Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Chitachay (Beloved Lamb)

I had the privilege of working with James Neuendorf, missionary in the Dominican Republic, while he filmed the movie Chitachay here in Peru.  James had visited this mission field several times in the past three years, and as a result of his visits, he came up with an idea for a movie based on the Bible story of Abraham and Isaac in Incan times.  He wrote the script and planned everything almost all by himself, and then came to Peru to film it.

The Incas practiced human sacrifice to appease their gods, and they frequently sacrificed children who were "pure" and "noble."  Some children grew up (until age 12 or 13) knowing that they would be a sacrifice.  A well-preserved mummy of one of these children was found in the 1990's, and they named her Juanita the Ice Princess.  She was so well preserved because she was frozen from the cold of the mountains in Arequipa.  James heard this story and decided to combine it with the story of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.

James chose to film the movie in the Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru, because that's the area where Juanita was found and many of the child sacrifices took place. We were in Arequipa from January 26 until February 19.  I was there for the first and last weeks, and Anthony and Rosita were there at overlapping times to assist James.

On a research trip in October, James found a traditional-looking Incan house and a cave to use for filming.  If you look at the pictures I posted, you'll see us fixing up both places for the movie.  These two places are located about 45 minutes outside of the city of Arequipa, so we did a lot of traveling while we filmed.  Also, we filmed during the rainy season, so we often had to leave between 2-5 in the morning to film while it wasn't raining.

It was a wonderful experience for everyone despite the early mornings and the leaking hostel rooms when it rained.  I can't wait to see the final product!  James is currently editing it, and we'd like to show the premier in Lima the end of April.  We hope and pray that this will be an amazing witnessing tool first in Lima and then throughout all of Peru.  Anthony will be developing three Bible studies that go along with the movie, so we'd like to do repeated showings of the movie and the Bible studies in May, June, and July.  Please keep this whole project in your prayers!

Praise God for sending His only Son to be sacrificed so that no other human sacrifice is ever required!  "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." 1 Peter 1:18-19

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