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By  Angela Watts

It wasn’t the overseas location scouting ahead of us that churned my
stomach, it was the slow cooker of apprehension about telling my
parents that I was taking THEIR precious grandchildren to the unknown
Middle Eastern area of Turkey. So many questions were ahead of me. “Can’t you film in the USA? What could you possibly see in Turkey that you
Couldn’t find in other, safer parts of the world? Don’t you need shots?
WHY?”

Was it also that the southern and eastern edges of Turkey bordered
Iraq and Iran?! Being six months pregnant with my third child also
made me contemplate for weeks whether I should really go on this
location scouting trip. Its not like I would be going alone! My
husband Titus, and mother in-law-Pam, along with other family
members and film crew, gave us enough eyes and hands to keep our little
kids safe and secure.

Ah, but the inevitable was still lurking. Who else could they send?
After all, I was the in-house travel agent and locations specialist for this particular trip and my husband Titus ran all the cameras and equipment.
We had to go.

But there was a struggle within me about going on this trip. It
wasn’t a money issue or even juggling our family around, tossing them
here and there on international flights, dealing with exotic foods and lets not
forget those three important words on any location: “where’s the
toilet?” The biggest hurdle by far was actually finding the gumption to
tell my parents we were going. It is one thing to say, “Lets make an
epic movie for God, traveling anywhere God leads us to get that
perfect shot”. Then it’s another thing to have to explain yourself,
defend your position and ultimately go through growing pains all in
the process.

Do I email my parents, call them, send a letter perhaps? Whether I
took THEIR grandkids to school or on a wild filming adventure trip,
the “I’m concerned” conversation some how always comes up. When we place ourselves in God’s hands, we become invincible. We find ourselves protected by an armored force of offensive and defensive Angelic teammates. Was it my hormones? Was it my fear? Was it that I really cared too much about how people felt about what we did for God or didn’t do for God? If I
really believed God wanted us to go, then WHAT’s the DEAL? Was it that
my parents should be corrected for LOVING their grandchildren too
much…..OF COURSE NOT! It was all in me. I was the issue.

Tired of contemplating whether I should go or not. I decided I had
entertained these thoughts for the last time. It was time to grow up,
obey God and really have a talk with myself. Isn’t it strange that I
carried this conversation on with myself for a few days and forgot
that my husband carried just as much weight in our decision to go or not. There was no issue here. It was simply to obey what God told us to do, even if others didn’t agree with us. I had learned in the end that the only voice we should really be listening to was our Father in Heaven. Why is that so hard to do sometimes? Is it because we get easily distracted by what others think? Or is it that we don’t ‘believe’ what God is telling us to do?

Perhaps for a moment we actually believe and are motivated to make a
major move for God. Then, by thinking about it too much and coming up with great ideas, getting other people’s advise, approval and financial projections and even monitoring the weather channel….perhaps, or maybe realistically our original vision gets watered down.

For us, we knew God told us to go to Turkey. For us, that was all we
needed to know.

The moment we touched down on the historical epicenter of Biblical
history, all preconceived ideas whether fostered by too many spy
movies or just my fears erased within minutes. The bustling city of
Istanbul, with its boxy, tarnished, layered buildings, seemed to continue
for miles. The meandering streets were clogged with cars, trucks and
motorbikes, as billowing smoke from exhaust pipes and smoke shops,
gave this city a look like I had never seen before. Then, along the tree-lined boulevards banking the Black Sea, were the regal waterfront palaces of past royals. Finally pulling up to our hotel after clearing the security gate and metal detectors, both searching for bombs and firearms, made the adventure
come to life! We felt like real VIPs! After all the President of the
USA had just been touring Turkey the week before and security was
still on high alert.

As expected, there were a few bumps in the road, like trying to explain
to the Turkish customs agent that our Stedi-cam camera halter was NOT
a missile launcher. That was mild compared to one of our European film
crew members getting bit by a wild dog in the middle of central
Turkey. I thank you Jesus that I stayed back at the hotel that day
with the kids!

Several years later and a fourth child on board, I have come to
realize that traveling is fun and exciting, before, during and after
the trip takes place. Anywhere with and for Jesus is worth it all.
We’ve slept in cave hotels, where the propane-gassed heater gave out
in the frosted, mountainous regions of Europe. My mother in law Pam
slept in her fur coat that her sister lent her for the trip. The thing that was
once too bulky and didn’t fit in the overhead bin, was now the only thing that kept her warm those three long nights!

We have brought our young children into boardrooms of secret sensitive
International technology companies while we discussed innovative God
inspired inventions. The long flights, car seats, strollers, diapers,
laundry, heat, cold, wet, snow, rugged terrain, or no roads at all;
all of it has been wonderful! Of course working for Christian WYSWYG
Filmworks, where family comes first before your job, has allowed us
the luxury of taking our families everywhere we go. How can we be
effective unless our spouses and children travel with us and work
alongside us. There is no other option. We are a family and we travel
as a family.

Oh, and the best way to tell your parents that you are taking THEIR
grandchildren (one week before TAKE OFF) to a country that borders Iran
and Iraq during a time of war? The unplanned approach, of THIS
absent-minded pregnant mother was to ACCIDENTLY leave the very
detailed typed itinerary on the car seat next to my mom.
She read, she inquired, and she eventually gave us two thumbs up! Oh,
how I now love fax machines!

Angela Watts is the team-leader in Accounting and Travel. She has handled location scouting and securing for the WYSIWYG feature films “Guardians,” “The Roman Trilogy,” and “Gravity.”