One of the
joys of this ministry-which-is-the-store is that you just can never tell who
might enter the life of the store today or any day.
It started
with a phone call. “Susan” (not her real name) is the producer for a TV reality
show. She had a portion of an episode that needed to be filmed in a Christian
bookstore.
The episode
included a “devout Christian” who was to be shopping for materials in a
religious bookstore. First we needed to clarify that an individual who labels
himself a “devout Christian” more than likely is aligned with the more
conservative evangelical branch of Christianity and that our store most likely
has little that would interest him. (The analogy of a store that sells fishing
tackle and gear comes to mind. A store with fly fishing equipment caters to
fishers who have different goals than a store that sells equipment to deep sea
fishers. Both stores are concerned with fishing. Both kinds of fishers can be
very devoted to their fishing, but the equipment that they use is different for
each type of fishing. Although enjoying the cooked fish at a meal with friends
could be very similar for the different fishers.)
In Seattle
there are very few choices for bookstores that cater to Christians, whether
conservative or liberal. During the first phone call Susan viewed a video tour
of the inside of our store from the Google Maps website.
From what she saw there she said that it would
be “perfect.” A couple of phone calls later, when we agreed to continue to
investigate the possibility of the filming of part of a TV episode in our
store, Susan said that she would visit our store in person, that afternoon.
Within the
next few hours we had vetted the production company, Susan had visited us, and
she had vetted us. We signed the release form and scheduled the “only
30-minutes” visit by the cast of two and crew of four (two cameramen and two
producers) within the following day or two.
They showed
up the next day. It was three cast members (reality show “actors”), two
cameramen, one man with the microphone, two producers, one “suit” (he wore a
dress shirt and tie), and two guys who just hunkered down in a corner and
apparently did nothing (maybe they were required for moving props, but there
were no props). The visit to our store lasted not 30 minutes by an hour and
three-quarters.
During their
visit as they filmed we helped customers, answered the phones, and tried to
carry on normal store activities. Yes, a few customers, but curiously not all
of them, asked “What’s going on with them?”
We do not yet
know when or on which TV network the episode will be aired. I trust that we
will learn that later. We are curious to see just how much of the filming in
our store is actually shown during the episode.
I think that
through this little unexpected event that the Holy Spirit must have enjoyed a
few chuckles.
No comments:
Post a Comment