This is about myself, a little bit of history, and some
numbers.
Music.
I started writing music in 1992, and became good enough to
produce/compose by 1997/1998 however I was not able to
consistently write, and produce till 2007, when I purchased
a Mac, with Logic Studio Pro. Since then I have been able
to refine my arrangement skills, and hone in on exactly
what I want to accomplish.
Faith.
I have been a born-again believer for as long as I can
remember. Somewhere between 1997-2000 I lost my bearings,
and seriously began to doubt what I had done in my past. I
was very sure of my direction when I was younger, but as I
grew older, things came undone, and I was very troubled. In
this period of doubting, I tried to rediscover what my
strengths and weaknesses were, and it was very difficult,
all the tests that I took led me to the exact same answer.
I was good at music and photography. I never could figure
out which one to pursue, and it left me in a bind. I had
spent a great deal of money, time, and dedication to
working with music, just to
have it all just about fall apart. I had amassed such a
large collection of equipment, that (1) I lost my
creativity to make new music, and (2) owning lots of
equipment on top of moving it all over the place (22 moves
in nearly 15 years), I wondered if I should have owned any
of it at all. Slowly, and one by one, God proved to me,
that everything I had thought when I was young, was
correct, but that somehow I had stopped believing that I
was correct, I lost faith in my mission.
In 2004 I hit one turning point, God saved all of my
equipment from total destruction. It was in a basement, and
somewhere between 3 weeks, to 2 months, after I had moved
it, that side of the basement flooded. If the basement had
flooded when my equipment was there, then it would have
been damaged beyond repair, and I am not sure what I would
be saying today. But in that day God proved, that he has
saved me from disaster, and from that day, I never troubled
myself over owning all of the equipment.
In 2005 I hit another turning point, I was attending
Saddleback Church in California, and I was on the last step
of 4, to becoming involved at the church. On the last day,
were we all given this giant sized form to fill out. While
I was filling in that form, that is when I realized that I
had been limiting my talent. God did not make me a
musician,
nor did he make me an artist, or a photographer. God gave
me a greater talent, he made me creative. This
creativeness, I could choose to apply to any area, music,
art, even photography, even in computers, and any other
interest or desire I might have. It was a gift of unlimited
creativity. But what I have found out is that this gift, it
has one stipulation, that I remain a follower of God, that
I seek, cling to, and follow God with all my heart, and
serve Him only. If I do that, then unlimited creativity is
given to me simply for the asking. All I need is to simply
ask God for the creativity, and it flows, like a well
gushing over, and it does not stop till I ask that it be
turned off. It is because of the Holy Spirit that resides
in me, that all of this is possible, and I firmly believe
in it, and of it.
In 2007, that is when I learned that it was only with God,
only when I was focused on Him did I write even one speck
of music. I kid you not, without God, I can barley play 2
or 3 notes and sound good, but with God, chord progressions
flow left and write, and most of the music I write, is
written in only a few minutes. The arrangement may take an
hour, and the mastering process takes me a while, but the
chords, and progression of the music is fixed in usually
just a few minutes, only this is from God, praise God,
glory in the highest, and amen.
Art:
Over the years, I have been very fond of flowers, and I
took many pictures of them. In 2006 I started working with
stop motion, and animation. None of that was every
released, but it will be soon, its on a 3 year plan, and
since I am writing this in 2009, this is the year I had
been working up to.
Personality:
I am the guy, who works on long projects. My plans take
10-15 years to bear fruit, or come to any results. I am a
planner. I like to do things that result in immediate
results, but that is not always practical. I am not one to
released unfinished things on youtube, or just put out
something just to say I have done it. I wrote/arranged over
800 compositions, between 1997-2007. I do not have a
shortage of work, I do have a shortage of time. I recognize
that it takes time to make things that are worth while.
In 2004, I was having some trouble. I officially began to
re-pursue Spoken Hope, after letting it float since 1996.
So I set out to write some new material, and I write a few
songs very quickly. Nothing was wrong with the music, but
the messages I was speaking over the music, they came out
wrong. I tried to do it all spontaneous but I realized that
when you do that, you can get influenced by the devil, and
he can sway your words. After that I when to pick it up
again, about a year later in 2005. After trying to write
some sermons, or messages to use with Spoken Hope, I found
quickly that I lacked a complete knowledge of the Bible. I
was so stressed out, that I hurriedly tried to figure out
what to do, should I go to Bible college, or just go to
seminary, or enroll in a class. I did not pursue those
things in the end, instead what I did, is I just decided to
read the Bible from beginning to end, at 5 chapters a day,
including the weekends. In a little under a year, I
finished. What made my anxiety leave, and deterred me from
seminary or Bible college, was that I had to ask myself -
what has kept me from reading the Bible over the last 5
years? Surely I have owned a Bible for at least 5 years,
why is all the rush now? That is also when I learned, or
reminded myself, that God has His own timetable. If I hurry
up and do a wasted effort, I help no one. But if I am
patient, and can wait on the Lord, better things can
happen. That is what happened in 2007, EWF emerged, and I
started working on Spoken Hope for now the 4th time.
More resources are available on the contact and about
pages.