How many of you have heard this saying “God has a plan”? I have heard it all my life and I have always believed it. Even when all the circumstances going on in our lives don’t seem positive, I am often reminded of the scripture in Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.“ Not so long ago God showed me once again how true this scripture really is.
This article is pretty extensive so please be patient as I share with you the history of Brothers Forever and how that God has proved that he has a plan for us. I have always felt in my heart that God had given me the gift of music in order to share it with the world and so Brothers Forever was formed in February 2004 by me and a close friend named Chris Churchwell. We got our name from the Crabb Family song “Brothers Forever.” We felt it best described our and every believers eternal friendship. Kevin Adams and Jody Pierce joined the group in March 2004. With Chris’s insistence we started recording and singing songs that I had written. I was not real sure about this because I wasn’t confident in my song writing ability, but Chris believed in it and so our first recording titled “Just Getting Started” was recorded at Windrush Productions in Greenville, TN. http://www.windrushproductions.com
We sent our first single to radio called “A Better Place” and we got a lot of airplay. Our second single was the song that really opened a ton of doors for us. It was a song that my wife’s uncle had written called “You Alone Are Worthy”. I knew from the moment that I heard this song that it was special. This song was released in March 05 with Susan Whisnant of UIA and Shane Ferrell of Lighthouse Promotions. The song broke the Singing News Top 80 in July 2005 debuting at #77. I remember Susan Whisnant saying that if we had been around for awhile that this song might have went to #1. A very nice encouragement from one of Southern Gospel’s greatest Altos. I know that’s not very high in the charts but I was reminded that airplay is the most important thing and we sure got a ton of that. This song was being played four and five times a day in stations all over North and South Carolina as well as Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Kentucky. We were even blessed to be played on XM Radio. Remember the bible says that “God desires the praises of his people. “You Alone Are Worthy” was a song that did just that. It gave God honor and praise. In just a little over a year God had given us a Top 80 single, bookings almost a year in advance and we were selling CD’s in bookstores within our regional area. It was more than anything we could have ever prayed for.
With success sometimes comes change. Its seems like most gospel groups go through singers as much as they change clothes. Our schedule had grown so fast and I don’t think any of us were really ready for life on the road. Working full time jobs and singing every weekend does get exhausting. Kevin our bass singer was praying about becoming the youth pastor of his father’s home church, so he left in April 2005 to spend time at home with his family and be the new youth pastor. A few weeks later Jody our tenor singer also left to work on his family life. So there Chris and I were with no bass singer and no tenor singer and appointments that still expected us to come. I am sure there are many groups that have been in this same situation and I now sympathize with any group that loses or changes members. It’s a tough transition.
We both felt that God still wanted us to continue and so we pressed on. God sent us a new bass singer in July 2005. We were both attending First Free Will Baptist Church in Church Hill, TN and Buford was running sound for the church. We knew Buford had sang Gospel Music for over 50 years and now he was retired. He had sang with The Crusaders for many years and also with Wallace Nelms and The Landmarks. We often joked with Buford hinting that he should come back on the road and start singing with us. Buford recalls that God was dealing with him from the moment we first mentioned it. He joined the group in July 2005 and so we continued singing with a lead, baritone, and a bass singer. We continued to pray for God to send a tenor and we tried out many of them but we never could seem to find the one that fit.
Then in March 2006 Chris decided to step down to spend more time at home with his family. I have to be honest, I thought about calling it quits myself. I was so discouraged. We had tried out so many tenors and we honestly couldn’t afford to pay for a great one at the time. I was looking at where God had brought us from in such a short time and now everything as far as I could see was pretty much over. Buford encouraged me to stick it out and he assured me that “God had a plan” and that he would send us some other people to make Brothers Forever complete again. After much prayer I decided to stick it out for a little while longer just to see what God had in store.
We immediately put ads in The Singing News Classifieds and got a lot of responses. But still not the one we felt God had planned for us. If we are not careful we can rush God and settle for less than what he has intended for us which is his best. In June 2006 we were doing a bookstore tour in North Carolina. I couldn’t find Laurinburg Christian Bookstore in Laurinburg, NC. I was lost. Imagine that. A man that has gotten lost. LOL. After driving up and down the same street about five times this lady pulls up behind our bus and starts flashing her lights. I pulled over and she comes up to the side of the bus and ask if we are lost. She introduced herself and told me that we had passed by her church “Lauringburg Church of God” about five times and she figured we might be lost. I assured her that we were and she offered to lead us to the bookstore. Once we arrived at the store I gave Penny a CD to say thank you. Little did we know what God was planning through all of this. Penny went back to her church and she gave the CD to her close friend David English. David was from Wallace, SC and he had been singing with his family “The English Family” for quite a few years. He had been praying about singing in a full time southern gospel group and had even tried out for Souls Harbor in Michigan. After Penny gave him the CD he recalls that God began dealing with him about Brothers Forever. He didn’t know that we needed a tenor singer but he just felt drawn to the group. He called Penny and asked her if she knew if we needed a tenor singer. Penny made a phone call tome and ask me if we needed one. I will never forget that phone call. I was in Dollywood in Sevierville, TN with my family when she called. I got so excited when she said that she knew the perfect guy and that she wanted to give me his phone number. Remember friends nothing happens by chance. Everything that happens in our lives is a divine appointment. I called David and from the moment that I first talked to him I knew that God was doing something so special. David lived five hours away and with our busy schedule it was almost impossible to set up a tryout. In just a few short weeks we would be in Pembroke, NC doing a concert with Ivan Parker. Pembroke is not too far from were David lives and so I mailed him some CD’s so that he could learn our songs and do a tryout when we got there. We arrived in Pembroke on June 10, 2007 and David stepped on the bus about 2hrs before the concert was to start. From the moment he started singing I just started crying. I knew in my heart that he was the tenor we had been looking for. He voice was so anointed. Every note of every word that he sang felt like that he knew what he was singing about. David has been with the group ever since.
That night following the Ivan Parker concert I lost my voice. Imagine that. I accounted it to Satan but I think we give him more credit than what he deserves. LOL Once again discouragement filled my heart; however I was so thankful that God had sent David. He knew all of our songs well enough that he could sing the lead on everyone of them. So that Sunday morning went ok. Sunday night was the highlight of our weekend. We had been to Annease Drive Praise and Worship Center a couple of times already and I was excited about going back but I didn’t know how it would go without my voice. I began to pray to God all the way to the church that night. I told no one of my prayer. When we walked into the church to set up this lady met me at the door. I had never met her before that night. She was a member of the church but I had never been introduced to her. She politely looked at me and smiled and she just said “there is something wrong with you”. I knew what she was talking about but no one had told her anything. She asked me to come over to the where the pull pit was and she got out a bottle of oil. She rubbed a little dab on her fingers and then rubbed her hands together. Honest before God it looked like she had covered her hands in the stuff. She laid her hands on me and began to pray. Others in the church began to come around and pray for me. I could feel the Holy Spirit moving all through my body. It was like nothing I had ever experienced. God healed me at that very moment!!! When they finished praying for me I went out to the bus. I fell on my knees and just began to weep before God. He had touched me like only he can. The first song that came to my heart to sing was “You Alone Are Worthy” and he truly is. I was able to sing as if I had never lost my voice. Like I said before “God has a plan”
God used this experience of healing to bring our new baritone to the group “Gary Ballew”. I first heard from Gary through email on July 11, 2006. I’m getting ahead of myself. Gary later recalls that he and his family had felt the Lord leading them to Tennessee a little over a year and a half ago. Gary says “Cyndi and I felt the Lord leading us to Nashville where I would pursue my love of music.” Gary and Cyndi began to make preparations to move to Nashville on faith that God would direct them where to go. They sold their house in California in three weeks, “which was Cyndi’s fleece before God”. They loaded up everything they had, put it in a U-haul trailer and were preparing to leave on Monday July 17, 2006. Gary recalls “I had checked the Singing News website many times and had found nothing. The day before we were to leave we were having a barbeque and I felt the Lord leading me to check the website one more time. I was very hesitant but I went upstairs to check it. The first ad at the very top of the page was the ad from Brothers Forever. It simply read, “Anointed group seeking anointed baritone”. It immediately caught my eye. I wrote an email to Curtis “January 11, 2007” in response to the ad and left it at that. About 10 minutes later my cell phone rang and it was Curtis.”
Gary and I had no idea what God was up to. When I first talked to Gary I began to share with him the healing that had taken place in my voice the week earlier. I didn’t want to do an interview I just wanted to share what God had done for me with someone else. I explained to Gary that we were very ministry minded and that I was just looking for someone to minister with us. We talked about Gods power and how awesome he is and we decided that he would call me a little later and that we would discuss meeting each other. We took a trip that following week to Yonkers, NY were we sang at a 7th day Adventist Church. While on the New Jersey Turnpike I got a call from Gary. He said that he was in the Grand Canyon. I remember thinking “What is he doing in the Grand Canyon”. I didn’t know that Gary was moving to Tennessee that week. I assumed he was going to fly out and meet me. Gary wasn’t flying. He was already packed up and ready to move to the place that God had called him too. Just like Abraham. LOL. Gary told me that they would be in Tennessee by the following week when we got back from NY. I told him that we could meet then. Gary recalls “I told Cyndi that we would just go to Gate City, VA, meet this guy named Curtis, have a good meal with his family and if things don’t work out then we have made a good friend in the Lord.” Just like the first time I met David in North Carolina, from the moment I heard Gary sing I knew that he was the one God had intended for us. I just wept as he sang. In the email he sent me I had overlooked the fact that he had won the Western Quartet Convention Male Vocalist Talent
Showcase in 1999 and that he also was the top overall new talent soloist and winner at the Southern California WSGMA showcase. I guess God didn’t want me to see that till later. LOL. All I remembered is that he was the music minister at his fathers home church in Tracy, CA and that his email said that he loved The Lord with all his heart and that his dream has always been to sing full time Gospel music.
If you made it this far then I thank you for reading. It’s a very long testimony of how God started and continues to keep Brothers Forever together. We have recently recorded a brand new CD titled “Side By Side, Live in Illinois.” We felt that this title best described what God had done for us in that he has placed us side by side just like a giant jig saw puzzle. In just nine short months together David, Gary, myself and Buford have been traveling the country sharing what God has done for us this past year. We have recently been nominated for Favorite Male Quartet at Southern Gospel Music Fan Fair and we have been working on a brand new CD with some of gospel music’s best musicians and producers. Only God could have done all this. Remember friends that “God has a plan”. Make sure that you run the race with patience because it is sometimes required in order to see Gods plan unfold.
Till next month,
Your Brothers Forever
Curtis, David, Gary, and Buford
http://www.brothersforever.net
Author: SGN
| Author's Website: http://sogospelnews.com/
Written: 03/01/2007
| 
Category: Brothers Forever
Comments: 0
RSS Feed
| (What's an RSS feed?)
Ads Sponsored by Southern Spin
