The Story of TTR
Tim Scott, Will Decker and Michael Scott, founders of Travel the Road, recently sat down with website writer Joe Halsey for an in depth interview to capture the history of Travel the Road, and future plans of Travel the Road. This interview provides viewers with background information leading up to the Travel the Road television series launching May 17, 2003, on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). The following excerpts are from that interview.
Joe: Tim and Will, tell me how you guys got into missions work.
Tim: It all started in 1998 for me. I thought that I was going to be a stockbroker. But then I went on a mission trip to the Czech Republic. I had been on mission trips before, but something happened over there. And it was something that changed my life forever. I asked the Lord what His plan was for my life. And the Lord told me to go and preach the Gospel in the world. I was young, 19 at the time, and I did not know what would happen or what I would do. But I knew that my life was about to change. I came back to America from that mission trip, and I started selling everything I owned. I told my parents what I wanted to do and they were all for it. They said "go for it with your whole heart". They also said, "make sure that someone goes with you". That's when I called Will. I told him I was thinking about going overseas to do missions work, and that I wanted him to come along with me.
Joe: Will, do you remember when Tim asked you to travel overseas with him?
Will: Yes. Tim called me and said, "I have been thinking about you. I'm thinking about doing overseas missions work and I want you to come along on this trip. You're the first person that came to my mind. I want you to come and share this journey with me".
Joe: Will, what prompted you to go on this trip with Tim?
Will: When I decided to go on the trip in 1998, it was more of an escape than anything. I figured at the time, I just needed to get away from LA, to start over, to give myself a year to sort my life out, to see where I was going. I was a photographer, so I figured I could at least photograph for a book or something.
Tim: The most interesting thing about how this played out was that Will was not even a believer at the time. But I knew something was going to happen. I knew the Lord had a calling on his life too.
Will: As Tim said, I didn't know the Lord yet. But I was completely open to so many things. After a few months of planning and getting everything in order, we took off.
Tim: Boom, we moved right in, overseas, right to the heart of the most remote place on earth. We started in Papa New Guinea.
Will: We would spend every night in these packed out services.
Tim: We were experiencing these wild church services. These church services were in the middle of the bush.
Will: Not being a believer and going to these kind of services, was an amazing thing to be a part of.
Questions: So Will, when did you accept the Lord?
Will: One evening we were out in a village in China, and I prayed to the Lord that I wanted to believe fully in Him. But I needed to have a sign. I asked the Lord for a shooting star that I may believe in Him. As soon as I prayed amen, I saw it right in front of my eyes.
Tim: That's when he made the commitment. That's when he said, 'I'll serve you forever".
It was in a hotel room in Bangkok that I accepted the Lord. As soon as I prayed amen, I felt this amazing weight lift from me. From then on, it was a brand new trip for us.
Joe: This is a powerful testimony. What happened next?
Will: Well, the money ran out and we decided to come home. It had been a year overseas and we were pretty sad to actually have to come home.
Tim: The world that we had left was completely different.
Will: When you come back to America and you see all the luxuries it is much more difficult to handle.
Tim: The only thing Will and I could think about was getting back out on the road.
Will: We started planning immediately for our next trip, where we'd go.
Tim: We'd been telling people about our journeys, and a childhood friend of mine, Joe, who I had known since a young age, we had palled around and gone to school together, had been hearing our stories of everything. We put it out there to him, "Joe, you want to come with us? You want to go on an adventure? You want to take an expedition?"
Will: We were very excited when Joe agreed. He would kind of be the rookie of the team.
Tim: We did not know how long he would be there for or what would happen. Our focus was to break Joe in, bring him into the 3rd world, really prepare him for the type of ministry he'd be able to do.
Will: So our bags were packed, our tickets were booked, the rookie Joe would be joining us, and we were about to go out and Travel the Road.
Joe: That is an awesome story about how you guys got into missions. Mike, where do you fit into Travel the Road?
Mike: As the guys traveled and ministered overseas, I remained their primary contact for things like money and logistics, things like that. Then over time, things just started evolving.
Joe: What do you mean, evolving?
Mike: When Tim and Will had returned from their first mission in the Summer of 1999, we started brainstorming how we could use their experiences traveling the road in a more productive fashion. Specifically, we started talking about sending them out again, but this time with a video camera to document their travels and ministry. We wanted to create a website and use it as a multi-media format to do things like streaming video, still photography, and generally begin connecting people in missions in a more structured, integrated way, while using technology to its fullest. We wanted people to see first-hand what missions was all about.
Joe: This is fascinating. What happened next?
Tim: Will, Joe and I hit the road again on our second mission in September 2000, with both a video camera and a camera to shoot stills. Will is a professionally trained photographer, as is my brother Michael, so we were excited to get out there, minister, and capture our experiences on film.
Joe: What did you do with the film as you shot it?
Tim: We kept the film in a safe place, and when we had a good inventory of both video and still photography, we sent it all back to Michael in Los Angeles.
Joe: I hear there is a pretty miraculous story about the first batch of film you sent back to Michael.
Tim: There is, but we won't get into that now. It is all well documented in episode 2 of our upcoming Travel the Road Television series, which begins airing May 17, 2003, on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).
Joe: That raises an interesting question. How did all this turn into a television series?
Mike: When I saw the video footage the guys were sending back, I got excited. I mean, it was some good stuff. As I watched it, the thought entered my mind that people would love to see this up-close and personal video footage of what it is really like on the mission field. By this time, too, reality television was in full swing on the secular networks, and I thought there was a similar opportunity in the Christian programming world.
Joe: Then what?
Mike: When Tim and Will returned from their second mission trip in January 2002, we started going through the 300+ hours of video footage. We bought some editing equipment, leased a couple hundred square feet of office space and started editing the film.
Joe: Tell me about your prior production experience.
Mike: Will and I went to art college together for photography and film, which wet our appetites for what we are doing now. Since college, I have been producing commercial advertising campaigns for companies like Mercedes, Toyota and Nissan.
Will: I have a pretty extensive photography background. After college, I got into photography and have done work for a lot of companies including Universal Films and Mitsubishi. The work both Mike and I have done prepared us pretty well for producing the Travel the Road television series. However, most people have no idea what it takes on the creative production side of the house to make a series like Travel the Road a reality.
Tim: So with Mike and Will's production background, we bought the equipment and took the leap of faith. There was a lot of trial and error. That is why it took all three of us working around the clock for nine months to produce our first 30-minute pilot. We had a steep learning curve. But we also did not want to compromise on the quality of our product. I think you will see when the series launches in May that the Travel the Road series is very high quality.
Joe: Nine months? That is a long time and a lot of work for not knowing where all this might lead.
Tim: It was a lot of time and effort. But we knew we had something special. And the Lord just kept encouraging us to continue on our path. It truly was a faith walk.
Joe: So, what did you do with that first pilot?
Tim: As we saw the work the Lord was helping us create, we started pitching our concept and the pilot to various networks.
Joe: How did the networks respond to the pilot?
Tim: The feedback we got was very positive. In fact, when TBN saw it they were very excited and called us right away. Shortly thereafter, around October 2002, we opened discussions with TBN about doing a television series.
Joe: I understand you signed a contract with TBN to air Travel the Road. When did this happen?
Will: We signed a contract with TBN in December of 2002 for a 12 episode series to start airing May 17, 2003.
Joe: It sounds like you just had the pilot done in the Fall of 2002. What has it taken to produce an entire series?
Mike: That's where things have gotten real busy. We had to quickly secure more office space and editing equipment. We also hired multiple editors and graphic artists to start producing the 12 episodes from the video footage we had. We currently have a fully functional production house, and the talent to produce the show. It has been a hectic time, but we are getting close to launching.