The Eric Metaxas Show - Katie Miller

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

Katie Miller of Sight and Sound on "Daniel: Live on Stage".More at: https://www.sight-sound.com/shows/daniel

Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to listen to a man of grace, sophistication, integrity, and whimsy? Well, so are we. But until such a man shows up, please welcome Eric Mat, Texas. Yauza, Yowza. Yousa, Yousa, Yousa. That's what we say at the beginning of this program. That's going to be our catchphrase from now on, folks. Memorize it, get a tattoo.

I believe. Yousie, Yousie, Yousa. It's Aramaic for your stepping on my name. tunic. Yes, that's correct, actually. Now, ladies and gentlemen, as you may already know, this is Hour 2 in the program. Hour 2 were very traditional. I'm politically

conservative. Hour 2 always comes after Hour 1. I know a lot of people just feel like that's a cliche. Yeah. But, you know, to me, that's just the way it needs to be. That's God's order. We like to do it in order. Hour 1, followed by Hour 2. And if you don't like it, you're transgressive radical, and you can have no part with me.

We're not going to do it backwards like the Beatles did with that weird message. Yeah, we're not going to do that. But here's what we're going to do. We're going to tell you that in hour one today, if you didn't hear hour one, you missed Megan Basham, who is fantastic. And she is, she has a new book out. We just talked to her for, well, hour one today. But I recorded more, which we will play, I think, tomorrow morning, sorry, tomorrow in hour two, because her book is so important. It's called Shepherds for Sale. The church is in a crisis.

And if your church is going along with the woke mind virus, you need to be aware. You need to be aware of what is going on. And speaking of the woke mind virus, Chris, I don't even think you know about this. Is it a new club in Chelsea? Yes.

No, yesterday I was on Newsmax. Oh, it was the last minute thing. David Harris, Jr. How was that? And I was on Newsmax. yesterday at 8.30 p.m. And he asked me to talk about what happened at the Olympics, and then he asked me to respond to a clip, which many people have already seen, of Elon Musk talking to our friend

Jordan Peterson about what happened to his kid. Oh, yeah. And it is so, as a father, I could get choked up. And Elon Musk says that, so he's committed to defeating the woke mind virus, right? Yeah. Well, there's money behind it. I mean, if you look at the origins, there have been some articles about it, the origins of this campaign to sort of shuffle the deck and scramble everyone's minds.

Well, yeah, and guess what? There's big money behind it. Yes, and guess what? Some of that money goes to, I don't know, Francis Collins, Russell Moore. This is nefarious stuff. But the reason I'm bringing it up is that when Elon Musk refers to the, I put this on Twitter, when he refers to the woke mind virus, you realize that he and Jordan Peterson, they're kind of,

groping for language to describe this thing because it is satanic evil. It's not a virus. We know that. To say a woke mind virus is kind of this metaphorical thing. No, it is genuinely satanic. Their powers and principalities and we're at war with them. And our carnal weapons are useless. And I have to say that, so I talked about this last night when I was on Newsmax, how we are seeing a division. and this gets to Megan Basham's book, a dramatic division where you're being forced to choose. And those people who say,

I don't have to choose, they have chosen. You're aiding and abetting the dark side. If you don't choose God in the middle of this, if you don't choose to fight what Elon Musk calls the woke mind virus or whatever version of it, these are demonic powers.

And so one of the things that encourages me is to see people being forced to do. choose, that God has allowed this division to come about so that you see more and more clearly, the demonic is more clear. When you look at the Olympics, when you see these demonic-looking drag queens, they look demonic because it is demonic. But it's coming out in the open, and you're being forced to choose. And somebody like Elon Musk, he hardly knows, he doesn't

have the terminology, neither does Jordan Peterson. But you can see them day by day moving toward naming accurately what they know is evil, but they're not really clear. You know, Jordan Peterson talks about God and this kind of metaphorical energy thing. No, it's Jesus. It is the God of the Bible. And I say the same thing to Elon Musk. So you feel them moving forward in that way. And without even knowing what it is, they're busy working against it, which more Christians

ought to be. you know, like when you have people that don't even have the verbiage to know Jesus is Lord, but they already know I need to be on the side of Jesus. I need to be on the side of doing what is right and good and true. I need to risk my life and my fortune and my sacred honor. How horrifying that there's so many in the so-called church who do not have the fire of a Jordan Peterson or an Elon Musk? Well, it's a bit like we're all sort of trapped on this horrible, Mary go around that started out okay, you know, the culture roll together, kind of spinning around

with music and art and stuff. And something's gone haywire and now it's going terrifyingly fast. And people are like, I want to get off. And other people are deluded and they're being told, no, it's fine. This is normal. And it's a nightmare. And they're clutching to this thing but it's madness. Well, we're going to have Chris Reed on. He's this prophetic voice maybe next week. But the thing is, God is trying to get our attention. God loves us. He's with us. He's with us. wants us to look to him in the middle of all this. So I just want to say that by way of encouragement. So in a few minutes, I'm talking to Katie Miller of sight and sound. A lot of fun talking to her. Trust me on that one. A couple of announcements this weekend, which is to say August 4th, that's this Sunday.

I am speaking, preaching, not speaking, preaching twice in Astoria. That's where I was born. I've never preached in Astoria, New York. In Queens, New York City Lights Church this Sunday, you can look it up, but I'm going to be preaching in Astoria. I can't believe that. The place where I was born. It's a great church over there, by the way. This Sunday, August 4th, City Lights Church. And by the way, folks, if you want to see where I'm speaking, because I'm speaking a lot of places, go to Eric Mataxis.com. All right, let me remind you again, in case you haven't stepped up yet. And I know you will, by the grace of God, day. This is day number two of our annual summertime campaign. to help rush food and clean drinking water to the poorest of the poor.

Why don't you to think about this, folks? There are people that do not have food for their kids. They do not have clean drinking water. Hard to imagine. It is real. You get to do something about it. We work with food for the poor. That's the nonprofit Christian relief agency.

We do this every year. Throughout 17 nations that food for the poor serves in Latin America and the Caribbean children and family. have had their food cut off by record-setting inflation, skyrocketing food costs, and destruction from natural disasters. So we kicked off this campaign yesterday. Already, some of you have opened your hearts and your wallets to show the love of the Lord by helping those less fortunate in our hemisphere. Think about that. It's like not far from where we live here. So anyway, if you haven't stepped up, and that's, I believe, all of you. Today is the day. So you can go to metaxis talk.com.

There's a give-life banner right there. You can make a donation. If it's easier for you, you can give a monthly donation. You can just give a few dollars every month. You can text my name, Eric, E-R-I-C, to 5-1-55. That's text Eric to 5-1-55, and we'll send you a link where you can make a generous gift in places like Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua. Access to water is a daily battle. Women and young girls must often walk up to an hour to collect water. Can you imagine carrying water for an hour? The water is filthy. It must be treated before it can be used. Many of the children's illnesses can be traced to unclean water. So your gift of $100 or any amount brings hope to kids in crisis by providing a

year's worth of food, $100 that you give, provides a year's worth of food and helps them get access to water. I want to say, I say this every time we do something like this, if there's anyone out there who can give a tax-deductible donation of $15,000 and we need every

small gift and every large gift, and I know many of you can do this, I would like to thank you personally. We'll set up dinner in your city or our city at some point in the year ahead, But anybody who'd like to give $15,000, I just want to say that's something I can do. I can make myself available for the evening and we can hang out.

It can be many people or just you and your spouse or you and your kids or whatever you want. And if you live in a place where it's talking, we can maybe set something up. Well, I was going to say, we can do this. We can do this anywhere. But you have to go to, you have to give at metaxis talk.com, the give life banner. or you can call 844-863-4-6-7-3. 844-863-4-8673. Americans are tired and frustrated by a stalling economy,

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do right well what if i told you that your 401k IRA and other investments are probably paying for gambling abortion and LGBT causes inspire advisors can tell you where your profits are really coming from Do what I did. Go to inspireadvisors.com slash metaxus and order your free customized impact report and find out. Inspire is a recognized leader in faith-based investing. They can empower you to put your money where your values are. They stand by their biblical values donating 50% of their profits to Christian ministries each year. And they know that investing with Christian values has power. Get your free customized impact report now at InspireAdvisors.com slash Eric. And together, let's show Wall Street what investing with biblical.

principles can do. Inspire advisors, biblically responsible investing, visit inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. That's inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. Hey there, folks. Welcome. Have you heard of sight and sound? I don't mean the concept of sight and sound. I'm talking about sight and sound. You know the theater, the extravaganza. Have you heard about that? Well, if you haven't, I have the director of brand development with sight and sound sitting with me here. Katie Miller, welcome. Thank you. It's good to be here. Yeah, you've been here before. We've talked before, but I don't assume, I don't want to assume that my audience necessarily remembers everything or watches every show. So where do we begin? So if somebody says to you,

what sight and sound? For example, I'm going to say to you now, what's sight and sound? How do you respond to that? Yeah, it's a hard question to answer. It's not easy. I know, because it's a little complicated. I'll do my best. Okay. So we are best known for bringing the Bible to life on stage. So we have two locations, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Branson, Missouri. And we take stories from the Bible. We staged them in a big spectacular way. So 40 foot high set pieces, live animals, a cast of 55 professional actors. And we've been doing that. We're almost up to 50 years of bringing the Bible to life on stage, which is very exciting. Wow. And most recently, we took a step into feature films. So I was here and I talked to you about I heard the bells, which was our first feature

film. And we do, we have a streaming platform, sight and sound TV. So we have a lot going on. But that's the thing we're best known for us. The two locations are Branson and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I was told it's pronounced Lancaster. Yes. Yeah, my friend Dick Murphy's like, it's Lancaster. He lives there, so he knows. But Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Branson.

And so I think it would be fair to describe what you put on at these theaters as an extravaganza. I think the word extravaganza is overused, but not in this case. It is an extravaganza. When you were just telling me what the animals involved, I don't know which one we were talking. about. It was David. David. We had the sheep understudies. The last time, and you use the term sheep understudies. Like these are actual sheep, but if one of the sheep gets sick, you have sheep understudies. We do. We have llama understudies. We have camel understudies. Well, everybody has llama understudies. That's no big deal. You have llama understudies and camel understudies.

Wow. And you know that those llama understudies are just hoping that the least, Lama gets sick. I know. So they can be put in and be the star of the show. It's a little bit of drama behind the scenes. It's all about Eve, animal style. So, but, okay, so you are now the director of brand development for sight and sound, but you're the oldest grandchild of the founders of sight and sound.

I've interviewed so many people from sight and sound over the years, but I finally met your grandparents at the Star Barn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, or right outside in Lancaster. but a few months ago. Yeah, you did. They were so excited to meet you. And it was so fun because I had not, they watched you regularly.

And I had not told them that I was going to be here for whatever one of the interviews was. And I got a phone call 10 o'clock at night from my grandma and she's like, we were watching TBN before bed and all of a sudden there you were. We didn't know you were there. We love Eric.

And so they were thrilled to be able to meet you. It was great. Suddenly you're getting a little respect. A little respect in the family. Oh, I know. It's not easy. It was all due to you. actually, so thank you for that.

Wow, yeah. I'm the Milton Burrell of Christian TV. So you, so the background, though, you've done so many shows over the years. What names are some of the big ones? Because I know there are people listening to this who've probably been to some of them.

Yeah, so our most recent ones, we did David, Queen Esther, Jesus. Noah is our signature show. It was the show that really back in the 90s kind of put us on the map. That's the one everybody knows. All the animals. Yep, and Act 2 opens.

You're inside the arched. that's coming back to Lancaster for its 30th anniversary next year. We're very excited about it. Wow. So get your ticket soon. 30th anniversary. 30th anniversary of Noah with some enhancements. We are making some music updates and a little bit of scripting updates as our storytelling

has evolved throughout the last 30 years. But the core of the show is still the same show that generations now have absolutely loved. So but and obviously it's with live animals. Yes. So in when you, the opening of Act 2, when the curtain goes up, you are truly sitting inside the arc. So the arc is 100 feet across the front of the stage and 100 feet on either side. And we have over 100 live and animatronic animals.

And it's a very fun... Hold on. That's very complicated. Yeah. Live. Over 100 live and animatronic. We weren't allowed to have real lines. Are any of the animals live and animatronic?

Or do you mean live animals and animatronic animals? Correct, that one. So a mix of, we have live animals and we have animatronic animals and we have over a hundred of them combined. Okay. So when you're sitting there, it's really hard to tell. But the live one smell. That's how you can tell the difference. That's how you can tell the difference.

And they like to eat the set piece. Right. That's the thing we're working on. Wow. So, and obviously some very big animals. But what kind of animals are live in the NOAA thing? So, oh my goodness. And NOAA, we will have live, I mean, all of our typical animals, so horses, donkeys, llamas, alpacas,

camels. We have this flock of ducks that run across the stage and run up into the arc all by themselves. They are adorable. We have dogs and cats and rabbits. Wait, wait, wait. Those are actual ducks? They are real ducks. They are trained. See, this is why I'm asking. They're trained ducks. They are. You mean to tell me ducks are trainable? Yes, they are. And they are like, everyone's like, you know, they always ask, do the things with animals go wrong? And sure, it's live theater. Things go wrong all the time. But honestly, the animals are one of the most consistent things that we ever do, consistent elements that we have in the show. Have you ever had like a stampede where you, where, where people get trampled? We thankfully have not. No, good. All right. Just checking.

Yeah. We have like, you have an occasional bird land on a head where it's not supposed to those types of things. But thankfully, no stampede. No, nothing like that. I mean, well, that's very positive. Stampeding ducks is only going to go so far anyway. That's very, that's very positive. But I can't imagine that ducks are trained. They are. They're adorable. They come out in this little crate, and I think it's Noah's wife typically opens the front of the crate, and they run across the stage and up the ramp into the arc. It's one of my favorite moments of the show. It's so cute. I'm just surprised that this could be real, but it is. You're telling me the truth. All right, so you, it says in my notes here that you stepped down to the stage when you were two years

old, and you performed as part of the cast until you were 13. This is true. And then I was like, the stage is not for me. Take me off. I'm more of a backstage person. You want to work behind the scenes. But it truly was a family business. You know, it was aunts and uncles and cousins and back in the 80s and 90s. And thankfully, through God's incredible faithfulness have grown into the sight and sound we're known today. Okay. So you are, it says, you're a blogger.

You're an avid baker. Not like all those other bakers that are not that avid. You're an avid baker. And you and your husband are raising three young kids. and your kids are now the fourth generation. Yeah. That's very impressive. Yeah.

It's, you know, it's so fun. And they're having this similar experience that I had. All three of my kids got their sight and sound start on stage as I did in all of my aunts and uncles and cousins. But in a much, much bigger way than what it was when I was a kid. And now my oldest is an adult. He turned 18 last year. And he is currently working backstage on deck. So he's doing that.

Wait, he's working backstage where? So he is one of our deck technicians. So he is helping to get the sets where they need to go. And we have a crew of 20 on deck. It takes about 70 individuals to get the show every day. How many people roughly in a year go through sight and sound in Branson and in Lancaster? So between the two locations, we usually welcome right around one and a half million people through our doors. Million?

Million. Yes. Wow. Yeah. Until this year's done. We have Daniel on stage currently. And we will welcome just about 850,000 people to see Daniel this year in Lancaster. And then another around 600, 650 in Branson.

And when did the Branson location start? We opened Branson in 2008. So we have been out there for just over almost 15 years now. And it's been quite a ride. It's been awesome. Unbelievable. I just, well, okay, so you just mentioned Daniel. Yes.

Daniel is the new story. Yes. And when does that, did that already start? Yeah. So Daniel is the thing we're really excited about right now. We opened this brand new show in March and have been sold out almost all year long. Like we hit 90% of our tickets reserved for the year in June and we run it all the way through December. So we are just getting complete, constant feedback from our guests saying we want to see Daniel. We can't see Daniel. How can we see Daniel? So we partnered with Fathom events. And for the first time ever, we are broadcasting a live show into movie theaters nationwide. on August 30th. So live in real time, a broadcast so that people all throughout the country who can't come to us live. Live. Get to come and have a big experience. Daniel is massive. All of our shows are big, but Daniel is by far the most extravagant we've ever built. And it felt like this powerful story and this big show deserved an equally big experience for people who can't come in person. So we're

trying it in movie theaters. I just want to know, how could anything be bigger than like Noah's all the stuff you've described is so huge. I can't really imagine what is it about Daniel that's even bigger? Or what have you cooked up with Daniel? I'm scared. Yeah, no. So Daniel takes place in Babylon, which at the time was the powerhouse. It was the empire of the world.

And it was opulent. It was big. You know, you have the hanging gardens. You have just all of the things. No, I don't know about the hanging gardens. I mean, I've heard about them, but I never really knew. I'm not a hanging garden. How does one hang a garden?

Why are they hanging? Why are the gardens hanging? Do we know? I don't personally know why they're hanging. But I do know. But you know that they are hanging. They are hanging because there was these huge. He was known for, Nebuchadnezzar was known for building monuments.

You have the statue that he built, you know, that Shadrach Meshch and Abednego don't bow down to. Right. But he was a builder. He was a monument builder. And so he, that was his legacy. When we come back more about the hanging gardens and why they were hanging, Don't go away. I'll be sailed through every store to keep me warm.

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I'm talking to Katie Miller, who is the director of brand development at Sight and Sound in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in Brants, Missouri. Now, I know you've got all these animals, and there used to be a problem with smell, and it used to be called Sight and Sound and Smell, but now they've got all these exhaust fans, And so now it's just sight and sound.

Is that correct? That is a semi-accurate. Semi-accurate? Would you go with semi-accurate? No, I would go with thankfully not at all accurate. It's a lie. Let me tell you, it's a lie. But you have so many animals involved in this stuff.

But you're just to, okay, the new one is Daniel. And just to remind people of what you just said. So you're saying it is so popular that it's sold out, basically. So people, if they want to see it, they can't see it right now. So you're going to do a fathom of it. on August 30th. So, and it's going to be a live. Now, why would, if this

were me, I would just say, why wouldn't I just tape it so that I can get, like, the best, because something goes wrong in the live. Like, if one of these animals goes rogue, what happens? Yeah. Great question. We're all bathing this entire project and a lot of prayer.

But no, in all honesty, like, we our roots are in live theater. And live theater is meant to be experienced together. Right. I think in, you know, where we're at in society, we can all, we all know all the statistics about social media and how it's meant to connect us, but really it's not. Right.

And so for us, like, we were so passionate about creating a shared experience where parents can take their kids, where churches can come together, bring their groups, bring their youth groups, and experience it together with other believers and be inspired. It's a story of hope. It's an incredibly powerful story. One, we in many ways are familiar with, but even I, when we, when we see. started to unpack the script and I got the opportunity to sit through our first read-through was just blown away at how much I didn't know about the story. And so to do it live in real time,

like our passion is live theater. It always will be. And so to be able to do that and to extend that same type of experience, truthfully, like, we don't know how it's going to go any more than everybody else. So we've been doing live broadcast before, but never into movie theaters. And that's the thing we're super excited about. Well, and obviously at this event you're talking about here on August 30th, the Fathom event, part of the thrill for people is that it is, they're not going to see a film. Right. They're going to see a live performance, except they're just watching it in a theater wherever

they are. Right. So that's what makes it exciting. It's kind of funny. I'm literally reading a book, literally reading, not figuratively reading, I'm literally reading a book right now about the comedian George Goebel, a friend of mine wrote it. It's not published yet. But it was all about live TV.

And it's just amazing to think that you had millions of people tuning in to live TV. Right. So it's sort of. And it's kind of coming back around. Like my kids, like they were what were they? I mean, that's, I think, their draw with sports. But even last year, my daughter really got into watching the voice for a little bit. And it was so funny how it was all for her.

It was like, mom, whatever night it was, eight o'clock on Tuesdays. This is what we're all doing. And it was like, and I was like, this was my whole, you know, childhood. and it's mind-boggling to them that there's this, like, specific time that they should tune in. Yeah. But it's, there's something about that. There's the shared experience. I agree.

I totally agree. I think there's something wonderful about that. And so it is going to come back. Now, when you describe, I want to talk about the story of Daniel, but before we get into that, when you describe the, again, I say the word extravaganza, because it's huge. I mean, what you guys do is, it's vast. And I was going to say, what comes to mind when you're talking about. about the kingdom of Babylon and this, just the scope of it, it makes me think of Cecil B. DeMille. Like when we think about the films that he did way, way back, it's just a level of opulence

and grandeur that, you know, typically you don't see that. But you all are able to do that. Yeah. And for us, you know, it's not spectacle for the sake of spectacle. Like, these are the greatest stories ever told. We did not write them. We will not take credit for them. But we get to tell them in a way that hopefully transports those who come back in time. And our deepest hope is that the thing that shines brightest is the message from the stage, that they see themselves in Daniel, or they see themselves in Shadrach, Meshachar, or Bednego. Or they see themselves in Nebuchadnezzar and go, oh, my goodness, I need to, you know, continue to pursue the Lord and allow him to come in and changed my heart like Nebuchadnezzar did there towards the end of his life. And so there's this

opportunity for our kids to have this in-person unfolding experience that helps to connect them to the story. That's the hope. Well, one of the things that I love about this is the immersive experience, because that's part of the problem today is that life is so fractured. And people are looking at phones or you're rarely immersed in something. Yeah. You know, like we're watching TV and we're looking at our phones and we're, you know, there's something, you lose something, basically. And so when you're, when you're kind of overwhelmed the way you would be, you know, at a sight and sound theater, you're, you're in the middle of this. You don't want to be looking at a phone or, or, or, you know, you're just, you're in the middle of something

real. And that's, you know, practically unique at this point. Yeah. There's no DVR and pause, you know, when you're in that movie theater. You are in it as it's unfolding or at the live theater. You know, that's one of the greatest. Well, the live theater thing, that's the ultimate. But obviously, since you get, so how is it you're saying you're sold out for so long that you had to do this? Like, what does that mean that you're sold out? So we, truthfully, like, I think the last I checked, we have 94% of our tickets sold for the rest of the year. So from now until December, we have a few tickets here, two here, for there, but we are pretty much sold out.

And then Daniel is not going to be back on stage next year. So movie theaters, really at this point in time, is your place to catch it if you are wanting to see. this show before it goes off stage. It's not going to be off state. So you can't go see it in January or February? No, December, I think 30th, 31st, somewhere in there is our last day this year. Wow. Now why? Now why? Because you've got stuff that you've already booked. We have Noah coming for next year. You've got Noah coming. Yep, Noah's coming next year. We're already selling tickets for that.

David will be on stage next year in Branson, Missouri. So we have our lineup set. And so if you want to see Daniel, this is your opportunity. These are good problems. So August 30th, all right, we'll be right back. altar the best times when a woman sure can be a friend of mine. Welcome back. We're talking to Katie Miller, who's the director of brand development at sight and sound. And so I just want you to go on the record. There have been no stampedes. No one has been injured in a stampede with llamas or cam, none of that has happened. Thankfully, not to date and hopefully never in the future. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, don't be scared. No, but the fact is

that even if people like, okay, no stampede, I'm going, you're sold out. So they got to go August 30th. This is it. Okay. So we're talking about Daniel. So what is the story of Daniel? In other words, this is, you know, the question is always, how do you tell the story theatrically? Because, you know, many of us have read the Bible enough that we know this story, but if you have to create it as a theatrical extravaganza, what is the story in a nutshell then? Yeah. So there's the Daniel that we all know. You know, there's the fiery furnace, his friends Shadrach, Mishak Abednego. There's the den, obviously. There's three kings throughout the show. So there's Nebuchadnezzar, and it goes to Belchazar, and then Darius. And so you watch Daniel

and his friends be taken from their home and placed in this godless world, godless society, and remain faithful. And as they remain faithful, God remains faithful. And it is the most relevant story that could be possibly we could have possibly put on stage and also just so inspiring at the courage that these men walked with in the midst of incredibly high stakes and deep, deep, deeply, hardly are hard trials. And then to watch the faithfulness of God in their lives as they continue to remain faithful is just this beautiful story. And the thing that surprised me, most. It's like one of those things. We read the Bible in such a segmented way, but two of the other main characters in the story are the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, because they were the prophets

during this whole time. They were both saying, a siege is coming, Babylon is coming, the lion from the north. That's how Babylon was known to the people of Judah at the time was the lion from the north. And so when Babylon invaded, Jeremiah and Ezekiel were both left behind, but they were writing letters. So Jeremiah, the letter that he wrote that we all know, for I know the plans I have for you, plans not to harm you, but to give you a hope in a future, that was written to Daniel's people in Babylon. Like, that's who that letter was written to. And it's like one of those things where like I might have learned that in Bible class in high school, but it was like way back here. And so to see it come to life on stage where you have this brokenhearted fatherly prophet weeping over his city being taken and his people being taken. writing these words that we all have memorized and we all know is just beautiful. And then to watch the thread of that, God's plans unfold in Daniel's life and his friend's life, in the people of Israel's life while they're living in Babylon. And the constant reminder, all of Daniel's dreams and visions, the reminder of we are not of this kingdom.

We have a good king. And we are of a kingdom that is everlasting, like his kingdom's everlasting. And so that's the message of the show that we're excited about. That's beautiful. And I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm in awe of the concept of having to put it together as a narrative as you've, you've done, because I've never thought of really, when did, you know, did the fiery furnace happen first? Did the, did the lion's den happen?

Or do we know? I don't, I don't remember. Yeah. So, I mean, in the book of Daniel, the fiery furnace happens first. And then the den happens at the end, because the den isn't until Darius. So the fiery furnace is with Nebuchadnezzar. And then Nebuchadnezzar dies. His grandson takes the throne.

He is an evil king. he gets conquered by Persia, and that's King Darius, so then Darius takes the throne. And it's during the reign of Darius that the den happens. And so, and again, Ezekiel and Jeremiah are in the wings for all of this unfolding and writing letters back and forth to Daniel's people. And so to watch the whole story be thread together is just, yeah, it was the most mind-blowing thing for me. I'm not a part of the story team, the script-writing team.

So as that was unfolding. Who is doing that? That's amazing to me because you have to be studying the scriptures and being able to figure out how we can translate this into a show. Yeah. So it takes nearly four years from the time we decide this is the next story. We need to do our research, write the script, start the design process, start the build process. And we have an incredible team of writers, directors, musicians, you know, that are putting this whole story together. And lots of consultants on the outside, too. We have pastors. that we're consulting with theologians that we're going, wait, we're not off base. Like, this is, we're understanding correctly to the best of our ability, of course. Right.

And so our heart really is to represent the spirit of those scriptures in truth and as accurately as what we can. While being okay that we have, you know, herds of ducks running across the staging. I was going to say, there's no ducks in Daniel. There's no ducks in Daniel. There's no departing from the scripture, folks. Can I tell you about... There's no business having trained ducks in a production of Daniel. Can I tell about my favorite animals real fast?

Yes. Okay, so in Daniel. Yes. Daniel is a story. We all know the lions, right? I assume those are animatronic. The lions, they're not animatronic. They're not. But they're not live either.

So if you want to see how we do the lions, you've got to go watch it. Oh, wow. Okay. But lions. And then Babylon's creation story involves a dragon. And so dragons are representing, and in all of Daniel's visions, there's a lot of dragons, right? Right, right. So we have cats.

We have these Maine Coon cats. They are like 40 pounds of white fluff, and they are beautiful. and they're in the show. Real cats. Real cats. And then we have bearded dragons, these lizards that we added into the show to represent the cats, the lions and the dragons. Wait, you have actual lizards. We have actual lizards.

Which is really, you miss them in the big moment of the stage in person. So I'm excited that they're going to get their little moment to shine on screen because you'll get an up close shot of them. Do you have lizard wranglers? We do. Do the lizards have lizard understudies? We do have, yes. So there's only one, I think only one bearded dragon. on stage at a time, maybe two, but yes, we have understudies for the bearded dragons and the cats.

Now, the bearded dragons are huge lizards. They are. They're big lizards. They're like 18 inches long, I think. Okay, so they're big enough to scare you, but that's, I mean, that's this amazing, honestly. And they wear little hats. It's the best thing. They wear little hats?

They do. They're in this, they're in Belchazar's feast is the scene that they're in. And they have these little pink hats on there. It's wonderful. Unbelievable. I don't, I feel like you're making this up, but I know you're not. I'm not. But I feel like you are. We'll get you images to prove it. This is incredible. Okay. So I just want to make sure if people want to see this on August 30th, it's a fathom event. How do they see it? So you can go to daniel event.com.

Danielevent.com. And find a movie theater near you, book your tickets. We will rebroadcast all throughout Labor Day weekend. Okay. So if you can't get to the live event, we will broadcast, rebroadcast the live event all throughout the week. But obviously you want to be at the live event because anything can go wrong. Anything can go wrong. And it is truly a really cool experience to be with us live. That matters so much to us. Well, I'm excited. Katie Miller, thanks for coming back.

Congratulations on Daniel and all you are doing. God bless you. Thanks. Always so good to be here. Thank you. Hey there, folks. Before we let you go, uh, shut the doors. Yeah, shut the door.

No, before we let you go, I want to ask you a question. The question is, have you given to food for the poor? You know that this is that time of the year. When we make an appeal, we ask you to help people. These are the poorest of the poor. The poorest of the poor. People in this world who literally cannot afford food, they can't feed their kids. They do not have access to clean drinking water.

Think about that. Think about kids, girls usually walking for hours to get water. water, which is not clean. The whole story is like almost unbelievable. So food for the poor meets them where they are, but food for the poor can't do anything for them without your help. So please give generously, make a commitment to do this. Go to metaxustalk.com.

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We'll feed a kid for a year and give them access to clean drinking water. This is just huge stuff. So I'm asking you please go to metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner right there. If you'd rather give monthly, if that's easier for you. But it's important that we give back, that we do what we can. If you prefer to text, you can text Eric, E.R.C. to 5155.

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This is one of these great things that there's so many people getting involved in homeschooling. in Christ-centered K-12 education. If you are interested in figuring out, what do I do with my kids? What about my grandkids? What are they getting for school? Go to Herzog Foundation.com. If your child came home from public school today and thinks they're a horse,

maybe look these guys out. Maybe they identify as a horse or as a kitty cat or as something other than what they actually are. Yes, maybe you might consider at that point, Christ-centered K-12 education, you might consider homeschooling. If you're considering any of those things, you need to check out the Herzog Foundation. Hertzog Foundation.com. Hurtzog Foundation.com.

These guys are heroes. They want to help you do what you probably want to do. HurtzogFoundation.com. And they've done a lot of work, so if you're just venturing into the decision-making process on how to educate your kids with this new alternative way to go, it makes it a lot easier. Herzog Foundation.com. And don't forget our friends at Americans for Prosperity. They're America's largest grassroots organization.

They're out there every day fighting for you. What's their goal to reignite the American dream? That's all to reignite the American dream. Their priorities are simple. Secure the border and inflation. Make energy more affordable. And AFP gets results the old-fashioned way through grassroots activism. That involves us, folks.

They bring like-minded conservatives together, turning them, turning us into a grassroots army, defeating the left's terrible big government agenda in the states and in Washington, D.C. That's where you come in with the media, celebrities, and universities stacked against us. It's the grassroots that will help us win. Please find an Americans for Prosperity chapter in your state. Get in the fight. Go to AmericansforProsperity.org. And you can also find out more at SecureBorder, SecureAmerica.com.

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