FamilyChristianMovies.com

As I searched through the familychristianmovies.com inventory, I decided to watch the DVD Bella. I was not sure what it was about, but it looked like it had talented actors and also looked to be a love story- so with that, I decided to watch it.

To my surprise, Bella was not the kind of love story that I was thinking it would be! But not to my disappointment! This DVD was a story with unpredicted heartache, equipped with a powerful message. A story that showed hard times, tough situations, but how love and trusting God’s plan can transform the heartache into a blessing. An interesting quote from the movie was something along the lines of, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” This quote sets up the story, a story where a single woman discovers she is pregnant and doesn’t know what to do. She is poor, without much family, and had just been fired from her job because her “illness” made her late. Getting pregnant was not her plan.

When I discovered that Bella was a story that involved unplanned pregnancy, I couldn’t help but ask God if there was something that he was teaching me. If you follow the blog you will know that I chose to watch Sarah’s Choice recently, and then interviewed Kristal Bean about her ministry that works solely with woman who are carrying an unwanted child. I am praying about the possibility of this happening in a friends life or someone that I come across, and I anticipate that watching movies like Sarah’s Choice and Bella, will assist me in some way in helping whomever it is the love of Christ and gift of life.

What I have learned through Sarah’s Choice, Kristal’s ministry New Beginnings, and now Bella, is that nothing is unplanned. That we are to have faith and trust in God, and allow His love to flow out of our hearts and into life’s situations.

In light of Priscilla’s recent blog post highlighting “Sarah’s Choice“, here is an example of a ministry out there for woman who are making the choice to keep their child, despite being a single, sometimes homeless, sometimes a teenage, expecting mother.

Here is an interview conducted by Priscilla, FamilyChristianMovies.com staff member, with Kristal Bean, one of the staff at New Beginnings:

What is New Beginnings?

A maternity home and shelter for homeless pregnant woman.

What is your role there?

Staff assistant. I assist the house parents in running the home by performing miscellaneous tasks and engaging in relationships with the woman. I also do the administrative work. I am the missionary care coordinator, primary communications person. I do my best in each of these roles.

What made you decide to take on this role?

Well… God’s calling. When I was 17 God gave me the dream of helping pregnant woman by providing a home for them. And in February 2009 I learned about New Beginnings, and then applied to be on staff. I got an open door from the Lord and it was confirmed that that was what I was supposed to do.

In what ways do you see the Lord working there?

By providing a secure comfortable place for woman to live and develop healthy decision making and life skills. Also, by giving the woman a healthy distance between themselves and people who are not healthy for them so that they can evaluate their situation. By meeting their felt needs for prenatal care and donated items for their baby’s needs as well as informal counseling for their personal lives. And by giving the woman my perspective on the Lord’s character and His provision for them.

What are some challenges?

Brokenness in the woman’s lives that give them a skewed perception of life and inappropriate coping mechanisms. Lack of understanding of the Gospel and their need for Jesus.
My challenges are loving unconditionally, but holding boundaries that are good. Being willing to sacrifice personally to relate to these woman.
Also the distance from my family back home.

What needs or what ways do you think people could help in being a part of this ministry?

We’re a non-profit whose funds are provided by donations, so people could be a part of the ministry financially. Or donations of felt need items like baby items, maternity clothes, hygiene items, well running cars, etc. Or by volunteering at our large events throughout the year.

What Christian DVD has been useful in your ministry?

Fireproof has helped my ministry in showing what loving is and how unconditional love can be used by God to change people’s hearts. We recently watched To Save a Life too, and the stories in that DVD really related to the women who live in our home. I am looking forward to watching Sarah’s Choice, because I think that it would be really applicable to this ministry too.
Entertainment like DVDs, is a way for me to connect with the woman in the home and spend time with them.

Where could we learn more about your ministry?

www.newbeginningshome.org is our website. And if you would like to follow my blog, www.chasinglambs.blogspot.com, you can learn more in depth about what we do in the home for these woman, and what these women are going through.

Studies are showing that more and more young girls are being put in a position that they need to make a decision, a life altering decision quite like the one that Sarah had to make in Sarah’s Choice.

Sarah’s Choice is a DVD starring Rebecca St. James who plays a single woman in a dating relationship, but is more concerned about her career and her hopeful promotion than she is about getting married or starting family. She is actually willing to put marriage and family on hold if it means she will get the anticipated promotion!

Sarah puts in a great interview for the promotion and is convinced it will be hers. The only thing plaguing her now is this illness that she can’s seem to shake. This “illness”  begins to look more like pregnancy to her friend/co-worker and she forces Sarah to take a test to find out.

Results are in, Sarah is pregnant! Not knowing what to do, not knowing who to turn to, Sarah screams from the inside out. She refuses to talk to her boyfriend about it. She tells him, but ignores him because she doesn’t trust that he can take care of her or the baby. She can’t talk to her Mom because her Mom’s religious views about it only give her one choice- to have the baby. And now she has her friend telling her that keeping the baby would destroy her life and that she has plenty of time in the future to children, but not another time to get a great promotion.

After visiting a clinic to make sure that she was in fact pregnant, she finds herself defending her religious views as to why she was having a hard time making the decision. She realized that even though she had given up on God ten years ago when she lost her Dad, that maybe God hadn’t given up on her.

She is approached by a stranger who gives her a card and makes her aware that she will be have three visions…

Sarah’s Choice is a DVD that touches on such emotional and difficult issues that many women and men have gone through. It discusses the truth in the choice and what God wants. It also shows the hurt that making the choice to not keep the child can cause, but also the forgiveness and the healing that can follow.

Sarah’s Choice is a DVD appropriate for those affected with this decision, those who are living the lifestyle that may put them in this position, or those who care deeply about the decision to be pro-life. Wonderful example of God’s love and God’s provision. Great movie overall.

Have you seen Come What May ? If you’re a fan of Christian film and haven’t seen it yet, let me ask; “why not”?

For me, my excuse has been time and expectations. I’ve been busy and frankly haven’t watched many films at all this summer, honestly though, I’ve read some reviews and I expected it to be ok at best. I wasn’t expecting to be drawn into the story, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to love it. Come What May is pitched as a “pro-life film”, and it definitely is. Naturally, I expected a lot of preaching and pontificating disguised as dialogue. Come What May is a lot more than that, it’s a very good college-themed movie.

Here’s the story line. The main character, Caleb, is a college sophomore who dreams of success as a lawyer. He discovers a small Christian college in Virginia that has built a world-class debating team in its first 7 years as an institution, namely Patrick Henry College. He decides to transfer there to be part of their debate program as a stepping stone to his career in law.

Although his decision pits his conservative Christian father against his progressive, driven mother who is a successful lawyer, Caleb ends up attending Patrick Henry and joins the debate team where he finds himself arguing a case (in the nat’l debate contest) with the potential to overthrow Row v. Wade. As the debate season approaches, he finds himself engrossed in the abortion issue. He believes that abortion at any time is murder, but he doesn’t believe he can win the debate championship if he argues that side. He spends most of the film wrestling over whether it’s best to proclaim the full truth or to compromise on issues in the name of winning. As the story rolls along, we find that his mother and father are much more tangled up in Caleb’s moral struggles than it first seems. Throw in a little romance Joshua-Harris-style (see Monday’s post) and the film finishes with a climax that really ties everything together.

Things I really liked: Although the story focuses on the abortion issue, it didn’t feel like an apologetic for the pro-life stance. The main message of the movie is having the courage to do what’s right, no matter what happens. It is also a great picture of the best things about life at a Christian college. The relationships between Caleb and his parents, his debate partner, and his professor were all believable as was the conflict in Caleb’s parents’ marriage throughout the film.

I should mention that this is clearly a cast of inexperienced/amateur actors, and that shows at times. That said, the story is compelling enough that I easily overlooked that. The film is of incredible quality for a first film (Advent Film Group.) Keep up the good work! I can’t wait to see #2.

Come What May is a solid movie that I would recommend generally to fans of Christian film. If you liked Fireproof, The Widow’s Might, Pendragon, Love Comes Softly or the Fox Faith dramas, you’ll like this film. Specifically, I’d recommend this film to Christian high schoolers or college students. Come What May puts forward two good role models as we watch them process difficult issues. The students also display the virtue of hard work, both professionally and in the classroom. The romance in the film is also commendable and will be covered in a future article.

Let me ask again, if you haven’t seen Come What May yet, what are you waiting for? You can rent it at your local DVD rental shop or buy it here at FamilyChristianMovies.com.

I came across John’s blog a few weeks ago. He was very impressed with one of our films, Bella. You can check out his article here. I haven’t gotten a watch Bella yet, so I thought I’d pick his brain a little to see what he loved so much.

John, you seemed to absolutely LOVE Bella. Without giving away too much of the plot, could you explain an image or a scene in the film that really impacted you?

The opening scene grabbed my wife and I right away. The main character was sitting on the beach watching a young girl play on the beach but he was somber as he watched her. We were immediately drawn to the burden he was carrying.

What drew you to this film in the first place?

I had heard it was another pro-life movie among several that had come out recently. So I put it on my to-watch list and forgot about it. I wish I had moved it to the top of my queue earlier.

Now, if I understand correctly, this isn’t an expressly Christian film. What do you think draws Christians to this film?

It is expressly Christian without being an uncreative Afterschool Special. The main character is a Christ figure who has the long hair and beard of what we typically picture Jesus looking like. The images are abundant in the movie without sermons. It lives the gospel without telling it.

Was there a specific way that God spoke to YOU through this film?

It got us thinking about adoption as another way to fight abortion. But we haven’t moved past the thinking stage.

Finally, John, would you tell us a little about yourself and why someone might want to visit your blog?

As it says in my sidebar, I’m a Christian father of three who helps my wonderful wife homeschool out three children when I’m not at work practicing biology in a pharmaceutical company. I’m average. But I see so many lies and misrepresentations of Jesus and the church and I needed a place to share my frustrations and offer solutions. The UmBlog is where I comment on the church, the world, and their interaction. Cinema and literature reviews are some ways I do that. I also look at the church’s interaction with the world through history. Our culture of death deeply concerns me so I frequently write about pro-life issues as well. Thanks for asking.

Thanks for your thoughts John. Don’t forget to visit his blog to read the rest of his thoughts on Bella.

You are welcome

You can watch the trailer for Bella here.