Divine Immigrant The Podcast

In this episode we chat with Allan Barbazza. He hails from Brazil and is currently serving in ministry as Worship Leader and pastor at Kings Cross Baptist Church in downtown London. Allan sings on the third verse of the song "He Cares" from my new album "Divine Immigrant." You can find him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/allanbarbazza/. Join us for a friendly conversation.

Daniel is one of the featured vocalist on He Cares. He is a dynamic songwriter with Awaken Generation, a worship training school in Singapore. In this episode Daniel shares with us how he's reconnecting with his eastern spirituality through new songs that are being written in Mandarin. Here is a little bit of the story connected to one of the songs he shared with me.  Үзэсгэлэнтэй (Beautiful) by Бадамцэцэг (Badama Tsetseg) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46BSHOx32TY She became a Christian around 11-12 years old through a Korean & English language school started by a missionary, where she heard the gospel and grew even though it wasn't a formal church per se.  At the age of 16, she was suicidal because of the horrible situation at home with her parents addicted to alcohol. They had a tough life trying to earn a living in the market as labourers. She was so distressed and heartbroken one day when she came back but as she cried out this was downloaded in her spirit and she wrote the song!  Now it's sung all over Mongolia! She's 20 now. She also leads a monthly youth worship gathering in Ulaanbataar called David Worship Team to raise up a worship movement in Mongolia!  Here are some of Daniel's other songs with Awaken Generation. "Seasons" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe_siZnM6GU "Throne Room" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE5JocekygE Follow me: @divineimmigrant or on Facebook at Christopher Mazen. He Cares(Preorder) https://music.apple.com/sg/album/he-cares-feat-emily-gunawan-daniel-ng-allan-barbazza/1607769532?i=1607769535 Lord, I Want To Be A Christian(Preorder) https://music.apple.com/sg/album/lord-i-want-to-be-a-christian-feat-dr-hattie-l/1606626401?i=1606626404

After having my first listening part with the Inverse Podcast(come check us out), it became quite obvious that I needed to release one of the songs sooner than I had intended. Emily and Princetta  are two of four featured vocalists on He Cares. They share about how we met, their musical approach and the spiritual context that shaped them. We also discuss intercultural worship realities and  how Gospel music and code language are connected through the concept of the vamp.  Check out these links: "Somlandela" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eMhYyU8zzQ "It Wasn't The Nails" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cOJqkNkXaA "Have Your Heard About Jesus" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ5fJfJwd3U

Hey everybody this is Mazen here. And I am glad to announce that I have finished my first album entitled Divine Immigrant. I will be releasing it as singles over the course of the next few months so that you can enjoy the rich life changing stories of these immigrants. This was a global effort from Singapore to Cuba and everywhere in between. It is a musical memoir of the past 8 years of my life living and traveling outside the US. This album celebrates what creatively happens when every day regular people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds find themselves in each others lives. My heart language, dare I say my first language is Gospel Music, the question this album ponders is can the spirit of Gospel music, the black church, along with her diaspora, dialogue and genuinely connect to the Spanish speaking Cuba Latin context, the Greek speaking Mediterranean context, the Swahili speaking Kenyan context and yes even the English speaking White American, contemporary christian music context…and still be Gospel? And still have that presence and energy that I grew up with as a kid in Galilee Missionary Baptist Church down in Louisiana? We all do the same thing, we just do them differently. And this album had no other choice but to celebrate that distinctively similar spirit amongst us. I hope through listening to the stories of these singers and musicians who helped me bring these songs to life, I hope you..I hope we learn how to further connect, more deeply respect, and by all means protect each other, and what we value. Welcome to the Journey of Divine Immigrant You can follow me @divineimmigrant on Instagram And Christopher Mazen on Facebook.