When Martina Sequeira e Souza took a leap
of faith in 2013, she, by her own admission, just
followed the Lord’s guiding hand to produce her
first Gospel album, ‘Walk by Faith’. What is perhaps
more amazing to her as well as her listeners is that
this singer/song-writer is an untrained one. But
Martina was propelled by one thought: “When the
Lord has a purpose for you, you do not need to be
equipped with great talent or abilities. He equips
and empowers you.” The 2,300 likes on Facebook,
667 fans on Reverbnation and over 4,600 followers
on Twitter, including those on Gospel Innovation
and Indyspotlight, is an endorsement of this faith
and talent.
“I had shared a video of one of the title songs,
‘Mould Me’, on Twitter and people immediately
took to it,” recalls an elated Martina. While her
plans were to follow up ‘Walk by Faith’ with a
sequel, Martina was once again inspired to write
gospel songs for children. ‘Wonderfully Made’,
sung by her 7-year-old daughter Rebecca will now
make its debut soon.
The blessings poured in as an evangelist
from Africa heard her music on Twitter. “Naz is
a multi-talented music producer, musician and
professional African tribal sound producer from
Zimbabwe. He got in touch with me on Twitter
in October last year and asked if I would be open
to a recording on a traditional beat he had done.
Earlier, the songs just came to me as a wave of
inspiration. Now, here I was being offered a beat
and I would have to produce the music, the lyrics
and sing the vocals; it was a bit overwhelming
and I was apprehensive about being able to meet
his expectations since I had no formal training.
But I just trusted in the Lord and He blessed me
once again,” elaborates Martina, who went on to
effortlessly produce a single ‘So Free’ that fitted
into the beat. Naz not only accepted it immediately,
but aired it on Zimbabwe’s top praise network FM
channel ‘Praise 105.2’, digitally released it on iTunes
and made it available for sale on iTunes as well
as Amazon in France, UK and Japan. “I recorded
the song with my childhood friend and producer
Jeshrun D’Cruz of Angels CP Studios at Santacruz,
who had done my earlier album as well. Naz
loved the original and ran it without any changes,”
explains Martina.
What is more heartening is that Naz and Martina
have never met or spoken. The only collaboration
has been on Twitter and WhatsApp. Yet her music
today is on a global network. “Walk by faith,” she
reiterates, “for ‘So Free’ which speaks of the Lord
setting us free from the barriers we have in this life,
has been another miracle from this leap of faith
and trust in the Lord,” says Martina , who is still
overwhelmed that her music is being played and
heard on another continent.
The music, lyrics and vocals flowed so
effortlessly within just a month of Naz’s request
that it has left Martina wondering too. “There is no
formula. My inspiration just defies explanation,”
confesses this humble lady who feels so free once
again, having walked in faith with the Lord.
