Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
First Person is produced in cooperation with the Far East Broadcasting Company, who rejoice in the stories of changed lives through the power of Jesus Christ. Learn more at febc.org. Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome. That's the thing, is when these hold these thoughts within their own selves, it is darkness. But when we allow them the opportunity to talk, it meets the light. ♪
Welcome to First Person. I'm Wayne Shepherd. And in a moment, you'll meet Carla McDougall, a speaker and filmmaker who is using media to address spiritual issues, including suicide. Stay with us for that conversation. First Person's aim is for people to tell their stories of faith in Christ and how that faith has set them on a path of service and obedience to the Lord. First Person's aim is for people to tell their stories of faith in Christ and how that faith has set them on a path of service and obedience to the Lord.
If you'd like to go back into the archive of past programs, you'll find them at FirstPersonInterview.com or download our free smartphone app and download programs to listen to on your schedule. Look for the app First Person Interview free in your app store. Well, let's meet this week's guest. Carla McDougall is the founder and CEO of Reflective Life Ministries and Reflective Media.
As a speaker, Carla is also using film as a powerful medium to reach the brokenhearted with a biblical approach to hope and healing. This includes healing from feelings leading to suicide. And as we spoke online recently, I asked Carla to begin with her own story. Oh, thank you so much. It's been quite an adventure. Back in 2005, I was in my prayer chair.
Doing my Bible study. And at the time, I was the director of the women's ministry at our church, as well as leading Bible studies and things like that. But I felt the Lord call me to something different.
And I knew he was saying, I'm pulling you out to take you to this, basically a platform where you speak to women, encourage them in their walk daily, through conferences, retreats, and as well as, you know, just everyday events. And so...
I had a debate with the Lord for about a year. I don't know, Wayne, if you've ever done that before. We know what you're talking about. Guess who wins? Guess who wins? God always wins. But the debate was because
I have a now known type of dyslexia and I grew up with that in my day and age in the early years, they would take you out of class to try to teach you to read faster. I don't know. They'd use a projector on the wall and try to get you. And that actually made it worse. And as a, as a result, I had dyslexia.
a major fear of reading in front of people. If I was called out in Sunday school, if I was called out in class, I would start literally shaking out of, out of fear. Uh, even when I share this story, I get a lump in my throat because it was that debilitating. And to some, it may not make sense, but it, uh,
was so evident of the paralyzation that it had on my life. And so I knew that if I walked out there on a platform, you know, out there on a stage, I was going to have to read God's word in front of people. And I didn't want to mess that up. And I didn't even share this with my husband until one day, about a year, like I said, a year later, I've
It was just kind of like a clear as day moment and a conversation with the Lord. And he said, Parlamé, dude, well, you know what? I made you. And guess what? You are exactly right in your own strength. You can't do it. But I'm going to do in you what you can't do yourself. And so guess what? You'll never get the glory.
And I knew it was that time to be able to share this, share it with my husband. So I did. And I thought, okay, he's going to be my way out. He's going to be the one that's going to say, honey, you know. And he said, absolutely, you were made for this. And so about a week later, I was with some friends and my college buddies, and we were doing our little devotional time, which we get together once a year. And I said, okay, I have a different prayer request this time. And before that,
Almost those words came out of my mouth. One of them looked across the table at me and she goes, I know what it is. God's calling you to speak to women. And I was just like, my mouth dropped. The friend next to her said, Carla, I have prayed for five years now.
that God would call you into that. And it was, um, it was just like the Holy spirit just covered that, that table of six ladies who loved Jesus. And I was like, okay, I don't want to get to heaven. And God say, I handed it to you, but you turned it away. So whatever that means, I'm here, Lord, let's, let's go. And, um,
So the Lord started bringing different opportunities to me to be able to go and speak. And it was, do you know, I can't even recall a time whenever I messed up reading his word. Is that right? Wow. And that's not me. Again, that's God getting the glory. Sure. And, you know, what he taught me in that.
was so many times, I guess I could say it this way, our weakness can become our uniqueness. And that's what God showed me as Carla. I allowed that in your life, all your life, so that I could then there again, do something, strengthen you in an area of your own flesh that you could never take that glory away.
And so as I share that story with those that are out there, if there is something God is calling you to and you're holding back because of fear, that may be the very thing that the enemy is using to halt you from what God is calling you to do for his plan. And it's not about what we can do. It's not about what we can do personally. It's about him personally.
doing into his, you know, giving the strength, giving the things that are needed in his children for his glory. It's not even for us at all. You know, it's all about him and not about me. Well, that's a tremendous story of calling, which I think is going to encourage a lot of people who maybe are sitting on that fence right now, not knowing what they need to do. Maybe that was just the nudge from the Lord that they needed today. So thank you for sharing that part of your personal story. So your ministry started with speaking and then I assume writing books and
And then eventually into filmmaking, which we're going to talk about. But is I mean, that's that's not the typical path for. No, it's not. So tell me what else happened to push that along.
Yeah, and thank you for that intro because that's exactly what happened. Well, because of the dyslexia, visuals are very important to me as far as learning. And so I thought, well, I'm sure I'm not the only one. And so a friend of mine was very good, gifted in skit writing. And so I thought, oh, wouldn't it be awesome at these events or these retreats
If I had some skits that had the lessons embedded in the storyline. And so she started writing little skits to go with each one of my speaking topics and the retreats. We had little mini, like a little mini series. So I would have three times of talking and we would have this little play that would, it was a series that would play out and women loved it because there again, it's like these modern day parables. And so, um,
One day I had written the Bible study called Reflecting Him. It's a 10-week study. Woke up one morning. It was in the publishing phase. And I thought, wouldn't it be great if Robin wrote a series to go with it so that every time the women come, they are watching this series and they can't wait to see what's going to happen to Janet. And do you know?
she said, absolutely, I would love to do that. That's been a prayer of mine for all my years. So within seven days, she wrote this 10-part series. Unbelievable. Gifted. And
We had it videoed and I actually thought we were going to do it kind of like a, you know, black box theater. But when we talked to a guy, young guy, he liked to have a camera in his hand. He goes, no way, we're going to make a movie. And I was like, okay, well, we had like one camera. And so we did, we made this movie and yeah.
I went and spoke, actually taught the study for about the first time at a church. We had like 150 women there that began. And I don't know if you're familiar with this, Wayne, but when a lot of times the Bible say half the people fall off about halfway through. Yeah, I understand. And so, yeah. And do you know, we ended up with two.
265 women at the end that showed up that day.
And so because I think that combination of all of that combined, they just couldn't wait to see what was going to happen. And so after that, we said, well, let's make a feature film. And we had two cameras at that point. Then it was like things happened. It was a DVD release, kind of a modern day Peter story called First Love.
And then lo and behold, it ended up on a television station that ended up around the world. And I get a text one morning, six o'clock, your movie is the movie of the week. And I was like, you're kidding me. So it was just, okay, well, let's make us another. Let's make us another.
Feature film. And so we made the next movie we made was called We Are Stronger. And that's when we bumped it up and we started working with the organization. That was about PTSD, a soldier coming back from Afghanistan. And that movie has been seen over 8.5 million times around the world in different languages. And
and has been recognized by a number of different, from the military to organizations that are on the front lines, as we show what happens within the walls of the home, the heart of that one, but we show the hope and healing in Christ. We're hearing from Carla McDougall of Reflective Life Ministries today, and we'll continue in a moment on First Person.
I'm Ed Cannon. The Far East Broadcasting Company partners with First Person because we celebrate the stories of people everywhere who have given their lives to Christ and serve Him. Our broadcasters in 50 countries of the world hear stories every day of people whose lives are transformed by the gospel and who have
faithfully been taught God's Word. In addition to First Person, I'm pleased that Wayne and I host a podcast, and we invite you to join us. Listen to Until All Have Heard at febc.org. That's febc.org.
My guest is author and speaker and film producer Carla McDougall. She's the founder of Reflective Life Ministries, Reflective Media Productions, and the Stronger Alliance. And we'll put links to all of this in our program notes at FirstPersonInterview.com.
Carla, thanks for joining us. By the way, from your porch, I don't know if it's your front porch or your back porch in Houston. It's my front porch. Your front porch in Houston, Texas. All right. Well, you wouldn't be doing that in Chicago this time of year, so I'm glad that you can do that. Thank you. You talked about the film that became very successful, We Are Stronger, and you gave just a brief word about it. Go a little deeper on that and the message of that film, which was an award-winning film.
And it's been viewed by millions of people. And then we'll talk about something new that you're working on. Tell me about We Are Stronger. Yeah, that movie just has such an anointing on it in a way that only God could do. And it reaches those wives.
that are living with, you know, a husband that has PTSD, you know, from a military experience. Um, it also, we also experience, um, burn survivors that have PTSD. We've got two burn survivors in that as well. And we also have, um,
The people like that have experienced abuse. And so PTSD has those forms, you know, all of those areas. And I am still almost weekly receiving messages from people who've watched this movie. It was even used in areas of the military as a resiliency tool.
to be able before they go off to watch this we have something else we do is we provide follow-up curriculum for all of the areas of the ministries the films that we do so we are stronger has a six-week study and we worked with an organization from crew crew military to um mighty oaks
to reboot recovery. And it's so small groups can use this and they can watch the movie and then talk about it through. It's, it's really powerful. Yeah. Well, you're not content to stop there because now I understand you're producing something for television, a whole series called breaking strongholds. Is this on the same theme? Is this a different theme? Tell me about it. It's a different thing. After we finished, we are stronger.
And it just kind of became its own entity. We started praying about the direction to go next. And we felt like a series. And, you know, people like to binge watch today. And so we were like, well, maybe we should do something that is along those lines that has a faith-based message.
And we came in contact with a lady who has an organization called Cassidy Joy for Hope. And three or four years prior to that, her daughter, a cheerleader at the Woodlands High School, actually at College Park, she took her life. And it became a string of suicides, teen suicides after that over the next four or five months.
And we didn't realize that the very county that we were living in, Montgomery County, Texas, at that time was the highest suicide rate of all of Texas and suicide attempts. And we were sitting there living in it, didn't have a clue. And God began to open the door for us to write a series on not a suicide awareness, but suicide prevention.
And how can you and I, Wayne, be trained and be on guard, ready to ask the question to someone else that we recognize the sign and say, are you thinking about suicide? Are you having suicidal thoughts?
And then if they say yes, let's take them to that place of getting them the help. And that's what this series is about. Season one is about. Well, I'm sure as you've researched this, that you've learned a lot yourself about this. Give me just a starting lesson in how we should be aware of this difficulty in someone's life that they may be thinking of taking their own life. What are some things we should be looking for? In the series, we...
actually show a real life organization called Living Works and they have a, it's called Safe Talk and we show how it all operates as far as what to look for. One of them is the isolation. If you recognize someone is
let's just say in your own home, they're starting to stay in their room more and keep the door closed. They don't want to come to dinner. Pull away from the family. Pull away. Or let's say that those at school recognize someone is starting to eat lunch by themselves or sit alone by themselves. That is one sign. And many times it's just asking them to come alongside you. But we show this in our
Starting in episode one, we show the problem. Episode two, the first part of Safe Talk is...
revealed as far as in a classroom setting and the whole time you're being educated episode 3 that continues by episode 4 we show one of the girls that's in the class going and realizing that she needs all the signs of a friend and she asks him and he admits it and then she goes and gets him the help we show it out and we're just like that's it's simple
And we've taken all of our team through Safe Talk so that we are all aware ourselves. And it is actually been an amazing experience. My first time through Safe Talk, a week later, I was on Facebook and recognized the comment from a Facebook friend, if you could say it that way. Don't know her personally, but
And so I just started messaging her and come to find out she was contemplating taking her life. We had a mutual friend that I texted at the same time.
that did know her personally, he went over to her house, knocked on the door while I'm still having the conversation with her. And to this day, she has made it through all that and is involved in a Christian organization. It's pretty awesome. If I hadn't have gone through that,
I might not have recognized the signs even through a Facebook post. I understand. Wow. Where is the series in development? Is it available or will it be available soon? It is. It is. You can go. Because of the amount of sponsorships and donations that have come in to help us, all of Season 1 has been funded.
And it is available on YouTube. It's available on PureFlix. We've got it free on YouTube. Okay. So that anybody can just watch it. Yeah. And we've got it on PureFlix and a number of other platforms. Well, we'll put links to that then in our program notes so our friends can find it. I assume that you are networking with other organizations as well.
that have a heart to help people who are contemplating suicide. Yes. That's one of the things we do is we work with, uh, organizations that are out there on the front lines to, um, help like, like Cassidy joined for hope living works, living works has, uh, they go and they, they teach training, uh,
whether it's in churches, companies, schools, a number of organizations that they're part of. And we also have a follow-up. It's free online at our website, BreakingStrongholds.com. And you can see it says Study Guide at the top. You can click on that. And for each episode,
There's just a short discussion questions that go with each episode so that families, one of the things we're working on in prayer is that families will start having these discussions at home. Very, very needed. Let's start talking about this early.
Carla, in all of this, is there a, some people call it a life verse, or maybe it's something fresh in your mind from your study recently of the scriptures, but something you can share with us in conclusion that just grabs your heart for what you're doing and maybe is just what someone else needs to hear today. Oh, you just hit my heart right there. Yeah, John 1.5, light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome.
And even when I just said that, I had got God bumps is what I call it. Because, you know, that's the thing is when these hold these thoughts within their own selves, it is darkness. But when we take that darkness and we allow them the opportunity to talk and speak, it meets the light.
And the darkness cannot overcome it. If you or someone close to you is experiencing feelings of suicide, please call or text 988, the three-digit nationwide phone number, to connect directly to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. By calling or texting 988, you'll connect with mental health professionals.
Also, we'll place links to the films that Carla mentioned today that can be of real value in helping brokenhearted people find spiritual, emotional, and mental wellness through a biblical approach. You'll find those links at FirstPersonInterview.com. I'd like to take a moment to thank the Far East Broadcasting Company for the support they give in making First Person a reality each week. Please say thank you by visiting febc.org. Listen for the podcast until all have heard at febc.org.
Now, with thanks to my friend and producer, Joe Carlson, I'm Wayne Shepherd. Thanks for listening to First Person. First Person.