Kevin Briggs is a former California highway patrol officer who has stopped more than 200 people from committing suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge.
When Briggs finds a suicidal individual, he usually starts a conversation with them by asking how they are doing, then asking their plans for the following day.
If they did not have plans for the next day, he attempts to make plans with them, inviting them to come back to the bridge if their plan did not work out at the end of the day.
The image below is from 2005 when Briggs spent 60 minutes convincing Kevin Berthia to climb back over a rail on the bridge. Berthia went on to marry and have multiple children.
Briggs has earned the nickname ‘Guardian of the Golden Gate’ for having saved the lives of over 200 people.
The Movie PASSION OF CHRIST:
“Mel Gibson warned actor Jim Caviezel that playing the character of Christ was going to be very difficult and that if he accepted, he most likely would be marginalized by Hollywood.
Caviezel asked for a day to think about it, and his response to Mel, who was funding and directing the movie, was: "I think we have to make it, even if it is difficult." And something else, my initials are J.C., and I am 33 years old. "I didn't realize that until now."
Mel responded with “You're really scaring me, you know.”
During filming, Jim Caviezel who plays the part of Jesus lost 45 pounds, he was struck by lightning, he was accidentally struck twice during the scourging scene leaving a deep 14-inch scar, he dislocated his shoulder when the cross was dropped into the hole with him on the cross. He then suffered pneumonia and hypothermia from being nearly naked with only a loin cloth on the cross for endless hours. The crucifixion scene alone took 5 weeks of the 2 months of shooting.
His body was so stressed and exhausted from playing the role that he had to undergo two open heart surgeries after the filming production.
Jim explained, “I didn’t want people to see me. I just want them to see Jesus. Conversions will happen through that.”
Almost like a clairvoyant prediction, many amazing things happened.
Pedro Sarubbi, who played Barabbas, felt that it was not Caviezel who was looking at him, but Jesus Christ himself, as he played that role he said of Caviezel, “His eyes had no hatred or resentment towards me, only mercy and love."
Luca Lionello, the artist who played Judas, was an avowed atheist before shooting began. He eventually converted and baptized his children.
One of the main technicians working on the film was a Muslim converted to Christianity.
Some producers said they saw actors dressed in white they didn’t recognize during one of the filming sessions, and when they reviewed the recordings, they realized they couldn’t see them in that footage.
The Passion of the Christ is the highest grossing US religious as well as the highest R-rated film of all time, with $370.8 million! Worldwide, it grossed $611 million.
More importantly, it has reached 100’s of millions of people around the world.
Mel Gibson paid $30 million out of his own pocket for the production of the film because no studio would take on the project.
Today, Jim Caviezel simply and boldly proclaims his faith in Christ, and the miracle it was for him to represent Christ as an actor and a greater believer of Christ because of this experience.