‘I Still Believe’: Inside Jeremy Camp's inspiring (and heartbreaking) big screen story
Matthew Leimkuehler
(Spoilers ahead for “I Still Believe.” Major character and plot revelations below.)
Jeremy Camp experienced enchanting love and heart-wrenching loss, all before his 24th birthday.
His eyes first met would-be wife Melissa Henning from a familiar place: the stage. Now a 42-year-old bestselling Christian singer and songwriter, the college-aged Camp spotted Henning while leading worship.
At that moment, he saw “a purity to her.” Within a month, Camp would tell Henning that he loved her.
“She just had this … there was something different about her amongst everybody else,” said Camp, an Indiana native who calls the Nashville area home. “I can't even describe it except she just had such a heart for Jesus.”
The two wouldn’t fall together immediately, though. After they dated only a few weeks, apprehension pushed Camp and Henning apart.
Until a hospital visit.
Diagnosed with an ovarian cancer that spread to her major organs, Henning reunited with Camp in a hospital room — where what she said to him would become a bedrock of his faith.
“She said, ‘I’ve been sitting here thinking. If I die from this but one person’s life is changed, if one person comes in the knowledge of who Jesus is ... it’s all worth it,’ ” Camp said. “That to me is the crux of the story, of who she was and what she would say.
“It was something she had really been contemplating. You can tell that she had a comfort and a peace from God in her heart.”
Camp and Henning’s story takes to the silver screen this weekend with “I Still Believe,” a faith-based romantic film starring KJ Apa as Camp and Britt Robertson as Henning. Franklin-based filmmakers the Erwin Brothers — known for 2018 breakout Christian film “I Can Only Imagine” — wrote and directed the film.
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“I Still Believe” (PG) enters wide release this weekend.
‘No matter what’
Months after Camp “jumped the gun” on saying “I love you,” Henning sat next to him on a hospital bed and told him that she, too, loved him.
“I know he loves me but he’s just scared,” she wrote in a journal entry. “In fact he said he was and we cried.”
And Camp remembered a fiery trial of “what ifs" blazed through his mind, he said.
“What if this is short-lived,” Camp said. “What if you know she’s sick for a long time and our whole marriage is a hospital visit. I had to weigh out all those things and … (there was) this peace that I had. That no matter what, I wanted to be with her.”
He found a strength in God, Camp said.
“I was willing to walk through the fire,” Camp said. “It’s not because I’m some great awesome guy. No, I think it was just a God thing. I don’t say that flippantly. He gave me the strength to go, ‘I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I chose to walk through this with you. Because I love you.’ ”
The weeks to follow would rip the couple through a lifetime of emotional highs and lows.
A month before Camp and Henning married, doctors found her “healed of all tumors and cancer-free,” her website said. The couple wed in October 2000, departing for a honeymoon in Hawaii.
Newly married, they’d return to a cancerous relapse that spread through Henning-Camp’s body, giving her “weeks to months” to live. She died Feb. 5, 2001.
It was the hardest part of Camp’s life.
“No matter if you're a believer or nonbeliever … everyone goes through pain,” he said. “Pain is universal. For me I experienced that pain. What got me through it was my relationship with Jesus.”
'I Still Believe'
His pain would turn into a song, “I Still Believe” — an uplifting staple in contemporary Christian music that Camp said he never expected to become widespread inspiration.
It started as 15 minutes on a guitar. A bit of healing from the emotional turbulence, he said.
“It was almost this switch of going, ‘I don’t understand, but I’ll choose to trust you and believe in you,’ ” Camp said.
And filmmaking brothers Jon and Andy Erwin didn’t expect to follow up 2018’s indie box office hit “I Can Only Imagine,” a true story based on a popular Christian song of the same name, with more real-life heartache captured in song.
But sometimes, Jon Erwin said, a great story finds you. The brothers liken it less to a musical biopic and more to teary-eyed melancholy a la “The Fault in Our Stars” or “A Walk to Remember.”
“This is such a great story,” Jon Erwin said. "It’s a selfless love story.”
Andy Erwin added, “We can only do things that really move us personally. The idea of just doing the same thing over again to try to repeat success, we weren’t up for that.”
“I Still Believe” marks the first film produced by the Erwin brothers’ co-founded group, Kingdom Story Company. Hollywood mainstay Lionsgate distributes the movie.
“Ultimately, the goal is to fall in love with the story,” Jon Erwin said. “We keep things that simple. We find a story that voices us and inspires us and entertains us.”
For the script, Andy and Jon Erwin pulled from lengthy interviews and Camp’s memoir of the same name. Camp and the Henning family participated actively on set, they said.
Camp and his wife, Adrienne Camp, who's also portrayed in the film, were left in tears after one script reading, he said.
“Realizing they were trustworthy was such a comforting thing,” Camp said.
Yes, “I Still Believe” can be a tender reimagination, Camp said, but one he’s able to share with his wife and three children.
“I cried a lot, to be honest,” Camp said. “I had to walk out of the first screening we had.”
But in sadness comes hope.
“I want people to not walk in fear,” he said. “I hope they walk out of this feeling hopeful and feeling peace knowing they can trust in the Lord.”
See 'I Still Believe' in Nashville
Area theaters showing the film this weekend, per Fandango:
- Regal Hollywood, 719 Thompson Lane, Nashville
- AMC Classic Madison, 721 Myatt Drive, Madison
- Regal Green Hills, 3815 Green Hills Village Drive, Nashville
- AMC Bellevue 12, 8125 Sawyer Brown Road, Nashville
- Regal Opry Mills, 570 Opry Mills Drive, Nashville
- AMC Classic Spring Hill 12, 2068 Crossing Circle, Spring Hill
- Regal Providence, 401 S. Mt. Juliet Road, Mt. Juliet
- AMC Dine-In Thoroughbred 20, 633 Frazier Drive, Franklin