A Nine-Year-Old Acting Prodigy and a Rock Star's Redemption

The bat story came first. Missy Robertson was on a whitewater rafting trip in Uganda, the boat flipped, everyone ended up in the Nile, and when they pulled up to a small island for lunch, the trees weren't covered in leaves—they were covered in bats. One of them dropped its waste directly into Missy's eye. She handled it calmly. "They told us these were fruit bats, so they weren't the bad kind," Uncle Si recalled, still sounding amazed.

That set the tone for an episode that eventually landed on the real reason Willie and Korie Robertson had gathered their guests: a new faith-based film called Elijah Peel, which they executive produced. The movie, opening August 14th, follows a rock star at the peak of his fame whose self-destructive lifestyle—drugs, alcohol, the whole hedonistic machinery—culminates in a heart attack. His redemption comes through an unexpected friendship with a terminally ill nine-year-old girl named Jessica, played by a young actress named Evelyn.

The Young Actor Who Runs the Room