Faith in God, Faith in People & Faith for miracles

Hey family!

Hope you’ve had a blessed start into the new month. Hello February!

To keep the positivity going, here’s a little positive note on faith (as in to believe) and how that can inspire you to achieve the things you’ve dreamt of achieving.

So what is ‘faith’? Faith is the foundation of what we do. We have faith in God, faith in people and faith for miracles. These three areas of faith help build and shape our spiritual journey and as a result enable us to experience the things we hope to come true. For without faith, we cannot expect the impossible to take place. The reason why faith is so important in our life is because from a christian journey we need faith to see the amazing things that God has in store for us and to walk into those things confidently. These are unexpected opportunities, miracles and or plans to take our journey to new heights.

 So whAT ARE 3 areas of faith?

1. Faith in God-  On our christian journey we need faith to see the amazing things that God has in store for us. These are unexpected opportunities, miracles and or plans to take our journey to new heights. Trust him to lead you down the right path and to open those doors, because he cares for us.
2. Faith in people- When you trust God with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding, you start to realise that God will place the right people in your life at the right time and at the right place . Our FCP team for example, is full of passionate people who have decided to help, support or share their expertise for this ministry, from different walks of life and stages in their walk with Christ, have been able to share their experiences, testimonies, skills, time, even their own money to invest into FCP, into the team and all those who get involved to try and encourage someone else to keep going and to share what God has done for them.

3. Faith for miracles- This is the thing that is considered a cliche. Some christians say they believe but don’t have the faith to believe that miracles still happen in 2018. The Bible talks about the woman with a blood issue she'd had for 12 years. She was convinced with faith that even if she were to just touch the hem of Jesus' robe she could be healed and she was... instantly! Jesus in the midst of the crowd felt the power go out from him. He knew what and He knew who and told her "your faith has healed you". From this example we can take a simple lesson, we know God has the power, but when we have the faith, that’s when miracles happen.

Ok so what about today's miracles? When driving a car and your fuel indicator has gone past touching the ‘E’. You still have a few miles to go until you reach the nearest petrol station. You also know that you’re putting your car to the test to reach those last few miles before it begins to jitter and give up. But you have faith and believe your motor vehicle is able to get you to that petrol station, and it does! Or when you have no money in your bank account and don't know how you will get to work or even eat this week, you get up Monday morning ready to go, trusting in God and out of nowhere an unexpected deposit is made to your account and your worries for the week are far behind you. You say to yourself “My heart was thumping, i was worried, anxious, praying with all my heart and thank God I made it, thank God i'm going to be ok”. Do these not seem like miracles to you? Of course! Look how he cares for the birds in the sky..how much more will he take care of you. Trust in God for the small things, Trust in God for the big things too, and trust he knows what is best!

So there you see it. Faith is more than just a word. Faith is Trust in action! We hope this motivates you to reach out for the uncommon and exercise the faith and expectation until you have your miracle.

Have a blessed week

Thalie Brown

FCP Blogger

It's okay when He says no!

Hey Family!

The last few weeks have been very important for the Final Call Productions team, especially since Jermaine was preparing for the final round of The Pitch competition and also just to give the team some time to plan for the next coming months.  

As you're aware, Jermaine’s been competing at The Pitch these past few months and was able to make it to the final 10. His experience alone has taught us a great lesson, which has influenced us to strengthen our faith, especially when God says No. See, how many times have you ever wanted something so bad that in your mind there is nothing else that can ever beat what is presented to you. Something you have prayed for days upon months and even years? You’ve even gone as far as fasting. But in the midst of your deepest prayer request, God comes to you and says one word that just breaks your heart, “No”. It’s painful and upsetting, and all you can think of is “why God, why me, why not?” Well, through experiences we’ve come to realise that God doesn’t exactly say no. Instead, he provides us with a replacement which would provide us with a better opportunity to gain a better experience and at the same time maximise our potential with our attained skills and networks.

So here is what happened… 

Following the retreat in the Lake District with The Pitch, Jermaine was able to note down some really interesting techniques that would help improve his presentation in front of the judges. Everything went really well, even on the actual finals day of The Pitch. Jermaine was competing against some very interesting stories.

On the day of the finals at Pinewood Studios, Jermaine had some time to go through one more round of coaching, before the real deal took place.  Meanwhile, the rest of the FCP team was nervously awaiting some feedback from Mrs Wong (Wife & Business Partner) as to whether we had won or not. By 6:19pm, the message came through “Bad news guys, he didn’t get through”.

Here’s Jermaine’s account:

“Speaking with the judges afterwards they encouraged me not to give up, some of them were in there fighting for me so I definitely know I was on to a good thing!
I’ve made some excellent contacts and connections, new friends, well-needed expertise and a tour of the Pinewood studios OUR future project base!! 😏 Some people I spoke to about my film had never considered some of the concepts I addressed in my film pitch so actually, I got the opportunity to impart knowledge and minister! Even though we didn't win I'm still of the belief that God put me here for a reason. I'm grateful and look forward to seeing what God does next!”

So even though we didn’t win this time the feedback Jermaine got was amazing!  “I added spoken word to my pitch which they loved, they liked the film idea and my pitch was superb. I did my best and I'm proud of what I learnt, applied and achieved” (Jermaine). So we are extremely excited to have had this experience because it’s not always that you have the opportunity to reach this far into a competition for such a large amount of money. Hopefully, this inspires you all to not give up on what you want and at the same time not to lose hope when the options you are provided with don’t exactly match your request because your never know what doors that one experience will open.

Stay encouraged, God Bless,

Thalie Brown

FCP Blogger

Here's to 2018!!

Goodbye 2017. Hello 2018!!

Firstly let me take the opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Thank you Lord that you make all things new, that you bring hope alive in our hearts. This year, may You hold us in the palm of Your hand and guide our minds, fill our imaginations and control our will so that many will see in us, the wonders of You! IJN Amen!

Let's just take a minute to reflect on 2017 and what it meant for FCP. I think this past year has  definitely proven one thing is true, no matter what plans we had here at FCP to spread the word, impart wisdom and share knowledge, God always had his own plan! Sometimes it might be a difficult pill to swallow, but trusting in Him and knowing that His plan will always exceed your own, will not only mean greater things for your life but also a greater relationship with the big man Himself. Right now, in these times, nothing could be more important #lastDays

ATWW

Early 2017 saw performances of And There Was War (ATWW) in Birmingham and London where we SOLD OUT!! We had some fantastic feedback which confirmed that this play still needs to be seen by many more people!

We began preparation to perform ATWW again in December. The script was tweaked, we cast some fantabulous actors and actresses, booked a venue and started selling tickets! However, a crisis meeting was held and a decision was made to put the production on hold to due to lack of funding. Which, needless to say devastated the whole team. However...God always has a plan... 

The Pitch

.....doors were opened for FCP in the way of the Pitch competition to win £30k to make our short film The Day After! We just scraped in only finding out about the competition 2 days before the deadline!! But before Christmas we successfully reached the final stage of the competition as a top 10 finalist! 

No Poetry

Our first short film No Poetry was released which now has almost 3k views on YouTube! Our most amount of views on a single upload to date - which means that we are continuing to reach people and share the Good News!

New Years Eve

Finally, planning and casting for our brand new web series 'New Years Eve' began in the latter quarter of last year.

Germane Thinkin

And let's not forget the launch of our highly entertaining and thought-provoking Germane Thinkin' Spot videos on YouTube which have been hugely popular!

So What are our plans for 2018??

• The last stage of the competition happens THIS WEEKEND!! Jermaine will give his final pitch and the winner of the competition is announced! The creative and management team have worked their butts off!! Competition was tough, but I think, I hope, I pray, I have faith, that WE GOT THIS! #justsaying #IJN
• Filming for New Year's Eve commences shortly, we are really excited to get this six part web-series with a twist, out to you!

• We have a lot of new ideas and ventures we are looking forward to putting in place. One of which is bringing back our popular play I'm Having Sex as a Theatre in Education (TIE) production. We will be taking the play and delivering it in schools, holding workshops to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation. 
• Writing has also begun for a new play focussing on knife crime which will also be performed in schools as a TIE with workshops to raise awareness of this issue which is rife already and sadly still on the increase, particularly in the capital. We will be holding a fundraising event to get the project up and running so look out for that date.
• We also plan to adapt ATWW into a TIE production to take into faith schools and explore the themes of the play in workshops! Let us know if you know a school who'd want this!

• Towards the middle of this Year, we will re-launch our Inspire acting classes with summer classes available for young people in the holidays and evening classes for adults. We are also hoping to approach schools with a view to running after school clubs.

As you can see we have a lot in mind and a lot of plans for a very busy 2018! We are praying for guidance and for God to lead in the direction that He wants us to go in. So though we have all these ideas, don't be surprised if things might change a little here and there, because we will always pray, listen to God and take FCP in the direction that He points us! Don't worry though, we will always keep you up to date with what's happening!

Please keep us in your prayers and may you have a blessed, happy year!

Jade Lewis

FCP Blogger