“Unfortunately, we won’t be able to use a drone at the baptism site due to its proximity to the Israeli border,” said the voice on the other end of the line. And that was that, or so we thought. We were leaving for Jordan to capture footage and stills for several upcoming productions, and at the heart of this was the perhaps the unrealistically optimistic hope that a drone could be used for overhead shots of the several locations.

Paperwork and approval from the Jordanian Tourism Board, Royal Jordanian Film Commission, and the Jordanian Armed Forces would all need to be arranged for there to be even a slight chance of bringing a drone into the country, let alone fly it. So as I sat back in my desk staring at an old map of Amman, I decided to leave it in God’s hands and accept whatever outcome would result.

A few days before our departure an email came in that read, “I just want to let you know that head office informed me the drone permits were issued and all is looking good.” Still a “no” to the baptismal site, but 6 out of 7 ain’t bad. All I could do was smile, look up, and say “Thank You!”

Perhaps the gravity of the privilege that we received was blissfully beyond us, but when the big, black Pelican case containing the drone arrived in Queen Alia International Airport in Amman and became the full center of attention of the Security Services, we were beginning to get the idea. We were met by an officer who was to accompany us everywhere we would be using the drone, and he would be the custodian of the drone while it was in Jordan, and they would travel in a separate vehicle from ours … the way I saw it, it was one less thing to carry.

“Could you please repeat that?” I stuttered as we were being briefed about procedures, protocols and the list of approved locations, “Your request to fly the drone at the baptismal site has been approved …”

My jaw hit the floor.