First Day of Filming in London

Sun 9/23/2007 1:56 PM

On our first day of filming in London, we witnessed a miracle. The sun was out. Summer fell on a Wednesday last year and it looks like we struck it on just the right day this year. We had breakfast around 8:00 AM and then met with the local team for the day’s shoot in London. It was more like a “crowd” rather than a team. Between 50-60 helpers showed up! We then walked about quarter of a mile to Trafalgar Square and set up to shoot our first footage for the Fourth Season. How exciting.

Authorities shut us down before we even had a chance to turn the cameras on, because we didn’t have a filming permit. The reason we didn’t have one was because we had applied for one in Monaco. They had asked why we wanted to film, checked out the website and told us that there was no way that we could film in that country, anywhere. So we sent a scout to Europe a month before the trip and he was told that almost all the countries didn’t require a filming permit. Not so with London. However, the security officer kindly gave us permission to film in an area above Trafalgar Square.

We did so for about 15 minutes and then moved location. That’s when the police moved in on us, and shut us down completely. They informed us that we couldn’t film anywhere in London, and if we did, they would confiscate all our camera gear. Nice. The reason the police got to us so quickly was because we didn’t exactly enter Trafalgar Square subtly. We had a camera crew of about a dozen and an entourage of 60 people. Duh. We prayed and then told our helpers to meet us at noon for the planned open air, cut our camera crew to three and decided we would film on the top of a double-decker bus. Surely they would allow that. Nope. They wouldn’t even let us get onto the bus.

We then walked to a place called Covent Garden and found a stack of street performers and thousands of people. It was perfect for open air preaching. We drew a crowd with Mark Spence escaping from a straight jacket, and then from trivia and then to the gospel. After about 15 minutes we were told that we weren’t allowed to speak in that area, so we moved. As we were about to start, a gentleman told us to move again, even though we were on public property. We moved again and started preaching. The next time I was told to stop I had had enough. I became convinced that if we preached in the Sahara Desert we would be told to move on.

Suddenly a woman came behind me and tried to stop me speaking. By then I had had enough of being tossed about. I ignored her and she became extremely vocal and used words that would make your grandmother’s hair curl into tiny fuzz balls. The crowd thickened, the gospel was preached and our cameramen, who were striped to bare essentials (gear), captured some wonderful footage. Finally. Thank God and thank you for your prayers.

We took a fast train to Brussels in Belgium. If you want to make some quick money there is a huge market for deodorant on trains in Europe. We arrived at Brussels around 10:00 PM and were told by part of our team that thousands of people were gathered in the local square, not far from the hotel. It was an opportunity we dare not pass up. The hotel gave us some hot chocolate and a piece of chocolate and away we went. I had said that the key to doing 13 countries in 13 days was that we eat well and sleep well. We had been traveling for two nights. So far I had had seven hours sleep and we had filled up on burgers, fries, and hot chocolate (so much for good intentions). Mark did the light show, pulled in a crowd of about 100 people, and I preached open air until 2:00 AM. We got some wonderful footage of hecklers asking philosophical questions.

It’s now Sunday afternoon. Fortunately I was able to sleep right in to 6:30 AM. Joy. I had one verse in mind as my head hit the pillow last night: “I awaked, but the Lord sustained me.” I have a feeling I will have that verse in mind during this whole trip. We had a great breakfast, did some filming and then an open air. The Square in Brussels is amazing…absolutely breathtaking. It’s about 200 yards long by 75 yards wide with awesome-looking tall 300 year old Gothic building surrounding the entire square. This has resulted in an open air preacher’s paradise. Lots of people, incredible acoustics. I succumbed to the chocolate fountain. I’m typing this on a train heading for Luxemburg, looking forward to what’s ahead.

God bless,
Ray