April 25th, 2008 finally arrived. There was intense excitement in the air an hour before the concert began. Worshippers started gathering early to share the experience. When my pastor, Dr. Kirk T. Houston Sr. took the microphone for the opening prayer, you knew that the night was going to be special. The presence and power of God quickly filled the room. Yeah… God came to the recording session.

As we got into the first half I knew I needed to pace myself. I had been struggling with my voice over the previous 3 months. At one point I thought I would need to cancel the session. Then I decided that I would overdub the lead vocals later if I needed to – but I wasn’t going to kill the momentum and excitement that was already built about this recording. No… whatever it took, we were going to have that worship experience. We were going to keep our appointment with God.

Once we got into the second song of the session, I noticed that my voice had cleared up. It was on… like popcorn! Things were moving very smoothly. The audience was right there with us. I took my time and introduced nearly every song. This gave my voice a little cool down between songs so that I would be smooth going into the next song. I had to use wisdom to get through the night.

It was my desire for the night to be much more than a recording session where people sit and observe or stand and applaud. My goal was for worshippers to join me in pressing into the very face of God so that we could experience His glory together. But the night went exceeding abundantly above what I had asked or thought. So many moments occurred that were not planned or rehearsed. I can’t wait for you to hear some of these moments that we were able to capture… such as what happened as we concluded “Hallelujah Chant” and all got caught up in the presence and glory of God. Then Pastor Houston came to the mic and led us even deeper in the worship. There was even a moment in the second half when God gave us a song right on stage in the midst of the worship. There is nothing in this world like the presence of the Lord!

The evening would not have happened without the love and support of my fans and friends. There was great generosity expressed by my home church – Gethsemane Community Fellowship Baptist Church. I was also blessed with wonderful sponsors who poured into my music ministry. I am particularly grateful to my corporate sponsor – Dr. Jerome Barber and Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Temple of Hampton, Virginia. Pastor Barber was there with us from the opening to the benediction. It was so cool seeing him and my pastor there on the front row praying for us and worshipping with us through the entire session. What an honor!

The night was a leap of faith. But I can say that God used my sponsors, my fans and supporters to help us cover all of the expenses of the evening. We were able to walk away from the night with professional audio and video recording as well as digital photography. Some of the photos are already on my Myspace page. Stop by and check it out.

I am targeting early December for the release of this project. I’m open to suggestions for the title of the project. If you were at the session and have a recommendation, I’d love to hear it!

Please stop by our corporate sponsor’s webpage and see the great things God is doing at Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Temple – affectionately called SMZBT (“Smizzbit”).