REMERTON — A high-energy, high-impact, school assembly production of live music, drama and real-life stories is coming to Brooks, Cook and Echols counties.

The message FutureNow is bringing to the students is simple, but powerful: The decisions you make today — drugs, alcohol, sex — will affect your futures.

Based in Remerton, FutureNow is taking that message to at least 18 communities in Georgia and Florida — as far north as Macon all the way down to Broward County, Fla., just north of Miami, this coming school year.

“We’ve already received inquiries from Brooks, Cook and Echols, and we’re working on setting up events in those places,” said Elton Dixon, FutureNow director of operations. “We invite readers from those areas to contact us at 245-9499 if they would like to take part in bringing us in.”

While the group has a daytime program in schools promoting the right choices, its program at night is Christian-themed, according to Chris Musgrove, who founded FutureNow with his wife, Terri, in 2001. Both are former youth pastors.

“We youth pastored for 20 years and had a heart to reach young people with a positive message,” Chris said. “We started writing music and dramas conveying a positive, motivating message of having a vision and a hope.”

FutureNow has traveled all over Florida and Georgia doing public school assemblies.

“We partner with Fellowship of Christian Athletes at night,” Chris said. “That’s where we can come in and do a salvation message.

“Instead of focusing on the problem, we like to talk about having a plan. Next year will be 25 years I’ve worked with young people. It seems to me that drugs, alcohol, premarital sex are just symptoms of the bigger problem — they don’t have a plan. We can’t quote Scriptures during the day, but I always think of this Scripture, Proverbs 29:18, which says, ‘Without a vision, the people shall perish.’ I’ve heard someone say, ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll take every road.’”

Terri said the program FutureNow presents includes three dramas, two songs with a live band and two or three people talking about real life stories.

FutureNow has presented its program at Valdosta High School, Newbern and Valdosta middle schools, Lowndes High, Hahira and Lowndes middle schools.

“We usually go back every two-three years,” Chris said. “We’ve done every school in Southwest Georgia except Seminole and Grady counties, and we’re on schedule to go (to Grady).”

College students are mainly used to present the program, as well as a couple of musicians who come and play.

Amy-Leigh Cavanagh of Scotland is interning with FutureNow for a year. She had met the Musgroves when they went to Scotland in 1998.

“I’ve learned so much from being here,” she said. “In Scotland, it’s so hard to be a Christian … but here you can be so open and talk about God. It’s amazing and it’s something I’m hoping to take back to Scotland.

“Everyone (at FutureNow) is on fire and focused, and everyone has a vision — It’s not about themselves, but to reach other people.”



Videographer

from Scotland

helps FutureNow



By Elizabeth Butler

The Valdosta Daily Times



REMERTON — Struan Adam of Scotland was in the audience of Britain’s Got Talent watching the now-famous singer Susan Boyle performing live when he got a voice message from a friend.

Shane Poston of Jacksonville, Fla., was calling to ask the freelance videographer to come to America. He wanted Adam to film a drama Poston and Vic Robinson of Tallahassee, Fla., had written for FutureNow of Remerton to present in school assemblies in Florida and Georgia during the new school year.

Called “The Decision,” the drama shows a high school student sitting by the roadside after he had driven drunk and killed his best friend who was riding with him — and the events leading up to that tragic event.

Adam said his response to Poston’s request was, “Let’s go over there, experience America and help the guys out.”

And so, for the price of a round-trip plane ticket, Adam came with wife Jane and 2-year-old son Baillie to volunteer his services to shoot the film.

Andrew Winston of Albuquerque, N.M., who starred in “High School Musical I and II,” performed in “The Decision,” along with students from New Covenant Church in Valdosta; Amy-Leigh Cavanagh, an intern from Scotland; and FutureNow founder Chris Musgrove and his daughter, Victoria Musgrove.

Chris and Terri’s daughter, Kasey, has helped since the inception of FutureNow eight years ago until she began radiology school this month at Val Tech.

“She spoke on abstinence and sang and played a big part in what we did,” Chris said.

Their son, Christian Musgrove, a Valdosta Technical College student, plays the lead in “The Decision.” Isaac Mondesir plays the lead’s best friend who lies dead by the roadside.

“We were in dirt, grass and the rain when we played the accident scene,” said Mondesir, who is interning this year before attending Christ for the Nations Seminary in Dallas, Texas, next year.

The filming took five days, according to Lynnsie Williams of New Covenant Church, who plays Gilly the Geek.

“It was a lot of fun,” she said. “It was humiliating actually, but it was for a good cause. I had a good time.”

Terri Musgrove founded FutureNow with husband Chris in 2001.

“We had two messages to get across — not allowing circumstances to dictate who you are and the other one — making the right choices because it can affect the outcome of your future,” she said.

“The live part will be the interview (of the person who drove drunk and killed his friend) while the video shows what happened leading up to the decision.”

Helping with the video were Johnson Distributors, Unique Limousine, Remerton Police Department, Lowndes High School, Regional Emergency Medical Services in Valdosta and Mike and Jayne Godwin, who made their home available for the prom scene.

In addition to Chris and Terri, other members of the FutureNow team are Chris Shelton, production systems manager; Elton Dixon, chief of operations; and Katrina Anders, bookkeeper who helps with the music and drama.

This was only the second time the Scottish videographer had been in America.

“It’s probably one of the best things I’ve worked on,” Adam said. “It’s because of the enthusiasm of the kids who were all up for doing this film. I like what FutureNow does.”

And with the drama he shot, FutureNow will continue taking the message of making the right choices to thousands of students in Georgia and Florida.