Parent Compass Radio

Nathan Todd Sims: Nathan's going to step out on a precipice and the scene in the script, it is written that this scene is when Christian walks out on the thing, an eagle flies by.

Nathan steps out on this precipice and a golden eagle comes up from way down in the trees. It flies up and begins to just circle and fly around him and around the crew. It was absolutely electric.

Real Christian Families: It is time for the keynote interview and joining Kevin Sorbo will be Natalie Jones and Nathan Todd Sims, a filmmaker, founder of Fusion Flix Entertainment and producer of Parent Compass and the Miracle on the Precipice film.

Todd has his own production company, it's called Fusion Flix Entertainment. He founded this with his wife Gina 30 years ago and their children are also involved. Naomi who is a producer and Tiffany are both here. Todd has over 350 producing credits, a previous feature film, 11 TV series, and he's winner of 17 Telly Awards. These are secular awards judged by the industry.

His projects include a miniseries for the Discovery Channel called NASA Space Mistakes and the documentary The Harbinger Decoded, seen by millions. Todd is also an ordained minister, and importantly for us, Todd is producer of all seven seasons of the Parent Compass family episodes and now the feature film Miracle on the Precipice. Committed to instilling courage in the young man facing life-threatening trials, Kevin Sorbo plays the park ranger in the upcoming Parent Compass feature film, Nathan Todd Sims feature film Miracle on the Precipice.

Todd, tell me your heart and why you ended up doing Parent Compass.

Nathan Todd Sims: Parent Compass, Natalie shows up at our office because of a mutual connection and she says, "I want to do a show about families and parenting and all this kind of stuff." And Gina and I were like, "We'll take this meeting, we'll see what happens" because we get approached a lot with a lot of different ideas.

When Natalie was there, she said, "I want to do a show that really demonstrates God and biblical parenting and what the Bible structure of the family is all about." And Gina and I both were like, "Wait, what? Now, come on in, have a seat for a minute." Because that's what really touched our heart was being able to communicate just these powerful testimonial stories and that's how we developed the show and to turn it into families sharing their faith.

Gina and I, when we first got married, we both come out of broken homes, did not come out of good, strong family background at all. But both of us, I got radically saved in high school, Gina got saved right at the end of high school, and we were like, "We're not going to have kids. That's just a bad deal. We are the worst possible parents on the planet."

But listening to a tape series from Pat Robertson, actually, and he was saying if the people who love God stop having children and raising godly children, the world is going to be vacated of believers. And I was like, "Okay, well, that's a little different perspective." And so that's when we actually decided we're going to become parents.

So we already had a strong commitment to family and our own family and really just looking to the Bible and seeking God about what it means to be a father and a mother. Certainly we've not done it perfectly and that's what I love about all our Parent Compass families have been so humble and true and transparent and vulnerable when we do these interviews. It's amazing. But that's the main reason. So you came in and it was impressive.

Real Christian Families: I remember going there thinking, "They do not want to talk to me. I just know it." And then I felt like it was a Holy Spirit meeting. One of the things we also talked about in that first meeting was the Lord had put on my heart just as strong as to do Parent Compass was to stop suicides, which I wouldn't say it that way, but that's how it was in prayer. And that really resonated with you as well. We've put a lot of that in, the Lord has. We tried to put it in but He brought the families that had the stories to put it in.

Nathan Todd Sims: Because that was a big part of my testimony. I was raised in a very broken home and I was just a rebellious guy and I won't go into everything I was doing, it wasn't good stuff. Even occultic things that I was involved in. Then I got saved, I got radically saved. I met Jesus Christ and He became real to me for the first time in my life. It transformed me in an instant and I was a new person in Him.

Praise God. The problem is nine months go by and I am still living in a situation and trying to live and survive in the situation I was in and I became suicidal myself. Not attention-getting suicidal but true suicidal. I loaded a gun, I put the shotgun shells in my shotgun, I put the thing in my mouth, I put the hand on the trigger. We're tall guys, we can reach those triggers even on rifles, on shotguns.

I was that close to pulling the trigger and God just broke into my life at that moment. It's one of the most clear moments of my life and God spoke to me and said, "If you decide to do this, come on home." He said, "But if you stay, I'm going to use you. I have a plan for your life." And that radically changed everything for me from that point forward. Again, I was transformed. I was like, "I'm never looking back. It doesn't matter, I just got to get out of the house, get out of high school and move on."

Now we've had wonderful families, and a lot of them know I'll get pretty emotional during those interviews because I know what it's like. I've been there. And then we're talking about the movie as well.

Real Christian Families: Well, I can wrap that into my next question which I'm really excited about. There were so many miracles with Miracle on the Precipice, miracles before, miracles during, miracles that led up to filming. But what miracle happened on the very last day of filming after 11 hour plus days, six days a week for a month, which is how you film, that's not including drive time and planning? Something happened that last day. What happened?

Nathan Todd Sims: It was just amazing. There was as we got into that film and I wanted to make a love letter to the Lord about just what He'd done in my life and we had that wonderful cast come together and like Nathan Gamble's here tonight who's our lead as well and then Kevin came on board which I was so blessed by. So we were trudging it. We were outdoors, 85% of the film is outside and so we were trying to do the schedule, deal with weather, all these things.

When we shoot Parent Compass, we do about 10 hours a day not counting travel and prep. But when we do a feature, we do about 12 hours a day plus travel, plus prep. So we are just driving hard, 20 days in a row and we get down to the last day. We go up to the highest mountain, the highest top of the highest peak to do the final day of shooting, the final scene. Nathan walks out there and Nathan's going to step out on a precipice. The scene in the script, it is written that this scene is when Christian walks out on the thing, an eagle flies by.

Nathan steps out on this precipice and a golden eagle comes up from way down in the trees. It flies up and begins to just circle and fly around him and around the crew. It was absolutely electric. It was an amazing scene. Obviously we were just going to use stock footage or something for that shot. But we've actually got Nathan in the shot with it, all that stuff happening. It was just one of those things where I felt like God was saying, "Hey, you've done good. We're with you, we're with you on that." It's amazing.

Real Christian Families: I love the part about that Todd had never seen an eagle in the wild before and he'd been there that full month and hadn't even seen one then. Then it wasn't just any eagle, it was the second largest and a golden eagle so it has more of the gold on the wings but those have a six to eight-foot wingspan. It was a vast mountain range, that eagle could have gone anywhere.

Nathan Todd Sims: The odds of that happening, I don't even know how we'd calculate. I've been all over the world. I experienced an eagle in Liberia, Africa that attacked our drone but it was so far out in the bush I couldn't even see the eagle. First time in my life, and you're right, not a single day, 20 days, not a single moment where we saw something like that. And then this thing comes up. It was God. I know it was God. Even in the last six months as we've been working on everything, finishing and now getting all the stuff marketing, I'll remember that and it encourages me to keep going on.

Real Christian Families: Now you have to tell us Todd, what are some of these wonderful things happening with the film?

Nathan Todd Sims: Some very exciting things have happened. We've partnered with the Global Church Network. The Global Church Network has 700,000 churches in the network. 700,000 churches that represent 2,700 denominations and ministries worldwide. Their focus is fulfilling the Great Commission. We were invited to screen the film in Athens, Greece at a gathering of world leaders, church leaders from around the world. These are cross-denominations.

What happened at that screening was awesome. We got an incredible response to the film. We learned some things, it's always great to have a little pre-screening like that, we're making just a few tweaks to the film, but it was an amazing thing. Out of that screening, we met Kathy Branzell and Kathy Branzell is the president of the National Day of Prayer. Do you guys know what National Day of Prayer is? You've heard of it?

It's been instituted since 1952 by the US Congress as a day of prayer. The National Day of Prayer Task Force helps organize prayer meetings all over the country. Kathy came to us and she was moved to tears by the film. She loved Kevin's performance. I emailed you that. She said, "I want to go out there, I want to promote this film, I want to do everything we can."

National Day of Prayer has a volunteer in every county in the United States of America. We are working with her to activate every one of those volunteers leading up to the release date. This is an amazing miracle, amazing favor that has been shown on the film and on what we're trying to do. It's very exciting. At this point, we're taking calls from distributors and we're starting to try to figure all of that out and come up with a final date which of course I'm looking forward to letting everybody know the date and when we're going to release. We just don't have a date yet, but we're going to and we're going to do it very soon.

Real Christian Families: And now we have testimonials from the Global Church Network followed immediately by the trailer to Miracle on the Precipice.

Guest (Female): Miracle on the Precipice is a movie that I would recommend to not only families but to all people. It is that good.

Dr. Bernie Fedchuk: I'm Dr. Bernie Fedchuk from Seattle. I am a co-vocational minister. The movie was awesome, wholesome, a movie that the whole family can watch.

Linda Foster: My name is Linda Foster with the Global Church Network at CO-ACT. It was just fantastic. I was so impressed with it. It keeps you right on the edge of your seat.

Becky Russell: My name is Becky Russell, I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. The movie was amazing. Oh my goodness, my heart, I was crying. The family unit needs a movie like this. The family unit needs to see don't wait until tragedy to bring yourselves together, to bring yourselves to the Lord.

John Sweet: My name is John Sweet, I'm with Haven of Hope International. Was absolutely delighted with the movie. It was a powerful family-oriented connection and the transformations that happened in the family as they went through all of the things that were happening in the movie.

Andrew Binda: Hi, my name is Andrew Binda. I serve with the Church of God World Missions, the field director for Asia Pacific. What a great movie it is. I really, really not only enjoyed it but it had a great message. The script was good, the actors were phenomenal.

Damir Tatiski: My name is Damir Tatiski. I am from Montenegro and I am their pastor. I was very impressed, very motivated at my very age.

Collin Gamoka Content: I'm Collin Gamoka Content. I'm from Cameroon. I'm a missionary of Campus Crusade for Christ. I'm a church planter. As a father of a son myself, I feel from that film all the encouragement that I need to motivate my son every day to make him feel that he's loved, that he's known, that he's appreciated. Because the father was counting on that son, because that son knew that people are counting on him, he could overcome his weakness. I like the film, that's why I wish you to watch the film also.

David: I'm David, I'm from Long Island, New York. In our lives, we're going to face so many challenges, take us many different ways and this movie takes you into a journey where there is the miracle that's coming. That's what I loved about the movie.

Linda Foster: Greatness. If you get the chance to go see it, by all means, go see it.

Becky Russell: This movie had me at the edge of my seat. It was great.

Andrew Binda: A powerful movie. It's filled with symbolism and it's about family and it's about miracle as the title says, so 100% recommended.

John Sweet: The message that it sent was great. A message of hope and certainly that despite everything we go through in this world, that there's a faithful God. If we cry out to Him, the Lord will come to our rescue. I recommend this film. Go watch it when it comes out on the big screen and enjoy. God bless you.

Dr. Bernie Fedchuk: I want to take this opportunity to share some thoughts regarding the Miracle on the Precipice. It's an epic and exceptional picture in creativity and in communication. All of us from time to time in life will come to a precipice. It could be a personal precipice, professional, financial, material.

Some precipices come our way that we didn't cause, they come to us and we need divine intervention. We need a way to see through to the other side and we need a divine miracle from God. That's what Miracle on the Precipice is all about. As Global Church Network, we're thrilled to partner with Nathan Sims and his entire team in this beautiful release to communicate to God's community as well as the world at large that when you come to the point of despair, God meets you at that point of despair. I celebrate the release of Miracle on the Precipice and I encourage you to be a part of this epic release throughout the United States and around the world. May God richly bless you today.

Guest (Male): Some paths should never be walked alone. You okay? Some paths are just the beginning. What's your name, son?

Christian: Christian. Don't touch me.

Guest (Female): Grace, we have hikers coming back late all the time.

Guest (Male): He hasn't touched the equipment. The time for being afraid is over.

Christian: Oh Lord, please hold everything together. Grace, what are you doing here? You're not here to rescue me, are you?

Nathan Todd Sims: We're in a battle. There is an enemy and the enemy is using everything in his power to sway everything in the world. Art and entertainment and cultural aspects are what, when you were talking about the cultural aspects, I'm like that's why we're partly in the situation that we're in now. It's because Hollywood went all guns blazing starting back in the '60s and '70s and '80s and began influencing how we feel.

Not just about the movie, but about Parent Compass as well. Such a critical thing that is happening right here in this room with all of you and God continues to increase and to bless and to reach people with the power of this medium. We're going to get the word out when the movie starts to come out. We're excited about finishing Season 7 as well because we've already done some on it, but we've got more to do on it. Again, Kevin, thank you so much for everything you brought to the film. It's amazing stuff. Yes, and Nathan Gamble as well. Thank you.