HARMONY OF HEARTS | KAIROS GLOBAL | MAY 2022

Author: Alina Ann Mathew

Intro: Having successfully completed 20 episodes of Praise Adonai, Alina Ann Mathew has a chat with the team.

The Praise Adonai team

Jibson Bivera, Lynnee Bivera, Linton D’Aruja and Collet D’Aruja are the Praise Adonai team, who hail from Kochi, India. Seraphic tunes coming right from their hearts have never failed to truly honour Adonai. May their songs always resonate in our spirits and throughout all the seasons of our lives. 

A hospitality trainer by profession, Jibson is a musician at heart. His wife, Lynnee is a teacher and they are blessed with three children – Jaden, Joana and Jeann.

Jibson:

While studying at Cochin College, I was introduced to the Jesus Youth movement. Linton was my college mate. Our journey with the movement began there and ever since, there was no looking back.

When Linton and I attended the 'Youth Encounter Jesus' programme in 1989, a song caught my attention. It reflected on the love of God mentioned in the book of Isaiah. It said, ‘Even if a mother forgets her own child, I will never forget you’. A love so intense, it really shot straight to my heart. During that time in my life, my relationship with my father was not very sound, and somehow through that song, I deeply felt the love of God the Father embracing me. 

I moved to Chennai for my higher studies and had deeper faith experiences from prayer groups there. It was always music that kept us close to the movement and it truly enveloped me in whole. 

God has been guiding and leading us to places we never even imagined. We were recently invited to lead the monthly online Eucharistic adoration, ‘Pray with the Pope’ for Shalom World’s SWPrayer, where we came together as ‘Mustardseed’.

Our talent comes from our creator and this is how we want to share the fruits of our talent with our brethren. It has been our long term vision to evangelise together with our families, spreading the love of God.

When we minister, our minds move in intercession as well. When we sing, it goes out as a prayer of peace and healing for families around the world.  That extends to our families too. We do have our own share of tough times and arguments but we also ensure that peace settles amongst us before sunset. I try to remember that I am a child of God and this motivates me to repent and quickly resolve any conflicts that remain.

In the end, singing together creates harmony and this is what we want to radiate to our listeners. If you observe our Praise Adonai sessions, you would notice how our choice of songs are in a way intercessions themselves. Collet always comes up with perfect songs for our sessions. 

Submitting our time to God has changed our lives. Praying, singing, and praising together is God’s wrapped gift of joy to us.

Our perspective, when things don't always fall in place for us, has changed into such a view of life where even if we stumble, we know that our God is watching over us, we trust him day and night. Without the Lord, I cannot imagine how certain situations would have turned out. When the pandemic struck, I lost my job as regional training manager  of a multi-brand resort company, and literally had no other option left. But one day during personal prayer, I had a strong urge to call my friend Alphons Joseph (RexBand Vocalist and Guitarist, and Music Director in the South Indian Film Industry) and when I later contacted him, I came to know that he was looking out for a person like me to coordinate and handle the operations in his own music company. And I see it as none other than the Lord giving me a fulfilling life and career. 

A software engineer by profession, Linton D’Aruja has been running his own business in music education for the past three years, a field that keeps him close to his true passion – music. He conducts online music classes for students all over the world and has also been part of the RexBand for the past 30 years. 

Linton’s wife, Collet is a teacher. They are blessed with three children – Elton, Evita and Elvis.

Linton:

My journey with Jesus Youth began in 1989 and music has been my strength. I was part of the JY music ministry from the beginning, and then joined RexBand in 1993. Being with the band  helped me utilise my talents to glorify God.

The first programme I attended was conducted by Dr Edward Edezhath in 1989. Shelton Pinheiro (RexBand coordinator) was handling the music. Having my own western band in college at that time, I wondered why Shelton, who had an amazing voice was wasting his talent there. Even though music was my initial motivation to stay with the movement, the programme challenged me and I noticed the changes within myself. Gradually, I started journeying with the Lord. 

The Lord has blessed us abundantly in a number of ways. When we decided to submit our time to him, we were surprised to see how God took care of things. We consider this ministry as our duty. ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and the rest will be added unto you’ (Matthew 6:33) has been a verse that has proved to be true in my own life. Weren’t it for RexBand, I don’t think I would have come this far in music. Together with the band, God enabled me to visit almost 20 countries and I was privileged to glorify God through our band in six World Youth Day programmes!

I gratefully remember the support from my family and I strongly believe that it was God who arranged it all for me. He has provided abundantly for all our needs. As new changes are brought about by the pandemic, we are happy to see Praise Adonai reaching the corners of the world, spreading our Lord’s love and healing through YouTube.

The conviction that our Lord is always at the helm of our lives is our strength and calm. When the pandemic struck, I had just begun my music school and suddenly one day all my students disappeared. But God opened the bigger door of online music classes for me and now I have students all over the world. Praise God! God has blessed us abundantly always, that we never doubt nor worry about what the future holds. 

Lynnee:

We are mostly into family music ministry. Linton is my brother and I used to accompany him for the music sessions of Jesus Youth programmes, along with my elder sister Lorraine. He was the main guitarist those days. After getting married to Jibson, my acquaintance with the music ministry got deeper and since then I have been with the team, singing and praising the Lord.

We are mere vessels of the lord through which we proclaim him. And through our music, we want people to experience God’s healing touch. Every member of our family is involved in our music ministering, including Praise Adonai. 

We have a scheduled time for planning and shooting the show and it is a delight to watch our children handling the arrangements and technical setup of our online praise and worship programmes, especially Praise Adonai. Even if we are able to bring at least one soul closer to God through our songs, that would be our joy. It’s the love for our God which motivates and strengthens us each day.

Collet

I love singing and I was delighted to be married to a family of musicians. I was even more excited to know that Linton’s father was a violinist and his mother, a good singer. Mom was a very talented person and a strong pillar for us. She used to take up all family-related wedding choirs, confidently, keeping us all in mind.

We started singing together in church choirs and weddings. We named our band, Mustardseed.  In 2019, Mom left for her heavenly abode. 

The late Rev Fr Joe Van Leeuwen CP, a Passionist priest, was our spiritual guide. He motivated us to sing in his chapel for Sunday Mass and for special occasions.

In 2020 when the pandemic struck, we were literally locked. Weekly prayer meetings were a huge part of our lives. All of a sudden, we were cut off from everyone with no option but to sing for ourselves. That’s when Jibson’s friend Prema Ravi from LittleMount prayer group, Chennai asked us whether they could have our praise and worship songs recorded to be used in their online prayer meetings. We found it a good idea to come together and sing. Right from the next week, in March 2020, we started recording half-an-hour praise and worship sessions and uploaded these on YouTube. We shared it with our family and friends and continued this every week. Later, we got a call from Kairos asking whether we would like to share our praise and worship through Kairos Media. We saw this as God’s invitation to reach out to more people and happily agreed. And since then, the praise and worship session shared on Kairos Media’s YouTube channel is titled  ‘Praise Adonai’. As we approach the milestone of 100 songs with Praise Adonai, we have run out of words to thank God.

Coming together for Praise Adonai, practising and shooting gives us a break from our routine and refreshes us. We have experienced moments of healing during the praise and worship. Ever since we began in 2020, I have had severe shoulder pain and I gratefully remember how it got miraculously healed in one of our sessions. We see miracles happening in our personal lives too. Our elder son, Elton scored the ninth rank in the All Kerala LBS entrance examination for MCA; we didn't even know that he was preparing for it! He got admission in CET, a prestigious engineering college in Trivandrum¹, which again surprised us and we often sing our hearts out in gratitude remembering how beautifully God takes care of us when we take baby steps towards him.