CHRISTAFARI UPDATE: Help Support Our Next Album
Mar. 11, 2009 - Dear Friends,
I am writing you with great news! Since the beginning of this year we have already ministered in Hawaii, California, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil. We have seen many come to Christ including a sea of hands raised in the throes of Brazilian Carnival (one of the hardest places to stage a successful outreach).
We just performed two concerts last weekend that officially concluded our 2-year long world tour in promotion of our "To the Foundation" CD. The Lord has been so faithful to us! I remember sending out an update two years ago asking you to pray for our ministry and help us raise funds so that we could even afford to record the album. Many supported and we had just enough money to complete and manufacture the project. For this we are forever grateful.
When the CD was finished and ready for release I asked you to pray that this album would get out to as many as possible and that the Lord would give us more opportunities to perform and share the gospel. He heard your prayers and blessed us with a whirlwind 140-concert tour. Since then we have visited countless countries and have lived out of a suitcase for the greater part of the last two years. While these tours were far from glamorous (and often times very trying), they were also tremendously fruitful. Thousands of souls came to know Christ to the soundtrack of our unique style of gospel reggae!
This Easter we will be ministering in Paris at a major Christian festival before 20,000. In the small window between now and then we have set out to record the majority of the next Christafari album. This project is a milestone for us as it marks Christafari's 20th year of ministry! The Lord has given us the songs for the album and we have already finished the demo process.
The album will be called "No Compromise." This slogan has long been a theme with Christafari (mentioned in songs like "Christafari," "Warriors," "Soul Fire" and "WordSound&Power"). It is also homage to Keith Green, one of my greatest influences in Christian music (who had an album and biography by the same title). True to its name, the album will delve into various hot button issues like abortion (The Protestors), Rastafarianism (Gwaan Natty), falling away from God (That None Should Fade Away), marijuana use (Pure Meditations) and drug use (Most High). On "Most High," for the first time on a recording, I vividly share my testimony as a drug and marijuana addicted youth and how before I surrendered to Jesus my life was "wasted" and "up in smoke". The chorus tells of my salvation and that "There is no high like the Most High!"
We are praying that God will use this recording to wake people up and challenge them to not compromise in their daily walks with God. As expected with Christafari, there is also a heavy evangelistic tilt with songs like "Whosoever" and "Try Jah Love." As a whole, the album is far rootsier than our previous offerings with a lot more singing and less chatting/rapping. This is probably influenced by our last five visits to Brazil where roots reggae is king. It will include various top names in gospel reggae (including my lovely wife Avion). It also features some worshipful tracks like "Taking in the Son" and the congregational "Messiah." We are so excited about recording this album and sharing it with the world, yet we have barely begun the arduous process. The demos are finished, the songs have been selected and we will start tracking drums this week.
As we embark on this ambitious endeavor, please pray for our finances. Ask that God will continue to provide for us as we do His work. As you can imagine it is extremely expensive to fly 10 people all over the world to minister, especially in these financially trying times. This has left us with very little money to help cover the costs of recording our next album. We still need to raise $5,000 to complete the project. Many of you have helped us in the past, and we pray that God has blessed your generosity. Given our present financial situation, instead of digging ourselves into greater debt to cover the costs of recording, mastering, manufacturing and promoting the project, we once again humbly ask you to sow a seed into our ministry.
If you have ever been blessed by the ministry of Christafari and Avion Blackman, and enriched by our recordings, please consider blessing us with a monetary love-gift of any size. The honorariums we receive for concerts are not always enough to cover our expenses, and recording new albums is necessary to keep touring and preaching the word of God. Your generous donation will be greatly appreciated and enable us to finish this valuable ministry tool. Our need is real and immediate. We hope that you will consider a tax-deductible love gift of any size and help make "No Compromise" possible.
In return we will make sure to send you a copy of the album before anyone else in the world gets it! We'll also be sure to thank you in the album credits!
If you wish to donate safely online, simply go to: http://www.sower.org click on "DONATE" and select "Christafari-Mark Mohr". If you prefer to send your donation through the mail, make your check payable to The Sowers International, and put CHRISTAFARI in the lower left corner. Make sure your name and address are written clearly on your check. Then mail it to:
The Sowers International
Post Office Box 2260
Orange, CA 92859
For this we will be forever thankful. May you be showered with all the spiritual blessings from above!
Mark Mohr and Avion Blackman-Mohr
1942 259th Place
Lomita, CA 90717
(310) 539-2539
(310) 350-1836
E-mail: mark@christafari.com
http://www.christafari.com
P.S. If you would like to stay up to the minute with our ministry please visit our website http://www.christafari.com Click "Join our e-mail list" and sign up for regular e-mail updates so that you will know exactly how you can pray for us.
Please cut out the portion below and use it as a daily prayer reminder. Thanks!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE PRAY FOR MARK AND AVION MOHR AND CHRISTAFARI:
• For continued strength in our marriage and for the rest of the band members.
• For the recording of "No Compromise."
• For the $5,000 necessary to finish the album.
• Pray that the album will get out to as many as possible and bring souls to Christ.
• For our health and the Lord's constant guidance and provision.
• For pending tours and more opportunities to perform and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• For Kevin McIntyre, Christafari's booking agent.
|
