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The Conversation Nobody in Church Wants to Have Is Now a Movie · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life Audio.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Hey Beth, thanks for joining me.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Nice to be here, Michael.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Writer, director, and producer Beth Caulfield, whose movie, Conceivable, lands
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: in theaters October the 16th. The plot is simple enough.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: A 45-year-old Christian minister finds herself in an unplanned pregnancy.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: There's a lot more to the story, as we'll talk about.
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  Speaker 2: This story, of course, Beth, is inspired by your own
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: unexpected pregnancy in your mid-40s. Take me back to that moment.
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  Speaker 2: What were you wrestling with personally? And some people might ask, why...
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  Speaker 2: wrestle with it in the first place. So help us
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  Speaker 2: understand your story.
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  Speaker 1: Sure. So the story is, you know, I had clear understanding,
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  Speaker 1: I thought, of where my life was going. My kids
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  Speaker 1: were growing up, and I had experienced a call. I'd
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  Speaker 1: been involved with ministry for a long time, felt a
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  Speaker 1: call to go back to seminary, got a full scholarship
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to seminary. In the midst of doing that, everything just
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  Speaker 1: was lining up the way I thought it was supposed to.
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  Speaker 1: And then I found out I was pregnant. And the
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  Speaker 1: shock and then the feelings of, oh no, but, oh no, but,
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  Speaker 1: oh no, but. And there were a lot of buts.
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  Speaker 1: But there's a lot of medical concerns. But financially, we
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  Speaker 1: didn't plan for this. A number of those kinds of
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  Speaker 1: things compounded with what I will call nicely nudges to
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  Speaker 1: terminate the pregnancy, and then the shame that goes along with,
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  Speaker 1: as a Christian, having those kinds of feelings. So going
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  Speaker 1: through all of that was a challenge. And then as
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  Speaker 1: I came out of it, as the story shares, I
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  Speaker 1: recognized that even though I felt very alone going through
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  Speaker 1: something like that, I was not. And if I was not,
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  Speaker 1: and as some of the statistics and things that I
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: share in the film are true, I realized that the
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  Speaker 1: best thing that I could do to help others in
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  Speaker 1: these situations is to share my story, help validate their feelings.
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  Speaker 1: show others what that really looks like when most of
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  Speaker 1: us think unplanned pregnancy, well, the only people who are
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  Speaker 1: upset are, you know, teens and unmarrieds and poor people. And,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we have this stereotype, which is not, and
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  Speaker 1: in fact, is growing less and less of what unplanned
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  Speaker 1: pregnancy looks like today. So I wanted to educate people,
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  Speaker 1: help them become more compassionate and ultimately supportive. And then
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  Speaker 1: at the same time, as a person of faith, recognizing
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  Speaker 1: that this was a great opportunity to model whenever life
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  Speaker 1: throws you a curveball, seek God and he will make
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  Speaker 1: your path straight. And so that's the overall theme of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the story. But the unplanned pregnancy part is the genre,
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  Speaker 1: if you will, of it. And the ultimate goal is, gosh,
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  Speaker 1: entertain people, start some conversations that people are maybe afraid
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  Speaker 1: to talk about, but at the same time, everybody can
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  Speaker 1: relate to and they want to talk about and then
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  Speaker 1: ultimately save lives and every sense of the words.
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  Speaker 2: The character in the film, of course, was raising, had
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  Speaker 2: raised children and the children were about to leave the nest.
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  Speaker 2: I think you were in the same situation. Is that
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  Speaker 2: part of what people don't understand, I guess, emotionally is
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  Speaker 2: that you kind of think you're at the end of
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  Speaker 2: this marathon raising kids, which is a beautiful thing.
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  Speaker 1: I have four kids.
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  Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden you realize you have
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  Speaker 2: another marathon to run. Is that a good comparison?
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  Speaker 1: I think so. And again, I don't want to generalize
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  Speaker 1: because not everyone feels that, right? This can be the
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  Speaker 1: answer to the prayer, right, for some folks that they
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  Speaker 1: had given up on. And so not everyone feels that
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: and everyone feels it to different degrees. You know, the
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  Speaker 1: other part that comes into play here that I think
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  Speaker 1: we should never discount is when you are pregnant, especially
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  Speaker 1: in the very beginning, your hormones are going wild, right?
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  Speaker 1: That affects rational thought, right? It's like anything else. People
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  Speaker 1: need support during those times. And when you are confronted
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  Speaker 1: with information or insensitive comments or things that just aren't true,
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  Speaker 1: it can really confuse you. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: One of the funny lines in the movie is the doctor.
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  Speaker 2: I think the character in the movie is having not
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  Speaker 2: feeling well. He goes to the doctor and the doctor says,
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  Speaker 2: you need to contact your OBGYN. And the doctor says,
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  Speaker 2: I don't have an OBGYN. And so that kind of
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  Speaker 2: puts it in perspective. What were your friends telling you
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  Speaker 2: during this time? What kind of advice were your friends
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  Speaker 2: giving you? Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And that's part of what I wanted to show in
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  Speaker 1: the film is anything and everything. And I think goodness
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  Speaker 1: for you know, friends who met well, and I think
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  Speaker 1: most did. But what looks like love, right? Encouraging someone
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  Speaker 1: in their faith. Is it this sense of you got
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  Speaker 1: to be realistic here? But I really experienced the gamut
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  Speaker 1: of advice, both from people within the church and within
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  Speaker 1: church leadership, which can be surprising to people too, as
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  Speaker 1: well as Just every day, like my friends and family,
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  Speaker 1: everyone had a different opinion and a different slant on this.
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  Speaker 1: And that's why there's a number of characters in the
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  Speaker 1: film with it.
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  Speaker 2: Had you ever made a film before?
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  Speaker 1: No.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. Tell us about that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. So I've always been a storyteller. And I had
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity, you know, to tell stories from bedtime stories
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  Speaker 1: to my kids to in the corporate world. I was
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  Speaker 1: in human resources. I was telling employee stories to the
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  Speaker 1: company and the company story to employees. And then when
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  Speaker 1: called into ministry, getting to tell the greatest story that
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  Speaker 1: was ever told, right? And so when the opportunity came
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  Speaker 1: to sit back and write something for fun. God showed
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  Speaker 1: me that this had been a dream in me for
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  Speaker 1: a long time. I had thought about writing a movie
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  Speaker 1: and actually tried to when I was in my early 20s.
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  Speaker 1: I wasn't ready yet. The story wasn't ready yet. And
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  Speaker 1: as I said, when I decided to tell this one,
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  Speaker 1: I had a lot of things I wanted to accomplish
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  Speaker 1: to help others with it, as well as just use
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  Speaker 1: my creativity. So You know, I started out with, I
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  Speaker 1: went back to my alma mater and took a screenwriting
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  Speaker 1: course with a bunch of undergrads. And there were amazing
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  Speaker 1: things that happened in that. That was a secular university.
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  Speaker 1: And for them to see a female minister walk in,
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  Speaker 1: and it was actually, the year was 2022. The fall
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  Speaker 1: of 2022 was just right after Roe versus Wade had
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  Speaker 1: been overturned. So people are fired up on the subject, right?
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  Speaker 1: But God had me there for a reason. And so
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  Speaker 1: I went into the class and they embraced me. I
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  Speaker 1: keep on my desk. They gave me the best student award.
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  Speaker 1: And they helped me keep it real and be honest
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  Speaker 1: in the story. And so that was wonderful. So wrote
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  Speaker 1: the screenplay, sent it off to a Christian screenwriting contest, won,
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  Speaker 1: met some folks in the industry. And Nixon, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I'm directing and producing a film with Janet Leigh Hamblin
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  Speaker 1: and Eddie McClintock and Dean Cain, and it has just
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  Speaker 1: gone from there. And it has been a huge learning curve,
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  Speaker 1: and definitely out on a limb. But I know that's
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  Speaker 1: where God wants me, and I know that that is
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  Speaker 1: the definition of abundant life for me, in this season
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  Speaker 1: at least.
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  Speaker 2: And you've got a book as well. There's a companion book.
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  Speaker 2: What should we know about that? Yes.
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  Speaker 1: So the book, I'll put it up here. It'll be
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  Speaker 1: published on November 10th. It's on Amazon right now. But
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  Speaker 1: the film, the whole ministry that went into making the film,
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  Speaker 1: you know, everything that was going on while we were
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  Speaker 1: making it, I share about in here all the God stories,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the story. the amazing, miraculous things that happened,
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  Speaker 1: the doors that opened, also just the opportunity to pray
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  Speaker 1: with people, to share communion with people. I gave actors
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  Speaker 1: and crew members their first Bibles, you know, those kinds
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  Speaker 1: of things. That's in the book. But the book also
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  Speaker 1: contains the original script. And I thought that was important
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  Speaker 1: both for those who enjoy seeing what the original script
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  Speaker 1: idea was and how it came out differently. And then
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  Speaker 1: for those who may be called into utilizing their gifts
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  Speaker 1: in this way, here's what a script looks like. This
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  Speaker 1: is the way it works. And I also share in
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  Speaker 1: there about the whole filmmaking process and what we went through.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, people don't think about color design and post-production and,
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  Speaker 1: you know, scouting locations, all those things. But but sharing
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  Speaker 1: about that in hopes that it might inspire others with gifts,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's for writing a movie or doing the lighting
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  Speaker 1: or doing hairstyling. or whatever. If you called into that,
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  Speaker 1: it's an important role because these stories, when they're put
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  Speaker 1: on in this medium, you know, they're in front of many,
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  Speaker 1: many people and nothing affects culture like movies, TV. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we should be there as people of faith and we
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  Speaker 1: should do it with excellence.
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  Speaker 2: Amen to that. Perhaps this might be my final question
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  Speaker 2: for you. What are the lessons in this film? How
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  Speaker 2: do you want this movie to impact the audience?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely am hoping that it will, again, validate
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  Speaker 1: people's feelings, women, men, families going through this, that it
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  Speaker 1: will cause people to be more educated, compassionate, and therefore supportive.
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  Speaker 1: of the folks, that it will open conversations that will
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  Speaker 1: lead to greater ministry that I can even think of,
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  Speaker 1: that it will ultimately show people that, hey, no matter
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  Speaker 1: what curveball that you get thrown, seek God and He
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  Speaker 1: will make your path straight and ultimately save lives.
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  Speaker 3: If you enjoyed today's interview, please make sure to subscribe
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: and share the episode with a friend. A big thanks
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: to the team at Life Audio for their partnership with
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: us on the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio.com, you
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: will find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: See you next time.