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[00:00:17] The Missional Life - Dan: All right. Welcome back to the Mission Live podcast today. We're joined by Nate Dean. He is the writer and producer of the movie that's releasing Brave the Dark.

[00:00:28] The Missional Life - Dan: Nate, welcome to the show.

[00:00:30] The Missional Life - Amanda: Welcome.

[00:00:31] The Missional Life - Dan: Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be with you today. Absolutely. Nate, your story inspired the movie Brave the Dark. What was it like to see such a personal chapter of your life turned into a film?

[00:00:45] Nate Deen: Absolutely incredible, surreal and such a positive thing.

[00:00:50] Nate Deen: It continued to further heal my heart and my soul. As I experienced so much trauma as a child and you know, that just doesn't go away overnight. I carried a lot of trauma through a lot of my life and to be able to tell this story has been truly gratifying and, and healing as well. This is, you know, Brave the Dark is my story.

[00:01:11] Nate Deen: But more importantly, it's the story of somebody helping me in the time of need that, that I needed someone to help me the most. So I don't always consider it my story. I consider it the story of a teacher, Mr Dean, who came into my life and helped change it for so much good.

[00:01:32] The Missional Life - Dan: Tell us some of those situations that Mr Dean Helped you walk through.

[00:01:37] The Missional Life - Dan: Tell us a little bit more about your story? We'd love to hear it.

[00:01:40] Nate Deen: Yeah. I mean, my story is pretty, pretty tragic. Went through a lot of childhood trauma. At the age of five, I'm not going to give it away. I need you to go see the film. So I don't want to give too much away, but. If you can imagine the worst things that could happen to a child for a child to witness, for a child to have to endure at, at just such a young age and to remember it so vividly and so boldly and then just having to move on through foster care and different families and just growing up angry, growing up actually mad at God blaming God, thinking that, you know, Why would he allow this to happen to me?

[00:02:18] Nate Deen: And then meeting this teacher who saw me at the lowest point of my life. Say, hey, you know, there's, there's, there's a way for you to get through this. There's a way for you to move past, but it's not going to be an easy journey. And he didn't blast me with Christianity or Jesus at the time. It was just about getting to know who I was as a person, as a young teenager, struggling, questioning God, questioning everything about what I was going through.

[00:02:44] Nate Deen: And so by just listening to me and allowing me to pour out the things that I had gone through allowed him to kind of visually, or you know, work in Jesus into my life and work, work, help me to heal enough to know and understand that it wasn't God to blame you know, And that was, that was such a lift off my shoulders, a lift off my soul to be able to, to move forward in such a positive way.

[00:03:14] Nate Deen: Cause I think it's really hard for people who've been through hardships in their life to, to find someone that can help them through that. And then just stay with them, stick with them for the long haul. That's, that's what's really incredible with the story.

[00:03:28] The Missional Life - Dan: I love how You described that he just listened because so many times when we want to help someone, we want to talk , and we think talking helps somebody, but in so many ways, just listening is so important.

[00:03:45] The Missional Life - Dan: And, you know, if you're ministering to somebody that's gone through a situation so many times, just. Stop and listen a little bit and that can make a huge Difference in somebody's life and how they open up to you And so I'm just wondering what was that moment? In your heart, in your mind, in your spirit, when you were with Mr.

[00:04:04] The Missional Life - Dan: Dean, and you just realized, I can trust this person, this person is different and , I'm willing to go deeper with him.

[00:04:10] Nate Deen: Yeah, there's actually several. I want to share one and it is a little bit of a you know you'll see it in the film, but it's such an important moment that I think people forget sometimes when you're trying to help somebody you know, I was in this classroom and I hadn't eaten for a couple of days.

[00:04:25] Nate Deen: I was really hungry and just really, really hungry. And, and I walked past so many students and so many other teachers that kind of just. Didn't even notice, didn't even seem to see me. But I walked into Mr. Dean's class, Stan Dean, who was the teacher and he was my English teacher. And he, he saw that I was in need.

[00:04:43] Nate Deen: He saw that, you know, I looked a little skinny and my clothes were a little rat, you know, tattered and my hair was a little greasy and he offered me. chocolate bar, right? And you know, well, so what? It's just a chocolate bar. But to be honest with you, I call that the moment when the planting of the seed of hope hit my life.

[00:05:05] Nate Deen: I didn't even know it then. And I don't even think Stan knew that that little moment would, would forever change my life, but that really did. And then there's several other moments in the film where You know, he wasn't just in it for a quick fix. He knew that this was going to be for the long haul.

[00:05:23] Nate Deen: And we had several arguments and we would, I would yell at him at sometimes and just scream it out. Just getting all of that frustration out, not necessarily at him, but just testing him and pushing him to see, did he really care for me? And, and, and there were several moments that I just knew that he cared.

[00:05:41] Nate Deen: You know, he met me at a level that I was at and said, man, I care for you. I don't want you to go to prison. I don't want you to mess things up with the judge. I don't want you to not graduate. I'm here for you. I want. And so you just realize, man, there is somebody out there that cared for me and it just happened to be my teacher.

[00:06:00] Nate Deen: And for me stands the hero of the story. He's the hero of my story and I'm absolutely okay with that.

[00:06:09] The Missional Life - Dan: You said something there about how people would just walk past you. You weren't seen. Yeah. So let's just take a quick aside. Speak to the listener that feels that right now. Speak to that listener that's is feeling unseen. What would you say to somebody who's in that situation?

[00:06:27] Nate Deen: Yeah. You know, in the Bible, the story of the blind man and he's sitting at the temple. And Caiaphas and all of the priests and everybody just walk right past him. They don't even notice him. They don't even care. And then Jesus comes up and he saw this man and not only did he see him, he healed him and I'm not trying to compare Stan or anything like that, but there's a very similarity of Stan following in the footsteps of Jesus, like emulating Christ without forcing it, without just seeing me in a moment of need and saying, I'm going to help this kid.

[00:07:04] Nate Deen: Right? And so that's, that's so powerful. And I, I try to tell kids today, like, You know, in helping youth who are going through hard things, I try to say to them, don't do it alone. I tried for so long to, to, to get through life alone. And I couldn't, you know, as a teenager struggling and hurting, I couldn't get it through it alone.

[00:07:26] Nate Deen: Find someone, find a coach, find a pastor, find a youth pastor, find a parent, an uncle, somebody that you can truly. No, we'll listen and want to help. And they're not just, you know, they're for short, temporary help, but to really honestly listen to you and that you feel comfortable enough to share it.

[00:07:47] Nate Deen: Even if it's humiliating, even if it's the hardest thing you did, I shared stuff with Stan that I've never shared with someone else and you know what. He never judged me for it. He only found ways to, to say, all right, so those things happen, you know, let's deal with the consequences and move forward.

[00:08:05] Nate Deen: Let's put it behind us. And so that's what I encourage young people today is deal with your problems. You can't run from them because that's what I tried to do. There's a big theme in brave, the dark of running from your past of running. And, and, you know, you might run to drugs or you might run to, you know just even mental, physically, you know, have problems because you're not dealing with those things.

[00:08:27] Nate Deen: And Stan said to me over and over, this too shall pass. And I love that, that little quote because Every hardship that you go through, it will pass and it's how you get through it and how you move forward. And so I encourage young people to just, just don't do it alone. Find someone, even if it's someone you don't know, a therapist or, or another teacher that maybe you don't even know just someone you can connect with.

[00:08:53] The Missional Life - Dan: That's something that stuck out to me in the film was Stan and first his patience and second, his. Ability to speak life and the bible talks about that Life and death are in the power of the tongue and the film does such a good job portraying how stan is speaking life into you consistently, even when there's times where Where young nate is really letting loose a little bit at him He's patient and he thinks before he speaks and I think that's really really important because so many times when people attack us when people say something or wrong us We want to be so quick to speak but yet we have to be so careful with the words I love how he just continued to build Precept upon precept love upon love and that slowly built the relationship with you and built a friendship a relationship and ultimately a beautiful intimate relationship that you guys have shared i'm just wondering what was it that that drew him to you because he saw many many Other students every day and there were a lot of probably needy students or you know students that were in trouble that even revealed that to you what drew him to you?

[00:10:07] Nate Deen: Yeah, one of the really cool things is about 12 years ago, I started writing this script on. He was still with us. He was still with me on. So he got to read those early versions, and he actually didn't like them. He felt that it was too dark and it was like sad and just like he's like the world needs joy.

[00:10:25] Nate Deen: The world needs light. The world needs peace. The world needs. And I was like, And that was at the moment when I knew that it wasn't my story that needed to be told, that it was his story that I needed to tell. And so it was so good to hear his side of the stories, you know, cause I was writing from my side and now we were sitting down and I was talking to him, like, how did you feel when I left the house or when I came home drunk or miserable or, you know, how did, what were you feeling in those moments?

[00:10:55] Nate Deen: And you're right, his, His patience, but even more his persistence of just staying with me. Knowing that I was going to make mistakes, knowing that I was going to push him because I didn't know how to live a life. I didn't, no one ever taught me how to love. I think that was the hardest thing for me to get over was actually how to be loved.

[00:11:14] Nate Deen: Because I had never really, truly ever been loved before. And he was trying to pour out this love for me and I didn't know how to accept it. I was like, what is this? Like, that's not normal. Like what? That's this is weird. You know, those christmas gifts at christmastime. Like I, I had no idea how to accept gifts.

[00:11:33] Nate Deen: Because that wasn't something that I experienced very often if at all. And so for him to, to get those gifts and they were plentiful but he did it saying these are the gifts that you should have had as a child at 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, you know, that, that every child should have. Growing up that you didn't get, you know, it wasn't just trying to buy my love.

[00:11:58] Nate Deen: It was unconditional love. There were many times when everyone else was saying, let the system take care of this kid. You know, he is gonna hurt you. He is gonna steal from you. He is gonna do all these bad things. But man, his, his persistence his presence in my life showed me that he wasn't going to give up.

[00:12:15] Nate Deen: And he said, I'm not going to give up on that kid. And it's such a powerful, powerful story. And I'm, I'm just honored to share it with him with the world to, to tell his story of the true hero. What a real hero in this world looks like, you know there's a lot of superhero movies and things, but Stan is such a superhero.

[00:12:35] Nate Deen: And I know there's a lot of others out there that are and want to help. And I think Brave the Dark really, really shares that darkness in order to show how bright the light is at the end. I think people have to understand that there are Children in this world who are suffering. If we don't show it in some form again, not overdoing it, but showing that there's kids out there who aren't eating lunch every day, who aren't doing certain things every day, who aren't being loved every day.

[00:13:03] Nate Deen: If we can show a little bit of that, then the good people in this world can actually do something and go, You know what? I'm gonna step in. I'm going to pay it forward. I'm going to help out. And that's what's so cool. And I hope that this film encourages other people to share their stories as well.

[00:13:18] The Missional Life - Dan: Wow. What stood out to me , in that scene, the Christmas, he, he gave you these Christmas gifts and you up until that point really hadn't received. gifts. I think maybe later we might, find out that you had received underwear. Perhaps right. But, as far as receiving larger gifts, You hadn't received that.

[00:13:41] The Missional Life - Dan: And so a couple of things that stand out one, when you first received those, you didn't know what to do. And in fact, you almost , put up a barrier. You ran, you ran, you didn't know what to do. There's that running theme again, but, but then there's this reconnection point, right? And, what was so interesting was how Stan represented.

[00:14:02] The Missional Life - Dan: In so many ways in my mind, of God, our father giving you gifts and how it wasn't just one present, it was a lavishing of gifts onto you. Yeah. He lavished gifts and that's how our Heavenly Father is with us. He gives not just sparingly, but he lavish them on off. Yeah.

[00:14:22] The Missional Life - Amanda: And even being very detailed, , I won't say what it is, but just that very specific gift that he gave you.

[00:14:29] The Missional Life - Amanda: Yeah. That's shown in the film because he took notice of what, because he asked the questions and he listened, you know, what do you like? What do you enjoy doing? And he was able to respond to that in the Christmas gift.

[00:14:43] Nate Deen: Yeah. And it's, it's one of my favorite moments in the film. It's so beautiful. I, I love how, you know, He's just so purely innocent in all of that.

[00:14:53] Nate Deen: You know it was just I call. I told him at that time. You're the weirdest person I've ever met, but he's also the best person I had ever met. You know something else. I hope people catch and I know you will if you catch it the second time or you watch it the second time. But Stan. Said my name a lot.

[00:15:09] Nate Deen: In normal conversation, you don't say, you know, hi Dan, how are you? And then you say, hi Nate, how are you? And I say, well, Dan, what do you think about the weather? You know, you don't, in conversation, you don't say the name, but he always used my name over and over and over. Merry Christmas, Nate. Happy birthday, Nate.

[00:15:28] Nate Deen: How are you today, Nate? I just want you to be happy today, Nate. And there's several times in the film, you just, you just hear him say my name over and over, and that was done purposefully because he wanted me to know who I was and he, he just reminded me over and over again, kind of subliminally, but he just wanted me to know that I was something, I meant something and that he enjoyed saying my name.

[00:15:53] Nate Deen: Yeah, pretty incredible.

[00:15:55] The Missional Life - Amanda: So beautiful.

[00:15:56] The Missional Life - Dan: Such a powerful imagery of our own father, our heavenly father. Yes. He loved saying our name, right? Like he, and he, he did like the fact he's written our names in his palm. He says, but in the palms of his hand, right? And so it's just such a beautiful image of that.

[00:16:13] The Missional Life - Dan: And one of the other things that really stood out to me, Nate, was that This, fatherly figure, this mentor figure helps you in so many ways, but it's the favor that's on his life that really helps you in your life. And so, and there's, there's this one point that , there's this crisis and , you both are very upset with each other.

[00:16:35] The Missional Life - Dan: And he said, Hey, look, like without my friends, Friends, you would be in jail. And I just would, I wanted you to speak to that because, you know, so many times we think of a mentor relationship or a father relationship when we forget about the favor that naturally overflows onto either children or those mentees.

[00:16:53] The Missional Life - Dan: Could you speak to that? What is it like to receive that sort of favor? And what was it like for him to share that favor that was already on his life to help you navigate those situations that you found yourself in?

[00:17:06] Nate Deen: Yeah, I mean, he was such a huge part of the community.

[00:17:12] Nate Deen: Everyone loved Stan. He was beloved. He was respected because he taught for 35 years. So there was thousands and thousands and thousands of kids that went through that school. And I can tell you every day I get so many comments like, oh man, Mr Dean was my teacher in 1968 and 75 and and how much he impressed them and help them through even the little things.

[00:17:39] Nate Deen: Stan, got his joy and love and generosity from his mother who doted on him as a child, who, who filled him with love, who told him, I love you, Stan. I love you, Stan. I love you, Stan. And just poured love. on him. And not an unhealthy way, but just like, you know, just he learned his generosity from his mother because his mother gave huge tips when they went out to eat and stand did that.

[00:18:05] Nate Deen: And I do that today because of the generosity that he showed me, right? You know, someone serving you. Hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna respect what you're doing and give you that wonderful tip. And so I learned those things from Stan. And so Stan loved and knew everybody and we kind of make fun of it in the film.

[00:18:23] Nate Deen: But because of that, he could do some things that some other people couldn't in helping me. Because he, he saw that I wasn't as bad of a kid. I was just in some really bad circumstances. And even though I did some bad things, he, he, he says several times in the film, there's a good kid there, you know?

[00:18:42] Nate Deen: And so he used some of those favors to help. But I paid my own things. I had to pay tuitions. I had to pay pay people back, you know, for the bad things that I did, I had to pay the court costs like he, you know, understanding that there are consequences to the things that I went through, but because of who he was, people were willing to say, okay, if Stan believes in this kid, well, then maybe I can believe in this kid.

[00:19:06] Nate Deen: And sometimes that's all the kid needs is, is for one person to care because then when they see that. You know, then the other teachers started to step up, you know, and when I was when I went back to school and they said, Oh, you know what? He's not that bad of a kid. He just went through something hard.

[00:19:22] Nate Deen: And so then started pouring generosity to me. And It was, it's just amazing how those small acts of kindness, that generosity, that human connection can go so far and spread. And that's what I want to do today. I want to spread generosity. I want to spread, you know, human compassion. I want to help young people large scale, not just a couple of kids.

[00:19:44] Nate Deen: I want to help as many kids as I can. So and I thank for that. You know, and Jesus, I thank, I thank him for the healing of all of the things that I went through so that I can do the things that I want to do for him in honor of Stan and, and there's just so much need in the world. And I believe that this film will inspire people to be like Stan in their town, in their community, because it only takes one.

[00:20:12] Nate Deen: To help the small acts of kindness can really actually go a very long way.

[00:20:17] The Missional Life - Amanda: Yes. Amen. It only takes one. That's such a powerful statement.

[00:20:21] Nate Deen: Yeah.

[00:20:22] The Missional Life - Amanda: And you mentioned wanting to help youth, not just one or two, but on a large scale. So there's an organization that you have. Can you tell us more about that and how that's going and what's going on with that?

[00:20:35] Nate Deen: Yeah, I'm excited. I actually started the stand Dean Foundation. And and I did it in honor of Stan, who was a teacher and educator. And he was also a theater director, and he was in the arts. And so Through education in the arts, we're going to help young people in our community and hopefully across the country eventually through education in the arts.

[00:20:55] Nate Deen: So, you know, there's a lot of underprivileged kids or low income families where these kids are smart enough, but just don't have good enough grades, maybe to get those scholarships or things. We're going to help them get to college if they want to go to college, right? They deserve every chance is every other as every other kid.

[00:21:12] Nate Deen: And then the arts to, you know, I'm in theater, I'm in films. I love music. And so we're partnering partnering with some other foundations who are going to help us, you know, get kids on film sets. You know, you know, these these kids that age out who are searching for purpose. We want to try to build a community around them the same way that stand in that for me.

[00:21:33] Nate Deen: And so, you know, we wanna do mentorships. I want to actually mentor kids. I want them to come on set with me and, and learn a profession. And maybe that's not where they end up, but they're gonna learn something about working as a team, about creating something that. Is bigger than ourselves. And that we can be proud of and go to a premiere for and like that's what stand it for me, you know, to be able to see opening night and the curtain going up and you had something to do with it.

[00:22:00] Nate Deen: I felt a part of a community. I felt like I was loved and needed and wanted and found a passion. And so I want to do that through the standing foundation in so many ways. And so we just started just like a year or two ago. And we're really just starting to launch big you know, partnering with other nonprofits that are on that same thing.

[00:22:19] Nate Deen: So stay tuned, find out more. But yeah, we're excited.

[00:22:24] The Missional Life - Amanda: That's amazing. I love mentorship. I believe mentorship is the number one thing that could put the self help industry out of business.

[00:22:34] Nate Deen: Yeah, right, right. Yeah. People are in need. It just takes one person to, to love a child enough to care for that child, to see them succeed.

[00:22:45] Nate Deen: If that child can find just one person, you know, you hope it's more, you hope it's two parents, you hope it's, it's, you know, their teachers, whatever. But sometimes it's just one person, just seeing them for who they are, accepting them for who they are and saying, I'm here and I'm going to help you.

[00:23:03] The Missional Life - Dan: I was really surprised and really not surprised, I guess, to hear about this so called thing of like the stand Dean effect and what they were kind of alluding to was that that as they, as you began to work on this film and seek the funding and all the different things that were needed to produce a film, it was.

[00:23:23] The Missional Life - Dan: Really the community of Lancaster that came together and a lot of the funding came from right there within your own community and a lot of the different opportunities because they said oh, this is This is in honor of stan or this is like sharing his story and just the favor that came And so I just think that's such a powerful testimony of a life Well lived you know, there's a quote I think it was Mark Twain that said, like, let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry.

[00:23:49] The Missional Life - Dan: And and I think that there's really a similar effect here with standing that there's just so many people that honored and respected and he had such a impact in his life that it really Outlasted him. And even now with the foundation , I would guess that donors and will be keen on giving because of the effect that he had even in their life.

[00:24:12] Nate Deen: Yeah. One of the wonderful things I got to do. Cause when I wrote the original script, I really wanted to show Stana as a man of integrity. as a man who, who lived what he, what he said you know, he, he didn't he did things for the right reasons. And a lot of the early on writers, producers that kind of come on, we're like, nah, this guy's got to have all these flaws and all of these things.

[00:24:39] Nate Deen: And I said, no, let it be me with all of that. Let him be, you know, that figure that like, That will encourage others to want to be like him. You know, Stan was not perfect. You know, who is? But he was perfectly himself, I like to say. And he just helped so many people in the community. And so when we had this finished script and we were looking to do this thing, people were just overjoyed.

[00:25:02] Nate Deen: Oh, so happy to give and, and want to be a part of it because of who he was and his legacy that he leaves behind, you know, cause he taught parents and then he taught, you know, their, their kids, you know, to like, he had taught so long that he was teaching generations of kids and so many in the community just.

[00:25:21] Nate Deen: Love loved him and, and are just so honored that we're telling his story from within his community. We shot this film in the community where it happened in the school, where he taught in the auditorium that was named after him, even before he passed away. You know, it's like. It's just amazing. And so, yes, people stepped up believing in the story, believing in Stan and then thankful that they believed in me enough to, to tell the story the right way.

[00:25:52] The Missional Life - Dan: There's this point in the story, you know, we're talking about Stan and so much of the story revolves around his helping you, but there's this point in the story that you're not going to reveal what that is, but there's a situation that happens and you find yourself. all alone, even at the point where even Stan has turned his back on you in this scenario.

[00:26:15] The Missional Life - Dan: I know that there's a lot of people that go through life that feel like everyone has turned their back on them. Even those who deeply believed in them, like they go through these situations and it's like, I'm I'm all alone. And I just want to know what was that like for you?

[00:26:32] The Missional Life - Dan: And can you speak to the person that feels like they're all alone at everybody, even those closest people that they thought would never turn their back on them? When they find themselves in that situation, what can you speak into their life at that for that moment?

[00:26:47] Nate Deen: Yeah, I mean sadly I had had a lot of people leave me and there is a scene where stands like I can't even look at you right now But I don't believe that he did that or said that in hate or not wanting Me in his life anymore.

[00:27:02] Nate Deen: But I took it that way because that's the only thing that I knew. He was just very angry with me because of something I had done. And I deserved that anger from him. He had every right to be angry and say, I can't even look at you. Can you just please leave? But sadly, to me, being a person who was constantly rejected I left thinking that that's, that, that it was over.

[00:27:24] Nate Deen: that he didn't want me in his life anymore, but in fact, in reality, that wasn't the truth. And so I left and I thought I was completely alone. It's one of the hardest scenes for me to watch in the movie because I felt like I let him down, you know, I, I let this man who did so much for me. I, I let him down and I did let him down.

[00:27:46] Nate Deen: And so things get in your mind, things, you know start. Going awry, and you can go down some very, very dark paths, and in fact, I did but I would just encourage any young person or anyone to just feel so alone, you know, you're going to feel alone if you're just alone. You've got to surround yourself with people.

[00:28:06] Nate Deen: You've got to find people that believe in you you know, a friend or two just You just can't go through things alone because that's when you do that. You make the bad choices that I made. You just cannot do things alone. You've got to find a way. Um, you've got to find the answers. You've got to ask questions.

[00:28:25] Nate Deen: And try to try to get surrounded by someone or some people that that care about you.

[00:28:32] The Missional Life - Dan: That's something that really stood out to me the situations that you walk through in the film, they're, they're harsh. I mean, there's some very dark situations, but then there's just some other things that you're just, you're just a teenager walking through life and you're making these decisions and you know, they're the wrong decisions.

[00:28:50] The Missional Life - Dan: But inside, there's actually a really good guy, , a really good person. And I just really took notice. I mean, even just the situation where your caretakers are, they tell you something to do, and you, you disagree, at least seemingly, and yet you still, You still fall under that authority and I think there's some other situations that you know You you're doing something and it's not really the right decision Necessarily, but your heart is still good and pure and you're just doing the best you can in the midst of a hard situations and That's where a lot of people find themselves.

[00:29:25] The Missional Life - Dan: They're doing the best they can they're not bad people But they find themselves in a lot of bad situations. I just wondered, Can you speak to people that are in in those sorts of situations

[00:29:35] Nate Deen: yeah you know, I found myself in a lot of bad situations and hard decisions. You know, as a young kid, you're just trying to survive. Especially for me, it was about survival. You know, I had to siphon gas to get gas in my car because I had lost my job because it was too far away. And so I did stupid things and I did bad things and I ended up alone.

[00:29:55] Nate Deen: But I think, I think just understanding that We all make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. But it's how we deal with those mistakes. It's how we move forward from those mistakes. We have to accept our consequences and the bad things that we, and the bad choices that we do that we make.

[00:30:12] Nate Deen: And so, yeah, in the film, it's just kind of over and over again, where I just keep making bad mistakes. But I just find so much joy in being willing to be able to say that I persisted. I continued to try to move forward. I tried to make the good decisions moving forward try not to run from my past and just encourage people again, not to run from their past.

[00:30:37] Nate Deen: And, and look, look forward to. The potential of so much good in the future. Making this film showing all the darkness was is hard. There's a lot of social issues that we touch on that can be a little hard for people to watch. But I'm really excited for them to kind of experience the joy and the light that's on the other end.

[00:31:00] Nate Deen: You know, of this film because that's what I wanted to show that you can make the changes that people can change. They always say, well, you can't change people. They're going to be who they are. No, no, I am completely, a lot of the filmmakers, when they met me for the first time, they weren't sure how to, Like, whoa, this guy is like a really positive, like, high energy guy.

[00:31:19] Nate Deen: Like, how is that possible? After all this stuff I read in the script, he can't possibly be a wonderful, nice guy. And my wife and I just poured love on every person on that set, every day. And they, they still reach out to us. you know, three years later saying that was the best film set I was on. Like, I just felt like such a connection to you guys.

[00:31:37] Nate Deen: And that's what life's about. You know, just human connection, encouraging, uplifting each other. And I think right now in our society today There's not a lot of that. There's a, there's a lot of like, I'm just going to put my headphones on, put my, you know, and just sit in the corner and be myself, you know, and you know, you see Stan walking in the hallway, Mr.

[00:31:57] Nate Deen: Dean, the teacher walking in the hallway. He's like, good morning, Johnny. Good morning. But like he connected with every person he knew. And I think that's what's missing a lot of is human connection. I think that gets you through a lot of things in life.

[00:32:12] The Missional Life - Amanda: Yeah, it gives you that sense of identity and sense of value that is very much lacking, and for any teenager to walk through, you know, those years, it's very hard, , they're, , discovering who am I.

[00:32:26] The Missional Life - Amanda: You know, what are my values? And, , you hear competing voices sometimes, and, , the hope is that the right ones are heard and heeded too, but it's such a tough time, , for so many youth. So just being able to. know that there's value, know that there's worth and know that they have an identity.

[00:32:48] Nate Deen: Yeah, it's a, it's a loud world out there socially. It's a loud world. There's so many distractions and so many things. And my hope for Brave the Dark is that it's a light and it's a quiet sense of peace too about it. Even though there's a lot of some dark things, but there's also so much hope and light that it's a beacon for people.

[00:33:07] Nate Deen: that they can share it with the people that are struggling in their lives. You know, everyone seems to have a, you know, a brother, a sister, an aunt, an uncle, you know, somebody, a cousin, maybe that's going through some hardships that they might be able to share this film with them. So that hope can be restored in their lives, that they can find value in their lives.

[00:33:26] Nate Deen: Cause I think when people can see, All of the things that I endured and I was able to get through. And sadly there's even other kids that have been through even more tragedy than I've been through that are finding ways to get through it, you know, through help and, you know, ultimately leading to a better life with Christ, you know, there's just some great stories that I want to tell moving forward about that.

[00:33:48] Nate Deen: You know you know, for me, it was really important for this film to not make it too faith based. Just because I wanted to make a film that I would have watched as an 18 year old. Because if I was blaming God, I'm not gonna go see a movie that's promoting God as much, right? I love faith based films.

[00:34:06] Nate Deen: I believe that this is so much faith in this film. I think the gospel is written through it, but it's kind of like subtle enough that I think It's so universal for so many people to watch. And that was the hope and the goal is that it's a planting of seed of hope in their life, watching it, that it'll move them in a much better direction.

[00:34:27] The Missional Life - Dan: So good. I just was thinking about how, as Christians were called to go and make disciples, right. And I think about how really in so many ways, you know, whether I don't know if Sam was a Christian or not, but he disciples you. Right and he discipled you in that grace. He discipled you in that generosity.

[00:34:50] The Missional Life - Dan: He discipled you in that joy He discipled you in that desire to make an impact and I love that the scene at the end was there's this moment where You've now been discipled and you're going and you're taking the discipler And you're going and doing what he's discipled you to do, right? And I think that's just the ultimate goal as a christian is to see ourselves duplicated I mean really to see christ duplicated in another person so I just really want to commend you for that.

[00:35:19] The Missional Life - Dan: Just it's amazing how You've taken something and you've walked through some very hard situations. And yet you've walked that and , now you're, discipling others and similar lives. And so I just want to say, well done. That's, that's really amazing. And I think there's such a, a power and, you know, no one wishes people to go through Terrible dark things, right?

[00:35:39] The Missional Life - Dan: There is a power when somebody walks through a dark thing like in the bible they get thrown into the fire furnace and yet they come out . They don't smell like smoke, right? And I think it's amazing that you can have gone through so much And yet you don't smell like smoke.

[00:35:53] The Missional Life - Dan: I'm sure you have your wounds and you have situations, but you're making a movie that's encouraging other people and, and encourage people , to indeed brave the dark. And so as we wrap up the conversation.

[00:36:03] The Missional Life - Dan: I'm just wondering in the midst of filming this movie, brave the dark, Were there any fun or lighthearted kind of blooper or funny moments in filming the movie that came up that were kind of like the silver lining in the midst of a movie that's pretty heavy at points?

[00:36:20] Nate Deen: Yeah. I'll tell you a fun behind the scenes thing that just warms my heart every time I tell.

[00:36:26] Nate Deen: The young kid that plays me as young Nate he, his name is Banks Quinney. He was six or seven years old when he did the, did the film. And, and, you know, he had to portray me as a young person going through a lot of that hardship. And one of the great scenes Moments. Whoops. Something just fell.

[00:36:43] Nate Deen: Sorry. One of the great moments in, in the, in the movie which is actually a sad part, but behind the scenes of it is when you see the little boy running through the, the cornfield and through, you know, through the woods especially at the beginning, he's running and there's always that theme of running.

[00:36:58] Nate Deen: When we shot that scene, it was two o'clock in the morning and it was cold and he's wearing pajamas and these little boots that weren't very warm. And Of course, you know, he does it and the director has like note after note, like, Hey, can you do it a little off? You know, can you do a little bit more?

[00:37:14] Nate Deen: Can you look back at the camera more? And so we finally got to the very last scene and I walked over to and I said can we just do it one more time? And the director agreed with me because he, the director really wanted him to run into the complete darkness, like absolutely run past all the lights into complete darkness.

[00:37:36] Nate Deen: And, you know, I encouraged, you know, Little Banks and I said, can you, can you just do that? And like, Don't stop running until we yell cut. And he's like, okay. And I could tell he was a little scared. I said, listen, nothing's gonna happen. We'll have someone on the other end, you know, that that will be there if you need him.

[00:37:54] Nate Deen: And so we rolled the camera and this kid starts running and he's running and like, you know, the cameras getting further away from him and he's getting further and all of a sudden he kind of just disappears in the complete darkness. And the director, I'm like, okay, you can yell cut now. And he's not yelling cut.

[00:38:11] Nate Deen: He's not, and this kid runs for probably another 20 steps. And then the director yells cut and it got dead silent. Like, everyone just got really quiet. There was nobody moved. Because here's this little kid, you know, pretty far in the dark and all of a sudden out of nowhere, he yells, I braved the dark.

[00:38:35] Nate Deen: Oh, my word, this kid gets it right and he comes running back and everyone on set is cheering and laughing and just so honored this this little kid like fulfilled it, you know, safely and wonderfully and there was, you know, just, you know, he braved the dark in that moment he realized what what it meant to brave the dark that child that seven year old could remember like even understand like what braving the darkness means.

[00:39:04] Nate Deen: was pretty special. And so there was just so many ordained moments. In this whole journey of like, you just know that God was there, you know I, when I share my story, I like to share it in, you know, I'm, I'm asked to share my, my story publicly, you know, speaking it. And I always like to share that, that the God was with me when my.

[00:39:26] Nate Deen: you know, when the bad things happened to me as a child. And he was with me in prison. He was with me, you know, when I was sleeping in my car and he was with me. I didn't know it, but he was always with me. And he was definitely with me when I was with Stan. He never left me and has played such a huge part in my life and moving forward.

[00:39:46] Nate Deen: So, yeah, I'm very, very excited to, to, that the movie actually premieres this, this weekend and all across the country through angel studios. And I'm just so thrilled.

[00:40:00] The Missional Life - Dan: , so where can our listeners get tickets? And where can they find more information about the film?

[00:40:06] The Missional Life - Dan: Are there any social media handles that they can be following to make sure they're staying current with all the things that are happening with it? Spray the dark.

[00:40:14] Nate Deen: Yeah. So angel angel.com. You can, you can get tickets there. And I would encourage you to pay it forward if you're able to, which I love.

[00:40:22] Nate Deen: You know I was able to pay it forward, which I, I'm so, so thrilled to be able to buy tickets. Especially for teachers, you know, they're giving teachers you know, free access to this film, which is just so incredible. You know, but if you can pay it forward, that would be awesome. There's ways on the Angel app that you can do that.

[00:40:39] Nate Deen: And also if you can't afford to go or it's something that's, it's, it's hard for you financially go on there and request tickets. I'm sure that so many people are giving so that you can get tickets. 'cause I want everyone to see this film. You know, I think it has a great message for everyone.

[00:40:55] Nate Deen: If you wanna know more about the Standen Foundation, you can go to standen foundation.org. And, and you'll get on our website and, and find out a lot more about the things that we're doing. And yeah, just honored to, to, to be a part of this whole journey and, and to get this story out to the world.

[00:41:12] Nate Deen: Yeah. Amen. , I know

[00:41:15] The Missional Life - Dan: it's been years in the making. It's coming to fruition. Finally.

[00:41:18] Nate Deen: Yes.

[00:41:19] The Missional Life - Dan: Okay. What's next?

[00:41:24] Nate Deen: You know, it's funny people ask that. And, and you know, I'm definitely moving forward with the stand in foundation going to get a lot of things happening through there. We're, we're doing some special screenings for healthcare or the, the mental health people, people in the industry who are helping young people.

[00:41:40] Nate Deen: We're going to do some screenings across the country where you can come and hear a panel. talk about how we can help today's youth. I'm going to try to go to as many of them as I can, where where I'm going to share some of, you know, what I went through and what the Standeen Foundation is going to do. But we want people to be able to come see the movie and talk about some of these issues, you know.

[00:42:02] Nate Deen: And then I'm also working on some other movies. I'm working on three other scripts that I'm co writing with a friend of mine who also helped me write Brave the Dark. And we're going to tell stories of inspiration and hope from people who don't feel they have a voice to share it from those voices that aren't often heard.

[00:42:19] Nate Deen: Yeah, so lots of exciting things moving forward. Yeah, incredible, exciting.

[00:42:24] The Missional Life - Dan: Awesome. We are so excited for this film. We are so thankful for you, Nate, to have shared your story because I'm sure it has been challenging to revisit some of those challenging situations that you've been through. That you walked through in your past and so thank you for being true to that and sharing that and allowing other people to experience freedom through your story And

[00:42:48] The Missional Life - Amanda: one more thing.

[00:42:48] The Missional Life - Amanda: I just wanted to mention quickly is, you know God is a god of details and here you are having written this film and now working on three others Stan Dean was also an english teacher. He could have been a math teacher science any other subject, but You He helped you learn to write.

[00:43:07] Nate Deen: Yeah. Yep. And that's really exciting.

[00:43:10] Nate Deen: Yeah. And I'm just so thrilled that he got to read some of that early scriptings, you know and, and would have never taken the hero role in the movie. Cause he always said that I was a hero too, for, for wanting to make a change. But now he's the hero of the story and I'm just so happy to tell it.

[00:43:29] The Missional Life - Dan: Amen. Well, listeners get out there. Get tickets and go see Brave the Dark. Nate, thank you so much for being on the show today. We speak blessing over this film and over you and all that you're putting your hand to.

[00:43:41] Nate Deen: Thank you. I appreciate you so much, guys. Thank you so much.