Greetings from Christafari, Things are coming along nicely with the new worship album. Before we headed off to Hawaii we managed to finish all of the recording on it except the bass. It's hard for Avion and I to record that while holding Ziza.
Hawaii was a tremendous success. We played 17 shows in 19 days on 3 islands, gave away hundreds of Bibles and saw around 300 souls saved!
It was also a HUGE time for spiritual growth for many of the band members. God is doing some incredible things in and through the band.
One of the strengths of playing a bunch of events and churches on each island is the ability to build momentum. On Maui we played at a major mall on a Tuesday night. It was packed! Local passersby were drawn in by the music and then by the end of the night were saved and left the mall with a new Bible in hand. They would then follow us to our next event and bring their friends who would in turn get saved and so on and so forth... Some even caught every one of our shows and ended up becoming our closest friends. It was incredible!
We started off in Maui, then went to Kaui. For the final leg of the tour we were on Oahu. In Oahu, most of the band was being hosted by a lady that ran a Christian camp. She had been praying for her nephew on Maui for years. While we were there she received a phone call from her wayward nephew. He said "Auntie, you gotta hear this reggae band that I saw play at the mall. You'll love their music, and when they started sharing about the Lord, I felt the Spirit like I've never felt before!" She said, "Really, who are they?" He said, "Christafari." She replied, "They are staying at my house right now!" He gave his life to the Lord!
My Mom joined us on this tour (her first tour with us) as the Granny Nanny. It's a whole different experience touring with a baby on board. Ziza's preferred place during our set is watching the show and dancing in the audience.
It was also good to test out some of the songs from our upcoming album like "Hosanna", "How Great is Our God", "Agnus Dei" and "Everlasting God" at churches throughout the islands--with splendid results!
It would have been great to have the album finished before the tour. That was our initial plan, but recording with an infant in the room is not as productive as we had expected. You've heard the phrase "Man plans, God laughs", I say "Parents plan, Baby laughs".
Since we've been back from Hawaii, it's been full steam ahead working on the album, and we've been tracking bass and mixing at least one song a day. There are only a few songs left to mix and then it is off to manufacturing for two weeks. We should begin shipping the new CD on or about July 30th. We will release it digitally and send out digital copies sooner. Solomon Jabby and I just finished the artwork today that includes a collage of photos of the band.
Please pray for us as we finalize the mixes and make last minute adjustments to the album to make the project perfect. We are launching the album at the 14,000-member Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque at the end of July. We then head off to the South Pacific for a tour of Fiji and New Caledonia before we do more shows stateside.
Thanks again for your fervent prayers and support!
Mark Mohr and Christafari
