In 1865, Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission (CIM), praying for 24 ‘willing and skilful’ labourers to bring the gospel to inland China. By the next year, God had answered that prayer. (See ‘Did You Know?’) In 1875, Taylor prayed for another 18 and God again delivered. Then 70 between 1882-1884 and in 1886, a 100 more workers.
Taylor’s CIM successor D.E. Hoste followed suit in moving the organization forward on prayer. In 1929, CIM prayed for 200 new workers for China despite the ongoing anti-Christian movement there and hundreds of Christians persecuted and slaughtered. In less than 3 years, 203 workers responded. This remarkable history of the CIM (now known as OMF) is a story of growth from one prayer to the next. Hudson Taylor and the subsequent CIM leaders kept noticing the mission needs around them and asking God to meet these needs, not limiting their ask to what seemed achievable by human calculation or methods but simply matching their requests to the needs God put before them.
We hope Half Crown Media emulates CIM in that history. In 2012, global mission organization OMF established Half Crown with the mandate of realizing the Hudson Taylor movie project, in response to a need articulated by someone from a Christian television network. “When would OMF make a film on the life of Hudson Taylor? Why doesn’t OMF produce one?”
In 2015, we received a large, surprise gift that kickstarted the project. In the ensuing years, our prayer was for a screenplay that would honor God, honor Hudson Taylor and the Chinese culture. This proved a tall order. Six times, after much effort and time invested, we felt compelled to reject the screenplay put before us and cry out to God, “What now?” Each time however, God provided encouragement to persevere on. In October 2020, we celebrated the completion and approval of this screenplay!
Since then, we have been raising funds to start production. We have calculated and discerned our needs to be USD$7 million and we need this by 31 December 2024. We need this to make a good movie and to offer fair wages to the many people who have to be hired for this very labour-intensive period feature film.
Perhaps like us, Hudson Taylor and D. E Hoste felt daunted when they saw the needs before them. However, that never stopped them from boldly petitioning God for what was next needed.
Will you pray for us that we will not be daunted by the needs of the movie project? Please pray that we do not stop praying, that we trust God to provide for us as He has met our needs, each step of the way, prior to this. We cherish your partnership with us, from prayer to prayer!