Raising A Soul Surfer (24 page)

Often, it seems as if Bethany’s brothers are just tagging along on her adventures, but I believe that God is directing their lives and using them and preparing them for their futures as He cares for each and every one of us.

Bethany’s brother Tim, who was with us on that trip, was filming a video for our family, and he remembered that he had a body-boarding friend who lived in Cornwall. He gave him a call and a visit ensued. Tim’s English body-boarding friend and his buddy were planning a trip to Iceland. They invited Tim along and made arrangements with him to hook up for travel after he finished his Bethany tour.

Tim had an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime adventure in Iceland, jumping off icebergs and waterfalls into uncrowded surf! The best part was traveling with adventurous, fun, always laughing guys who make life happen.

Several years after the shark attack, and Bethany’s dramatic return to professional surfing, the initial torrent of media attention subsided into a manageable river we had learned to navigate pretty well. There were still some frictions, but overall, we’d only grown stronger and closer together—as well as closer to God.

As Bethany’s teen years drew to a close, she got more confident and easy under public scrutiny. Noah and Becky took on the role of managing the business side of things (as well as
official photography, video and other artistic elements) so that Bethany could focus on what she does best—surfing.

Our son Tim, mellow and unassuming, spends most of his time filming and editing surf movies. One of his underground films gained quite a cult following among the body board crew.

Sarah Hill has become an integral part of our lives. Bethany, like many teenagers do, had found a mentor to trust in addition to her family.

Bethany had to come to terms with the fact that by being a witness for Christ, there would be plenty of people who would use any excuse to take her down a peg. These were the ones who wouldn’t show grace for the fact that she was a normal, fun-loving teenager; or for the fact that our Hawaii-style beach culture didn’t always resemble how they thought a good Christian should act or dress. And because she called herself a Christian, people certainly wouldn’t let her be anything less than perfect—an unrealistic expectation for anyone.

One thing that deeply impacted Bethany for the good was the time she was able to join the youth group on a mission trip to Tijuana, Mexico. Her brothers had gone a few times in prior years, but Bethany had not yet been able to go. She’d been to Thailand with World Vision in 2005 (our family supports a couple of kids through that organization). There was something special about going as a normal kid on a mission trip with her friends, to help out as best they could.

After hearing some of the crazy stories the boys told of their trips to Mexico, we were a bit concerned about Bethany’s safety. But Timmy decided he’d go along as videographer for the entire youth group, and we were relieved.

The youth leaders, including Sarah Hill, took vans full of Kauai kids into the hidden folds of Tijuana, under the watchful eye of Spectrum Ministries based in San Diego (in fact, based
out of the same church, Emmanuel, where I’d first attended Vacation Bible School so many years ago!).

There, in the most impoverished of slums, Bethany and her friends washed the lice out of children’s hair, distributed blankets and food, set up a mini carnival full of games and prizes, and ran the portable bathhouse, which was the only chance for many of the kids to receive a shower.

For American teenagers, immersion into a world so far removed from their privileged materialism, yet so close—right across the border—was an eye-opening experience. Our kids saw firsthand the power of having a hands-on ministry with the poor and even came back with a story of how Pastor Von, the longtime head of Spectrum Ministries, had his valuables stolen from his car while working the bathhouse only to have them returned the next day by one of Tijuana’s feared drug lords, with apologies that the thief was not aware of who he was stealing from. Apparently, the drug lord had been the recipient of the kindness of this ministry in his poverty-stricken childhood, and he never forgot it.

The Mexican kids were very curious about Bethany. Scarcely a single one had heard of her, but naturally they asked her over and over about her missing arm. Bethany quickly figured out the word “shark” in Spanish—
tiburon
. As soon as they heard it, and she pointed to her shoulder, their eyes nearly fell out of their heads. Bethany had their rapt attention as she told her story through a translator.

While there, the group was introduced to a new orphanage that Spectrum had just discovered. The place was in terrible shape, filthy and run-down even for a Mexican orphanage. Many of the kids were sick with a variety of illnesses, and the mothers of several of the children had abandoned them on the streets because they had Down syndrome.

The place had no medicine and little food.

Sarah, Bethany and the kids had already exhausted the cash given to them by the church on other projects. But faced with the dire need of these children, they knew they had to do something. Sarah asked the lady in charge to write a list of absolute needs for the kids. The list was two pages long, and that covered only the bare essentials for the 100 children.

Later that night, Sarah had to admit that there was no practical way to stretch their funds to meet those needs. So she shared the situation with everyone and showed the group the list. And, of course, Bethany grabbed a box and put it on the table. “What about pitching in some of our personal spending money?” she said. Everyone had a few bucks squirreled away for buying something at the Southern California shopping malls they couldn’t get in Hawaii (at least without paying through the nose for shipping).

“No one’s obligated to put anything in; it’ll be totally private. Put in what you want.” Bethany pointed to the list, “If you can spare enough for just one of these items, that’ll at least be something, right?”

Then they left the box on the table; no one managed it or waited to see who would put in what. When Sarah counted the money the next morning, there was more than $1,500. The group went to Costco in Mexico and filled nine carts full of food, medicine, diapers, soap and cleaning supplies. When they arrived at the orphanage and started unloading everything, the director came out and simply collapsed into Sarah’s arms.

Tom and I know that these experiences build something within a person that could never be taught just sitting in church. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (Jas. 1:27,
NIV
).

You don’t have to have a story like Bethany’s to be extraordinary; you just have to be willing for God to have your whole life. God does not guarantee you an easy path—in fact, the road is often difficult. I never would have chosen to have my daughter lose her arm; but when you surrender to God, He sometimes takes away before He gives back.

Bethany has become a symbol of hope and encouragement for many people. That role is not without personal sacrifice.

But there was one more thing that had occasionally cropped up since the attack. For years it had bubbled up on the horizon without really taking shape. It was a dream of Roy Hofstetter’s, one he kept on the backburner for a while. As it came closer to becoming reality, it almost became a nightmare. I’m talking about the dream of someday making a major Hollywood feature film about Bethany’s ordeal and heroic return. It would be called
Soul Surfer
, and it was about to take us on another wild adventure.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares
the L
ORD
, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you a hope and a future.”
JEREMIAH 29:11

“Based on a true story.”

We see these words in front of countless movies, but the reality is, there isn’t always as much truth as there is Hollywood. When real-life events undergo transformation into a feature-length movie, truth has a strange tendency to become elastic. Early in the process, we came perilously close to being just another illustration of truth being discarded in favor of entertainment. As a family, we stood our ground, though it wasn’t easy.

Making the movie
Soul Surfer
was a seven-year journey for our family. Many a movie gets shelved because no one can find the right combination of ingredients—producers, directors, actors, studios, distributors and all the rest. Roy Hofstetter, Bethany’s manager, should get special credit for his persistent effort and hard work to put Bethany’s story on the silver screen. He was the person who was really excited and dedicated about the whole idea of making a movie from the very beginning. The rest of us were too busy chasing waves and packing for surf competition
trips. Dealing with all the other demands and changes in our lives took up a huge amount of time and energy, and we had little left over for movie-making drama!

Besides, we already had a short documentary about Bethany’s story, called
The Heart of a Soul Surfer
, H.O.S.S., as we call it, which was produced and directed by Noah’s wife, Becky, and documented with early surfing footage that Tom and I took while the kids were young. This work of love has been a powerful outreach tool in many different languages.

Once you have a script or story, a producer buys an “option” for a movie. (No one else can make a movie for a certain time period about Bethany’s story.) During the allotted time limit, the producer tries to line up investors and studio support. But so often, these options get passed around to different producers as the time limit lapses, and the film never gets made. For our story, the first option was bought and sat on. A few meager ideas were tried, but nothing came to pass, mainly because our family refused to accept the weak and poorly written script.

Fortunately, Roy put a short time limit on the option rights. The second option bought was again sat on while a new script was written and finances raised.