Memory Stones [Devotion]
“When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.’” Joshua 4:1-7
This passage very clearly illustrates an important idea that we as Christians often fail to carry out; remembering what the Lord has done. Throughout scripture and through scripture God reminds His people of His works so that they might see and remember His absolute faithfulness. Through His deeds we see the consistency of His character, the way that He works all things for the good of those who love Him, and how nothing can thwart His purpose!
Whether it’s in our own lives or in the great records of the Bible it is important that we take time to reflect to tell ourselves and those who come after us what the Lord has done for His people!
I recently realized that October came and went and we hadn’t done anything to mark the anniversary of the prayer email (three years on October 10th) and so I wanted to create this devotion as a memorial of what God has done in this process until now.
Below will follow a record of some of the significant moments and fond memories of the journey God has brought us on thus far. Many of you have been along for most of it and I hope this will prompt you to praise God as we reflect on His faithfulness.
Prodigal Princess: The Journey to Now
Spring 2010
Prodigal Princess first begins to take form as an idea about the adventures of three misfit Knights.
Spring 2011
Prodigal Princess is first performed as a stage play in Olympia Washington
A couple months later Joshua first had the idea to turn Prodigal Princess into a feature film.
(Left to right) Silas Leupold, Richard Hubbard, & Jacob Dunning as the knights in the first stage production of “The Prodigal Princess and the Knights of the Slightly Oblong Table.”
Fall 2011
Prodigal Princess Facebook Page launches.
Spring 2014
Prodigal Princess goes to the stage again, this time in Sanford, NC.
Prodigal Princess the movie is publicly announced at the stage performances.
Fall 2016
Feeling an increasing call to make Prodigal Joshua decides to step back from directing FAITH Players in order to focus more time on writing Prodigal Princess.
Silas designs the first Prodigal Princess title art.
From Sept. 29th-Oct. 2nd we had the first official Prodigal Princess writing weekend resulting in the first big chunk of the movie’s outline.
Summer 2017
August 15th the first complete scene outline was finished.
Writing began on the rough draft.
Fall 2017
September 12th the first prayer letter was sent out to our original 70+ prayer partners (by the grace of God that list now numbers 158 prayer partners).
The first rough sketches for the Knight’s shields were completed.
Through the FAITH Players fall show (Thanksgiving Carol) we were connected with one of our most ardent prayer supporters, Tom Capps. Since then he has helped us with our pray and plans as well as made connections for the project!
Spring 2018
Artist Autumn Roush began working on Prodigal Princess concept art (she’s now the artist working on the animatic).
With help from some dedicated volunteers, especially Hannah Kral, we were able to finish the first version of our promotional packet in time for the Christian Worldview Film Festival.
At the festival itself God used one of our loyal supporters (Zach Cullison) to open the door for Prodigal Princess to be pitched to a room full of enthusiastic film makers, many of whom are now part of our prayer support team!
Prodigal Princess hit the stage yet again!
On May 27th & 28th we had our first dedicated prayer weekend.
Summer 2018
On June 8th, 2018 the rough draft was finally completed!
August 8th we finished the second draft.
August 11th, 2018 we had our first table read for Prodigal. It was a wonderful event that let us here the script begin to come alive as well as helping us to see many of the changes that needed to be made.
The evening of August 25th God gave one of the first breakthroughs on Snapdragon’s character.
Fall 2018
September saw some of our earliest meetings with industry professionals outside of our personal contacts.
September 24th we launched the AD33 blog!
October 13th we finished our third draft and held our second table read. Each one of these gave such great insight into what needed to be done.
Winter 2019
January 18th we finished the draft 4 rewrites (what we thought of at the time as the shoot script).
Late January we sent draft 4 to some other film makers for review.
February of 2019 Silas and Autumn surprised me with the early version of the animatic.
February 23rd we held our third Table Read. Every time we held one of these the script got significantly better!
Spring 2019
In March of 2019 we attended the Christian Worldview Film Festival. In addition to several helpful and insightful meetings we were able to start making connections with actors and crew (many of whom are now on the prayer support team!).
Through one of the meetings at the film festival Silas and I had the opportunity to work on the set of George Washington’s Armor. Through that we were able to make connections and learn things that will help us with Prodigal.
Summer 2019
August 1st-3rd was our big push writing weekend where we tried to get all of the script completed. Through a lot of prayer and a lot of battling out scenes we pushed through and got a good chunk done even though we were unable to finish it.
God graciously provided for my family to take a trip to visit cousins in TX and while I was there I was really struggling with my inability to fix the script. While in the shower I finally had a breakthrough on Snapdragon that became the first domino to fall in an amazing series of changes that became known as the Texas Draft!
Fall 2019
One of the big effects of the Texas draft was a renewed sense of purpose and excitement for the writing process!
Part of the renewed excitement lead to us launching a small fundraiser in November where we turned some of our old DVDs into novelty coasters!
Winter 2020
Between December 29th, 2019 and February 1st, 2020 I was, by God’s grace, able to plow through 116 pages of changes to get the Texas Draft completed!
On February 1st we had our 4th table read where the overwhelming response showed us our changes had worked and we were almost done!
We finished Draft 7 on February 29th.
Spring 2020
Unbeknownst to us but totally known to God our last big table read (to date) was able to be held publicly for our prayer supporters on Sunday March 1st, just a week before everything started shutting down due to COVID-19. That event was incredibly humbling as we watched so many people come together to participate and praise God!
Over the following weeks we were able to set up phone meetings and get our script out to a few different people for feedback.
We were also able to set aside time to start working on other aspects of Prodigal like shot listing.
In May a contact through one of our prayer supporters opened the door to several phone meetings and a solid contact with a film company in the Czech Republic!
Silas was also able, in this time, to finish editing the shorts we would use for our “Evening of Shorts” fundraiser!
Summer 2020
July 3rd saw the launch of our Indiegogo campaign to raise money to start work on the animatic. Not only was it a really fun event but God graciously provided (through the generosity of you and many like you) enough money to fund the animatic!
In August we were able to attend the Christian Worldview Film Festival. It’s always an encouraging time and we were able to get the script to a few more people as well as have some encouraging meetings.
Fall 2020
September saw work begin on the animatic!
Here we are! The Lord knows what is next!
