Life of Kyle Prohaska

Tonight was the screening at Niagara Frontier Bible Church (my old home church, the one I grew up in).  I had a headache all day and wasn’t really looking forward to later if the headache continued.  It drifted in and out, but stuck with me all day.  I think today is the day this week finally caught up with me and hit me hard.  Every morning I’ve gotten just under the amount of sleep I needed so I’ve gotten progressively worse every day that continues.  Tonight will be the night to sleep until I feel like getting out of bed, because my body doesn’t need it anywhere near as much as my mind does.  After dinner I quickly got dressed and headed to the church early to make sure things were setup right and pray with some folks.  Rob, Kevin, my mom, Shawn and a few others were there.  We prayed for the night and weeped quite a bit.  Rob was giving the Gospel after the film and we prayed over him as well, that he would speak the words the Lord would have for him.

After we were done praying the hallway was already full of some people waiting to get in.  I paced around a lot, not sure how to feel.  I wasn’t really nervous I just wanted to get it started.  The only thing I was nervous about was going up before the film and publicly thanking certain people for working on the film.  Before you knew it, the place was pretty full, maybe 200-250 there or so.  That’s a lot for our little church!  Kevin got up there and welcomed everyone, and then I went up and thanked everyone for coming and pointed out Rob, Shawn, and a few others.  I felt terrible though because I was forgetting people and slowly got around to thanking them, but then at the end I forgot Kevin.  If you’re reading this Kevin sorry!!  My head was going crazy and I had my unsaved family up front staring right at me the whole time, I was freaking out a little.  I had a lot of other things I had planned to say but just wimped out and started the film, LOL.

I’m surprised I sat through the whole thing.  I had expected myself to get up and leave a time or two during a lot of the parts in the film I can’t stand, but I stuck around.  I can’t believe how well the film played there.  I had yet to see it with an audience before, and it was a home run I think.  Like three minutes into the film I heard the sniffles starting all around the room.  Grown men were crying, even the guy friends of mine who’re my age.  It seemed like everyone was crying at some point during the film.  When funny scenes came along the laughs were very loud, much better than I expected.  As I watched the film I studied every single frame wincing at every mistake, every line I wasn’t happy with, every shot that was poorly filmed or blown out.  Some of the color-correction could’ve been done better, and some of the sound-mix I found some things I didn’t catch, and some music things I wish I knew about.  There was a ton going through my mind.  I hadn’t seen my film in a month and a half, so it was interesting getting a pretty fresh viewing of it.  I’m shocked that it even works, I really am.  That film is a miracle for more reasons than one.  I really think that calling this film my “Flywheel” wouldn’t be an understatement at all.  So much that shouldn’t work…works.  The budget definitely shows it’s ugly head at times, but even regarding that the film looks more expensive than it is so I praise God for that.  Overall I was absolutely thrilled with how the film was being received, and when the credits began to roll I felt like my heart was going to explode because I was waiting for the moment when people would start clapping.  When they started, they didn’t stop for quite a while, lol.  It was awesome!

Afterwards there were a ton of handshakes and hugs, everyone seemed very pleased and blown away by the film.  I’m so incredibly thankful for all that everyone did to help bring the film together, it was a team effort.  The fact that the film played that well there makes the results I read about the Costa Mesa screening even easier to believe.  That’s an encouraging thought.  The more positive reviews and comments come in, the less worried I am about the film being enjoyed.  I think I would be comfortable showing the film to almost anyone now, and not worry too much about their response.

Some people went forward after Rob spoke, although I didn’t get to confirm if there were any souls saved that night, just a few folks that I knew of that had some junk to work through.  Either way I found out that my grandparents were moved and cried which threw me for a loop.  To hear that was very surprising and I’m thrilled to see what kind of doors this could open to witness to them.

Tonight was a great time of closure for this project, especially concerning my church family and those involved.  Since I’ve moved on from NFBC and God is moving me to new things and has moved me to a new home church, it was a great way to end out my history with NFBC and begin anew.  God is good, and he showed up in a big way tonight.  He gets the Glory!  Thank you Jesus.