WHY GOSPEL SINGERS HAVE A BIG ROLE TO PLAY IN THE AWARENESS GAME

Seyi Adebowale a.k.a Seyi O’ deb

AN EXCERPT FROM #CHATWITHSEYI LIVE TWITTER INTERVIEW BY ADEBAYO OF 7GOSPELTRACKS WITH SEYI

WELCOME TO TWITTER CHAT TODAY. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF AND WHAT IS THE ONE THING PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU?

Thank you so much and I am so honoured and grateful for the invite. As you already know, I am Seyi Adebowale. A graduate, pastor, a part time researcher, a loving husband, caring dad of three, and by His grace the founder of MHM/THE MHMUK MAGAZINE

One thing people don’t know about me, (and this will be the first time I am making it public so to say) is that, I was raised up as a kid in a very very abusive home. I suffered a lot of traumatic experiences during my prime time. My dad, (bless him, now we have resolved our differences) was extremely and aggressively abusive to my mum. The home back then was that of chaos in a bloody way. I mean bloody. I saw, severally, my mum got injured with deep cuts; severally threatened with machete. His total lack of empathy was driven by his excessive alcoholic lifestyle. My mum is dead now – 2 years ago-another experience I am yet to recover from. I can go on and on. As a child I lived my life always so terrified as a result of this experiences- always like someone walking in the woods in a dead peach darkness not always sure of what awaited me…

I am ever so grateful that I met Christ early. His saving grace kept me, brought me out and gave me hope, otherwise, it would have been a different story today.

2. WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND AND WHAT SPARKED THE DESIRE TO START MINDHEALTHMUSIC?

I read Rural Development (Applied Sociology) up to postgraduate level, and now I running a third degree (online) to specialise in Society and Mental Health. I have served in various capacities as residential pastor, bible school co ordinator, lecturer and administrative personnel, before God relocated me to the UK 6 and half years ago.

My interest and enthusiasm in mental health started during my time in the social care industry where I worked for a couple of years

Every time I read the statistics in relation to people grappling with mental health issues and suicides, my heart bled. The projection is even more scary in the sense that more and more people will end up having one mental health issues or the other in their lifetime. And as someone who have had traumatic experience while I was young, but got saved through the application of biblical principles, my heart would not rest to offer my own bits as a solution, knowing full well that there is ultimate solution in the scriptures.

Starting MHMUK was a divine response to what had already been wired into me. I got the final marching order to start in this light when I was listening to a UK radio program called Be Inspired With Shoggy Tosh (BIWST) on Salt FM.

After the program, I had a prompting which sounded like: ‘now is the time to start’. I started on the 24th November,2017. Now , I have got lovely people who have joined me in the race. There is a unique story tied to how I started, but I will live it for another day.

3 DO YOU THINK THE GOSPEL MUSIC & MEDIA SPACE GENERATE MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS? HAS IT SHOWN TOO MUCH OR NOT ENOUGH?

As a matter of fact the starting point is still out of sight. One of our objectives at MHMUK is to be one of the forces to champion this move: creating awareness and educating the Christian community and others about mental health and emotional well being especially in the environment where such concept is usually considered as a sign of spiritual weakness. Little wonder why many Christian are suffering in silence to avoid the stigma usually attached to mental health issues. We have a tool in our hand called music, which is purposed to minister to God, and also to the souls of men: the sit of our mind. Musicians have a huge massive reach because of music’s awesome appeal to all and sundry (people suffering from mental health issues inclusive) It is high time we started using our voices and instruments to educate and create awareness. I feel it should also start with us by opening up our individual past or present struggles with emotional issues etc and how it is OK not to be OK, but there is a guaranteed solution in the application of God’s Word for healing.

And also that there is nothing wrong in sharing our story with whoever cares to listen ( every one has mental health and it is each individual responsibility to take care of it before it is too late. Mental health is not a sign of weakness, most time it is physiological expression of what is going on in our brain, and while it is OK and right to pray about it, it is also Ok to seek for medical intervention when  issues are lasting more that two weeks. I tell people medical practitioners in this area are miracles waiting for mental health sufferers. Now that is not to say that, total cure and healing is not available.

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