STARTING OVER AGAIN: CAPE WOMAN'S TESTIMONY SHOWS THE POWER OF A MOTHER'S PRAYER

John Cunningham and Olivia Laurenn made some script changes prior to filming Thursday at Dennis Scivally Park. Cunningham directed the video that tells his wife, Kim's, life story.

The film crew taped the ending of "I Started Over," a video about Kim Cunningham of Cape Girardeau. The Rev. Gary Brothers presented the salvation plan at the video's conclusion.

Kim Cunningham, right, discussed a scene with Olivia Laurenn during production of a video about Cunningham's life. The video will be edited within two weeks.

Kim Cunningham of Cape Girardeau spent years running from religion. Today she's ready to share her life story with the world.

Cunningham, a Christian music writer and singer, and a crew of 10 friends and actors spent Thursday in Cape Girardeau filming a video about her life. The story covers a four-year period in Cunningham's life when she was doing everything possible to run from religion.

She was often hung over or wasted on drugs and just generally didn't care about life. But her mother's prayers and dedication to the Lord probably saved her from an early death.

There were times when Cunningham should have been dead, but "I had a mother who was praying," she said.

Her mother, Janet Luttrell, has always prayed for her six children, so offering prayers for Kim wasn't too difficult -- even during the rough times.

"I had a mom who was a prayer warrior, and she passed that to me," Luttrell said.

Even though her child strayed from church, "The Bible says they will return," said Luttrell. "So when Kim left home and strayed, I prayed she'd return."

For the last 16 years, Luttrell has been rejoicing that her lost lamb had returned to the fold.

Cunningham really tried to shun religion but couldn't. After waking from a drunken, drugged stupor in a stranger's yard, she realized she needed some help.

"When I woke up and didn't know who I was or where I was going, then I thought there wasn't hope," Cunningham said. "But God spoke in my heart and said there would be hope. He is the Lord of my life."

If he wasn't, Cunningham wouldn't be where she is today.

And that place is exactly where she is most content: filming a video with songs from her first CD. The CD, titled "I Started Over," offers her story set to song.

Filming the accompanying video was really tough even though it has been 16 years since Cunningham left her wild lifestyle for Christianity.

"It's really emotional," she said between filming Thursday. "I lived in four years what a lot of people live in 10.

"But I've lived in one year what some people live in 10."

Cunningham, who has always sung with her mother, wrote the songs for her CD in a year's time. She began working on the video production about six months ago.

It has taken her that long to write the script, edit it and work out the scenes. She has had lots of encouragement and support along the way.

Jane Perry coordinated the video production and filming and encouraged Cunningham with her writing. "She's been my lifeline," she said of Perry.

Her husband of 17 years, John, was the film's producer.

"I organized what we did and divided the script into scenes," he said. "I'm just doing it like you'd see it done on TV."

He also produced another video that Kim distributed during a mission trip to Russia.

Her family played a major role in the video. All four of her children, her husband and her mother, have roles in the film. It took a few takes of the scene to get everyone working together.

"Looks like we like each other," John Cunningham ordered as their children laughed.

In the world of movie magic, all their bloopers would be erased, and only the really good parts would be shown, he explained as they rehearsed.

But all the good parts weren't erased from Kim's life: The video shows that God can take a nobody and make them somebody, said Angela Battles, a friend.

"As much as she loved God, people will see that," Battles said. "It doesn't matter what happened or where you are from; if you find your destiny there is hope for you. People will see there is a purpose."

Olivia Laurenn, who portrays a younger Kim, wants to use the video in drug treatment centers to show people that they can respect themselves again and to help them develop spiritually.

Kim cites sermons and lessons from her pastor, the Rev. Gary Brothers, as helping her spiritual development. Brothers spoke about finding divine destiny, and that sermon sparked Cunningham's fire for songwriting.

"He said you couldn't just wait for God to bring it to you, you have to move," she explained.

Brothers said finding destiny is a question everyone wrestles with. "We all want to find out what's going to happen or where we'll be. But you have to find divine destiny" to really find the answers to life's questions, he said.

Cunningham isn't using the video as a springboard to a national recording contract or a tour.

"I'm not going looking for fame and fortune," she said. "I just want to win souls, and then I'll feel like I've accomplished something. I want them to know God is real when they look at me and can see what he's done."