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Archived Mail Item
Dec. 22, 2008 - BACK IN THE STUDIO After returning from Brazil where Christafari played before 80,000 last Spring, we began writing and recording for both Avion's sophomore debut, "Sweet Life" and Christafari and Friends' "Reggae Redemption Songs II". The studio schedule was hectic given the immovable deadline of our European tour in June and our host of shows stateside. We did GMA week in Nashville and played spot dates in California (including the Spirit West Coast festival), Texas and Arizona and extensively toured Florida. At one of our performances in Florida 4,000 people came out to hear us lead worship in a reggae style. It was the largest audience that the church had ever seen on a Wednesday night! Performing before 80,000 in Brasilia, Brazil.  Singing reggae worship songs before 4,000 at a Calvary Chapel in Florida.  Singing a reggae version of "Lord I Lift Your Name On High."  Mark sharing his testimony. THE ALOHA SPIRIT We also caught a bit of the aloha spirit on our 10 day tour of the Hawaiian Islands. I have been to almost 50 countries in the last two decades with Christafari, but have never been to a place like Hawaii. The beauty of the islands and their beaches was breathtaking and the people, their culture and gift of hospitality were a true blessing. Despite the location, this was no vacation. We performed an unprecedented 9 shows in 10 days on 5 islands (Hawaii, Oahu, Kauai, Maui and Lanai). Each island was so different from the one before. On Lanai we were the first band to visit and perform a concert in over eight years!  "Aloha!" Our arrival in Hawaii. What a beautiful welcome! TO THE LEAST OF THESE As usual, everywhere we went we brought the gospel of Jesus Christ and many were saved. The greatest response to our message was when we performed at a prison on Oahu. God touched even the toughest of thugs that night. For years I have struggled with Jesus' words in Matthew 25:43; "for I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me". Let's face it, how many of us want to visit a prison? Yet the irony of this was that the one show we least looked forward to doing in Hawaii ended up being our favorite moment of the tour! Who would have thought that playing before a captive audience at a prison in paradise would be the highlight? The Lord works in mysterious ways!ETERNAL SUNSETS IN ICELAND Somehow in between all of these shows we managed to finish recording two albums. In fact, Avion's CD arrived just hours before our departure to Europe. This was our fifth trip to Europe and would prove to be our longest and most ambitious tour to date. We went to 15 countries in just 7 weeks! This tour kicked off in Iceland where we played at the country's first ever gospel festival. Iceland was like being on another planet. The landscape is like Mars and the language and culture are so unique. Where else can you eat whale blubber, sheep's head or rotten shark? And after five days of trying to overcome jetlag in a land where the sun never sets in the summer, we were ready for our next port of call.  Obie (guitar) exploring the tundra at 3:00am. This is as dark as it gets in Iceland!  A three hour sunset (or is it a sunrise?) in Reykjavik, Iceland.  We swore we were on another planet! EVERY DAY IS AN ADVENTURE From Iceland we headed off to Latvia, another country that was new to us. We were astonished to perform before a sold out crowd for our first visit. After Latvia we went to Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Germany, England, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Spain. We received the best response in former Soviet block countries like Poland and Slovakia where reggae is a relatively new thing to them. Sometimes the crowds got as large as 5,000. As I am writing this I have to hold myself back from commenting on every city and performance. There were just so many rich experiences that we could fill a book. We traveled by plane, train, automobile and even boat. Every day was an adventure and every night a mystery. Sometimes we slept on beds and other times on cots. We ate the best of foods and unquestionably the worst of foods. We experienced both the kindest hospitality and the worst of accommodations. Besides the hectic schedule, currency fluctuations (that caused us to lose thousands of dollars), sleepless nights in tiny beds and a few of us getting sick, it was an incredible tour full of life experiences that will never be forgotten.  Seaside Festival (after the show) during our first visit to Norway.  Avion singing "Yeshua" in Poland.  Wave your hands!  Performing at a Castle in Poland (Slot Art Festival)  Mark preaching to a thousand in Poland.  Mark sharing from the Word of God for 2 hours!  Prodigal sons and daughters recommitting their lives to the Lord. STRANDED IN SPAIN The toughest leg was at the very end of the tour. 24 hours before our last show in Ireland, the promoter cancelled on us, leaving 11 of us stranded in Spain with no flights to England so that we could catch our return flight home. It was such a challenge trying to frantically book lodging, a rental car and airline tickets to get us to England in time to catch our scheduled flight home. It was nice to spend our last days in Europe in beautiful Tarragona, Spain, but it cost us an overwhelming debt just because one man breached his agreement!RASTAS HAILING CHRIST This tour was both good and bad, but it was well worth it to see thousands of people give their lives to Christ. Every night as I would give the gospel message at the end of our show and see hands raised, I'd think to myself, "That was me 19 years ago! Just imagine what God is going to do through these beautiful souls!" We played everything from major festivals to small camp meetings, from large churches to Rasta clubs. But wherever we went people came to the Lord-INCLUDING RASTAFARIANS!  Proclaiming the Word of God at a Rasta Club in Rotterdam. On Sundays the Rastas hold church here.  Obie rocking out to "Soul Fire"!  This tiny club looked like an underground bomb shelter. It was packed out and as hot as it gets! THE DEAF SHALL HEAR The most memorable day of the tour for many of us was when a teenage girl was healed during a worship service that we were a part of. It was at a youth camp in the Netherlands. We spent a few days at the camp and performed a concert, taught a seminar and played in a worship service. Before the worship service began, Jennifer (one of Christafari's vocalists) approached one of the teens and asked her a question. The teen indicated in sign language and her murmuring that she was deaf. Later that night when our band was holding our daily Bible study we discussed the topic of healing and whether God still heals and performs miracles in this age. The next morning as we were leaving the camp Jennifer was approached by a teen who tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Do you remember me." Jen paused. She looked familiar, but something was very different. Then the girl proceeded to tell Jen how she was deaf and could not speak until the Lord healed her at the worship service the night before. Jen welled up in tears and the two rejoiced together. God still does miracles!ONWARD AND UPWARD Upon returning home from Europe we hit the studio to record "Onward and Upward" for my good friend Roge Abergel. Roge is a pastor of a Church in Van Nuys, CA and for the last year I have been producing his unique blend of roots and dub reggae. This album truly was a family affair as Christafari was involved in the recording, performing, producing, mixing and artwork. It was a labor of love. This album is available today at GospelReggae.com through Lion of Zion Entertainment. In September and early October we also recorded a music video for Avion's first single, "Yeshua" (to see this video go to the home page at www.gospelreggae.com).  Filming Avion's music video "Yeshua" in Joshua Tree National Park, CA. "IT'S A SUICIDE MISSION" After shows in Central and Northern California where we played before thousands (and shared the stage with the Newsboys, Salvador and Jaci Velasquez), Christafari headed off to Brazil. This was the most extensive tour of Brazil by any international group! During October we played every major city in this vast country! I remember speaking to my mother on the phone half way through the tour. She asked me how things were going and I told her it was a "suicide mission!" While it wasn't that bad; it was pretty tough. Imagine playing 18 shows in 14 cities in just 21 days. And on our days off we were often driving 8 to 10 hours!  The poster for our fourth Brazilian tour (Fall 2008).  Christafari, Dominic Balli and our road crew in front of our bus on the 2nd day of the tour.  Standing before "Christ the Redeemer" on our "Reggae Redemption Tour"  Another Enthusiastic Brazilian Crowd!  Hundreds were saved that night!  Above are all of the cities that we played during our most recent tour of Brazil. AN AVERAGE DAY ON TOUR An average day would have us getting up at 5am to drive for two hours to the airport and then fly for five hours, drive for another two, set up, soundcheck, eat, check into the hotel, get dressed, perform for THREE hours, minister to the audience for an hour, eat and then get back to the hotel by 2 am for a few hours of sleep-then repeat! After so many sleepless nights and shaking all those hands, it's no wonder most of us got sick on the tour! I was sick twice and was pretty miserable. This was the first tour where we have gotten sick and lost our voices. This happened to all our vocalists, so it made performances very challenging. But we kept reminding ourselves that God's grace was sufficient for us, and that in our weakness He would be strong. And He was. You can catch many of these performances on YouTube. Unfortunately due to significant currency fluctuations in October, a few canceled shows and having to book last minute flights, the financial situation proved very challenging. But again, the negatives of the tour were far outweighed by the positives. We went to so many places that we had never been before (and still can't pronounce) and saw larger audiences than any other tour, and a greater number of salvations!  More were saved on this tour than any previous Christafari tour. INCREDIBLE RESPONSE At Camp Pendleton, in Southern California we played our final show of the year. It was one unforgettable night! We had never played on a military base before and were blown away by the response. Our audience was 300 Marine recruits who were half way through boot camp. They were the most receptive audience we have ever played before. When I said "How are you feeling?" The whole audience shouted at the top of their lungs "GOOD SIR"! When I said stand, they stood. When I taught them a dance, they all participated. And when I asked them to repeat the sinner's prayer, all 300 shouted it out while on their knees before the Lord. Broken by their training and worried about their future, these young men were tremendously open to the message. I am convinced that a higher percentage of audience members came to Christ that day than in any of our previous shows. We hope for many more opportunities to play for the Armed Forces.  Camp Pendleton: There is nothing as loud as 300 soldiers with their fists in the air shouting "Warriors for Christ"!  300 recruits praying the sinner's prayer--VERY LOUD! OUR NEEDS If you managed to read this far, then you are probably as exhausted as we are after all this touring! As we approach our 20th year we hope to begin recording another Christafari album, and to continue touring and proclaiming the good news of salvation through Christ alone. But given these turbulent times, our mission is also facing more obstacles than ever before. Would you please pray for our finances? Ask that God will continue to provide for us as we do His work. We find that we have been digging ourselves into greater debt so that others would have a chance to hear the gospel, and we once again humbly ask you to lend a helping hand. If you have ever been blessed by the ministry of Christafari and Avion Blackman, and enriched by our recordings, please consider blessing our ministry with a monetary love-gift of any size. The honorariums we receive for concerts are not 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 release Avion's "Yeshua" video and our "Freedom Step" video. Our need is real and immediate. We hope that you will consider our ministry for your year-end tax-deductible love gift. 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! Swimming in His Grace, Mark Mohr and Avion Blackman-Mohr CHRISTAFARI www.christafari.com http://www.myspace.com/lionofzionent Please print out this page, cut out the portion below and use it as a daily prayer reminder. Thanks!  PLEASE PRAY FOR MARK AND AVION MOHR AND CHRISTAFARI:
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