Tyler:

Hey guys, this is Tyler Sanson.

Tyler:

I'm happy to be kicking off the December testimony series for the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast and have a crazy awesome God story from the making of our film learning you.

Tyler:

We shot several scenes of 'Learning You' in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for a week, and that beach is really, really long, and it was in the middle of the winter, so there wasn't that many people there at the beach.

Tyler:

We had permits to block off the whole thing.

Tyler:

So when people would walk past where we were shooting, we had security telling them to kind of hold off until the scene was done.

Tyler:

But that was where we met a lady named Marcy.

Tyler:

Marcy became an extra in our film when she decided she wanted to walk through the background of one of the scenes.

Tyler:

And we were more than welcome to have people do that.

Tyler:

You can't shoot a beach movie and it'd be completely empty.

Tyler:

Uh, and so Marcy became part of our little film crew, uh, on the beach there.

Tyler:

Um, but what we found out is that Marcy actually had an autistic grandkid and the film is about kids with autism.

Tyler:

And so, uh, we were really excited to learn that.

Tyler:

And thought, wow, what a cool God thing.

Tyler:

It's, uh, miles and miles of beach.

Tyler:

Uh, what are the odds that someone walks past and becomes an extra that also is being impacted by the film?

Tyler:

So I met Marcy and I told her, Hey, come meet our lead actor, John Wells, uh, because John has a son who is also, uh, on the autism spectrum.

Tyler:

And so when they met, they hit it off immediately and they started talking.

Tyler:

And Marcy said, what age is your son?

Tyler:

And John said about nine.

Tyler:

And she said, oh, that's the age where they start feeling different.

Tyler:

And, uh, they start feeling isolated, like they don't have friends and they have a hard time fitting in.

Tyler:

And so she just stopped and started praying for him.

Tyler:

Now, this was a person that we didn't know at all prior to this encounter.

Tyler:

Uh, she put her hand on John's chest and prayed and said, uh, uh, uh, God, I want you to, uh, be with John as he's trying to parent through such a difficult time.

Tyler:

Um, I'm sure his son is feeling isolated and doesn't have any friends, uh, and feels like he's just so different.

Tyler:

I pray that you would help him.

Tyler:

And so she stopped praying, said Amen.

Tyler:

Uh, and John got his phone out and he was almost in tears at this point, and he said, you're never gonna believe this.

Tyler:

But I just got this text from my daughter about 20 minutes ago, uh, that said, my son doesn't want to get on the bus because he doesn't have any friends.

Tyler:

Uh, and he is having a hard time fitting in.

Tyler:

And so what Marcy prayed for John is exactly what was going on in his life.

Tyler:

What a testimony to how the Holy Spirit works.

Tyler:

Uh, nudging people, uh, with the exact right words to say in the exact right moments.

Tyler:

I don't know what this will do for either of their eternal futures, but both of these people in this story got a little bit closer to Jesus that day.