Eight years ago I met two remarkable young men through a canvassing program in my home town. They’d met in the high school cafeteria where Delon was beat-boxing and Lee began to rap. A rap duo formed that day. As mere high schoolers, “Lee G and Delon” recorded several albums, performed for money and even sold a beat to a famous band called The Roots.
When Delon felt guilty about Lee’s immoral lyrics, he decided to end the partnership. Lee begged him to stay, and the two decided that if Lee would study the Bible and keep the Sabbath, they’d stay together. Lee fell in love with Jesus and became a Christian, then a Seventh-day Adventist. It was during one of Lee G and Delon’s first ministry experiences that I met them; I a mother hen, love-to-cook-for-people, love-to-mentor-young-people type, and they two perpetually hungry young men.
But we shared more than food. We were all musicians. And they thought my music was cool! I love to joke that the music of The Lesser Light Collective began when a washed up (semi-retired) folk singer and two rappers collaborated. I told them of my vision of putting the book of Revelation to music, a vision stopped short because I couldn’t find collaborators. Lee G and Delon stared wide-eyed, recognizing an answer to the prayer of how to use their talents for God.
What began in 2010 met its first milestone in 2013 with the release of The Lamb Wins. We met the next milestone in 2015 with The King Dreams. By than 30 artists had joined in and we’d raised over 30 thousand dollars.
Never despise your dreams.
The Lesser Light Collective has always been an internship. It was for Lee and Delon, and really, it was for me.
Lee became the tour manager for two years before he married Hillary, when the two of them worked together to get TLLC music in over 100 venues. As of today we’ve sold over 5,000 albums. God has blessed more than we could have known.
And we’re asking Him to continue the blessing. This is why we’ve organized The Lesser Light Internship program. Young singers and spoken word artists desiring to learn music ministry can attend the weekend training for FREE. All we ask in return is that you agree to book and perform three concerts of TLLC music. We will even coach you through that process. Will you consider carrying the torch one more mile for God?
- Jennifer Jill