Adapt Magazine July/August 2013 - Back to School Issue

ADAPTING YOU TO LIFE. ADAPTING YOU TO GOD

Vol. 1 Issue 4

JULY/AUGUST 2013

COLLEGE IS HERE!

THE ULTIMATE 4-YEAR PLAN

ARE YOU REALLY READY? PLUS: DOMINIC BALLI DISHES ON FAITH, LIFE & NEW MUSIC

“WHATEVER YOU DO, WORK HEARTILY, AS FOR THE LORD AND NOT FOR MEN.” - COLOSSIANS 3:23

...MIND GAMES

(CONTENTS)

SPIRITUALITY P. 14 | Ryan Galloway: Out of the Wilderness, Allysen Kerr

LIFESTYLE P. 18 | Confessions of A Beauty Queen: Last Days of Summer Brought to you By the Letter ‘F’, Monica Solomon P. 20 | Retrospect, Britney Barnaby

CAREER PREP & MONEY P. 24 | Navigating Through College, Paula Kerr P. 26 | You Gotta Eat, But Can You Afford It? Antoinette Charles

MUSIC, JUSTICE & ETC. P. 32 | Dominic Balli: Faith, Life, New Music, Allysen Kerr

IN EVERY ISSUE • EDITOR’S LETTER • CONTRIBUTORS

adapt BACK TO SCHOOL ISSUE

FIND MORE WAYS TO ADAPT...

MAG.COM

ALLYSEN KERR Editor/Publisher editor@adaptmag.com PAULA KERR Contributing Editor MONICA SOLOMON Contributing Writer ANTOINETTE CHARLES Contributing Writer AARON KERR Contributing Writer BRITNEY BARNABY Guest Writer

Adapt Magazine is published six times a year by UnKonventional Media, LLC. All questions regarding advertising, subscriptions or this publication should be directed to publisher@unkonventionalmedia. com. Please visit www.unkonventionalmedia.com to learn more about our company.

VISIT

FAITHLAUNCHER.COM ...AND LET YOUR DREAMS TAKE FLIGHT!

FUNDING...

ENTREPRENEURS NONPROFITS MINISTRIES FILMMAKERS MUSICIANS ARTISTS ENTERTAINERS & MORE!

(CONTRIBUTORS)

MONICA SOLOMON, BEAUTY QUEEN

Paula Kerr, Career Expert

Monica Solomon was recently awarded the title of Miss Black Tampa USA 2013. She graduated from the University of Florida where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Education Monica is currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in Public Health at the University of South Florida with a specialization in Behavioral Health.

During her year of service, Monica plans to promote workforce health promotion in Orlando and Tampa through her platform: Work, Learn, Pray: My health, My Location.

Paula is a senior writer for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts®. Her background and experience include communications, human resources management, recruiting, benefits administration and communications, as well as training and development. In her current role, Paula develops and writes communication and education resources for Disney Destinations. She obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications/ Public Relations from Iona College, New Rochelle, New York. Paula has been a contributing writer for adapt magazine since 2009.

ANTOINETTE CHARLES, Christian Bargain Hunter

Aaron Kerr, Music News

Antoinette is a hard-working young woman. This wife and student is currently pursing a degree in Education. She and her husband recently moved to Tampa where they felt God drawing them to grow the Kingdom. She has two dogs, Cocoa and Lex, who are very much like children. She enjoys serving in her church’s children’s ministry and looks forward to singing, dancing and praying with the kids each week.

Aaron aka “Raj Parker” loves music. A junior studio art major at the University of South Florida, Aaron has been contributing to Adapt for more than two years. He writes music reviews on the latest releases in Christian Hip Hop. When he’s not writing for Adapt, he’s penning bars for his own music. He started a group on campus called “The Collective” that features amateur rappers, singers and creatives who love Jesus and want to reach the lost through awesome music.

E N I Z A G A M T P A D A H T I W T C CONNE

ADAPTMAG@GMAIL.COM

TWITTER.COM/ADAPTMAGAZINE FACEBOOK.COM/ADAPTMAGAZINE

YOUTUBE.COM/ADAPTMAG

(LETTER FROM THE EDITOR) Congratulations! You made it. You got your acceptance letter, finished orientation, picked out your classes and now you’re getting ready to hit the road.

As you spend these last few days of summer preparing for the fall, it’s probably hitting you that one chapter is ending and another one is about to begin.

Long gone are the days — and drama of high school. College is right around the corner.

But, don’t worry; these next four years are going to be amazing!

Just remember that what you put into it is what you’ll get out.

That being said, we hope that you’ll spend these last few moments thinking about where your life is headed and how you’re going to get there.

Ask yourself who you want to be in the next four to five years. Think about what impact you want to have — even in your first semester of college. What are your goals and dreams? Do you know how to get there? Do you want to be a game changer or someone who barely makes it to graduation?

CHECK IT OUT!

We’d like to encourage you to consider these questions before you head off to school this fall. Knowing the answers ahead of time will save you from taking classes you may not like, and give you more time to prepare for a future you’ll enjoy.

This issue is dedicated to you because we love students. Our passion is to help you transition not only through school but also through life. Remember: every decision we make either has a good consequence or a bad consequence. We want to help students avoid the bad ones and thrive from the good ones.

Peace and Blessings,

allysen

DOMINIC BALLI is in the house!

Page 33

Photo: Monique Dos Anjos

Spirituality Discipleship prayer relationship with God worship

Out of the Wilderness By: Ryan Galloway,

As Told to Adapt Magazine Photo By: Tonya Christner

When Ryan Galloway came to college he was pretty convinced that he wanted to do medicine and biomedical engineering...

“The University of Florida didn’t have a biomed engineering program at the time so I decided I was going to do chemical engineering and pre-med,” Ryan said.

“I took a class called, ‘Honors, disease and society (or something like that)’ and the guy who taught the class also happened to be the medical adviser for the University of Florida. So we get in the class and he’s like, ‘How many of you guys are pre-med’? So we all pretty much raised our hands. And he’s like, ‘OK. Well just to let you know by the end of this year, 70 percent of you will not be pre-med anymore.’

Ryan was shocked.

“It was like someone had taken your puppy and ripped its throat out.” adaptmag.com

So after the initial shock of ‘How dare you say that,’ another semester went by and Ryan decided the professor was right. Pre-med was not for him.

“The following semester I realized that I really didn’t like chemistry as much as I thought I did,” he said. “So I decided to switch to biological engineering.”

Then Jesus hijacked his life.

“I came into college following Jesus. It was the summer before 7th grade that I seriously encountered Jesus and everything changed. I remember thinking, ‘I don’t even know what this is supposed to look like but you can have everything.’”

“I had a friend that was mentoring, discipling, loving me at the time and he was like, ‘Do you really see yourself doing biological engineering for the rest of your life, sitting in a lab’? And I was like, ‘No.’ But at the time I felt like I was supposed to stay there.”

THE PATH TO THE WILDERNESS “I have a very strange view of the will of God.” Ryan says that people think that the will of God is this really nice, neat package that goes from point A to point B. “I think the will of God is often like, there’s point A and point B and in between there’s points C through H,” he said. “I think that I’m on point Z right now and I’m (slowly) getting to point B.” 14

“I think all the detours were definitely ordained even though a bunch of them were my fault because I started failing classes.

So part of the detour was, ‘Oh, snap. I don’t have anymore scholarships and I have to work to pay off bills.’

So he had to take two years off from school.

“Even [through] that, I grew so much as a human,” Ryan said.

“I had about a D-range understanding of what it meant to be responsible. I’m not going to say that I’m at an A-plus.

I’m probably at a B-minus right now, but I think some of those lessons weren’t lessons I could learn by reading a textbook or hearing a sermon. They were lessons I had to learn by being refined by fire...granted, the fire was from my own frying pan.”

INTO THE WILDERNESS In the midst of all of the failures, God was calling Ryan to go deeper but he was very reluctant.

“It’s always interesting when you try to fight someone way stronger than you because you always lose,” he said.

“I felt like God was telling me things like, ‘I want you to use your voice in this manner, I want you to love people this way.’”

One of those ways included preaching out in the open on campus.

“It was my sophomore year and I was listening to these insane Turlington preachers out there (Turlington preachers is the nickname given to people who go preach in Turlington Plaza, a free speech zone at UF).”

“If you’re using the Bible, that’s fine. But most of them weren’t using the Bible they were just rude.”

“I was like, ‘God these people are giving you such a bad name. You could stop this. Do something about it!’ And really clearly, He was like, ‘No, you do something about it.’”

“I was like, ‘Nah, I was just joking, I was messing around.’”

Ryan made excuses for two more years. In the mean time, he was slowly starting to fail classes.

“All of a sudden I realized, that I wasn’t a very hard worker, I was just innately good at a lot of things.”

“Basically all of the things I felt I could depend on, in terms of my own strength, all dropped at the exact same time.

I lost scholarships so I had no money and I was burning through a credit card at the same time.”

Ryan wasn’t sure how he got to that point.

“I was that student growing up. I was that kid in elementary school who won all the spelling bees...I won all these awards in middle school so it was just funny.”

Even in youth group, Ryan recalls being the kid whose parents were like, ‘I want my kid to be like you.’

“And in the mean time I was looking at porn every week, waking up at three in the morning and not telling my parents.”

Ryan is not a good role model.’”

Even in college Ryan continued to try to cover up his failures with things that felt good. But nothing worked and he finally caved.

“It was like being stripped down and laid bare.”

“I had failed at six really big things all at once and was experiencing the weight of that and just feeling a really big intense feeling of despair and hopelessness.”

At that point Ryan realized that he legitimately needed Jesus.

“I slowly started surrendering to God who allowed me to fail because I needed to see that my strength was worth nothing.”

“I could have (ran) away from God, but I knew that it wouldn’t end well.”

Normally this would be the part where things started to get better, but it didn’t, he said.

“I started surrendering my heart to God and stuff stayed really bad for a long time. But I slowly started recognizing that as much as the Lord could have miraculously done all those things for me and made life great, I had not learned anything. I had not learned character. I had not built up a pattern of integrity...So the wilderness was miserable in some senses but it was also the grace of God and sometimes the grace of God does not feel good.

Some people thought Ryan got kicked out of UF. “I would like the record to show that I did not get kicked out of UF.” “Because I didn’t have any money to pay for school, I had to work.”

Ryan got a job and started working a lot.

“During this time, I didn’t realize that I would have to reapply to UF after being out for two years.”

He reapplied and got accepted but things weren’t the same.

“Although I enjoyed the things I was learning, I think the level of rigor that they were demanding of their students was somewhat beyond my passions,” he said.

So at the matter-of-fact advise of a dear friend, Ryan walked away from a degree that he had spent four years working towards and changed his major to religious studies.

Why Religious Studies?

“I’ve always done research on religion in the background.

I have friends who are actually not Christians, (who would have thought) and I was like, ‘Man, I could get a degree doing what I love to do in my spare time.’”

FINALLY OUT OF THE WILDERNESS Ryan also started slowly realizing that anything he has is a gift from God. He used that gift to start preaching on Turlington Plaza a few times.

“I had some good fruit from that but more than anything the act of obedience was so critical.”

“So I’m like, ‘Man you have no idea. If you want your kid to be like anyone, you want them to be like Jesus because July/August 2013

15

FEATURE Story

LIFESTYLE College Life Relationships Health & Fitness Dating

Confessions of a Beauty Queen THE LAST DAYS OF SUMMER: BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTER 'F' By: Monica Solomon Photo: Antoinette & Sharmi Charles

YY

ou can breathe, I’m not talking about the grade your roommate avoided by dropping his or her chemistry lab last semester. My friends, I want to discuss how to maintain and refine the important ‘F’s’ before the summer ends.

FAMILY

Summer is almost over and school is about to begin. But there is still time to work on the four ‘F’s’ in life: faith, family, friends and foes.

FOES

FAITH Summer nights are wonderful opportunities to dust off that prayer journal and highlighter and spend some time with God. Spend the last few nights of summer in reflection and quiet times with a lot of ice cream!

FRIENDS Friends…You still have time to go on that road trip you have been planning for three years. Go out to the restaurant that you saw on Groupon. Moral of the story spend time with your friends because when fall starts most of your free time will be MIA. True story. adaptmag.com

Use the rest of the summer to spend some quality time with your parents, siblings, and extended family. If you are away from your family make a special effort to plan Skype dates or Ovoo sessions with them.

Remember that your education is important, but it shouldn’t cause a barrier between you and your family. Use the summer as opportunity to speak with younger family members about their career interests and to motivate them to pursue their goals. Even though you might not realize it, you are a role model in your family…even if you don’t make your bed all the time or iron your clothes when you should.

Yep, you might have “unfriend-ed” that annoying [insert roommate, ex boyfriend/girlfriend, co-worker] during the Spring semester, however it may be time to have that potentially “awkward” reconciliation lunch.

The summer is great for working on forgiveness and trying to rebuild relationships through quality time, listening and plain ‘ole grace.

Use this season as an opportunity to put Proverbs 25: 2223 verse into practice: “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you. The north wind brings forth rain, and a backbiting tongue, an angry countenance.”

18

Retros pect By: B

ritne

y Ba

rn a b y, Gu e

st W riter

L L

ooking back at the days before college, I remember myself as a focused, passionate, and strong young woman.

Coming from a Christia n home environment for 18 years of my life, I grew up knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.

My character was shaped and strengthened from His Word and two God-fearing parents molded my upbringing. They consistently encouraged, motivated, and pushed me many times. They believed in the person I was and the person I was becoming.

Prior to entering the realm of young adulthood, I viewed myself as a level-headed individual.

Then, the awakening happened.

I had arrived at COLLEGE...Wow! The first three years seemed to fly by and it was not until my senior year that reality started to sink in. Graduation was upon me and the last semester was turning out to be extremely difficult. The person that I was coming into college--focused, passionate, and strong--had become overwhelmed with all that I was trying to accomplish. adaptmag.com

The most frustrating part was I did not understand why everything was happening all at once. I reached a point where I started to doubt my abilities and myself. I even imagined myself not graduating. I refused to order my gown, and did not send out any of my invitations. I just felt numb. I was afraid of who I thought I had become. I felt alone and ashamed.

But what I soon found out was that God had never left me alone. You see, the Lord was teaching me something.

I missed it in the beginning and He slowed me down to figure it out. I was so focused, passionate and strong in what I thought I could do.

Understand this, I loved the Lord, and had committed Him as the head of my life. However, I had not placed Him as the source of my focus, passion and strength. And so, in my own self, the qualities that I believed had brought me to a place of success had dwindled down to desperation for some kind of truth.

He had to be the source of everything. He also desired that I have a hunger for Him. It is comforting now to look back and see that in short time the Lord was ever faithful and held me close to him. I did not fall, nor did I stay in that state of confusion.

God’s loving arms did not delay. Letting go of myself yet holding fast to Him, God quickly turned my semester of headache into one of freedom. I graduated from college.

To add to this victory, I felt successful. The fullness of the 20

success I felt was rooted in discovering the ultimate source of my life. His name is Jesus.

After graduation I asked myself a profound question that has shaped where I am today.

How do I maintain and continue my close relationship with the Lord? What will my routine be?

I no longer had a stringent schedule that ordered my morning duties of spending time with Lord. I wanted to sincerely make every effort for, myself, my own gain, to seek the Lord.

Faithfully, the Lord answered my prayer and led me to one verse: Matthew 6:33. It says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

July/August 2013

The richness of God’s Word is so profound. It takes going through trying experiences with the Lord to fully know what His instruction means. Since my graduation I have applied this council to my life and God has opened the floodgates of his great and mighty blessings.

In retrospect, graduating opened a new beginning to the rest of my life. Today, I am in a season of delighting and waiting on the Lord as he opens my eyes to His plan for me.

I am preparing myself for doors to open in my field of study and blessings have already aligned themselves in my favor.

From the beginning to this new beginning, my focus, passions and strengths have been re-directed towards the Lord. His patient and fervent longing after me, established an active desire in my heart for more of Him.

21

CAREER & MONEY INTERNSHIPS JOB PREP FINANCES SAVING LOANS

NAVIGATING THROUGH COLLEGE By: Paula Kerr, Contributing Editor

C

ollege can be an overwhelming life experience, but is vital to helping you prepare for the next step in your future – your career. While on the journey, there will be lots of new things to learn and many adjustments to make in a short amount of time.

Are you up for the challenge?

PRE-COLLEGE PREP

First Things First – You must do your “homework.” By this I mean be well prepared, both mentally and physically.

Make sure that the college you choose to attend is going to give you the best return on your investment.

After all, education is not cheap. If you pick the right school and the right major, then you are off to a great start.

The next phase in your planning is to arrange for living accommodations, as well as many other considerations.

Get involved. You don’t have to figure all this out by yourself. Take a deep breath and introduce yourself to new people and explore new opportunities. Many colleges have a center for involvement or a site for student activities.

Check their websites out for ideas.

Stay connected. If you attended church at home, don’t stop now. Check out campus groups that relate to your faith or church background. Get to know your academic advisor and professors; spark up discussions with your fellow classmates. Before you know it, the stress of starting college will be behind you and you may, as many do, experience some of the best times of your life. Remember, through all of this, you’re not alone.

Manage your time. While the “real work” doesn’t begin until maybe a month after school starts, you should not procrastinate because time management is one of the biggest obstacles for college students.

Make sure you work on your assignments, projects, and complete anything due to your professors on schedule.

Use this “down time” to also familiarize yourself with your syllabi and the campus.

FRESHMAN YEAR: GETTING ACQUAINTED

Remember: this is a new environment, so you’ll want to figure out where your classes are located, how transportation works, as well as libraries or study halls, dining halls, health services, financial aid offices, church services, and any other amenities you will need to utilize, such as the laundry room, ATM machines, etc. On that note, let’s talk finances!

Don’t overdo it. Take it slow and ease into your new world where new beginnings await you – new school, new relationships, new roommates, new responsibilities, new freedoms, and other exciting opportunities.

Be smart about your finances. Now that you are on your own you will need to be smart about how you manage your finances. After all, college isn’t cheap so you may have to borrow money to supplement your academic expenses.

Now that you’ve arrived on campus and are settling into your new environment, here are some tips to help you navigate through the next four years of your life:

adaptmag.com

24

While you’re at it, check your student loan obligations and learn all you can about what grants and scholarships are available to assist you financially. You can also get a job on campus to help out with personal expenses and other needs.

Eating healthy on a college budget (buying in bulk and freezing, buying food at the 99 cent store or dollar store), can consist of making meals or snacks at home so you won’t spend money at school. Joining several clubs can also give you the benefit of free food!

Now that you’re hopefully settled in on campus, let’s talk about the years to come. After all, you won’t be a freshman forever, and you certainly won’t be in college all your life.

Right?

SOPHOMORE YEAR: CHANGES The second year of college is a time when your social life and academic life could dramatically change, as you get more involved. Your future is starting to change, so remember to: 1. Get plenty of sleep and eat healthy.

2. Make exercise or a fitness class your first class of the day, even though you may not need the credit; this will help you maintain energy throughout the day 3. Always do your homework, take a few minutes to read over notes from the day’s classes to help you retain the knowledge you have already gained 4. Talk to people you didn’t get to know when you were a freshman 5. Get more organized 6. Become a role model. Assist freshmen with finding classrooms -- and anything they might be confused about 7. Update your wardrobe. If you’re not sure what to wear, get ideas from juniors or seniors 8. Be yourself JUNIOR YEAR: THE TIPPING-POINT Junior year in college can be a lot of fun! When you approach your junior year, you may begin to feel like you’ve found your niche on campus, whether through a student organization, campus job, or volunteer work. You are threefourths of the way to the finish line and, before you know it, things will start to happen very quickly and you want to be well prepared. With this in mind, you should focus on: 1. Figuring out or understanding your major and your area(s) of interests 2. Staying on top of your work 3. Discovering opportunities such organizations, events, and career fairs

as

student

4. Knowing what you want to do when you graduate 5. Aligning your leadership experiences and identifying the things that you want to do before you graduate 6. Learning to manage your time more efficiently 7. Building up your resume and looking for internships July/August 2013

SENIOR YEAR: MAPPING YOUR FUTURE You’ve worked hard to get to where you are, and graduation is not that far behind. When this day arrives, you may begin to experience a truckload of emotions ranging from “I wish I had more time” to “I can’t believe it’s really here”! The best news will be: yes, it’s here and yes, you actually did it!

You stuck to the plan – and your goals. Now you’ll soon find yourself walking the aisles at your graduation ceremony!

But, hold on. You still have just a few more things to get through before you reach that point. You need to refine your plan. That is, you will need to know where to go and/or what to do with your undergraduate degree. So let me help you with a few suggestions: 1. First, make an appointment with your academic advisor to verify any classes you still need to take. You don’t want to miss out on any required classes as you approach the final semesters in college.

2. Is grad school in your future? Depending on the job opportunities available in your field, getting another degree might be the right choice for you, but you’ll want apply early, as it can be a very time-consuming task.

Plan ahead, but plan carefully.

3. Think about employment options. Pay the Career Center a visit. If you’re planning on entering the workforce right after college, you’ll want to have a list of companies you’d like to work for. This way you can start learning about them in advance and maybe even find out information about what it takes to get a job there.

4. You can also start putting together the contact information you’ll need to start using as it gets closer to graduation. The Career Center can typically assist you with putting a resume together, or even prepare you for an interview. Take advantage of this service while still on campus. It’s usually free of cost!

5. It will be to your benefit to get real-life experience. Try to complete an internship or even get a part-time job related to your field of interest. This will give you much needed work experience and useful skills that will look great on your resume.

6. Talking with your professors about potential job opportunities or joining professional organizations relevant to your field is a great way to network and to get leads about possible job openings.

7. You may need references for potential employment, or even grad school. Try to obtain this information in advance. Talk with your references ahead of time to verify that they are fine with representing you or with you giving their contact information to others.

8. As you approach graduation, you will want to keep a few things in mind such as scheduling dates for events like senior pictures, parties, and when to pick up your cap and gown. Write these dates down so you won’t forget anything.

Additional free resources are available on campus where you can get more tips to preparing for life during -- and after college. For now, enjoy the journey. Have fun, but study well.

25

THE COUPON

SAVVY STUDENT

YOU GOTTA EAT!

BUT CAN YOU AFFORD IT? By: Antoinette Charles, Contributing Writer

B

efore heading off to school, you may have heard jokes like, “The only thing you will eat in college is Ramen Noodles.” You may have even chalked it up to a bad joke and nothing more...

Colleges typically give you two choices; purchase a semester meal plan or fend for yourself. One university offers a 7-Day Unlimited Meal Plan for nearly $1,200 covering a 119-day period of time (per semester). Budgeting how much your will need on a weekly basis before your stipend runs out will be crucial.

A budget of $800 for the semester is more than generous.

That gives you $40 a week to spend on the foods of your choice even if they are not on sale. What if you don’t have a stipend or money left after tuition and books? Then a parttime job working 10 hours a week will allow you to eat good without taking away from your studies.

Click on the images on the next page to learn how to make some popular and easy meals.

I have since come to believe that Ramen was manufactured for the college student. It’s more affordable than your local McDonald’s dollar menu and much easier to carry in large quantities.

BREAKFAST

In the beginning you may love it, then out of desperation start to find ways to continue loving it. My coping method was to throw frozen veggies inside.

Tuna Salad, Egg Salad, or Grilled Cheese

Then, comes the moment when you would rather starve and you run home to realize you’ve forgotten what real food tastes like!

So what do you do??

Pancakes, Classic Hash Browns, or French Toast LUNCH DINNER Easy Chicken Parmesan Bake, Garlic Chicken, or Garlic Shrimp Find more amazing recipes at AllRecipes.com! Bon Apetit!

adaptmag.com July/August 2013

26

BREAKFAST

Pancakes

French Toast

Classic Hash Browns

French Toast

Classic Hash Browns

French Toast

Classic Hash Browns

LUNCH

Pancakes

DINNER

Pancakes July/August 2013

27

MUSIC New artists New releases Artist Interviews Music reviews

S K R A P S .

K M O R F M U B L A W E N

W O N E L B A AVAIL

t first glance Dominic Balli seems like the typical reggae artist who sings songs about love, peace and good vibes. But when we asked him how he defines himself, this is what Balli had to say:

A

“Dominic Balli is a superhero from the planet Xon….My real name is Fred Fisher…Just playing.”

Real funny, Dom. Real funny…

While Dominic Balli may not be Fred Fisher or a superhero (Shh, don’t tell him), the Cali-Rock-Reggae artist IS a songwriter, music producer, husband, father, and follower of Jesus.

Born and raised in southern California, Dominic’s life has

taken him to a lot of different places, but for the last nine years he and his family have lived in the Ventura/Carpinteria area.

His journey to Jesus has also taken him to a lot of places.

“I grew up in Church and knew Jesus was where life was at, but I loved all created things.”

So he tried to find his life in them (drugs, partying, girls, sports, etc.).

“They left me lonely and longing, with nothing left,” Dominic said.

“When I was 16 I finally surrendered to Christ.”

Although Dominic loved music, he didn’t actually have an ear for it.

“Crazy as it sounds, I was tone deaf my whole life,” he said.

“I always loved music, but there was something wrong with the neurological connections in my brain, I couldn’t hear pitch.”

At age 13 Dominic attempted to learn to play the guitar but because he was tone deaf, his guitar was always out of tune.

adaptmag.com July/August 2013

32

“…And I had no idea. It sounded horrible to everyone except me,” Dominic recalled.

a constant surrender. But God was, and is, in it, so even though it’s crazy sometimes, it’s always ‘right.’”

But the week that he started following Jesus, that all changed.

Dominic is taking another leap of faith with his next project, “The Least of These.”

“It was a miracle, I guess. All of a sudden I could hear pitch and that’s when I started singing (and tuning my guitar). I never thought in a million years that people would actually want to listen.”

“Most records are written about a bunch of different things,” he said. “But this record has one big thing it comes back to, one big theme: the least of these.”

While some artist would say that music gave them an identity, Dominic says that music stole his identity for a very long time.

“For years, I thought that’s why I was here, that’s why I was created – to play music.”

“I put all my dreams into that and they all came crashing down in my early twenties. Turns out, I wasn’t created for music. And I wasn’t redeemed so I could write songs. God bought me with the life of His Son so I could find my life in Him. That’s the identity worth knowing.”

Once Dominic solidified his identity in the Lord, it was time to take on another big feat and become a full-time artist.

This move took a massive step of faith, he said.

“When I stepped out to do full-time music, I had no idea how we were going to pay the bills. Honestly.”

“And truth be told, there’s many months that I still don’t know how we’re going to pay the bills. But God knows how.

So we try to rest in that. But it’s not easy all the time. It’s

Dominic said that every song on this new record ties into the concept of giving a voice to the voiceless. Each song will be one that communicate the ideals of Christ as they pertain to humanity and the least of these.

“It’s been maybe the most artistically fruitful season of my life,” he said. “I can’t wait to share these songs with the world. I think it’s going be very strong.”

While this album is important to Dominic, he truly believes that the message is more important to God. “This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God – caring for widows and orphans in their distress, and keeping yourself unstained from the world,” he said.

“It’s who God is. He’s cares for and rescues us – the poor in heart. He’s near to the broken hearted. He’s a father to the fatherless. And for me, I want to be near to that. And hopefully bring more people into that with me.”

Get more Dominic Balli (and Fred Fisher) at DominicBalli. com.

I WASN'T REDEEMED SO I COULD WRITE SONGS. GOD BOUGHT ME WITH THE LIFE OF HIS SON SO I COULD FIND MY LIFE IN HIM. THAT'S THE IDENTITY WORTH KNOWING. -DOMINIC BALLI

July/August 2013

33

GET ON MISSION With the Greenhouse Church (Formerly First Assembly of God)

VISIT HTTP://GREENHOUSECHURCH.org/missions FOR DETAILS ON MISSION TRIP OPPORTUNITIES IN 2013