Click here to view the photo slideshow from the filming of Spiritual Warriors<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\nAUGUST 5<\/b><\/p>\n
Hot Day!! On Day 5, we flew to Luxor instead of driving because the crew needed rest. Seeing Luxor again, I could not help but see the exact place where J-R did the Luxor Meditation. Romance for Egypt was in the air. You could feel it. Everywhere I looked I would see and feel J-R by me, by all of the group. Abydos was something to see also. We were under heavy protection.<\/p>\n
We then flew to Amman, Jordan. Amman was known in the Old Testament as Rabbath-Ammon, the capital of the Ammonites around 1200 BC, it was also referred to as “the City of Waters”. In Greco-Roman times in the 3rd century BC, the City was renamed Philadelphia (Greek for “The Brotherhood Love”) after the Ptolemaic ruler Philadelphus (283-246 BC). The City later came under Seleucid as well as Nabataean rule until the Roman General Pompey annexed Syria and made Philadelphia part of the Decapolis League — a loose alliance of ten free city-states, bound by powerful commercial, political, and cultural interests under overall allegiance to Rome. Under the influence of the Roman culture, Philadelphia was reconstructed in typically grand Roman style with colonnaded streets, baths, an amphitheater, and impressive public buildings. <\/p>\n
We picked up a fine actress and two young boy actors from Jordan: Nadia Odeh who played Queen Zenobia, and Layth Batayneh and his brother Faris Batayneh — the older “Faris” plays a younger me in another life. <\/p>\n
We headed to the Wadi Rum where David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia” was filmed and it was also the location where T.E. Lawrence himself was based during the Arab Revolt.<\/p>\n
“The Seven Pillars of Wisdom” was named after the seven natural columns varying in height located en route to Wadi Rum. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom is where T.E. Lawrence ( of Arabia) had his camp. This was heaven. I felt so at peace here. It was magnificent.<\/p>\n
AUGUST 6<\/b><\/p>\n
We started shooting in Big Petra and Little Petra. We did not have any means to create a Nabataean village that needed to date back to 100AD. This was a very important scene in the script. I prayed and asked J-R and God to help because we arrived late to Petra and we had no time in the morning to look for anything to help us. All we had was the location. No people and no animals. Here comes the miracle. I shared our problem with “Sade”, the father of the two boys. Sade looked into my eyes and said he happened to know the owner of Little Petra and so, Nadia and I were to go with him late into the night or morning to meet his friend. It was 1:00 a.m. and his friend was gone. However, we met instead with the sheik (leader) of the local Bedouin tribe in Little Petra — which I found out later are the poorest tribe in the area. To me they were very rich inside. This leader was so detailed in everything I needed. We stayed talking with him until 3:00 a.m. We had tea and made a deal. <\/p>\n
In the morning at 8:00 a.m., 5 hours later, the leader supplied us with everything that I needed and more. We paid the leader and his people after the day’s end of shooting. We were making a film and helping out a local Bedouin tribe. What a nice feeling we all had. He basically saved the movie and we supplied cash so the tribe can live well for awhile. We hired over 50 people from his tribe and 30 sheep, 4 goats, one horse and many other things. <\/p>\n
I found out later that Sade, (the boys’ father) was born in Galilee and I felt for a moment that he was an angel that came to help me and the film. I had a connection with this man. It was like we made a deal to meet again after so many years and we did, only this time he bailed me out. Thank you Lord.<\/p>\n
AUGUST 8<\/b><\/p>\n
Next, the Syrians were very welcoming to us and they wanted us to film there for free. We did — good because we needed that. After a failed attempt to film a castle in Ajloun, Jordan, we rushed to Syria to film in the famous Crac De Chevaliers. The Crac des Chevaliers (Krac des Chevalies), is 65km. (40 miles) west of Homs. The greatest of all Crusader castles, and one of the greatest sights of Syria. The Crac des Chevaliers was described by T. E. Lawrence as “perhaps the best preserved and most wholly admirable castle in the world.” Here, all that was best in both European and Middle Eastern military design combined to produce a castle. Without doubt, it is one of the greatest masterpieces of military architecture in the world, showing the full flowering of the Hospitallers’ (knights of St. John) style, which went far beyond the stolid adaptations of Byzantine models that had previously influenced the castles of the first half of the 12th century.<\/p>\n
After a long day at “Crac” we headed to Palmyra, a Roman city ruled once by a famous woman — Queen Zenobia (Nadia Odeh). Here I play a Roman Emperor (Aurelian) who conquers the Queen.<\/p>\n
We could not have done this lovely experience without the local angels.<\/p>\n
AUGUST 10<\/b><\/p>\n
It was a very hot day in Palmyra, Syria. We finished shooting and stayed the night in Palmyra and saw the last moments of Palmyra’s sunset. We drove out the next day to Damascus. Iraq was so close…<\/p>\n
We visited the Omayyad mosque before leaving Syria. They say John the Baptist’s head is buried there.<\/p>\n
I want to thank MSIA and the cast and crew, and Fadel Gad, who was a master at getting us in and out safely and smoothly, and Fadel’s team — Alexander, Islam and Mohamad — who worked very hard behind the scenes. And, a special thanks to John-Roger for showing me these beautiful places in my life and helping us through the tough times.<\/p>\n
We start the Los Angeles shoot on September 27th. Please send Light.<\/p>\n
Love,<\/p>\n
Jsu Garcia<\/p>\n
And, from actress Nadia Odeh comes this message:<\/b><\/p>\n
Dear all:<\/p>\n
I can only say that I am from the lucky ones who had the chance to work with a great crew like you. I’m so glad that you all had the chance to visit the Middle East and to see that we are normal people who are loving and peaceful and that our countries are full of great beautiful places. And, I was so flattered to know that Amman looks like L.A.<\/p>\n
Please know that you have a friend called Nadia who is willing to help you in anything. You are like my family. May God bless you all and best of luck. It’s a very small world, I know we will meet again. I hope the movie will inspire people like you inspired me.<\/p>\n
Nadia Odeh<\/i><\/p>\n
Click here to view previous days on location with Jsu Garcia and team filming Spiritual Warriors<\/a><\/b><\/p>\nCopyright <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed the filming of “Spiritual Warriors” through Egypt, Jordan and Syria. I’m writing from my room in Cairo, Egypt, at the Movenpick Hotel before I leave to meet up with J-R. Let me share with you that I’m so moved and I love the region so much. I felt J-R by my side and it felt like we were in a small version of PAT IV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":86975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-7023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ndh-archives","tag-spiritual-warrior"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Dear Family and friends,