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March 2021 We have had quite the winter here, with 2-3 feet of snow accumulated in our yard. God has blessed us with a warm home and electricity. Well… most of the time, anyhow!
Winter used to be fun for me. While living for 3 years in and around San Francisco, I really missed the 4 distinct seasons. To help ease my desire for winter, I would drive to the mountains, 4-6 hrs away (depending on the snow and if passes were open). Most of the time I chose to go by myself to a small area in North Lake Tahoe where I could stay in a little cabin, and then cross-country ski for hours on groomed trails nearby. The peacefulness of swishing through such exquisite beauty was balm for my soul. Years passed and I finally ended up back home in Johnstown. The next year or two dumped more snow on the area than we probably had had in a decade. The mere task of shoveling my driveway only to have the snowplow come past and plow it shut was daunting! I honestly thought that the plow guys (thank you, Jumpin’ Jack Michaels on KEY 95) had it in for me! Winter lost all aspects of fun and beauty after that. I tried to cross-country ski, but never quite regained any sense of real fun for the winter. It was all dread and depression. This year, something changed. Was it the purchase of new XC skis, way overdue? Or was it snow accumulating on the trees, making a Hallmark Card scene all around me? Maybe it was encountering two porcupines up in the hemlock tree while XC skiing? Being a girl originally from suburbia, I was scared that the porcupines would shoot their quills at me as I skied under their tree (they don’t do that, by the way). I don’t know, but I once again felt the excitement of new snowfall and the opportunities it would allow to bring a peaceful balm to my spirit. JP Knights does that for me, too. As I follow the characters in their journeys, I am excited for the changes that occur with them seeing angels. Joel goes from being a follower to a leader. Jill is shy with poor self-esteem, and then she becomes bold and confident. The list goes on. But it’s not really the angels that are directly responsible for this. What makes the difference is that the JP Knights experience the joy of God’s love and interaction in their lives. They become more aware of what God is doing, not only in each of their lives, but in the lives of others. They see the angels carrying out God’s plans and know that this has been happening all along. This hope, this knowledge, lifts them up to be able to become who God made them to be. Everything is new and exciting… Like me enjoying winter snow again as I look for porcupines up in the hemlock trees. What do you need to do to become more aware of God’s work in your life? Think of some situation where God seemed especially real to you…when you received a balm for your soul. Remember that angels are specifically carrying out God’s plans in your life. Jeremiah 29: 11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” FOR THE LAMB!
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It has been such a privilege to be God's servant regarding the JP Knights story! As Dr Kevin McAfee keeps us up-to-date on the movie aspect, I am drawn to think of how the story of spiritual warfare has impacted each one of us lately.
Unless you lived in a cave during 2020, I know we have all experienced the recent struggles. Who could have anticipated the country being hit by a world pandemic in the middle of a very controversial presidential election year? The arguments and division, even among family members and good friends, were unlike anything our generation has ever seen. Isolation, along with the threat of severe illness and death, were encountered by countless individuals and families. If you managed not to get on each other's nerves before the pandemic, you were not likely to miss out on that once social distancing and work-from-home scenarios kept everyone in places they maybe would not have been otherwise. There have been times during the past year when I have acutely discerned the spiritual warfare around us. The message of JP Knights is to remind us that we are not alone in our struggles! Not only does the Father directly intervene with just a word, but He sends his many angels to fight against the enemy for us. If only we could see just one time what is happening around us in the spiritual realm, I believe our hearts would at once go cold with the sight of our spiritual enemy, and yet, hopefully, choose to rise up and fight alongside the Lord's Host. Imagine yourself with Tsadde or Gimel by your side! This is what you do when you pray, when you decide not to say that hurtful thing, when you call a family member who is isolated at home during the pandemic, when you refuse to allow political opinions to come between you and a friend or family member, when you choose to love someone who is different than you... These are often unrecognized spiritual battles! Think of Garrett, in JP Knights, when he encountered a situation that could make him tardy for school. This is a minor example, but just as important to see how we may act and react when normal life happens, and make that decision to fight the spiritual battle. If any of you have The Harvester Chronicles: JP Knights book, maybe it is time to read it again, and see how you can apply God's message about spiritual warfare to your current life. You may be surprised how applicable it is! Blessings to you all! For the Lamb! Beth Dear Team,
Happy Valentines Month and we hope each of you are doing well as we continue to progress in moving the ball forward with JP Knights. I am especially thankful for all of you who are members of our prayer team as we have needed your prayers and we would like to begin this update with prayer. PRAYER REQUESTS Our team was adversely impacted by the COVID-19 Virus this past month with Jim Gromer, one of our screenwriters, his wife Rachel, Lynn McAfee and myself all contracting the illness. We have deeply appreciated your prayers and everyone appears to be on the mends, but we are praying for the safety of the entire team during this time. This is why we are somewhat late getting our monthly update to you. Gary Lambert has also asked for prayer requests for his back and we want to remember him during this season. With cold winters in the North East and Midwest, this is especially problematic for many who have bone issues. Please remember these prayer requests as we remember you in prayer too. LEADERSHIP UPDATE Our film production team has been adding some key leadership to the Oceania Films group in Dale Wallace as legal counsel from Birmingham, Alabama and Jag Gholson, our securities advisor from Athens, Georgia has also brought in his partners into the mix. Jennifer Willingham and I have been meeting with William Morris/Endeavor about several areas for our future. This means our access to film stars is now a huge benefit to the Oceania team. The continued development update is in the area of needed long term capital financing, development and marketing plans for JP Knights. Please remember in prayer these important leaders in moving forward in our long term planning, coupled with the high priority for short term planning and provision. FINANCING The long term prospects of our financial support is looking more and more exciting every day. This is for the equity positions within the making of our motion picture. There are a new group of long term financiers over the next few months we will be meeting with personally. The short term funding is still a higher priority because the fundraising group will need operational support, travel monies and legal. As everyone knows, we are looking to place one or two more $25,000 units at this time in the market place via Gary and Beth Lambert. Gary has been meeting with the Economic Development Leadership team in Johnstown. We remain steadfast in finding a couple more individuals or one person for this cause. PRAYER TEAM Even tho we are not doing Zoom Calls anymore, we would like for the prayer team to commit to pray the first Monday evening of every month at 6 pm EST as we get closer to moving our project forward. We believe even if we are not all able to connect on Zoom or conference call, your unity in prayer will make a huge difference in our future. CONCLUSION May the Lord continue to bless the evangelistic efforts of JP KNIGHTS as we are praying 2021 is our year. If you have any interest in helping fund the development costs, please contact our team immediately. We believe the fund raising is essential for our future. In His Service, Kevin McAfee Director/Founder Oceania Omnimedia Happy New Year for 2021 and we are thankful for our prayer partners and those who have signed up to pray with us on a monthly basis. Without this critical foundation, we are left vulnerable, but because of the supernatural protection, our team is safe from all of the arrows against using the visual language of film to impact culture.
Dave Ramsey is one of those heroes in the world of finance, who teaches an invaluable lesson when it comes to "marathons" in business. Each of his grandchildren have learned from his retelling of a famous fable. The tortoise and the hare always shares insights for life and this process of building a sky scraper that requires millions of dollars is a tortoise winning type of franchise. EXCITEMENT FOR JP KNIGHTS JP KNIGHTS thanks you for your commitment to praying for the trilogy of films. I am very excited about this exciting franchise for a number of reasons. First, we have a screenplay that targets the mainstream. Secondly, our screenplay goes into the hearts of middle school young people, whose hearts are opened to the gospel. Lastly, this is a fantasy film with a Biblical foundation whose appeal is mainstream. In my heart as a film director, this is the perfect mixture for a film success. DIRECT TO CONSUMER - CHANGING THE FILM INDUSTRY Inside the film industry, everybody in the studio system is learning that DIRECT TO CONSUMER and digital downloads ARE the future for all cinematic success stories. This may be the very "competitive advantage" we need to get for this film trilogy to be made and released direct to consumer. Wonder Woman 1984 will have success in the New Year going direct, with very little support from box office, so this is good news for our team. We are seeing HBO MAX and other downloadable formats like NETFLIX and AMAZON beginning to lead us moving forward. Gary, we appreciate the hard work for you connecting with the Economic Development committee of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Let us all continue to ask the Lord to open the doors for partnership with the right people as we move forward into the film production phase. WILLIAM MORRIS/ENDEAVOR Our team has been meeting in December with William Lowery, the film finance expert has been invaluable, so please keep Will on your prayer list. We believe the future with Jennifer Willingham and Will will provide necessary partners for the future. FINANCE REQUIRED We conclude by continuing to desire to have "capital" for marketing and shopping the franchise. Through the sacrifice with the Lamberts and investors, coupled with the sweat equity of our organization, we need $50,000 in the bank to help us begin meetings with studios and financiers. Pray for the right financiers to help us move from a state of "waiting" to a new position of presentations. Have a blessed 2021, Dr. Kevin McAfee Founder/Filmmaker Merry Christmas from Nashville, Tennessee and Los Angeles, California.
We love you all and appreciate so much the prayers of so many during this time of Covid 19. As an end of the year update we continue to be moving forward. I am reminded of the story of the tortoise and the hare. The turtle always wins and we must continue to advance the ball every place we can. BUSINESS UPDATE Meetings have ensued with about half a dozen investor prospects this month. Our meetings have included legal counsel, meetings in Alabama which are promising. The most important meeting we had was with the senior content director in Nashville of William Morris/Endeavor, William Lowery. He came to our home for two hours and we had the opportunity to share the dream with him of JP Knights. Please keep this meeting in your prayer as we will see how God will use this. Additionally, we had preliminary phone , meetings with two distribution companies and a series of strategic planning meetings for next steps. Your prayers will make the difference, so please continue in every way to keep them up. Hopefully, we will have good news in the first quarter of 2021. Please remember to pray for the film industry, which has been crippled in a way like nothing we have ever seen or could have imagined. God bless you and from our team to yours, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, Dr. Kevin McAfee Here is a special video message from the director of JP KNIGHTS, Dr. Kevin McAfee. Due to a lack of interest from the financial community in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the mid October casting calls were tabled. The entire film team looks forward to moving ahead, but the priority of funding is now the first thing we must complete.
It is our prayer the priority of finding two or three partners to focus on funding the shopping and placement of the exciting film JP KNIGHTS. We deeply appreciate your prayers and on behalf of the entire VERITAS MISSION FILM ASSOCIATION, we thank Debra for helping keep our prayer team engaged. Please continue to pray for Gary and Beth as they seek opening doors on the financial fronts. Your prayers are making a difference. In His Service, Your Film Team The film industry is beginning to crack open, very slowly, from the pandemic which literally shut down the major and mini-major film studios since March. Everyone was hoping this crisis would go away fast, but just this week, the NFL has canceled a few of the football games due to the virus. When will it all end? We simply do not know.
What we do know is the importance in preparing to launch when the doors do fly open. This is what we will endure. Our team and the partners will transition from going slowly, into drinking out of a "fire hydrant". In anticipation of this, in October, we are going to have our day and one half of general auditions. GENERAL CASTING AUDITIONS - JOHNSTOWN, PA - MID OCTOBER The director, Dr. Kevin McAfee, will travel from Nashville back to Johnstown, Pennsylvania for an "Open Call" to have a five minute meeting on a first come, first serve basis. This will allow all union and "non-union" actors from the Pennsylvania and surrounding areas to meet face to face and actually do a small reading. Each audition will not last any more than five minutes to get as many people through the doors as possible. When the exact dates and times are available in mid to late October, we will send out a "call letter". The Lambert family will alert the press, so be sure and watch the local newspapers for updates, times and the location for the auditions. FOLLOW UP INVESTOR MEETINGS It has been eighteen months since we worked on investor meetings for the film franchise, so if you are interested or want to know more, please contact our film company at info@goldenrulehq.com for details. We will be working with potential financiers who are accredited investors. After marketing to eligible prospects in non registered private securities, we will set up face to face appointments, zoom calls or whatever is necessary to share we are opening up to sell a minimum of two more units. NEW STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS We began talking with several distribution companies and strategic partners and have shared these updates with the Lambert family. Thankfully, there is a high level of distribution interest in JP KNIGHTS and this is accelerating the process for funding all the more. Thank you to the prayer partners who are meeting each month to pray over the details of what we are doing, how we are conducting business and formalizing our goals. Goals are needed to push the ball forward and we will let the management of the expectations be driven from the Lord. May all of you have a wonderful Fall. Be safe and know we are praying for you as you continue to pray for us. Blessings, Dr. Kevin McAfee Founder/Filmmaker It is Thursday and our PRAYER TIME has been now moved to Thursday evenings at 6:30 pm EST. We are so thankful for our prayer team captain as Debra is doing an outstanding job letting people know what is going on. We hope you will join us for the prayer time as we gather on our ZOOM calls to bring everyone up to date.
The Financial Team of Lynn McAfee, Stephanie Musser and myself have began working on the following areas: Scheduling meetings with distribution companies September - December Scheduling first Pennsylvania meeting in October for Financial Meetings Scheduling film funding meetings with Jennifer Willingham this month. CONTINUED FOCUS ON PRAYER Our team believes each and every day of the marathon the importance of prayer. However, we will never use "waiting for God' as sitting still. People of action are part of our success. Without people of action, you do not have real success. GARY LAMBERT'S VISION Gary Lambert has continued to believe filming in Pennsylvania is an asset to help the economy of Johnstown. His belief has inspired our team to come back to Pennsylvania. By the next blog, we will have dates for our next stay. Beth has also believed this is the next step, so the film team will be back in October in Pennsylvania. Dates will be scheduled in the next few weeks, and so please keep your eye on the JP KNIGHTS WEB PAGE. CONCLUSION Keep praying and never lose heart. We are in a marathon, not a sprint and this film is going to impact our young people in a way, many will not believe. The screenplay is innovative, based on THE HARVESTER CHRONICLES and is comedic and action oriented. Your kids will love it. Blessings to the Lamb Of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Dr. Kevin McAfee Founder/Filmmaker Last week on our conference call with Gary and Beth Lambert after spending much time in prayer, we have made some major aggressive decisions as a team. Henry Blackabee said in his book, Experiencing God, "Get in on what God is doing". This mantra is defining our process.
FOCUSING ON PRAYER For the past couple years, the film and management team have prayed to move forward and we have patiently been waiting on God. Financially, the family made a decision to focus on prayer due to limited funds, which the film team has followed. An excellent prayer team was brought together thanks to the hard work of our amazing prayer captains and Beth. Gary began to focus on a certain group of people whom he truly believed were individuals and organizations who would invest financially in the Pennsylvania area. Stephanie, our Vice President immediately saw the wisdom in this and began charting a course. PENNSYLVANIA INVESTOR RECRUITMENT WAS DELAYED Then, the decision was made based on limited fiscal support to stop going to investors. Months have gone by and we have prayed. While this was going on, the film team continued to meeting with investor prospects, hedge funds and capitalists. There have been many times we felt we were close to the right partner, but this has not yet emerged. A NEW FINANCIAL TRACK In recent days, opportunities for a new investment track has come to the forefront. This has now opened up new doors for fiscal opportunity not previously discussed. This financial weapon is a game changer and the team is excited to share with Pennsylvania prospects ASAP. Our film team will be back in Pennsylvania, within the next forty five days. Stephanie Musser will be scheduling meetings. We will move forward in faith and look for seed capital, which is essential while we are in meetings. The Lamberts will have the responsibility to lead in the financing process, but they will have the additional support of staff member Stephanie to assist in the scheduling, with Dr. McAfee making trips to PA. This is why your prayers are key in this journey and your investment is TOP PRIORITY. Initial investments are needed to fund the recruitment of investors. Do you know someone who might connect with this vision? Therefore, after the initial costs of the screenplay, only a few days of the film team's time has been invested in newspaper and television interviews which were highly successful, thanks to Gary and Beth Lambert. PENNSYLVANIA INVESTORS In our recent conference call, the Lambert family believes strongly that money can be found in Pennsylvania. Therefore, we need your help in pointing us to who we can talk to and schedule meetings in the coming month. Please contact Gary Lambert or the film team and we will begin following up. Many of you come to our website, so pray about who you know and be PROACTIVE! MONTHLY 30 MINUTE PRAYER TIME - FIRST TUESDAYS 6;30 PM - 7 PM We will begin to have monthly ZOOM calls on the first Tuesday of every month at 6:30 pm Eastern Standard Time to all prayer partners. These calls will be made available to our prayer team and any potential prospects who would like updates. We will not have meetings on Thanksgiving and Christmas and Holiday weeks. CAST & CREW FIRST CALL MEETINGS Meetings with individuals and organizations who would like to be involved in our making of the movie will be introduced to either Dr. Kevin McAfee, the film director or Stephanie Musser, Co-Producer. One of the two, or both will be on the majority of the Zoom calls. 10 minutes will be allocated for production updates, 10 minutes will be focused on questions, 10 minutes will be focused on prayer and instruction. ACTOR AUDITION APPOINTMENTS - NEXT FORTY FIVE DAYS Many inquiries from the newspaper and promotions opened doors for actors to be involved. When Dr. McAfee returns to Pennsylvania, he will have meetings with actors for the film for the first time in casting appointments. Due to the large amount of interest, appointments will be limited. Each actor will need to bring a resume, a head shot and pay a processing fee if you are not "union". Stephanie Musser will schedule these meetings and she can be reached when the actual dates are going to be scheduled. Watch for an additional BLOG in the next forty five days so you can book your casting appointment. If you have interest in being being on our prayer team, please contact us and we will introduce you to our prayer captains, our process of intercession and bring you into our community. Blessings, YOUR FILM TEAM Thank you prayer partners for praying for JP Knights. Our team continues to cultivate in order to find the right financial partner for our film franchise. All of us are anxious to move forward and ready to see results.
I am reminded of the story of the tortoise and the hare. Today we may be the snail, but we always believe everything in this business is "one step at a time". We are moving slower to not burden the Lambert's and their stockholders. Our team has been bearing this burden now for two years because of our belief in this film franchise. RESOURCES In a couple years we have not had any additional resources from Pennsylvania outside the film production company funding its own business activities in the search of capital partners. We have made dozens of presentations and will continue to do so ask we ask the Lord to open and close the right doors for us. OUR TEAM Currently, we ask for you to continue to pray for all the team members who are seeking finances as we truly want the Lord to open the door, verses us. One thing we promise when we are funded, the glory and all the credit will go to one source, the Lord on high. Each "no" gets us closer to a yes. OUR REALITY Everything is shut down in the film industry. The studios, the unions and only James Cameron is working on Avatar in New Zealand. This pandemic has hit the publishing, music and entertainment industry worse than anything in the past 100 years. We don't know the answer to many questions, but are living on faith at this time and waiting. WHAT OPTIONS WE HAVE If we had the financial resources, we would use this to be shopping in LA. We would be meeting with potential cast members, talking to distributors and trying to negotiate a deal on the West Coast. Until the resources are available, we will be pretty much on hold. THANK YOU FOR PRAYING Without the prayers of God's people and the hard work of all those involved, we know God and He alone is on His throne and your prayers matter. Keep up the prayers! From the tortoise, Dr. Kevin McAfee Chairman/Founder |
AuthorDr. Beth Lambert is a Pediatrician and Medical Director in Pennsylvania. JP Knights is the first film from her books. Archives
February 2021
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Kevin & Lynn McAfee along with Jim and Rachel Gromer met to begin the script writing process for JP KNIGHTS the movie. Thanks for praying for the entire team!
Dr. McAfee and the team of GRP with Stephanie Musser met with city fathers in Pennsylvania at the Holiday Inn to discuss strategies for shooting in Johnstown.
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