Monthly Newsletter
- August 2018 -
|
|
|
|
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds.....
Job 33:15
|
|
In September 1982, when I was thirty years old and had been a follower of Jesus for less than a year, I had a dream that changed the course of my life. I dreamt I was living in a big house with my wife and several children (though at the time I only lived in an apartment and had no children). There was a knock on the door, and when I opened it, I saw Billy Graham standing on the other side. He was wearing a raincoat even though the sky above him was blue. He smiled, exuding a wonderful warmth and kindness. He looked at me with penetrating eyes and said, “I understand you’ve written some stories to be made into films. I’d like to see them.”
My first instinct was to say, “Yes sir, of course,” but I knew that I didn’t really have what he was looking for. Nonetheless, I hurried to a nearby closet, opened the door, and picked up some manuscripts from the floor. One was a children’s book I had written five years before. The other material consisted of scripts from my time of study at NYU. None of the material was expressly Christian. But it was all I had. I handed it to Rev. Graham and he took it from me. He looked at me again with those piercing eyes and I woke up.
I had become mysteriously ill – some sort of stomach virus that had me up for the next several hours, retching in agony. Several hours passed before I fell again into a fitful sleep. Then I had a second dream.
In the second dream, I found myself in a classroom with other students. Each of us was sitting behind a desk. Our teacher was Marilyn Hickey. Standing beside her at the front of the class was Billy Graham, not saying anything, still wearing the raincoat from the previous dream, still exuding that wonderful glow of love and acceptance, encouraging us without words.
Suddenly, the Holy Spirit came upon me and I began to speak in a language I didn’t understand. Ms. Hickey stopped what she was teaching and walked quickly to my desk. I continued speaking, still not understanding anything I was saying, then finally stopped. I was trembling. Ms. Hickey asked me what I had said. I shook my head; I didn’t know. She said, “Yes, you do know.” But I didn’t know. Then she leaned closer to me and spoke these words: “You said, ‘I’m a surgeon.’ That is who you are in God. That is the skill he’s given you… to penetrate with precision to the heart of man.”
I woke up from the dream. I was sicker than before. A few hours later, I was taken to the hospital.
The doctors took my vitals and ran several tests, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. Then I gave them something to work with. I vomited a horrid-smelling, green bile into a stainless-steel pan for them to analyze. It looked like something from The Exorcist. I think the final word was that I had some sort of food poisoning, but the head doctor admitted to me he wasn’t sure. I was prescribed some medication and sent home.
Six years later, with a working budget of $10,000, I made my first film, Ropa Nueva para Felipe. People asked me then (and in the years following) what motivated me to work so hard to produce a film in Spanish with such a small budget. “I had a dream,” I said.
|
|
And I say the same thing today. I don’t want to be found empty-handed when the Lord returns and asks me to give an account. I don’t want to tell him that I took the talents he gave me and buried them in the ground. Rather, I burn with passion to continue creating films. I will keep at it; I must. It is my mission.
When I face the challenges and trials of life (as we all must), I picture Billy Graham in my dream – standing in the foyer of my house asking to see the screenplays I’d written. I have those screenplays today. Some of them have been made into films, others await the right timing and funding. And as for Marilyn Hickey, yes, I believe I am a surgeon, a surgeon of the soul, and that God has gifted me as a filmmaker to handle the scalpel of truth and operate on the heart of man.
|
|
Praying for you to find your voice and to follow your calling.
Your servant,
Cristóbal Krusen
|
|
Volunteer opportunities and internships are available at Messenger Films. Please email us if interested! info@messengerfilms.com
|
|
|
|
|
