobstacle.
Like I'm going to disciple thatguy and he's going to be a
pastor of a church and I'm like,almost like prophetically, he's
sharing almost with confidence.
And I'm like this guy, thisfamily doesn't know what hit him
(37:16):
, you know.
And I'm like, and I canactually see that this is
probably going to happen.
Because what I've seen so farand seeing the faith and hearing
some of the testimonies of thepeople that have come to know
Christ, it's not just I came toknow Christ and now I just do my
thing and Christ is in there.
It's like, oh, now I havesomething to share.
And it's not just making quote,unquote Christians.
(37:36):
And it's not just making quoteunquote Christians, it's making
disciples, people that followJesus, and so their posture is
totally different of makingdisciples leaders.
They look for leaders, like inevery Christian I think Nielsen
says in the film is like aleader.
It's not just a Christian, it'sa leader in whatever capacity
God has given them.
But he's looking at this manand thinking this is the father
(38:00):
of this house, he's going to bea leader in his home, but he's
going to be a leader of a churchin this area.
Just bowled over by what Godhad done that night, we went to
another.
The next day, went out on theriver, went to a church service
where, I mean, there's so manybelievers and so you see the
fruit of their activity.
In another village, I mean itfelt like hundreds of baptisms
People it's beautiful Peopledraped in white cloth coming
(38:21):
into the Amazon being baptizedone after another.
Just a baptismal service withall these people that have been
discipled and want to follow theLord in baptism.
And all of these people were arickety dock off of the river at
one point before, yeah, at onepoint.
Maybe they're rickety dock andthen someone was appointed.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Hey, at one point maybe they're rickety.
And then someone was appointed.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Yes, you're going to be the leader.
Yes, you're going to makedisciples.
And so I'm like, well, maybe youknow I'm looking at this and
I'm like maybe this is whathappens.
And so, long story short, comeback to home, fly back to the US
.
A couple of months later, theperson one of the guys, he was
(39:03):
an American person that went outwith us on the Amazon with the
Brazilian pastors reaches outand he's like you won't believe
what has happened.
In the time that I was gone andagain, I don't know how many
months it was, but sure enoughPastor Nielsen's son went back.
He discipled this man, a churchwas planted, he became the
pastor of this church, like thishouse.
Now, this house was one of afew houses I didn't even see any
other houses because it's sodark, but I guess other houses
and so that village.
(39:24):
So many people came to Christ inthis village.
Now, after a while, whathappens?
People are like what's going onin this village?
Whatever they got going on, wewant.
Other villages have come andnow multiple churches I mean
essentially a church plantingmovement, a spirit of the church
.
I mean essentially a churchplanting movement, a spirit of
the, just a movement of thespirit happened from that house
and permeated and had severalpeople, or several other
(39:46):
villages suddenly have now.
The same thing had happenedwhere God had come, the spirit
awakened, faith and many peoplehad come to know Christ.
So, village One, so many peoplecame to know Christ.
This guy became like thefledging pastor of this church.
Pastor Nilton's son came anddiscipled, week after week, and
(40:08):
now multiple villages had beenreached within months.
Within months, like there'sprobably a better analogy but
dry grass, a little bit of flame, you know, sweeping over, and
so I mean super formative for me, even as I think back.
I was rewatching Nielsen's storyand it's just about his heart
and his posture of ministry.
And again, portuguese, what youcan learn from brothers and
(40:30):
sisters from around the world.
Again, the film that we got toput together was teaching me
again, reminding me.
He said in the movie there'sthis confidence that he has.
It's like Scripture says thegospel is the power of God for
salvation.
Not their strategy, not theirpreaching style, not anything
(40:52):
else, but the gospel, the goodnews.
There's something in the goodnews that the Spirit uses.
It is the power of salvation.
And so they didn't go, theydidn't even necessarily
contextualize, they don't evenknow where they are, they just
opened the Word and believedthat the Word, and the Gospel
itself has power to transformthis household, this village,
and then the villages beyond,and then not only that can sound
(41:15):
like oh, that sounds great, butalso have the faith and
endurance to persevere inlaboring, not to say boom
salvation.
So let's move on.
They're saying I'm coming backto this place, wherever this
place is, and I'm disciplingthat man and making disciple
leaders.
That would make leaders, andthen church planting happens.
And so it was just soencouraging to look back on that
(41:38):
, and I remember my friend whoactually told me the update sent
me a picture and sure enough,there were so many people that
they took a picture of that hadbeen affected.
And I look back, it came down togetting lost, like we fumble
around in the darkness.
As Christians, we fumble around, we don't know what we're doing
, and yet God does, he'sorchestrating something.
(42:00):
The guy who injured his eyerecovered, so that was good,
that worked out.
But it's like we fumble aroundin darkness and God gives us a
little hint of something likethis rickety dock and these men
being like, with childlike faith, not cynicism, not like.
Well, this is not what weexpected.
Even in my sinful heart, Imight have at that time been
(42:21):
like man.
This seems funky, let's dosomething else, or it's not as
good, or whatever.
They had the faith to go intothe darkness and find one house,
and God had made a fertileground for seed to fall, and it
was a soil that would bear fruit.
And so, next thing, you know,this had happened based off the
(42:41):
God working in our lack ofcapacity, lack of understanding,
and then faith, just a littlebit of faith, and so it's just
beautiful to see how Godorchestrates things.
There's planning, there'sstrategy, there's prayers,
there's getting lost, there'speople getting hurt.
There is a lot of stuff goingon for God to orchestrate what
(43:03):
he wants, and this is abeautiful example of God's
sovereignty and love.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yes, God's so sovereign and intentional, Dude
Peter.
What an incredible story, man.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Yeah, well, I was just the witness, so that's all
Okay.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
So you're telling these stories and I'm'm sitting
here and I know our listenersare doing the same Just trying
to visualize all of these thingsand all of these these moments.
You did such a great jobdescribing it, but if we want to
see it, we can see it.
Yeah, where can people go andsee the story?
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Yeah, so this story and again it's not documented in
its entirety Like I'mexplaining it, that was just
like the side story.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
We get a behind the scenes and now we can actually
watch the film.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
It's the story I wish I would have filmed.
I just did not film because Iwas.
So.
You know, scripture says welook through a looking glass
dimly and I like, yeah, you know, I just don't see things
clearly.
But God knows too, maybe hedidn't want that, but you can
see that night too.
It's in the footage.
But the film is called NotAshamed because Pastor Nielton's
one of his scriptures he's holdonto is the Apostle Paul saying
(44:04):
I'm not ashamed of the gospelbecause it is the power of God
for salvation.
And so it's called Not Ashamed.
You can go to movingworksorg,you can look it up.
And again, this is one of ourearly films and so but one that
holds a special place in myheart.
And again, I don't think I'veseen it for years, but coming on
this, I knew I was going totalk about it.
So I'm like, oh, I shouldre-familiarize.
And I'm like, oh, man, lordjust stirred, stirred once again
(44:30):
of the beauty of the spiritworking in people, you know, and
our Brazilian brothers andsisters in their faith, and
there's so much to learn fromthem and sit at their feet,
learning from Christ at work inthem.
So, not Ashamed at Moving Works.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Not Ashamed is the name of the film.
You can find it atmovingworksorg.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
Yes, and that is a short film.
We make short films.
We say we make films, thatobviously our ministry is to
worship Christ, but we makethese films to make much of him.
And so with our short films,some of them are longer than
others, Some are two minutes,some are 45 minutes, but this
(45:08):
one lands at about eight to nineminutes.
So hopefully it's anencouragement.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
One of my favorite things about this podcast is
traveling down the murky watersof the Amazon and hearing all of
these incredible stories of Godat work, because for me and I
think for our listeners as wellit just expands our
understanding of what God is upto and the work that he's doing.
It encourages us also to get inthe game.
What can we do to participate?
So here's the deal.
I set up this episode by sayingthat we were going to travel
down those murky waters of theAmazon.
We were also going to hikethrough the bush of Mali to go
(45:44):
to some remote villages.
But here's the deal If you wantto hear more of these stories
from Peter Craig and MovingWorks, you're actually going to
have to come back for the nextepisode.
So the next episode, we're goingto kick it off going through
the bush together.
We're going to end this one nowjust to give you some time to
reflect on all the things thatyou guys have heard today and
just see what God wants to do inyour life and how God's asking
you to move and how God isasking you to get in the game
(46:08):
and get involved.
So, peter, we always pray forour guests at the end of our
podcast episode.
So would you mind praying forus now?
Speaker 3 (46:14):
yeah, absolutely, lord, thank you.
Thank you that you're on yourthrone right now and that you
have complete sovereignty,authority and complete,
unimaginable, immeasurable love,that you're operating on all
those fronts.
Lord, thank you that you careabout people in remote villages
(46:38):
along the Amazon River, thatyour eyes were on them Funny
enough, when our eyes aren't onthem and we didn't know where to
go, your eyes were on them andyou had a plan, and so thank you
for being that sort of God.
Thank you for our listenersthat your eyes are on them, that
Lord, holy Spirit, if you arespeaking to them in some
specific way, lord, that is yourcare and concern for them, that
(46:59):
you want to do something intheir lives.
So, holy Spirit, I ask you tojust move through these words as
you desire Encourage, convict,challenge, bring joy, worship,
whatever you desire, lord.
Thank you, holy Spirit, thatyou're personal, that you are
intimate, that you do want tomove in our lives.
(47:20):
So I ask you to do that.
Thank you for our Brazilianbrothers and sisters.
Thank you for your work in theAmazon.
Thank you for people who arefaithful and have a love for
Christ, broken, imperfect peoplethat you have indwelt with your
spirit to use, and not just usebut to partner with, to share
the beauty of Christ.
(47:40):
And Lord, thank you for beingthe father that asks us to grab
the hammer and try hitting thenail, and you smiling at us when
we do imperfectly.
We do things imperfectly, but,lord, you got it.
You're the one that hammers thenail, you're the one that
builds your kingdom and wepraise you for that.
We thank you, for your grace,we thank you for this time.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen and amen.
Thank you for listening toUnreached.
Our sincere desire is that whatyou've heard today will cause
you to see the mission of Goddifferently and your role in it
more clearly.
If this adds value for you andwe hope it does would you please
rate and review the podcastwherever you listen.
Also, share with your family,your friends, your church, your
life group, small group, D groupwherever you do life, and if
you want to connect with us,find us on Instagram at
(48:26):
unreachedpodcast, or email us atunreachedpodcast at gmailcom.
Thank you you.
In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven,
with members from every tribe,tongue, people and language
standing in the throne roombefore the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over7,000 unreached people groups
around the world.
For the last six years, myfamily and friends have been on
a journey to find, vet and fundthe task remaining.
(00:28):
Come journey with us to theends of the earth as we share
the supernatural stories of Godat work for the men and women he
has called to reach theunreached.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome, friends, to another episode of the Unreached
Podcast.
I am Clint Hudson, your hostfor today's show, and today on
the show we get the opportunityto travel up the jungle paths of
remote villages in Mali anddown the murky waters of the
Amazon in Brazil, and guiding uson this journey is Peter Craig,
the executive director ofMoving Works.
(01:04):
Journey is Peter Craig, theexecutive director of Moving
Works.
Peter is an award-winningstoryteller, filmmaker, who
transitioned his career, workingwith the likes of Sony Pictures
and NBC Universal, to filmingstories about God, changing
lives around the world.
And since its inception in 2012, moving Works has actually
upheld two spirit-ledconvictions, and that's every
film that they create mustglorify God and it must be given
(01:27):
away for free.
So since the inception ofMoving Works, god has allowed
this ministry to film in over 14countries and produce a library
of short films that has beenseen over 80 million times.
Peter man, that's a lot ofawesome stuff to open up an
episode.
Welcome to the pod man.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Well, I feel a little humbled by that.
I actually don't know if I'lllive up to that.
I'm now realizing that's on ourwebsite.
We need to probably pull thatback a little bit.
But all glory to God and allthat.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes, dude, all right, so walk us through what it's
like to be a filmmaker and makea decision that the gifting that
you have you're only going touse to glorify the Lord.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Well, it sounds easier than it was and,
interestingly enough, it's notas epic as it sounds.
It's actually.
It takes place on the floor ofmy office when I was a writer,
so it's a little bit of a story,but the very simple version of
it is I always desired to makefilms when I was a little kid.
I started making movies when Iwas nine, made a lot of ninja
(02:34):
movies going through high schooland the goal was always making
Hollywood films.
Lord, I want to do that and Godwas gracious.
Out of college I started makingshort films, got into film
festivals, started havingsuccess in that way.
That's how I got to know Austin.
I had a few films at South bySouthwest over the years had
(02:55):
success.
Everyone was like, hey, youknow what about writing a
feature script?
And I was like, okay, I'llwrite a feature script.
So I wrote that and that gotinto the Sundance Screenwriters
Lab and got an agent.
And then my agent was like,let's write one to sell.
I wrote a screenplay thatpeople liked and it sold and I
became what I would call anaccidental writer.
(03:17):
Like, well, I write to makestuff.
And people were asking me well,write stuff and we'll see what
happens.
And so, long story short, Ibecame a writer, doing stuff for
studios for five years.
Now, in the midst of that, andover the span of that five years
, god showed that it was, to behonest, an idol in my life.
(03:38):
It was the thing my prayersgravitated toward, my thoughts
magnetized toward.
It consumed me and God allowedme to see that.
And the more I did it, the moremiserable I became.
So when it comes to thequestion, you know how do you
use your gifts to glorify God.
(03:59):
It went through a lot of sinand repentance, you know, and
God's grace and patience with me.
So, five years laboring,striving, holding with a white
knuckle grip onto this thing Iwanted and God showing me it was
never going to satisfy.
I really relate to the story inthe Exodus of the golden calf.
You know, the Israelites madethis golden calf and claimed
(04:20):
that it was the thing thatrescued them from Egypt.
And if God were to allow themto continue and say into the
promised land with this goldencalf, it would not do them any
good, and praise God that hedidn't.
It was similar in my life.
You know, this idol God didn'twant me to have.
I'd made it and, using thegifts he'd given me.
I even made it.
And it's interesting, theIsraelites made this golden calf
(04:42):
with the resources that Godallowed them to take from Israel
, all the riches, and theycreated something atrocious.
And I had two.
And so God allowed me in Hisgrace and discipline.
It's interesting that grace anddiscipline can go together like
that.
But in His grace and discipline, the thing I wanted he allowed
to become a thorn and bitter andgross.
(05:05):
And so say, on the floor of myoffice, because I mean, almost
every day I was writing a comedyfor Sony Pictures and almost
every day I'd be on the floorweeping and I'm like this is the
dream, you know.
And here I am weeping andbroken.
And God allowed it to break me.
If you want your idol, you know,moses did this.
He took the golden calf andground it up and made the
(05:25):
Israelites drink it, made themdrink it.
It was a bitter taste.
Yeah, it is.
I think God was grinding it upand making me drink it.
And what a grace.
You know you think, oh, that'sjust cruel, and it's like, no,
what a grace, because it's liketaste it.
You know, it's interesting.
Later in scriptures it tastes,and see that the Lord is good.
And here I'm drinking justmetal, bitter metal, which is my
(05:46):
Hollywood career.
And so God gave me a gift and Iwas using it for me and my own
glory and through that processof brokenness.
You know, it's interestingbecause in many occasions I
would say, god, I give you, Igive you my career, and I would
be holding it behind my back asI prayed that I give it to you,
and really it was like justbless me.
I will say the words that'slovely, that God knows the
(06:09):
intent of our heart.
I would say the words that Iwould, with white knuckle grip,
hold it behind my back and notbe letting go and so, but this
time, after about five years ofdefiant, I'm holding on to it.
God, in his grace, allowed meto start to let go and I'm like
this is, it's breaking me and Ihonestly don't want this anymore
(06:30):
.
And so my grip opened and withthat came along just like a need
Lord, there's something wrongwith me.
What do I do?
I started reading scripture.
God took me back to scripture.
I'm seeing Genesis toRevelation.
Do I started reading Scripture?
God took me back to Scripture.
I'm seeing Genesis toRevelation.
It begins with Him alone and itends with all the nations
(06:52):
looking to Christ and worshipingHim.
So, beginning to end, it'sreally about Him and His glory,
not me and mine.
Seeing that at the time, praiseGod for His Spirit working to
draw me back to Him.
And then the narrative ofScripture reminded me what it's
all about.
I was like, okay, god, you knowI don't know what to do, but
here it is, you know, show mewhat to do.
And God was very gracious, overthe span of about nine months,
(07:15):
to show me that He'd given me mygifts to honor Him and make
films that explicitly glorifyHim.
During this time of kind ofrevelation, repentance, a lot of
tears, a lot of counsel, god'sword, all that I was given an
opportunity by a friend.
His name is Justin, and he waslike hey, come with us to Haiti,
(07:37):
we're going to go train pastors, you can come on this mission
trip.
I've never been on a missiontrip before and I was like, okay
, but if I go, I'm going tobring a camera, maybe I'll
document what God is doing inour lives.
So the people that are going,more than anything, like so we
can have like this memento.
Like you know, when you're on atrip like this, I can only
assume God speaks to you indifferent ways.
(07:59):
You might be open, but often Iassume as well that when you
come back you could easilyforget it all.
So I was like I'll go take acamera and document what God
spoke to us so we could havethis.
So I went and went down there,shot came back and I was editing
this little piece, just thislittle mission thing, just for
us, and God spoke to me superduper clearly, and there are a
(08:20):
few equations where he's done.
This spoke right into my heart,you know, and the words were
this is your act of worship.
And it's.
It's funny because it didn'tcome with clarity, it just came
with like a confidence and likean authority.
So it was like in my mind,hearing this, I'm like I don't
know what that means, but itchanges everything.
(08:40):
And so it wasn't like andhere's the, here's the 10 year
plan.
It was just this is your act ofworship.
I was like, okay, god, I'mavailable.
And by this time he hadlovingly beat me up enough to
know that, okay, he's boss.
Whatever he says, I'm justopen-handed.
Now I had a contract with Sonypictures to do something, um,
but I'm like, what do I do withthat and how are we going to
(09:02):
provide?
And it was lovely, god, in hisgrace towards me and my family
at that time.
Two weeks later, my agentcalled.
He's like Sony's bogged downwith some work and they't have
to happen.
But he released the reins to anobligation and provided
(09:28):
simultaneously and gave me afirst real confidence, just
practical confidence that, god,why do I doubt you?
And so, over the next ninemonths, I started traveling,
started documenting, and Godshowed me over that time I want
to make films that glorify Him,that really speak to Him, who he
is, what he says, what he'sdoing around the world, and
(09:50):
stirred my heart to go todifferent countries and document
.
And so, july of 2012, movingWorks came to be, so praise God
for that.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
That is an incredible story.
Thank you so much for sharingthat, and I think a lot of our
audience probably knows a littlebit about my story as a
songwriter, but what they don'tknow is that I had a time on my
office floor the same way thatyou did in your office floor and
specifically, god had revealedto me that songwriting had
become an idol in my life, andI'll never forget the phrase
(10:21):
that he said to me, that Ireally just felt like the Lord
impressed upon my heart.
He said you're more proud ofand excited about what you do
for me than what I did for you,and it just wrecked me because
as an artist, as a songwriter, Iwanted to write these songs
(10:41):
that tell the story of God atwork Very similar, I think, now,
to what you're doing.
I think now to what you'redoing, but it, in and of itself,
had actually become an idol forme.
Where I was, I was just proud ofthe thing that I was doing for
the Lord.
Rather than an act of worship,it had become just an act of
something that I was vanity yes,vanity man.
That's so great, but literallyI stopped writing songs for
about six months and because Icouldn't.
(11:02):
It tasted so bitter, the bittertaste of writing a song my
friends would gather together towrite and I'd be like no, I'm
good, I can't do it.
And God made me drink that idol.
And then, after the fact, uh,when I had gone through this
time of repentance and prayer,um, the first song that I wrote
when we came back was aboutidols and let your praises rise
(11:22):
in every idol fall.
And it was just this act ofsurrender to the Lord and I
think it's it's probably one ofthe most impactful songs we've
ever written, because it'sprobably the hardest one I've
ever had to write, because I hadto walk through that journey.
So, where you are now, as afilmmaker, as an executive
director, it's so hard foughtthat you've got to where you are
and it's just incredible tohear your story and your journey
(11:44):
that you've got to where youare, and it's just incredible to
hear your story and yourjourney of surrender, this act
of surrendering this gift thatGod's clearly given you to tell
stories, but now you'vesurrendered it to say I'm only
going to do this for him, sowalk me through this one thing
that's so compelling to me.
So not only did you decide togo and make films that glorify
God, but also you wanted to givethem away for free.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
The idea was, you know, having gone through my, I
think my journey, I mean, reallyinforms many of, maybe, the
things we hold as convictions inthe ministry and again, god's
design on mine I wouldn't say,oh, this is how I'm going to do
it.
If I'm going to do it, this isalmost like well, if this is
what God wants, we have to do itthis way, and it almost.
(12:26):
It makes faith is interesting.
The way I think about it islike I think the endowment of
faith at any given moment andyou know there's the gift of
faith for certain moments, and Ithink when you experience faith
it's almost like reasonable.
You know you're like this makessense and God's giving you
faith to make it make sense.
And so even the I look back onthe starting of the ministry,
(12:50):
raising support as missionaries,would you know I'd never done
that, but it just made sense.
It wasn't like I am stepping inthis grandiose act of faith and
I'm doing it.
You know I'm like no, this iswhat we have to do.
You know, it just became verypractical.
So I praise God for how he musttake over the Spirit just gives
whatever reason or sensibilityor whatever to something that is
(13:12):
insane and that might be whatfaith is at some point, the idea
of giving everything away forfree would.
My story is about God in hisglory, right, and me wrestling
for glory in the midst of thatand then realizing this has got
to be about God and his gloryright and me wrestling for glory
in the midst of that and thenrealizing this has got to be
about God.
Suddenly, if someone's payingfor it, they might want to
highlight mission or ministry orman or a strategy, and I really
(13:37):
felt strongly about theconviction this has got to be
about Christ.
And the only way to reallyprobably have no binds in that
way is to say, well then, wecannot be hired.
Or if we sell the stuff here,buy this then.
Indeed, I would assume therewould be a temptation to make
(13:58):
stories, tell stories or how wemake it to benefit the consumer.
So what do people want?
It suddenly becomes the thingversus who's paying us up front,
what do they want, or what willthe consumer want, and so the
only way and again, I not eventhought through that much- it
was just, really just we'resupposed to give it away.
(14:20):
And I look back and I'm like,very practically, we knew at
that time it's like this wouldkeep the hero of the story,
christ.
The hero of the story has gotto be Jesus.
So we have to be untethered andGod's going to have to provide,
so there's going to have to belike he's going to have to.
Just, I mean, we got to eat Atthat time.
I had two daughters, a wife,and I praise God for my wife.
(14:40):
I do want to take a moment topraise the Lord for my wife,
because she's the one that satthrough me and my idolatry.
And I had a wife and kids and myprayers and my thoughts always
were gravitating towards thisother thing and she was so
gracious.
And when it came time, goddoing a revelatory work in my
heart repentance, faith, tears,all that, being patient, not
(15:03):
thinking it's another, just whimor whatever, and her support of
that.
And then starting a non-profitnever dreamt of that a ministry
raising support, the support.
So God gave my wife as thishelper to support me in my
seemingly insanity, and so Ipraise God for that.
So he did provide in so manydifferent ways, god.
(15:24):
So I praise God for that.
So he did provide in so manydifferent ways.
God, if we're going to give itaway, you're going to have to
provide.
And he brought along, he ledyou to have the faith to do.
How have you seen him executeon?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
that.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Well, I'm going to probably answer this in a
backwards way, but what I'veseen, first and foremost and I
say this to the people on ourteam at the ministry we're a
small team of four people howI've seen him move the most is
in our own lives.
We're a small team of fourpeople.
How I've seen him move the mostis in our own lives.
I feel the beneficiary of ourministry has been us.
First Stepping into ministry,there might be an instinct to
believe that you know, okay, youget to a certain point in your
(16:21):
spiritual walk that you havesomething to offer the world.
You know, and certainly thereis some qualifying things.
But what I've seen in 12 yearsof ministry is how much God
loves me, how much God loves ourstaff, how much God desires me
to be reminded of His grace andpower and provision and mercy
(16:41):
over and over again.
So I believe I'm in ministrybecause I needed ministry.
God wanted me near to him.
I mean, like in ministry, ifyou're not repenting and
confessing, you know, in anygiven moment you can start
putting your weight on the wrongthing.
Results, effectiveness, reach,you know, or ego, or pride, you
(17:02):
know it's like.
So I'm so thankful God knew inmy heart, my zealous, passionate
, idol factory heart, that heneeded me in this nest of
ministry to kind of, over andover again, see how beautiful he
is, to keep me close to him.
And so he's grown me so much inthe Lord, in ministry.
So, versus, we've reached somany people and this and that
(17:24):
has happened.
Even I blush at your intro.
I'm like I have no, we shouldjust write it's reached Peter
Craig.
This ministry has reached oneperson and it's him.
And over and over again, I meanhow he shaped me, I'm going to
kind of dance around it, butit's like, honestly, he's shown
me and I think this is the fruitof ministry is like he's shown
(17:45):
me more than what we do is howwe do it.
Romans says anything thatdoesn't proceed from faith is
sin, which is a terrifying idea,you know.
It's like, oh my gosh, 99% ofmy life has been sin, I think,
and that means God's grace mustspeak gargantuan.
He's shown me over and overlike, whatever you do, your
instinct is to obsess over whatyou produce, but what he's
(18:08):
looking at is our hearts.
Are you honoring me, worshipingme in faith, in love, in hope,
in joy?
And so he's reached one personand is reaching one person
definitively, it's me.
I know that, and certainly myco-workers.
It's a sanctifying thing beinga minister and he's shaped me
(18:29):
Beyond that, by God's grace.
He's enabled us to connect andreach our story subjects, the
people that we've walkedalongside, to film their stories
, and, honestly, when we get toheaven, if you get a playback
reel, I'm probably going torealize that the majority of the
work that God was doing in ourministry when we get there, I
believe I'll see that actuallyit was a ministry of
(18:51):
encouragement to our storysubjects.
Yes, more than anything, it'slike, oh, we think again
reaching the world and gettingthese videos out.
You said 80 million and I'mlike I have no idea what that
did, but I do know the effect ofwalking through stories with
the people who've experienced.
It has been so encouraging andedifying and sanctifying to them
(19:12):
, and so God would be so lavishto create a ministry just to go
to the small group of peoplearound the world, to partner
with them and honor their story,and that would be enough.
And then, of course, beyondthat, yeah, we get to share
stuff and people get to watchstuff.
I tell the team often Goddoesn't need moving works, he
doesn't need our little movies.
(19:32):
These are crayon drawings.
How beautiful Christ is.
Are you kidding me?
These are crayon drawings.
How beautiful christ is.
Are you kidding me?
These are crayon drawings,these little movies.
And so it's like.
But he wants to participate inwhat his desire is was reaching
the nations.
He wants to participate withhis kids.
I use the analogy of, like youknow, and if I'm, if I'm working
around the house, I'm hammeringin a nail.
My daughter wants toparticipate with me.
(19:53):
I'm gonna let her now.
Will she put the nail in whenshe's a little kid?
Probably not, but I'm going tohave so much joy in seeing her
try.
You know, put that hammer onthe nail and maybe it doesn't
even move.
But a man, what joy the fatherhas even I'm an imperfect father
.
What joy I have in seeing mydaughter trying to put that nail
in.
And then, of course, after shetries, I put the nail in.
(20:15):
I feel like that's ministry.
It's like that's what ministryis.
You know, like we try, clink,clink, clink.
I'm so thankful.
I feel like that's, that's thework of ministry.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Man, what a privilege to think that the father
delights in us, yeah.
That he delights in us, and andpart of delighting in his
creation is you guys going outinto the Amazon, out into Mali,
not only delighting in the workthat you guys are doing, but
communicating to your subjectshow much God delights in them.
So let's do this.
Let's jump from the office andthe film studio into the boat,
(20:50):
take us down to Amazon, talk tous about a trip that you had
specifically to Brazil and whathappened in that trip.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Yeah, we discovered this ministry that's in the
Amazon, church planting ministry, beautiful, disciple-making
brothers and sisters.
We heard stories.
One of the stories that we hadheard is of this pastor His name
is Nilton and so we were likeit would be awesome to go out on
the river.
First of all, it's the Amazon,so that's cool, so there's, and
so we were like it would beawesome to go out on the river.
First of all, it's the Amazon,so that's cool, so there's a
(21:21):
little bit of like this isexciting.
We get to go out there.
But what they do and I recentlyrewatched the film you know,
knowing I'd be talking aboutthis and I had forgotten some of
the details there's 40,000villages and communities along
the Amazon River that are very,very hard to reach.
Now, the Amazon might bedifferent than what we think it
(21:41):
is.
When you're imagining theAmazon, many people might think
of, you know, like very tight,windy, jungle-encompassed river,
but I mean it looks like theocean In some areas.
I mean you can't see the end ofit.
So you're out and it's asprawling like sea is the Amazon
, and so among this massive bodyof water, there's islands,
(22:05):
there's tributaries, there's, Imean, so much diversity in terms
of wildlife, plant life andpeople and culture.
And so what these pastors do?
They go out on boat, days onboat, to find villages that are
unreached or unchurched andpreach the gospel.
And so we're like this is great, we're going to go out with
(22:25):
them and do this.
And so, yeah, and so there's40,000 communities, 35,000 at
the time of the recording of thefilm.
35,000 are either unreached orunchurched.
So I'm sure that number haschanged because I've seen the
work, ethic and the passion andlove of Jesus and the spirit
move.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I'm sure it's much lower Praise God, that's awesome
.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
So we went out there on the Amazon filming story with
Pastor Nielsen.
For decades he has been goingout and just preaching the
gospel, going from shoreline toshoreline, finding villages and
preaching.
And the idea was we were goingto go out there and we're going
to film them going to anunchurched village or unreached
village and preaching the gospelfor the first time.
(23:06):
And it's like what does it looklike for people to hear this
story?
You know what does it look like.
And so you know Pastor Nieltonholds on to the idea that the
gospel is the power of God forsalvation.
The gospel is the story, thegood news.
And so I'm like man, wouldn'tit be fun to see people hear the
gospel for the first time, notknowing their response, you know
(23:28):
, not knowing how the spiritwould you know, move, but it was
.
This was going to be awesome,filming the story.
And so they build their ownboats I'm filming this story.
And so they build their ownboats.
They specifically kind of likethree or maybe two level boats
that they go out on.
And so we went out Day one.
We went out and we went to achurch that had been planted by
(23:50):
them and we went to a churchservice.
The churches are now, of coursewe have an idea what churches
look like.
This is a little different Now.
I grew up on the MississippiRiver in Illinois and we'd go
every weekend to the Mississippiand there'd be cabins on sticks
, you know, just houses onsticks, and so this is kind of I
(24:10):
had some reasonable idea oflike.
Looking at the churches it feltvery familiar.
It's these essentially homes onsticks and they have to be on
sticks because of the riverfloods all the time.
You have to be elevated.
You know 20 feet near orwhatever, or five feet in the
yard, based on where you are onthe land.
So we visited this church, sawlike people worshiping in
(24:31):
portuguese.
I mean, imagine no windows.
This, this was a fun littlething.
We're having a worship service.
They have to start generatorsto get lights in the place at
night.
Bugs are everywhere.
So imagine one light bulb andyou can barely see the light
bulb because of the swarm ofbugs flying around it.
And I'm at the back of thechurch, kind of looking just
(24:54):
seeing.
The Portuguese people arepassionate people.
Now I don't know, you know ifyou're listening, what kind of
church culture you have.
You know whether it's a kind oflike mouth of words, kind of
church, or you're belting thesong, but these people sing, you
know, and they're all into it,which I really love, our
Brazilian brothers and sisters,because just their passion.
(25:15):
So they're worshiping, admiringthis, and in the midst of this,
I swear this, this bat, I meanit's about probably my memory is
probably exaggerating, but itwas big, it was, I mean, like I
would say probably easily, maybea four foot wingspan, flying
through one window and going inout the other because of all the
(25:36):
bugs inside this church, justflying and you're going and no
one's blinking an eye.
We're all worshiping and I'mlike watching from the back, I'm
like what in the world?
My brother's with me, I usuallytook a volunteer hey, will you
come with me, help me?
And so this early days ofministries where we didn't have
just me on the team and he wasthere, and yeah, I just have a
(25:58):
vivid memory of this batwhipping in and out of surface
and people not even looking atit.
This is the Amazon, you know.
And so day one we went andstopped at that church.
Now, day two was where it gotinteresting.
We were going to travel thewhole next day.
And again, you can go days,days.
I mean I don't understand.
So you have the Amazon Riverand you have all these
tributaries, these arms that godeep.
You can go deep in the jungle,deep into an ocean, and then
(26:22):
find an island.
It's so vast.
So we were going to travel, wewere going to meet up with the
pastor.
Here's the point we were goingto travel and meet up with this
pastor who knew of this villagethat was unchurched and they
were going to preach the gospel.
And we got word, as we were kindof trying to leave, that the
pastor, if I remember correctly,had his eye gouged with
(26:44):
something Like I don't know,like a work problem or something
Like.
I mean, he had a medicalemergency that took him out.
So we're waiting to connectwith him.
He was going to show us the way.
Suddenly he's injured and wedon't even know where he is.
We just hear through, you know,cb or something, that this guy
(27:07):
can't join us.
And so we're like, okay, thepastor's kind of figuring out
what to do.
And they're like, suddenly theyhad the firm confidence that
they could find this place.
And so we went out on the riverand as we were out, you know,
day turned into dusk, turnedinto night.
We had no idea where we'regoing.
Apparently we're looking, we'retrying to call the person,
(27:28):
we're trying to Amazon.
No signal, and this is yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Imagine it kind of felt like an infinite maze.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
You're down one stream and then you could take a
left or a right.
Have I seen this one before?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yes, have we come to this fork?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
And there's no street signs, there's no river signs,
you know.
And so I mean it's interestingbecause these men have lived on
the rivers, yet they could belost on the river, looking for
this place, and it became veryobvious that we didn't know
where we're going.
And it's pitch black and allyou have is a little spotlight
on your boat and you're just, Imean, it's just water and jungle
(28:07):
.
They were asking, calling itwasn't working, and so finally
they were like they spotted thislittle dock and this is a dock.
If you spot a dock, this is adock you would pass up, because
it was just precariously perchedalong the river, I mean kind of
angled, weird, small looks,accidental in some respect.
And they're like, well, here'ssomething.
(28:29):
And you know they would knowbetter.
I don't know better.
I'm like we're going there, youknow you can barely see it, but
there's a little dock perch.
You don't see any signs of lifewithin the trees.
Once you walk up the shoreline,you just see blackness and
darkness and you know, you hearthe crickets and you, I don't
know, maybe they weren'tcrickets all the insects and
sounds of the jungle and theriver, and you're like we're
(28:51):
just going to go in there and sothat, indeed, the boats they
travel on are big People, sleepon them, they live on them and,
you know, sleep on hammocks.
So we're sleeping on hammocks,you know, under the night sky
each night.
So it's a pretty big boat.
They pull up and kind of perchand find their way.
They just disappear.
All they did is just get downand just disappear into the
(29:16):
darkness.
And so you're just waiting andyou're like, what are we doing
here?
And at this point in my mindI'm like, well, the story's
changed.
The film was kind of like todocument what God is doing.
And we're going to go to thisplace, and now we can't go to
this place and I don't know whatto film.
It's so dark I can't reallyfilm too much anyway.
And so they come back andthey're like, hey, we found a
(29:36):
cabin, let's go.
And that was just all that wasneeded Signs of life.
There.
We found someone.
And so they came back andthey're like, hey, we're getting
off, this is our location, thisis not where we're supposed to
go, but this was a place to go.
And so all the guys, all thesepastors and what was brilliant
about these guys I should haveshared as we're traveling,
(29:57):
they're worshiping.
We pull over, we eat, weworship.
They got guitars.
It's not like they're justlaboring, they're worshiping.
I go back to my own story andit's like God called me not to
labor but to worship.
It's like this is your act ofworship.
I'm so thankful for thatspecific call of worship.
(30:18):
I sense that in these men actof worship.
I'm so thankful for thatspecific call of worship.
I sense that in these menthey're worshiping.
Is there toil?
Is there labor?
Were they scrubbing the boats?
Were they cooking meals?
Yeah, is it hard?
Yes, but they're worshiping.
And so it's just so, now that Ithink back upon it, and it's
like man, what beautifulexamples for me just to have
witnessed and see their joy ofthe Lord, their worshipful
hearts in difficult places doingthis.
(30:40):
And so, yeah, they got there.
They see this cabin.
Everyone's de-boating I don'tknow if that's a term, but we're
going into the darkness.
I have no idea what we're doing.
But they found this cabin andthey bring a generator.
There's no power.
They bring everything off forthis one cabin and I'm like no,
(31:01):
in my economy I'm working, likewell, we're going to reach a
village and I thought now we'reat a cabin.
It's like this less epic and solong story short.
They set up lights.
They, I mean they kind ofstring lights everywhere.
They get the generator andthere's a lot of work.
And Pastor Nielsen and hisbrothers go in this little cabin
and what I didn't know is whenthey went into the darkness met
(31:23):
these people again, candlelight,I assume.
I have no idea, I don't evenknow, there's no power.
They see these people.
They ask hey, we have some goodnews to share with you about
Jesus, would you want to hear?
And they're like yeah, sure,you know.
It's just like they don't know.
And they're like tell us whatis this?
And so, in the meantime, aswe're setting up, they're going
(31:44):
to get some neighbors so theybring over people into the house
.
Neighbors come home.
Next thing, you know, we have aone room cabin full of people,
you know, and they're just herewaiting to hear what is this
good news?
And Pastor Nielton sits down andjust shares the gospel.
This is in Portuguese.
Now I'm shooting and I lookback and I kick myself.
(32:05):
I should have been shootingthis whole thing.
But in my mind, in my notseeing clearly, I'm like I'll
shoot this, I'll shoot a littlemontage, but I should have just
been recording what was beingspoken in Portuguese.
I don't know what's being said,but he shares the gospel, pulls
open the Bible, everyonehuddled around these small
(32:25):
lights, just listening to theWord of God as he preaches, and
I look back on it and what washappening there is just so
beautiful in our you know,ignorance in our we're lost in
our I shouldn't say our in theiract of faith that just stopping
what was happening is just atransformative thing.
(32:47):
He preached the gospel theentire family comes to christ
and and it was like it wasspoken to me later that the mom
the mother is like the matriarchof the family says this is the
greatest day of our life.
It's like we're just out on theriver and we find this little
(33:09):
lost, yeah, lost.
We don't know where we're going,so like, where can we receive
any glory in this?
We're just lost on the riverand God had an appointment, and
it was like salvation came tothat house, like this is the
greatest day of our life, and sothis family comes to know Jesus
.
Now, this is a moment, so thisis a beginning of faith, so this
(33:31):
is not boom.
See you later.
Now their posture in thisministry, and the ministry is
called Paz International.
It's the name of the ministrynow, that's the name of the
ministry of the pastors at Worldof Boat yes yes, so Paz
International.
Now they work in severaldifferent countries.
They actually send men andwomen from the Amazon to
different countries all over theworld, and so the idea is
(33:52):
obviously indigenous peoplecoming to know Christ, be
discipled and go and serve andplant churches within their own
country and culture and language.
And so this family comes toknow Christ and, of course, or
like, begin the journey.
You know, like this is a momentof revelation for them that I
want this, I want Jesus.
These men come out of theshadows and preach the gospel.
(34:14):
I want what they're offering.
And so it's like what is goingon here.
You know, I'm like what youknow, like, yes, this whole
family wants to repent and bebaptized.
I mean, this is old school, youknow.
It's like repent and believe.
And so, funny enough, the nextthing we do, we go back on our
boat.
We're going to have a reception, and it's like we're going to
have a cake reception.
The guys at some point madecake.
(34:35):
I don't even know how they makecake.
On our boat we had cakes and soit's like we're eating cake and
I'm like this is pretty cool.
This is amazing that thishappened and we're up there for
maybe an hour or two hours, I'mnot sure.
We come back on.
The family comes on.
We're eating cake and talkingand what was really cool this
moment I really rememberdistinctly Pastor Nilton's son
(35:01):
comes up to me and we'rechatting.
He's letting me know whathappened.
So Pastor Nilton doesn't knowEnglish, but his son knows
English.
He's kind of unpacking thiswhole thing, explaining.
This is what the mom said.
These people came to and I'mlike, try asking all these
questions because, you know, Ijust don't know what's going on.
I know what's happening whenthey're preaching the word, but
the response and I'm just bowledover and he says you see that
guy right there and it's the dadof the house and he's like that
(35:22):
guy's going to be a pastor ofthe church.
And I'm like what this guydoesn't know.
It hit him Because when theseguys come and they preach the
gospel, these Brazilian brothersthat I'm with, they don't look
for conversions, they look fordisciple makers, they look for
disciples of Jesus who will makedisciples preach the gospel.
(35:47):
This guy just came to know Jesus.
And what this brother of mine,Pastor Nilton's son, is seeing,
he's like this man's going to bethe pastor of a church, he's
going to lead this church andI'm like this guy doesn't know
what hit him.
He just heard the good news twoseconds ago and now, just
immediately from the beginning,they're seeing something.
They're saying it's not justenough that you come to know
(36:11):
Christ, it's that you follow him, that you share the gospel, and
so it's not just for you.
Yes, immediately, it's alreadylooking beyond them, not like in
some callous sort of way.
So what he says is I'm going tocome back here and I'm going to
disciple him.
And I'm like I don't even knowwhere are we.
Do you know where we are?
You don't know.
You know, and in my mind I'mlike, and it is taking like a
(36:34):
day and a half to get here.
So it's like saying we sharethe gospel with this guy.
I'm going to come here everyweek and again, I don't know,
it's taken a day and a half tofind this place.
I'm going to come and even theobstacles are not obstacles Now,
not to give them, I don't think, undue glory.
I think actually, god hasinstilled such a heart and
(36:55):
passion for Christ, the Spiritand the zeal for the Lord and a
zeal for sharing the beauty ofChrist, that a day and a half
river journey is not even anobstacle.
Like I'm going to disciple thatguy and he's going to be a
pastor of a church and I'm like,almost like prophetically, he's
sharing almost with confidence.
And I'm like this guy, thisfamily doesn't know what hit him
(37:16):
, you know.
And I'm like, and I canactually see that this is
probably going to happen.
Because what I've seen so farand seeing the faith and hearing
some of the testimonies of thepeople that have come to know
Christ, it's not just I came toknow Christ and now I just do my
thing and Christ is in there.
It's like, oh, now I havesomething to share.
And it's not just making quote,unquote Christians.
(37:36):
And it's not just making quoteunquote Christians, it's making
disciples, people that followJesus, and so their posture is
totally different of makingdisciples leaders.
They look for leaders, like inevery Christian I think Nielsen
says in the film is like aleader.
It's not just a Christian, it'sa leader in whatever capacity
God has given them.
But he's looking at this manand thinking this is the father
(38:00):
of this house, he's going to bea leader in his home, but he's
going to be a leader of a churchin this area.
Just bowled over by what Godhad done that night, we went to
another.
The next day, went out on theriver, went to a church service
where, I mean, there's so manybelievers and so you see the
fruit of their activity.
In another village, I mean itfelt like hundreds of baptisms
People it's beautiful Peopledraped in white cloth coming
(38:21):
into the Amazon being baptizedone after another.
Just a baptismal service withall these people that have been
discipled and want to follow theLord in baptism.
And all of these people were arickety dock off of the river at
one point before, yeah, at onepoint.
Maybe they're rickety dock andthen someone was appointed.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Hey, at one point maybe they're rickety.
And then someone was appointed.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Yes, you're going to be the leader.
Yes, you're going to makedisciples.
And so I'm like, well, maybe youknow I'm looking at this and
I'm like maybe this is whathappens.
And so, long story short, comeback to home, fly back to the US
.
A couple of months later, theperson one of the guys, he was
(39:03):
an American person that went outwith us on the Amazon with the
Brazilian pastors reaches outand he's like you won't believe
what has happened.
In the time that I was gone andagain, I don't know how many
months it was, but sure enoughPastor Nielsen's son went back.
He discipled this man, a churchwas planted, he became the
pastor of this church, like thishouse.
Now, this house was one of afew houses I didn't even see any
other houses because it's sodark, but I guess other houses
and so that village.
(39:24):
So many people came to Christ inthis village.
Now, after a while, whathappens?
People are like what's going onin this village?
Whatever they got going on, wewant.
Other villages have come andnow multiple churches I mean
essentially a church plantingmovement, a spirit of the church
.
I mean essentially a churchplanting movement, a spirit of
the, just a movement of thespirit happened from that house
and permeated and had severalpeople, or several other
(39:46):
villages suddenly have now.
The same thing had happenedwhere God had come, the spirit
awakened, faith and many peoplehad come to know Christ.
So, village One, so many peoplecame to know Christ.
This guy became like thefledging pastor of this church.
Pastor Nilton's son came anddiscipled, week after week, and
(40:08):
now multiple villages had beenreached within months.
Within months, like there'sprobably a better analogy but
dry grass, a little bit of flame, you know, sweeping over, and
so I mean super formative for me, even as I think back.
I was rewatching Nielsen's storyand it's just about his heart
and his posture of ministry.
And again, portuguese, what youcan learn from brothers and
(40:30):
sisters from around the world.
Again, the film that we got toput together was teaching me
again, reminding me.
He said in the movie there'sthis confidence that he has.
It's like Scripture says thegospel is the power of God for
salvation.
Not their strategy, not theirpreaching style, not anything
(40:52):
else, but the gospel, the goodnews.
There's something in the goodnews that the Spirit uses.
It is the power of salvation.
And so they didn't go, theydidn't even necessarily
contextualize, they don't evenknow where they are, they just
opened the Word and believedthat the Word, and the Gospel
itself has power to transformthis household, this village,
and then the villages beyond,and then not only that can sound
(41:15):
like oh, that sounds great, butalso have the faith and
endurance to persevere inlaboring, not to say boom
salvation.
So let's move on.
They're saying I'm coming backto this place, wherever this
place is, and I'm disciplingthat man and making disciple
leaders.
That would make leaders, andthen church planting happens.
And so it was just soencouraging to look back on that
(41:38):
, and I remember my friend whoactually told me the update sent
me a picture and sure enough,there were so many people that
they took a picture of that hadbeen affected.
And I look back, it came down togetting lost, like we fumble
around in the darkness.
As Christians, we fumble around, we don't know what we're doing
, and yet God does, he'sorchestrating something.
(42:00):
The guy who injured his eyerecovered, so that was good,
that worked out.
But it's like we fumble aroundin darkness and God gives us a
little hint of something likethis rickety dock and these men
being like, with childlike faith, not cynicism, not like.
Well, this is not what weexpected.
Even in my sinful heart, Imight have at that time been
(42:21):
like man.
This seems funky, let's dosomething else, or it's not as
good, or whatever.
They had the faith to go intothe darkness and find one house,
and God had made a fertileground for seed to fall, and it
was a soil that would bear fruit.
And so, next thing, you know,this had happened based off the
(42:41):
God working in our lack ofcapacity, lack of understanding,
and then faith, just a littlebit of faith, and so it's just
beautiful to see how Godorchestrates things.
There's planning, there'sstrategy, there's prayers,
there's getting lost, there'speople getting hurt.
There is a lot of stuff goingon for God to orchestrate what
(43:03):
he wants, and this is abeautiful example of God's
sovereignty and love.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yes, God's so sovereign and intentional, Dude
Peter.
What an incredible story, man.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Yeah, well, I was just the witness, so that's all
Okay.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
So you're telling these stories and I'm'm sitting
here and I know our listenersare doing the same Just trying
to visualize all of these thingsand all of these these moments.
You did such a great jobdescribing it, but if we want to
see it, we can see it.
Yeah, where can people go andsee the story?
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Yeah, so this story and again it's not documented in
its entirety Like I'mexplaining it, that was just
like the side story.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
We get a behind the scenes and now we can actually
watch the film.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
It's the story I wish I would have filmed.
I just did not film because Iwas.
So.
You know, scripture says welook through a looking glass
dimly and I like, yeah, you know, I just don't see things
clearly.
But God knows too, maybe hedidn't want that, but you can
see that night too.
It's in the footage.
But the film is called NotAshamed because Pastor Nielton's
one of his scriptures he's holdonto is the Apostle Paul saying
(44:04):
I'm not ashamed of the gospelbecause it is the power of God
for salvation.
And so it's called Not Ashamed.
You can go to movingworksorg,you can look it up.
And again, this is one of ourearly films and so but one that
holds a special place in myheart.
And again, I don't think I'veseen it for years, but coming on
this, I knew I was going totalk about it.
So I'm like, oh, I shouldre-familiarize.
And I'm like, oh, man, lordjust stirred, stirred once again
(44:30):
of the beauty of the spiritworking in people, you know, and
our Brazilian brothers andsisters in their faith, and
there's so much to learn fromthem and sit at their feet,
learning from Christ at work inthem.
So, not Ashamed at Moving Works.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Not Ashamed is the name of the film.
You can find it atmovingworksorg.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
Yes, and that is a short film.
We make short films.
We say we make films, thatobviously our ministry is to
worship Christ, but we makethese films to make much of him.
And so with our short films,some of them are longer than
others, Some are two minutes,some are 45 minutes, but this
(45:08):
one lands at about eight to nineminutes.
So hopefully it's anencouragement.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
One of my favorite things about this podcast is
traveling down the murky watersof the Amazon and hearing all of
these incredible stories of Godat work, because for me and I
think for our listeners as wellit just expands our
understanding of what God is upto and the work that he's doing.
It encourages us also to get inthe game.
What can we do to participate?
So here's the deal.
I set up this episode by sayingthat we were going to travel
down those murky waters of theAmazon.
We were also going to hikethrough the bush of Mali to go
(45:44):
to some remote villages.
But here's the deal If you wantto hear more of these stories
from Peter Craig and MovingWorks, you're actually going to
have to come back for the nextepisode.
So the next episode, we're goingto kick it off going through
the bush together.
We're going to end this one nowjust to give you some time to
reflect on all the things thatyou guys have heard today and
just see what God wants to do inyour life and how God's asking
you to move and how God isasking you to get in the game
(46:08):
and get involved.
So, peter, we always pray forour guests at the end of our
podcast episode.
So would you mind praying forus now?
Speaker 3 (46:14):
yeah, absolutely, lord, thank you.
Thank you that you're on yourthrone right now and that you
have complete sovereignty,authority and complete,
unimaginable, immeasurable love,that you're operating on all
those fronts.
Lord, thank you that you careabout people in remote villages
(46:38):
along the Amazon River, thatyour eyes were on them Funny
enough, when our eyes aren't onthem and we didn't know where to
go, your eyes were on them andyou had a plan, and so thank you
for being that sort of God.
Thank you for our listenersthat your eyes are on them, that
Lord, holy Spirit, if you arespeaking to them in some
specific way, lord, that is yourcare and concern for them, that
(46:59):
you want to do something intheir lives.
So, holy Spirit, I ask you tojust move through these words as
you desire Encourage, convict,challenge, bring joy, worship,
whatever you desire, lord.
Thank you, holy Spirit, thatyou're personal, that you are
intimate, that you do want tomove in our lives.
(47:20):
So I ask you to do that.
Thank you for our Brazilianbrothers and sisters.
Thank you for your work in theAmazon.
Thank you for people who arefaithful and have a love for
Christ, broken, imperfect peoplethat you have indwelt with your
spirit to use, and not just usebut to partner with, to share
the beauty of Christ.
(47:40):
And Lord, thank you for beingthe father that asks us to grab
the hammer and try hitting thenail, and you smiling at us when
we do imperfectly.
We do things imperfectly, but,lord, you got it.
You're the one that hammers thenail, you're the one that
builds your kingdom and wepraise you for that.
We thank you, for your grace,we thank you for this time.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen and amen.
Thank you for listening toUnreached.
Our sincere desire is that whatyou've heard today will cause
you to see the mission of Goddifferently and your role in it
more clearly.
If this adds value for you andwe hope it does would you please
rate and review the podcastwherever you listen.
Also, share with your family,your friends, your church, your
life group, small group, D groupwherever you do life, and if
you want to connect with us,find us on Instagram at
(48:26):
unreachedpodcast, or email us atunreachedpodcast at gmailcom.
Thank you you.
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