Episode 109 - Testimony Series - Divine Moments and Conversations

This episode is a part of our December Testimony series. A series of short testimonies of times that God showed up upon set or in ways related to the film-industry.

In this episode, Tara Massey, producer and lead actress of 'Do Not Grow Weary,' shares her personal story of overcoming anxiety and depression during the pre-production phase of the film. She describes a transformative moment inspired by the Bible verse 1 Peter 5:7, which led her to place her trust in God's provision. Tara recounts how unexpected miracles and timely assistance helped complete the film and highlights a pivotal experience at the film's premiere where she realized the broader, non-believing audience her work reached. Additionally, Tara shares an inspiring discussion from her time on a Netflix set, illustrating divine moments and open conversations about faith with non-believers.

Do Not Grow Weary https://www.dngwmovie.com/

Dove Light Studios: https://www.dovelightphotography.com/

Tara on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=taraelizabethmassey

Tara on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taraelizabethmassey/

● Writers Retreat - Mexico: https://www.faffassociation.com/writers-retreat

● Jaclyn's Book - In the Beginning, Middle and End: A Screenwriter’s Observations of LIfe, Character, and God  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9R7XS9V

● VIP Producers Mentorship Program https://www.faffassociation.com/vip-producers-mentorship



The Faith & Family Filmmakers podcast helps filmmakers who share a Christian worldview stay in touch, informed, and inspired. Releasing new episodes every week, we interview experts from varying fields of filmmaking; from screenwriters, actors, directors, and producers, to film scorers,  talent agents, and distributors. 

It is produced and hosted by Geoffrey Whitt and Jaclyn Whitt , and is brought to you by the Faith & Family Filmmakers Association

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I'm Tara Massey and I was the producer and lead actress in the movie Do Not Grow Weary.

It takes a miracle to make a movie and we certainly got our miracle.

When we were in pre production and I was having a really hard time just in life in general going through some anxiety and depression and we had a lot of pressures from the world and it was excruciating to be honest and there was a moment where I had Just a breaking point and I was like, I don't know what to do anymore.

I just have no idea what to do.

And a song popped in my head and it was, I cast all my cares upon you.

I lay all of my burdens.

Down at your feet, and any time I don't know what to do, I will cast all my cares upon you.

And it was that moment that I realized it was 1 Peter 5, 7.

God's promised us that we can cast all our cares upon him for he cares for you.

And at that moment I realized I had a lot of things I cared about and then I realized that my anxiety and depression was due to all these fears that I had that I didn't even realize I had fears.

I thought I was just like just trying to do life here, you know?

And I realized that I thought that I was in control and that if I didn't do these things right and in the right time, that everything would fall apart.

But that wasn't true.

God had it all along.

And that's the piece that I needed to know before making this movie.

When we made Do Not Grow Weary, I was able to lay out all of the things before the Lord as it was.

a to do list and said, okay, God, here are all of my cares, the cast I care about.

I just need to make sure that we have everything in the right place at the right time and the locations and the food or sponsorships.

And I was juggling all of the details and God started to fill those needs with, all kinds of people that came into our circle at last minute even.

We saw, um, the most random people come at the most random times to fill in a huge gap for our production and it was really incredible.

That was a miracle.

We also saw the Lord just provide in the most perfect ways and in the most perfect timing.

At times it would seem like it was last minute, but it really was and it was perfect, but then Biggest unexpected miracle that I saw was at our premiere.

I was really excited to proclaim about what God had done through this whole production and how he used our act of obedience just to bless our hearts.

And it was just really exciting to be able to want to share that with people, but the Lord led in a different way.

And as I was getting up to speak at our premiere and tell a little bit about the behind the scenes.

God led me in a whole different direction and I shared details that I wasn't planning on sharing.

And it was in that moment that God revealed to me that most of my audience were not believers.

And it was in that moment that I realized my audience was not the church.

And our so called faith based film, um, you know, we had started Making this film, but honestly, we didn't have clarity on who our audience was and who this would appeal to.

I know that sounds weird, but we didn't.

And I'm so grateful that God made that clear to me, but he also made that clear to me on another film set.

When I was a stand in on a Netflix set and uh, there's a group of stand ins, probably about five of us, um, we had to stand there for about 30 minutes and while we were clustered together just standing there, we were able to get into a really good mood.

amazing conversation and it started with somebody mentioning something about a divine moment in their life but they were a non believer and um, then it was really cool to be able to share other stories of people who had these divine moments like where clearly there was a higher, being involved and um, I was able to share not only my testimony but some stories of other people including other Hollywood actors.

So we just had some really cool conversations.

We were able to talk openly about God and I'm really excited to see what the Lord does with those seeds that were planted.