Unsung Heroes

There is a lot of talk these days about vision. I have been in on a couple of “corporate type” talks that focus on the importance of vision and staying the course and leadership and making goals. I think that is all well and good. But it does leave out a most significant fact that I think in many ways is an important one. It is not all about the leader. It is about the followers. Anyone can have a vision. But not everyone can do the work. In other words, you have to have the expertise and the talent to get the job done. Those unsung people who can get the job done are the true heroes of any endeavor.

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The first five times we filmed, we did it in the Fellowship Bible Church auditorium. It was a rather barren place at that time and there was much that needed to be done. The stage for the teachers was a mess. One of the cameras needed to be on a platform five feet high. The sound needed to be coordinated with the tech man at the church. Lighting needed to be just so. The audience (which at that time was 500 excited women) needed to be managed. All details that I, the visionary, had not thought about! But someone had.

And so the day before filming when I arrived at the church, Kay Centurione was on the stage doing wondrous, creative things to make it beautiful. Dennis Law had worked overtime with our crew to make sure the hundreds of sound cords were all in place. Chuck Harley (my Beloved) had built a perfect five-foot platform that would hold a ton if needed. Genie Brady was there setting the tables with the necessary information. The talented detail people were doing their thing, making it all happen.

After we moved to the Walk Through the Bible studios, there were added complications. We had about 50 people arriving every day of filming and they came hungry. We needed food. And so in the well equipped kitchen Robin Rosebrough, Juanita Lott, Jan Butler and a whole team of talented women dished out two meals and numerous snacks daily. These were not just run of the mill lunches but beautiful-to-look-at, delicious-to-eat feasts.

Though our workbooks had not gone to print yet, copies had been made and placed at every chair along with a small gift. Flowers were in the foyer, welcoming each person. Names and addresses were taken and “permission to film” agreements were signed at a table someone remembered to not only set up as each person came through the door, but that was beautifully set with flowers, plenty of pens and a cheerful attendant.

Kelle and Shane had a whole crew including a talented stage designer, a sound guy, a gaffer plus assistant, three camera men, a switcher and makeup lady. We had earlier hired a wonderful lady to help with the wardrobe. It sounds like an easy thing but Trudy Davies’s eye for color, camera, design and timeless sense of style was a huge help to those of us who are fashion-challenged. Rosemary Nelson kept the teachers on time and tracked their talks so nothing would be left out.

The list of behind-the-scenes, dedicated, cheerful folks is longer than I have space. So in the end, it wasn’t the vision that made it happen. All would have remained nothing more than just that…a vision, a dream, an idea, a hope. It was the heroes who made a vision become a reality that went across country and now around the world.

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.

Romans 12:4-6