OK Go, otherwise known as the “treadmill music video band” is coming to Indy, and I’ve got two free tickets to give away!

It’s been a long winter here in Indianapolis. It’s been cold. It’s been snowy. There were multiple, back-to-back days when the only evidence of the sun was the dim light which snuck through the dense, lower atmosphere and lit our way as the frigid air outside latched onto every bare plot of flesh we haphazardly left uncovered. However, today I took a run outside. I wore shorts. It was delightful–absolutely delightful! To celebrate, I’m giving away two free tickets to OK Go’s upcoming show here in Indy! I’ve never given away anything from Love{All}People (so here goes!), and I thought now was as good a time as any. I am so thankful for your readership. You continue to come back time and time again, and through your feedback and interaction I’ve been challenged on many occasions throughout the past months. Thank you for reading. Thank you for reading. Thank you for reading. Thank you for sharing, commenting, subscribing, contemplating, and being a part of this community. Even if there are only a few, you are important, and I truly cherish your engagement and feedback. My hope is that in everything we say and do, we can continually and genuinely love all people.

Here’s how to win:

Simply comment below. I have a number preselected. The comment that lands on that number will get the tickets. You can comment twice to increase your chances, and if you share this post on Twitter or Facebook, you’re allowed to comment for each share you contribute. Easy. Have fun. Thanks for reading.

This Too Shall Pass

Amy King is showcasing her incredible, heart bending, Haitian photography at the ArtSpace this Friday, March 5th, from 6-9 pm. I have seen many of her captivating photos, and this is sure to be an excellent event, full of vibrant energy and color, for an extremely worthy cause. Photographs of her travels to Haiti, both before and after the devastating quake, will be for sale, and all proceeds will go to support medical missions to the country.

Wine and food will be provided by Mass Ave Wine Shoppe and Haitian coffee by Cafe Rebo. The documentary, “The Road To Fondwa” will be screened at 7p, 8:30p, & 9:15p. Director Justin Brandon will be in attendance for Q & A. Other artists in attendance and showing work are as follows: Casey Jo Ailes, Nicole Yalowitz, Gayla Hodson, Kevin Smola (Power Over Poverty), and Gwyneth Sutherlin. Also, Haitian fashion designer Berny Martin with Catou Couture will auction off a tailor made suit, and Amelia Reiling will have a reading for purchase, as well. The Gennesaret Free Clinic of downtown Indy will be there too. Here’s your official Facebook invitation.

Brad Ruggles is live-blogging in Kenya! He’s capturing stories and images of a country in dire need of love. I would highly recommend following him as he journeys through Kenya over the next week. You can learn more and venture with him and the rest of the Compassion blogging team by simply clicking on the photo to the right. I know he will be thankful, and so will all the kids he writes for. Ruggles’ heart is truly for the people of Africa, and the passion with which he writes will move you and challenge you on many levels.

Ryan Sawrie is blogging about his most recent trip to Guatemala. In a rather bold move, Ryan has decided to open and re-write from his personal journal in order to share how the Lord moved and worked through him and his team during their time in Guatemala. His insights are truly thought provoking, personal, and challenging. His journal is worth digging into. Ryan’s wife, Katie, went too, and she has some great thoughts (and photos!) on Guatemala, as well.

I’ll Love You If

I’ll love you if you look like me, give me what I want, and promise to never refute me. I’ll love you if you never label me a bad person, never speak the truth of who I am, never prophesy based on my undisciplined mind. I’ll love you if you never tell me, “No.” I’ll love you if you’re pretty and passionate. I’ll love you if you’re rich, trendy, and easy going. I’ll love you if you’re proportionate, well aligned, and symmetrical. I’ll love you satisfactorily–acceptably in the eyes of surrounding onlookers. I’ll love you based on my conditions, exemptions, and priorities. I’ll love you if you love me in return. I’ll love you if you promise to make me feel good, support me, comfort me, talk gently to me, and wrap your arms around me. I’ll love you if you have a degree, a car, a family, and a getaway plan. I’ll love you for what I can get in return. I’ll love you because you’re my friend. I’ll love you as long as I just have to say it, give lip service to it, and not really honor it in my heart.

I can’t bear the storm. I can’t handle the waves crashing against my damaged sea wall. Hit me too hard and I’ll crumble into your force, be absorbed by your strength, be flooded by what you call the natural progression of grace. I can’t say yes to your love for fear of trembling too deeply, shaking free of my own grasp, breaking away from the comfort of my self-centered goodness and keeping of unnecessary traditions. Your love moves too much. Your love has too much force, too much gravity, too much unresolved, undefinable power. Your love treads over oceans and builds upon their shores. Your love overwhelms my self-made, flesh-constructed barricades; makes swamp land of my shallow, arid desert; and brings forth rain upon my sandy, shifting fields. Your love is too good without me, too perfect apart from my imperfect presence. If I give you all I have, your love remains the same; if I give you nothing, your love remains the same–nothing can affect your love, nothing can change your stance toward me. Your love which I cannot describe, define, or return, soothes my soul yet shakes the foundation of my heart.

Point And Stare At Nothing At All

I’ll love you as long as you don’t look like a terrorist. Preconceptions of hate and fear based on what I’ve been told by media personalities and 5-star politicians have, for too long, permeated and shaped my mind. For too long I failed to deeply examine the issues and truths and hastily made conversation by simply accepting what I was told to believe. Believe and repeat–and repeat after me–believe and repeat. The long, gray beard covering your face and the tightly wrapped, sun-colored turban hiding your coarse, dark hair disguises your heart and blinds me from seeing beyond my fear and self-righteous, judgmental misconceptions. I will judge you, fear you, define you, stare at you, make you feel uncomfortable, force you to leave, and I’ll not feel a bit of remorse for any of it. You cannot sit in here. You must take your food and go. Back to the street, to the cold, to the night, to a small sub-culture of a world that actually loves and accepts you because they know and trust you. I will not know you. I will not trust you. I will not love you, and I will force you away from here. I will restrict my love and make you an exception to what I say is true on Sunday morning, sitting, drinking tea with my friends. You’ve never harmed a soul, yet something in me whispers, “Be careful.” Be careful to remember what you’ve been told to believe about them, what you’ve watched on your flat, glass encased box–the images still fresh, playing on repeat as shadows dance and explode and destroy other shadows right in front of your eyes. “They’re all the same, and they’re out to get us,” the suits say from behind the comfort of their steel desks and microphones. Hate what you don’t understand and withhold your love from those who look like terrorists. Withhold your love from those who bring terror, from those who wield their power with gun and cannon, from those who kill Americans, from those who kill good men and women. Go ahead and stare, let your children point their fingers. They will never turn. They will never turn–Saul of Tarsus–from their laws to grace–Paul of all people.

Floored

Your love starts as a shake and grows into a shocking reverberation that pulses through my soul, cuts the blood from my legs, pushes me to the floor, and leaves me gasping–mouth open wide–for air now full of dirt and hair kicked up from my reeling and tossing about. The carpet burns my face as it slides across. The lack of oxygen scorches my eyes till the blood vessels break, and I seem a man condemned to death. I can take in so little, and my heart starts to slow. I can’t breathe, can’t see, can’t feel myself move. I watch my legs rotate my body in circles on the floor like a spinning ferrous wheel with no shiny horses to hold on to. The air is heavy and thick, and it goes down like corrosive, grainy whiskey. This prodigal son gained the world, forfeited his soul, found no solace there, and trudged back home, beaten by the world and hopeful for grace. I find myself wanting nothing more than to know of love beyond me and my dreary, pig-sty moment.

I can’t justify loving a death row inmate. Your misdeeds and sin and utter disregard for human life gives me right to hate you, to hate you so much that I wish you dead and eagerly anticipate your day of lethal injection. Your mistakes are too great to forgive, too disturbing to warrant my love. Your choice got you here, and you will pay the price for your mistake. Grace is beyond you. Grace died when you took that innocent, defenseless life. A life for a life, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. The gavel goes down, the lawyers walk away, the crowd murmurs something about being deserving of death, and you are rendered incapable of receiving love from this time forward. I am angry, and you are a murderer. But, surely anger against my fellow brother warrants nowhere near the same sentence as the heinous act of murder does for you. Surely, the two are not the same. Surely, they don’t deserve the same punishment. Surely.

The water pours in through the cracked window and quickly saturates the carpet upon which I lie. I roll onto my back and feel the water rise around my ears–up to my chin–filling the space between my sealed lips. My hair moves in the water like coral polyps growing on a reef. I can sense the water flooding my space, filling the gaps around me, invading my existence until nothing else remains. I breathe you in and hold on as though you could be the last breathe I ever receive. And when I can’t hold on any longer, I swallow your love, sit up, arise from the water, embrace new life, and begin to stand again. The water continues to flow in through the window. The pressure builds, the glass begins to delicately crack, and I, prone to devastation and deserving of worse, walk away to higher ground. The levee breaks, and my art is blurred, colors and shapes ruined as they sink into the darkness of the deepening ocean. I leave the canvases behind. I get up, leave my tax collectors booth, and simply start following. I wonder, “Why would you save me? Why would you love me? Why would you rescue this broken soul from certain darkness and death?” Your love leaves me in wonder.

Growing In Grace

Your love, once a small tremor within me, has completely woven its way into every fiber of my being. Your vine wraps around my heart, moves into my lungs, pierces my soul, cracks my flesh, and breathes new life into my mouth, new air into my deflated, torn lungs. Your branches send blood to my limbs, and your water calms my trembling hands. I wrestle with the floor no more. From higher ground I watch as my grave is filled in, and my tombstone is shattered into a million little pieces. Where O death is your victory; where O death is your sting.

You love me regardless of absolutely anything. You love me in spite of my flaws. You love me in spite of what I have done to you. You love me in spite of it all. I spat on you, mocked you, threw rocks at you, tore the clothes off of you, falsely accused you, beat you, ripped the skin off of your bones, scraped the hair from your scalp, cursed you, denied you, pierced your flesh, ended your life, buried you, and tried to forget you. I did all of these things, laughing and cheering along the way. I terrorized you and took your very life, yet still you love me. Nothing I do can keep you from loving me. Nothing I say can harness your love. You are incapable of conditions. You are unwilling to let me go. Nothing can steal me from your hand. You love me no matter what I have or have not done. You love the terrorist, the death row inmate, and even me.

If you’re reading this, and you’re thinking about watching the video, I would strongly encourage you to pray before doing so. Regardless of what you believe, it will be unbearably painful. There are no words to describe what has happened and what is happening in Orissa, India. The persecution is heavy, and it is absolutely real. It is absolutely real.

The first wave of organized attacks against Christians occurred in Orissa in December of 2007. This aggression was followed by even more widespread violence in August 2008 following the murder of a well-known religious leader. What these outbursts had in common was that both assaults were orchestrated by anti-Christian elements within fundamentalist Hindu political parties. And in both cases, neither local, state nor national governments intervened to stop the killings.

In the 2008 attacks, more than 500 Christians were killed and some 50,000 were driven into the jungles. At least 5,000 Christian homes were destroyed, and dozens of churches were ransacked or burned out. There were also reports that several dozen Christian women were sexually assaulted and more than 40 shops owned by Christians were looted.

–GFA

You know how much persecution and suffering I have endured. You know all about how I was persecuted in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra—but the Lord rescued me from all of it. Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

–2 Timothy 3:11-12

Last week I had the chance to meet with Amie LoPresti of Africa Water Is Life, an organization dedicated to harvesting clean water in Africa for those who live without. I find her story not only moving and full of life but also compelling and worthy of a justified response due to the extreme nature of the situation in Africa that is their desperate need for clean water. This is her story. This is her passion. My hope is to convey to you the energy and fervor with which she speaks about the people of Africa and their desperate need for clean and living water alike. Amie is a woman broken for people. She sees beyond dry mouths and bloated stomachs and into hearts. She believes that in order to genuinely change people’s lives they must first be able to drink without fear of death. Clean water, she believes, can be the transforming switch to end poverty. She believes it is a crucial element for initiating change in a continent that is so desperate for hope. For Amie, it’s simple, water is life.

Parke: How did Africa Water Is Life get started?

LoPresti: In 2008 I went on two trips to Sierra Leone in Western Africa with World Hope International. While there we met and spoke with the President of Sierra Leone, and he told us of his people’s dire need for clean water. He told us that most of Sierra Leone has water residing just beneath the surface of the ground, but the people have no way of retrieving it. They have no means or money to drill down and take what is resting just below the ground upon which they currently live. We came back to the States impacted by the need, knowing we had to do something, so we started raising money. My church raised $150,000 and an anonymous donor matched it. Not long after that, we established Africa Water is Life as a marketing tool for World Hope International.

Parke: What was your initial strategy to begin raising awareness in Indiana?

LoPresti: Back in the States we began exploring how we could make the biggest impact. My background is in the promoting business so I have a lot of experience in bringing attention to events and organizations. Our approach became: What can we do to involve the next generation, to empower teens and young adults to help the people of Africa. We wanted to do more than just convince a lot of people to give us money. We wanted to educate, raise awareness, and allow people to become an intricate part of the movement. We wanted them to get behind Africa Water Is Life and make it their own. We made it our goal to provide potential donors with creative ways to directly support the water crisis. And it worked!

Parke: What were some of the creative ways?

LoPresti: One of the first ways we raised money was by taking donations for bracelets made in Sierra Leone. We went to Dave Matthews weekend, and the fans wouldn’t let us leave. They wanted more bracelets; to know more about the cause; and to join us. That’s when I knew we were on to something. I realized that people, once informed, were willing to join and help in any way they could. Even if all they could do was simply donate for a leather bracelet, crafted by a woman living and working in Sierra Leone, they still wanted to be involved.

Everything we do goes directly to building wells. It’s that simple. I think people love that about Africa Water Is Life. It’s not complicated. Do this and people get clean water. Donate for a bracelet and help build a well.

Parke: The youth are passionate about this?

LoPresti: They are! The youth are doing it. Getting clean water in Africa is possible, and yes, the kids are spearheading the movement. They are taking control, leading it on their own with very little help from us.

Parke: In Africa, what does drilling a well look like?

LoPresti: The cost to drill a well in Africa is $4,850. That one well will supply 700-1,000 people with clean water for a very long time. One well can transform an entire village.

Parke: You’re telling me that $4,850 will impact and potentially save up to a thousand lives?

LoPresti: Yes! It’s incredible! And we don’t just go in, dig the well, and leave. We train people within the village how to take care of and repair the well, to sustain it, and treat it as their own. We guide them through the process of buying new parts for the well in case something goes wrong. We want to allow the people to make it their own.

Parke: How do the villagers respond at the first site of clean water?

LoPresti: They celebrate! In one village the water started pouring out of the ground, and the leaders, the men of the village, were completely silent. They couldn’t believe what was happening. They were silent, and their eyes were full of tears. They were weeping out of joy. They were so happy and thankful, they couldn’t hold back their tears. And then they danced! Women with buckets on their heads started dancing around, children started singing and performing. They put on a show for us!

I believe water is a human right. Everyone should have access to clean water, and there they were, joyful and dancing over water, a basic human right we have with us every day.

Parke: What’s the water culture like within the villages before clean water?

LoPresti: Women play a huge role in getting water. They are the water haulers. Daily, they carry these terribly uncomfortable 40lbs, 5-gallon buckets on their heads for miles at a time. Some walk with their buckets for more than five miles a day just to get water. I have a friend who saw an older, pregnant woman struggling to carry her water and decided to try and help her by carrying her bucket. She grabbed the woman’s bucket, but she couldn’t even lift it onto her head. It was too heavy. My friend described the smell of the water as an unbearable stench. She went on to say that it was a long, hard walk not made any easier with sloshing swamp water precariously resting on her shoulder as she breathed in the stench over the course of her journey back to the village.

This is a trek that women, even pregnant women, make every day just to keep their families alive. The people’s animals swim in, defecate in, and walk through the same water which they use to cook with, bathe in, and drink. Seeing people consume this water, as the stench alone overwhelmed me, was truly humbling. I will never be the same. I think about it every time I turn on a faucet or have to choose between buying bottled water instead of tap. We take a lot for granted. We take water for granted. The next generation has to take ownership of this because it’s really going to be their problem and their challenge very soon.

Parke: What are some creative ways that people are contributing here in Indy?

LoPresti: A friend of ours started a snowplowing campaign. He offered to plow driveways in exchange for donations! So, we went out and told residents about Africa Water Is Life and asked if they would be willing to let us remove their snow in exchange for a contribution. For those who said yes, we sent a blue ribbon to put on their mailbox, and our friend plowed the driveways that showed support. He plowed, they made a donation, and together we raised $14,000 in one winter!

Parke: What? $14,000 by plowing your neighbors driveways?

LoPresti: Yes! You just have to talk about it, and you have to be passionate about what you stand for. Some people will believe you and some won’t, but those who do will want to join you in your passion. You have to be willing to ask people what they’re good at. Ask what they can you do to help, to serve, to step out and make a contribution. Some people plow driveways. Some write. Some organize people. Some play music. You have to be willing to ask people to use their talents, treasures, and time to help others. There are no boundaries to loving and helping people. There is no time line. The giving and serving should go on and on and on; everyday, regardless of whatever else you have going on.

Parke: How does your faith play into Africa Water Is Life?

LoPresti: So much of our help comes from people, and up to this point so many have stepped up to help and donate their materials and skills to us for free, but most importantly, and this is what we love about World Hope, everything we do in Africa is Bible based. We long to share the gospel with the villagers whom we drill wells for. We have to give them lasting hope. The villagers ask, “Where does this well and water come from?” We get a great opportunity to tell them, “He’s provided it. God has blessed us.” The relationships and connections being made on the ground with those receiving clean water have to be filled with love because none of our work could be done without God. We make that clear to everyone on the ground.

Parke: Regardless of who we are or where we come from, we can all relate to water.

LoPresti: Right. Whether you’re in high school, in college, at a church youth group, at a Phish concert, into your career–wherever you are, no matter what you believe–water is something you can relate to. Whether you think about it often or not at all, water is extremely important to your life.

Parke: Tell me about the marketing behind Africa Water Is Life.

LoPresti: Social media is important. It’s been huge for us. Facebook, Twitter, texting, blogs, have all helped us get the word out and spread our message to the masses. Meeting face to face is great, but let’s face it, the younger generation has to be initially approached through social media. It’s the most effective way. It’s where we’re moving in terms of communication, and we are leveraging it to the best of our ability.

Parke: So this is a social media success story?

LoPresti: Right, yeah. Very much so.

Parke: In an age when giving to or being a part of a charity is trendy, what sets Africa Water Is Life apart?

LoPresti: Well, for me, I don’t ever want to be the face of this cause. It’s not about me or my glory or my fame. David Cranor and I are partners in this, and he has been like a brother throughout, but neither one of us want to be the face of this cause. We don’t want to be in front of it. We want World Hope to be the hero. We want God to be the hero. I don’t know why we’ve been successful or so highly energized in an era of charitable trendiness, but we have been. We’ve been blessed. Don’t misunderstand, we’ve gone through our struggles, but we keep forging ahead. God has given me a creative, strong determination, and we’re not giving up on the water crisis in Africa. I think what sets us apart is that we are allowing the youth to take the reigns of the movement and make it their own. I want the next generation to shine through. I want the kids to know that it’s simple. We’re giving those who are thirsty a cup of clean water.

Parke: Where does the donated money go?

LoPresti: All of our proceeds go to World Hope International which in turn gives them to the well building efforts in Africa. We take nothing. Everything goes to the people. I have a full time job so it’s not about personal gain through charity. It’s about not being able to ignore people in need of clean water.

Last year we raised funds to dig 10 wells. Six weeks into the new year, we’ve raised as much as we did last year, $30,000. Our goal was to do another 10 wells, but I think we’re going to double that. It’s comparable to birth. For months we’ve been nurturing this effort, spreading our cause, and eventually this great, God given thing pops out, and after all the struggles and hard work, there’s this miracle. After all the struggle, you start to gain momentum and help a lot of people.

Parke: You all work very hard! I’ve seen you and your team in action, and it’s obvious that you are extremely passionate about what you’re doing.

LoPresti: If we can get in somewhere, we’re going to go. Festivals, schools, churches, fairs, concerts, wherever; we’re going. It’s not easy to make this go, but we are going. We’re looking for students and kids who are excited about helping dig wells and share the story.

I just love the people. They’re so cool. I love the African community. We can’t help but work hard. Everyone is working together. Everybody is moving. Those in Africa and those here in the States. It crushes me every day to know that people don’t have clean water. It’s a daily struggle for me. In Africa, 90% of the kids die before reaching the age of five, and 4,500 kids pass away daily, 6000 people every day. And please understand, the loss of a child in Africa is no different than it is here. The mothers still hurt, still weep, and the families are still in desperate need of help.

Parke: What happens when clean water is introduced into a village?

LoPresti: It changes everything. Imagine, everyday you wake up and your stomach is more bloated than the day before. You are malnourished, dying from diarrhea. You have skin diseases from bathing in soiled water. You have terrible flu like symptoms–vomiting and uneasiness–every, single day. But, when we implement clean water, all of that goes away. Clean water changes everything. Women no longer have to walk miles each day to retrieve water. They can stay at home and plant gardens and prepare healthy meals for their families. The children are no longer sick or feeling nauseated. They can go to school and get an education.

It’s far more than just water, it’s life. It’s living water. Water effects everything they do. Water effects everything we do! I challenge you, take away all of your typical sources of clean water and then go out and try to find clean water. Where would you go? These kids play in muddy, dirty, diseased water. The elders within these villages never thought they would see the day when clean water would come. The average life span is 42 years because of their struggle to survive. Due to dirty water, life is a struggle for survival. There is no advancing if you spend every day just trying to survive.

Parke: What can we do beyond writing a check?

LoPresti: Go. Go to Africa. If you haven’t seen it, you really can’t even imagine. Forget your feelings of worry or insecurity. Your chances of dying on Highway-465 are greater than in Africa with our trained teams and guides. Go and experience what it’s like. Just go. You have to see it because I can’t find words to fully express what I have seen. The look of a mother when she says, “Take my child, we’re going to die, there are no resources here, it’s too hard.” For the families and children alone, we should help them. More people need to experience it so they can deeply understand it and have it impact their lives. There’s no way it can’t deeply move you to action, to help in some way or another.

Go and see how beautiful the people are; their laughs, their smiles. They’re happy to have the shirt on their back. They don’t know about TV or traffic jams or waiting in line at Starbucks or the other so called problems we experience here. They don’t know what they don’t have. So sacrifice. Give up something for a time. Whatever you would spend on that, give it to Africa to build wells. It’s not hard. We drill wells. It takes money. The more you give, the more wells we can drill, the more lives will be saved. It’s simple. Water is life.

VIDEO

It has been a bit of a slow, melodic year for me in terms of music, but the times they are a changing. I’ve taken the symbols off the walls, dusted off the set, and discovered (some for a second or third time) four artists whom I have come to respect and enjoy. I think their music is worth sharing. I’m always on the look-out for new artists, especially Indy based, so let me know if I’m missing someone you love. For the latest in music appreciation, I usually go to this great music resource blog. Also, I find this coffee shop in Irvington to be very supportive of the arts (including live music) and always overflowing with spectacular joe. The picture above is painted on the side of their building. One more thing, if you’re looking for a different way to support the people of Haiti, click here.  All proceeds raised from the selling of the photographs taken of the desperate situation in Haiti will be directly donated to support medical missions within the country.

Throw Down Your Heart: Tales from the Acoustic Planet Vol. 3-Africa Sessions is one of the most explosive yet soothingly artistic collaborations I have ever heard. Bela Fleck is one of the world’s premiere musicians, and his incorporation of incredibly talented African vocals and rhythms into his experimental style has once again pushed the boundaries of acoustic vibrancy and sound.

Derek Webb’s Stockholm Syndrome is a brave combination of beauty and truth. From start to finish, Webb uncovers some of the most common habits that the church is painfully addicted to. This album will leave you unsettled and, at many points along the way, baffled by how to respond. Webb’s music is not without controversy, and I think he believes that’s right where the church should be.

Kristin Newborn, lead singer of Indy’s very own, Slothpop, is leading the Indie music charge here in the city. Her voice seemingly floats along as her hands dance upon her guitar or press into her keys. Her music is laid back yet concerned, fun yet contemplative. I saw Newborn in concert at Earth House Collective this past month, and had the opportunity to chat with her after her performance. Aside from being a lovely musician, she is also overwhelmingly kind and thankful for the support. To understand more about Kristin’s voice, click here.

Josh Hoke is an Indy based artist in beautiful transformation. His lyrics powerful, his voice raspy, his heart broken for those he sings for, it’s difficult not to embrace the message of hope threaded throughout his music. I’ve seen Hoke live many times, and the passion he has for whom he sings of is both overwhelming and inspiring.  Many artists are willing to openly let their lives be viewed, but very few are willing to allow their story to be seen for all that it genuinely is. Hoke has one of the most unique voices I’ve ever heard. He understands the power of music. He understands the necessity of worship. For a glance into his music click here.