9 April 2013 by Adeline Lum CM-
It all started 12 years ago when Reggie Lee read Acts 17 about Paul finding an altar in Athens which read, ‘To an Unknown God’ (Acts 17:23), and how some Athenian poets proclaim that we are God’s children (Acts 17:28).
Well, the Athenians did have the Truth although it was half-baked, which brought Reggie to the question: Did God actually revealed Himself to other people either than the Hebrews?
More importantly, did God reveal Himself to the people of his race, the Chinese?
“So, I began to research on the Chinese and read a lot of books written by authors such as Lao-Tze and Meng-Tzu. And what I found is that the Chinese started off being worshippers of one God. This is affirmed throughout the history of China until the present day,” said Reggie.
And now, Reggie , a restaurant-chef in United Kingdom, has turned into a movie producer in making one of the most influential evangelical films in the world. Entitled ‘Who are the Chinese?’, the documentary was filmed in five countries—China, Paris, Melbourne, Singapore, Malaysia. To date, it has traveled and blessed ten nations!
“I originally wanted to write a book about my findings but somehow, I was unable to finish writing it although I’ve finished writing three books before that,” said Reggie.
The Blurting of Film-Making
“The idea of filming came about in 2009 when I was preaching in Sydney. While talking about the book during the introduction, I suddenly blurted out, ‘maybe God wants me to do a film.’ After my talk, a petite woman came to see me and asked how much it would cost to do the film. I don’t know how much it cost, so I just threw in a ballpark figure of 200,000 Aussie Dollars. And she said she wanted to fund the film-making!” said Reggie.
He was ecstatic. But wait… the odds were against him. Firstly, he had no experience in filming. Secondly, although a funding was promised, he had very limited money in the bank, certainly not enough to pay the down payment for filmmaking. And thirdly, he did not know how to speak or write in Mandarin.
“So, I was like a foolish person who set out on a journey in making films. But I really trusted God for leading and providing me,” said Reggie.
Nothing but Faith in God
Owing to Google, self-help books and script-writing software, Reggie was able to produce the ‘meat’ or script of the movie. The next stage was to find and put together a film-producing team with no contacts. But God provided.
“In Penang, while I was teaching about deception in mass media, one of the organizers asked if I would like my teachings to be filmed. I told him that I don’t have any funds but he said he knew someone who would do it for free,” said Reggie.
Turned out, Reggie knew this person already while he was still in the restaurant business!
“Arden had just returned from filming a documentary in South America and he was excited when I showed him my project through PowerPoint. He was immediately on-board. Not only that, he found me the whole video production team, everything I need,” said Reggie.
To get the ball rolling, Reggie need to commit RM15,000 to RM20,000 upfront. And through ‘very amazing circumstances,’ he was able to accumulate the funds on time from his own savings, friends, families and also unknown donates around the world.
So, the filming began in January 2010 and came to a cost of RM300,000. It was launched that same year in Grace Convention Center drawing more than a thousand people, and also more than 500 people when launched in Penang.
God is Like a River of Living Water
When asked if the DVD circulation made any profit, Reggie said, “I believe that God is like a river of living water. God is about helping people. Hence, a lot of the film’s proceeds were used to help people and pastors in need. Although we did not recover the money, but the lives that were being changed from watching the documentary was even more satisfying!”
For example, one of his movie cast, Wendy, shared how her cousin accepted Christ after watching her sharing how God restored her marital relationship in the movie.
Another pastor at Bukit Mertajam also had the joy of witnessing to his brother-in-law who was a fervent believer of another faith, after watching the film.
And recently, his sister’s best friend who has backslid from her Christian faith also came back stronger in knowing Jesus.
“She found it challenging to maintain her Chinese culture while believing in Christ. After watching the movie, she told me how the documentary addressed all her concerns as a Chinese believer in Jesus. This friend was even preparing to go to India to search the truth,” said Reggie.
Indeed, you can know God in your own culture, not in a western culture.
What’s Next? Hollywood.
From a chef to a movie producer, God reached out to Reggie who had nothing but faith in following Him. His future project included making an animation film for little children.
“Why little children? If you look at the statistics of people in knowing God, most people would know Him before 18 years old. Since we cannot communicate with the young ones using written words, we need to have visual and sound,” said Reggie.
He is also filming a documentary on the book of Revelation, a difficult topic to pick considering it’s rich and abstract context.
“People have little respect for the Bible especially with the negative news about the church. The Word of God needs to be elevated n the society. The book of Revelation speaks about the prophetic Word of God. If the Bible speaks about the present and future so accurately and the future happens according to the Word, then people would accept God’s Word because it is relevant to the current times we live in,” said Reggie.
He would also be flying off to Hollywood to meet a Christian producer at the end of this year to bring the Word of God to big-screen production. Let us all pray for God’s Word to be clearly and loudly proclaim for all to see.
A full-time minister and conference speaker for 5 years now, Reggie depends on nothing but God in providing for him financially since he quit working as a chef. Every year, he would travel to ten countries on average for three weeks to one month on each visit. He also testified how God had provided for his wife and three daughters faithfully, especially even for his daughter’s education in United Kingdom since he quit.
“God can provide everything. The only question is whether you dare to walk with Him in faith. If you dare, He will dare to walk with you,” said Reggie.
Please visit http://www.whoarethechinese.com/about.html for more information.
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Reference for pictures:
http://potblessministries.blogspot.com/
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