Author Archives: Christine Miyawa

Zack Williams performs live at the First National Bank Arena

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By Christine Miyawa
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO – Zachary Stephen Williams, commonly known as Zack Williams, treated fans to songs from his latest album ‘Rescue Story‘ at the First National Bank Arena, Jonesboro on Oct. 24.

Excited fans started flocking the venue as early as 5 p.m. Fans stood in the isles to get a glimpse of the rock star in the pact arena.

One of the event organizers, Mitchell Cole of By His Grace Entertainment, said his job was to bring the locals and the lost community to attend the concert.

“We are 80 tickets short of selling out there were 2,300 available, so, over 2,000 sold. We want to bring the community together to know there is a personal Savior out there and he could be even here tonight,” Cole said.

Micah, who is a strong fan of Williams’ music said she bought her ticket a month earlier and was just waiting for the day of the concert. She said she started listening to Williams songs a year ago and the songs have a positive influence in her life.

“I haven’t heard any of William’s music that I don’t like. My favorite right now is ‘Rescue story’; it’s on repeat all the time,” she said.

Micah said she was excited to watch Williams perform the ‘Rescue Story’ live. Her mother and daughter accompanied her to the concert.

Williams’ branded merchandise, which included T-shirts and all his albums saw a large volume in sales at the merchandise tables near the entrance as fans flooded each table trying to buy something.

While fans settled in the concert hall, Chef Paul Fields prepared food for the rock star and his team of 50 VIPs. Fields travels with the Zack William’s crew wherever the crew goes. The menu consisted of smoked pork ribs, barbecue beef, grilled chicken, potatoes, vegetables and salad. Fields said there are always four shows a week; every night in a different city.

“Williams likes to nibble on the ribs,” he said. Fields specializes in smoked ribs.

The concert hall burst into cheers when Williams hit the stage. Williams is an Arkansas Native, grew up in Bono although he now lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and children.

Williams said he was terrified when he first signed his first record label because of fear from a constant reminder of his past.

He said he had this idea of the song he wanted to sing, a song that would put a face on fear and that’s how his hit song; ‘Fear is a liar’ was born.

His other hits included ‘Chain Breaker‘ and ‘Rescue Story‘, which he launched this year and is on tour to promote.

“I was the kind of guy you would shut your stores when you saw coming,” Williams said.

He struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. He said he is now a changed man.

Several policemen at every corner of the arena offered tight security during the concert.

Jim Brown, the director of the First National Bank Arena said, “We take security very serious for all our events and this is one of those events.”

They did not allow bags of any kind into the concert hall.

He said the University employs different security techniques for different shows depending on what’s going on with the elements of the show.

“I think we will be fine,” Brown said. “We have several events coming; the women’s basketball is still on, the Globetrotters are coming in February, we just announced a Broadway play for kids called the ’12th Night’ is coming, and Acoustic Rock Show is coming in February 4 as well.”

“Tonight, we could have a senior in high school come to the concert and say, ‘I like what Arkansas State has to offer; I want to make that the university I go to.'”

Williams closed the show but not without singing his hit song ‘Chain Breaker’ as the crowd applauded and sang along.

“The concert was fabulous,” David Specking, a fan at the concert said. “I could not wait; I bought the tickets the first time I heard Williams was coming to Jonesboro. I wanted to hear him sing the ‘Chain Breaker’ live.” His wife Ginger helped him ride his wheelchair as they leave the concert venue.

Williams said he never imagined playing music at the Convocation Center. He said it was good to come home and see the faces he hasn’t seen in many years. He has an extensive tour schedule to promote his new album “Rescue Story”. His next stop to perform was Austin, Texas.

COMPASSION IS SAVING LIVES WITH ‘DARE TO BE ‘

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By Christine Miyawa
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO – In a fully packed Wesley Hall at the First United Methodist Church in Jonesboro, Dare To Be ministry held its first conference in Jonesboro on Oct. 3. Multi-Dove and Grammy Award winner Natalie Grant and author and Pastor Charlotte Gambil founded the ministry which seeks to empower women of all ages.

Shirts are displayed while on sale during the Dare To Be ministry concert.

Grant performed at the sold-out event and it was the first time for Gambil, who lives and pastors the Life Church in England, United Kingdom, to visit this part of the United States of America.

Gambil, together with Grant, started the ministry to empower women and to help them reach their potential and be whom God has called them to be. They do so through the ministry of music and preaching.  “In the eye of the storm, there is calmness,” Gambil said.

Compassion International, a humanitarian organization helping needy children from developing countries, organized the concert. The theme of the event was “Speak to the Storm”.

Gambil gave a story of Eliezer, a 4-year-old Rwandese boy now a grown man in his 20s and a member of her church in England, whose parents and grandparents were slain by rebels during the Rwandan genocide at his watch.

Profile packets of children seeking sponsors are on display during the Dare To Be ministry concert.

Eliezer’s mother asked him to climb a tree and keep silent should the rebels come to attack his family. When rebels finally did, Eliezer climbed the tree and observed as both his parents and grandparents were hacked to death by machetes. He did not say a word and hid on the tree for two days. When he finally came down, he walked to the street; someone saw he was a child walking alone and took him to Compassion International, where Eliezer was adopted.

That story inspired Gambil. Gambil said she saw in her storm; she was able to help someone else in their storm. Gambil’s storm was lack of a child. She struggled with infertility. When she realized the possibility of adopting a child through Compassion, she saw a way to saw a seed for a miracle she was asking God for, so she became a sponsor.

Grant implored the audience during the concert to support Compassion International by contributing $38 a month to sponsor a child.  Profiles of children from several countries laid out in a packet on a table at the entrance, which she asked the volunteers to distribute to those who raised their hands.

“If you take a packet, this is a no-pressure deal. We just want to make you aware and invite you to be a part of it, but we don’t want to strong-arm you into it or anything,” Grant said.  “So, if you take a packet and you are like, ‘you know what, I just don’t think I can do this right now,’ we just need the packet back. This is why, every packet represents a real-life, so if you accidentally take it home or slip it in your bag and it gets lost, it takes months for that child on the packet to go through the system and get back on the packet, to have an opportunity to get sponsored again,” Grant said.

Volunteers passed packets; some people in the audience wrote checks.

The lead organizer from Compassion International at the Jonesboro Concert, Rachel Knoop 25-years-old, from Minnesota, said, her organization is in partnership with the Dare To Be ministry to help reach out and support less fortunate children in the developing countries.

Rachel said Compassion International was founded in 1952 by Everette Swanson, a preacher who traveled to South Korea to preach the gospel to the Army troops during the war. In his travels, Swanson encountered children orphaned by war and started the organization to raise funds to help the children with a little money every month to survive on.

Rachel said she has worked for the organization for some time.

“We are in 25 countries; recently, I was in Tanzania, Africa. I have also been to the Dominican Republic,” she said.

She said the organization is taking a holistic approach to eradicating poverty, providing clean water, nutrition for kids and their families, education and catering for the health costs.

“Compassion International is releasing children from poverty in Jesus’s name,” she said.

Rachel said the organization works with the local churches to recruit children to the program. Before, they used to hire a local staff member to do the recruiting. She said the local staff knew which children are most vulnerable. Now, it’s open and children can apply directly at compasion.com. She said they must meet critical poverty guideline, which is living on a $1.25 or less per day.

Rachel said they take in children from birth and the sponsors stay with them until they graduate out of the program at ages 18 to 22.

Once a child gets connected to a sponsor, they write each other letters back and forth. They get to know each other.

Sheila Hinson, a volunteer at the organization, handling a table where an array of profiles of children were spread out, said she has sponsored a child for the past 12 years.

Hinson started sponsoring Martha Wanjiru from Kenya when Wanjiru was only 6-years-old. She said when she picked Wanjiru’s packet, she was the only child left on the waiting list who had not found a sponsor. She said every month she spends $38 on Wanjiru and has done so for the past 12 years.

She said Wanjiru talks a lot about education. She said she hopes she can help make her dream come true and is in a place where she hears about Jesus.

Wanjiru is now 18 years old and pursuing a career in nursing. Smiling broadly, Sheila said she was also in the medical field for a long time. She sends her birthday cards and Wanjiru writes to her at least four to five times a year.

Erick Bush, 52, from Memphis, another Compassion International volunteer at the event. Bush said the organization sponsors children from South and Central America, Asia and Africa. He said to sponsor a child you pick out a packet, on the package are a photo of the child, information about the child, the child’s specific needs, their birth date and the community from where the child originates. There is a place for the sponsor to include their name and their credit card numbers. He says anyone interested can go online on Compassion.com, fill out their information and become a sponsor.

Bush is sponsoring two children from Ecuador. This is his eighth year since he started sponsoring them and plans to continue until they are out of the program. Bush sponsors the children providing food, shelter and medical services. He said he is sponsoring the children as an overflow of gratitude to Jesus Christ for the grace. When he is not volunteering for compassion International, he runs a restaurant in Memphis.

Knoop said a graduate of the program, Jonathan Almonte, ran for a political office in the Dominican Republic. Almonte is also a founder of a ministry that provides leadership training to local churches in the Dominican Republic.

Faith Benson from Nashville, Tennessee, the merchandise manager for “Dare To Be” oversaw the sales team selling branded T-shirts, jackets that read, ‘Peace is Power,’ necklaces that read, ‘Faith over Fear’ and devotional books authored by Gambil and Grant.

Benson said every night in the course of the tour, they have an honoree moment, where women at the previous event give offerings which they use to bless a woman at the next concert.  Volunteers passed baskets around in the concert hall and people made their offerings.

The Jonesboro event honored Tiffney Turner, a breast cancer survivor who has recovered from drug problems and is helping men and women who have drug problems beat the addiction through her ‘Breaking Bonds’ Ministry, was the Honoree. She received flowers, a black handbag made by women fighting addiction, and a two-day paid vacation at a hotel so she could celebrate her wedding anniversary, which fell on that same day and a 15-seater van to help transport the men and women in her ministry.

Gambil closed the event with a call on the audience to come forward and receive Christ Jesus, as Grant led the audience in a chorus of the song: ‘Whom you say I am,’ by Hillsong Worship.

The duo, together with their crew, headed to Dallas, Texas, for their “Dare To Be” performance the following day and after that to San Antonio, Texas.

Editor’s Note: Photos taken by Christine Miyawa.

Courthouse hosts 3-Day Christian revival

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Christine Miyawa
Delta Digital News Service

POCAHONTAS, Ark. – For the first time in the history, the Randolph County Courthouse lawn was the venue of a three-day Christian revival, which ran Sept. 16- 18, 2019.

The Northside Freewill Baptist Church organized the multi-day gathering that attracted more than 150 people. It was the first attempt by event organizers to reach out to the community and lawmakers through their ‘Bringing America Back to God’ revival.

Pastor Jerald Dean, whose church organized the event said, “Members of Congress are not doing what is right. They do not pray before making decisions. They are enacting laws that do not represent the will of God but to please the electorate for the sake of votes.”

Quoting George Washington’s farewell address to the nation and founding father Patrick Henry, Dean said, “Let no one claim trick you of American patriotism if they attempt to remove religion from politics. Patrick Henry said, it could not be emphasized too strongly or too often, that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but by the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Dean said Christians in America are facing persecution for preaching what they believe and are in fear that lawmakers will label them as teaching hate crime. “America was a country founded under God and lawmakers must come back to the Church to seek guidance to save America,” he emphasized.

Dean said America should base the foundation of the nation on the word of God because when the pilgrims came to America, they came for religious freedom- to serve God freely. He said they (Christians) are still able to do so; however, there is still much persecution against them. “When they teach and preach the word of God as it says from the pulpit, the lawmakers turn around and blame them for preaching hate crime,” he said.

Joy Swift, the lead organizer of the event and a member of the Northside Freewill Baptist church, said the Republicans and Democrats are not working together for the good of the people but witch-hunting on each other. She said there is a falling away in the church and there is no outpouring of the spirit. Swift said no one stepped forward to get saved during the three-day event. She said Christians are facing persecution; they cannot preach against what the Bible says is sinful.

“If the Bible says it’s a sin, it’s a sin; homosexuality, fornication and adultery are sins. Christians have abandoned Christian values,” she said.

Pocahontas resident Missy Philips, an attendee at the event, said everyone needs to come together as one under God, and it’s unfortunate that even schools no longer teach children the old bible stories and from where humans came.

Her husband Ricky Philips said all churches are dwindling; there is a big falling away, there aren’t many young people to replace the old generation that is dying because no one is teaching the young people about God in their homes anymore.

One of the guest speakers Pastor Terry Miller of the Assembly of God church in Pocahontas said, “America is one generation away from being a Godless society, which is the leading cause of violence.” Miller said that unless there is a spiritual awakening, America is slipping into a wave of darkness.

The County Judge David Jansen said he had tried to put up the Ten Commandments at the courthouse but faced opposition. He said lawyers argued that placing the Ten Commandments at the county courthouse would appear as mixing the state with religion. It would also bring controversy where other faiths including the Satanist, would want to put up their statues in the same place, as was the case in Oklahoma where Satanists requested to place their figures next to the Ten Commandments at the State Capitol.

Referring to Thomas Jefferson’s address to the Baptist, Dean said, the first amendment created the wall of separation between church and state, but that wall is a one-directional wall, keeping the government from running a church but making sure that Christian principles will always stay in government.

By giving the go-ahead to the Northside Freewill Baptist Church to hold an event at the courthouse lawn at no cost, Jansen said he might have given every religion and non- religious groups a pass at utilizing the county lawn for their gatherings. He said that though his personal beliefs may conflict, such as deciding not to preside over marriages because his belief does not allow him to preside over same-sex marriages, he is still a public servant and can not discriminate against any faith that decides to use the county lawn.

However, the Mayor of Pocahontas Kevin Sutton was quick to add that the lawn was open for everything positive. Sutton said the event was a great thing for Pocahontas.

Jansen said the County holds prayer meetings quarterly at the courthouse and there was a prayer meeting scheduled for September 26 that would take place at the lawn. He said it would be the first prayer meeting that he has missed because of prior commitments.

Dean said that the revival was non-denominational and others such as Pastor Aaron Winfrey of O’Kean Freewill Baptist Church and Pastor Dewayne Smith, the Regional Overseer of Assembly of God Church also preached during the last two days of the event respectively.

Dean said they were not planning to hold the revival in any other venue anytime soon. Swift said they wished other pastors would hold a similar revival  in their counties; she hoped to make the revival an annual event.

Editor’s Note: Featured photo shows crowd attending three-day Christian revival on the lawn of the Randolph County Courthouse. Photo by Christine Miyawa

Church Celebrates Lent under New Leadership

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by Christine Miyawa
Delta Digital News Service

POCAHONTAS, Ark. — A new priest is leading parishioners of the local Roman Catholic Church through Lent this year.

The Rev. Mariadas Vallapaneni said the congregation of St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church reflects deeply on its faith during Lent in preparation for Easter. Preparation includes reciting the rosary as the faithful observe the Way of the Cross. It also includes not eating meat every Friday for seven weeks following Ash Wednesday to Good Friday just before Easter. This year’s Lent period continues through April 20.

Vallapaneni has served in the parish for more than a year after spending time as associate pastor at Jonesboro’s Blessed Sacrament Church. He served in India before Bishop Prakasam posted him to the United States for 10 years under the request of Bishop Anthony Basil Taylor of the Diocese of Little Rock.

Fr. Mariadas Vallapaneni St.Paul Catholic Pocahontas, Arkansas.

Fr. Mariadas Vallapaneni (photo by Christine Miyawa)

Born in Sidda ya palm, India, Vallapaneni grew up among nearly 150 families of mostly farmers. He said the villagers, who number close to 1,000 residents, do not allow any churches apart from Catholics to occupy the area.

“Growing up, I struggled with learning,” Vallapaneni said. “I strongly believed that God called me to service. I was a dull student; I struggled to study. One day my teacher encouraged me to pray, and when I started to pray more and more, I got better and did better than other students. Then I started cooperating more with God. I felt that God was calling me to the priesthood. I went to different seminaries, but the main was Hyderabad in India.”

Vallapaneni said he was happy to serve the church in the United States.

“I like being here; this is the top-most country,” he said. “I like the different atmosphere. I like working with different people. I want to do something new; I want to help the parishioners.”

When he arrived in 2015, he found it difficult to eat American food — he said it took five months to get used to it. Vallapaneni said he was lucky because the parish he served in Jonesboro as an associate pastor had a chief pastor of Indian origin who made Indian food.

However, his greatest struggle is knowing what to do.

“I have to stick to myself because I do not know the rules,” Vallapaneni said. “In India, I know if I do something it’s right or wrong; here, I don’t. I always feel my home place is the best place. Being an alien, you are not free; you don’t know something, you feel like you are outside. However, when I am in the parish, I feel good. People here love me. They understand that we sacrifice everything to come here — we leave family and friends — so they are good and friendly to me.”

Although his church in India does things a little differently, he does not want to make many changes to this church because the congregation is used to what they have.

“Coming from a different background is not easy for me to implement new things,” he said.

Vallapaneni added one mass at 12:15 p.m. on Thursdays so parishioners on lunch break can come to pray. He said people are cooperating with him and although his way of thinking may be different, he must fit in the local culture because he is the one coming into their community.

Jason Liebnaber, who has attended the church since childhood, was at the church reciting the rosary with other faithful observing the Way of the Cross — a prayer commemorating every tribulation Jesus went through right before Easter.

“I don’t know Father Vallapaneni well, but he’s nice,” Liebnaber said. “He’s doing pretty good with Lent schedules and lots of Station of the Cross. They are having it here in the church every Friday for the children and the school, and again in the evenings for the community. I have not seen any major changes implemented yet, but we love our new priest.”

A lifetime member of St. Paul’s, Karen James said it’s sometimes hard to hear what Vallapaneni says due to his accent, but she finds the sermons lively. She and her husband moved back to Arkansas recently. She said she missed going to church for sometime when she was in Texas. She said negative rhetoric about the church on social media has affected the younger generation of congregants most, including her sister, Sue, whom she said is doing a lot of internet research and is currently torn over which church to attend.

“Sue used to be a staunch Catholic,” she said. “We both were but now she goes back and forth, she is not decided. Sometimes she tries other churches. I’m older and I think we, the older generation, are pretty much settled in our ways. Before we didn’t hear of such scandals and now it’s all over, things have really changed.”

Liebnaber discussed the scandals over sexual misconduct by Catholic priests.

“These scandals have happened over the decades, and they go in circles,” he said. “They affect some people and it’s sad. The priests need to learn better standards of morality.”

Vallapaneni said Pocahontas has a majority of Catholics — about 400 families — so he is not worried about declining membership even with the scandals in other Catholic parishes.

“First, all those priests who were involved in these scandals are dead and the recent ones do not belong to our diocese,” he said. “Secondly, people need to pray and then see the priests who are culprits in the context of family, as if this was your brother or child or relative.”

Vallapaneni noted the diocese had held conferences to reach out to the community and find healing from the scandals.

DeltaYou: Redemption in Six Strings

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By Christine Miyawa
Delta Digital News Service

POCAHONTAS, Ark. — Prison can make or break a person. It’s said some enter soft as silk but exit hard as nails. But the same cannot be said about a man who, after 12 years behind bars, has become a beacon of hope to many.

Time behind bars may have worked a number on Cameron Todd’s physical appearance, but behind the physique lies a heart of gold.

“Back in the days when he ran a martial-arts school called the Blue Dragon, he was all muscles and abs. He had tried to recruit me to join the school, but I had already enrolled in another,” said Jason Cummins, Todd’s former neighbor.

With a Dan rank (i.e. black belt) in martial arts among his accolades, one would not expect any less. Todd, 50, said he’s not worried about getting those six-pack abs back, but he’s slowly working on it.

Twelve years of confinement taught him patience, resilience and faith.

Resilience Through Adversity

Todd worked as a police officer in Houston, Mississippi and was on duty when police arrested him for sexual battery. Todd said he did not commit the crime and his original trial ended in a hung jury. During a second trial, he was convicted and sentenced to prison. Todd said his accuser retracted her statement, but the Supreme Court of Mississippi upheld the jury’s verdict in his direct appeal, as did the Court of Appeals during a second appeal.

“We were all shocked when we heard the charges brought against him. He was that guy who was just cool with everyone,” Cummins said.

When Todd went into Marshall County Correctional Facility in Holly Springs, Mississippi, he possessed only his GED. But while in prison, he immersed himself in books, finished his associate’s and bachelor’s degrees, pursued a master’s degree in music ministry and eventually graduated with a doctorate in theology from Gulf Coast Bible Institute and Seminary in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

Todd, a “jack of all trades” as his former business partner Herman Lopez calls him, engaged in many businesses. Working with Lopez, he trained ex-inmates to work as freight agents. This provided opportunities to many former prisoners who found it hard to get jobs after doing time behind bars. While Todd consistently worked on new projects, Cummins said only music remained constant.

Todd said life as an inmate proved to be almost unbearable but faith, discipline, hard work and determination coupled with his guitar’s melodies brought him hope for a better tomorrow and saw him through.

An Underground Sanctuary

Todd calls the studio in his basement his “getaway island.” The bright-red walls with an occasional splash of black are strikingly inviting. The spirit of rock ‘n’ roll pours from all corners of the room.

A lonely chair in red leather sits in the middle of the room, swiveling left and right. Under the chair, a rag with a red cross lay flat on a zebra-print mat, contrasting with the rest of the floor covered by soundproof carpeting.

On the left of the room, a piano rests on a tabletop next to the wall. A painting on a black canvas of a white-and-red guitar camouflaged in a raging fire hangs on the wall above the keyboard — it looks like a masterpiece.

Adjacent to the door on the right, a small room with his guitar collection lining soundproof walls. Everything seemed carefully selected and arranged — red and black items made up his decor. Four speakers are strategically mounted in the room’s corners; two more rest on the table opposite the keyboard. That same table held two computer monitors. A long, black-leather sofa sits quietly adjacent to the door.

Cameron Todd plays guitar in his studio

Cameron Todd plays in his home studio. He said he wants to be known for contributing to music. (photo by Christine Miyawa)

“Hey, listen to this,” Todd said in an almost whispering voice while grabbing an electric guitar and striking a note. The sound of music brought a sudden calmness that instantly toned the room’s energy. Striking several notes in rapid but steady succession, his fingers gyrated back and forth on the strings as the music blared.

The bronze-looking cross dangling on a silver chain around his neck glowed from the reflection of light coming from the lampstand at the corner of the room. In a moment Todd seemed lost in his world, a world familiar to him, a man indeed in his forté.

“My interest in guitars started when I was 5 years old, but I never was serious about it. I would play and once my fingers began to get tired, I would break it off,” he said. “Besides, I was learning to play on my own, and the way the VHS and books back then taught was so difficult to master. It wasn’t until the year 2003 when the inspiration truly hit me.”

Todd said after he watched a CBS special when a man appeared on the show playing guitar using his toes, he thought to himself, if that guy could use his toes to play the guitar, he could handle his fingers getting tired. That became his turning point. He started doing what he loved.

His other inspiration came from listening to Mason Williams while he remained on the top of the classical chart in the 1960s. Todd said he doesn’t make music for money but for the passion. He only wishes to leave a legacy of music.

Todd said his genre resembles old gospel hymns, the kind of music that everyone can remember.

“Music from the ’40s, the ’50s all the way. The kind of music that people played when everything was simple, when life was so simple all you worried about was if you had air in your bicycle tires and a bologna sandwich waiting for you when you get home,” he said.

He struck the last chord and set the guitar on the chair, then grabbed a book titled “Rockin’ the Cross Guitar: Effortless Praise Guitar System,” available on Amazon. He said he published the book in 2016 to teach the guitar in a quick-and-fun way. He struggled to learn from the previous books he found.

He also published “C Scale Confident Zone.” Todd said the C scale method he developed makes basic guitar playing comfortably for beginners with its straightforward method. He said the large and easy-to-understand graphics, cut-out flashcards, practice exercise and easy-to-understand explanations make it easy to get one playing guitar in no time. He said his other books on Amazon cover topics from preferred internet marketing to mixed martial arts training.

Giving to Receive

Todd plays music regularly at Living Waters Church in Pocahontas and other events. Lopez said Todd proves to be a pro while playing the sacred gig. Todd’s wife, Teresa, only said beautiful things about the man she loves.

“Playing music is his passion, be it a keyboard or a guitar,'” she said. “But he enjoys playing guitar the most. I like to sing; we sometimes make music together. I don’t play any instrument, so Cameron plays and I sing. We do the same in church too.”

Todd interviews guest

Todd (right) interviews Bret Harris during his web-based Christian radio show. Harris is a proponent of Gospel Bluegrass. (photo by Teresa Todd)

Teresa Todd said her husband loves to inspire and make people happy. She said his positive and bigger-than-life outlook towards life initially attracted her. Todd inspires others to go beyond what they ever thought possible, she said.

Todd wants to give back to society. He stays busy helping clients building business websites. Todd also owns and runs a web-based Christian radio station that plays gospel music from all over the world. He said he’d use his studio to record others free of charge.

Although he would like to form a band, he said he still enjoys playing solo, which feels like therapy to him. He said he likes modern styles, too, and he would like to wear all leather and spiked hair.

“I’m sure people will make jokes saying, ‘Hey, check out this dude; he is so heavy-metal-Christian,'” he said. “I don’t mind doing something contemporary. I don’t just restrict myself to old Christian hymns.”

Todd said he enjoys contemporary break-up music as it’s more fun to hear somebody crying because they lost their love. He said the raw nature relates to feelings everybody feels at times. He cited examples such as Johnny Paycheck’s ’70s song “Friend Don’t Take Her She’s All I Got,” Johnny Rivers’ “Poor Side of Town” and the Eagles’ “Lyin’ Eyes.”

Todd sells his book on Amazon

Todd sells his book, “Rockin’ the Cross Guitar,” on Amazon. He wrote it to help others easily learn to play. (photo by Christine Miyawa)

Todd said he hopes to have a guitar line and would like to see every musician, church choir or interested person use the book “Rockin’ the Cross Guitar: Effortless Praise Guitar System” to learn how to play because of its easy-to-use and fun nature. He said those who want to learn to play music should find an instrument they like and learn as fast as they can.

Todd said he considers himself spiritual, but not religious. He said one should not let time go by without having some way to appreciate it.

Todd expressed his gratitude for his 24-year-old married son. He fondly remembers after his birth thinking, “‘Now I am responsible for this life. I can’t even balance my checkbook!’

“God has blessed me in so many ways; I feel like I’m trying to give back. I’ve got my hands, my fingers, but every time I see on YouTube or the web or TV somebody missing their hand or fingers, yet they are still doing amazing things.”

Over the last 20 years, Todd said he learned to give freely with no expectation of return in order to receive a blessing. He said using the time as an inmate to better himself helped him to no longer be bitter about the whole ordeal.

“I just hope people will take every minute of their lives to appreciate that they are alive and breathing. Life is not a guarantee.”

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