Sanctus Real: Representing
02-15-2008
by Kevan Breitinger
Sanctus Real has a rep as a band of rockers who like to keep it real in terms of representing Christ. Known throughout the industry as artists who take their calling seriously, they gave quite a bit of thought to getting involved with a social justice work, according to Sanctus Real drummer Mark Graalman.
“For the first few years our label people and publicists encouraged us to get behind a social justice organization, but we didn’t want to jump into the usual things,” Mark shares honestly. “We really wanted to make sure it was something we really believed in, rather than just something to make us look good, to be frank. It was also a matter of finding a group we believed in who would also work well with our audience, a majority of whom are high school kids or teenagers. If you ask a teenager who is working a few hours a week at Burger King to sponsor a child for $36 month, that’s a lot for them.” It was this point in particular that made the work of African Leadership stand out to the band members.
“African Leadership was appealing to us for many reasons,” he continues. “For one thing it’s an opportunity to join in and 
fight against everything that is going wrong in Africa.” African Leadership is a Christian Education and Development organization offering Biblical training for church leaders and meeting physical needs of the poor in Africa. Their main ministry is Pastoral and Church Leadership Training, currently discipling nearly 10,000 pastors and church leaders in 22 African nations. Classrooms range from “under a tree” in the war torn-corners of Sudan to the most densely populated slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Since it began in 1994, the ministry has graduated over 25,000 alumni. All classes are taught by indigenous African church leaders.
The ministry also serves more immediate needs in many of the places that it trains church leaders. The primary works are in the areas of children’s services and famine relief. Sanctus Real partners in raising funds through the organization’s Mocha Club missions work. The funds will be used for relief efforts in Darfur, Sudan, where more than 300,000 people have been killed in the last two years and more than two million people have been displaced. Future efforts will lend support for an orphanage in Kenya where babies have been abandoned because of AIDS, building a school for 380 children in the Sudan, building a village for and rehabilitating young women who were former sex slaves under the Rebel forces in Northern Uganda, funding an orphanage for 134 street children in Kampala, Uganda and building a school amidst the largest slum in East Africa for 400 children in Kibera, Kenya.
“With the Mocha Club,” Mark explains, “the commitment is $7 a month. So for us with our audience it’s a good fit. We can say to teenagers, ‘hey, for $7 a month you can drastically change the lives of many people.’”
With a 7 dollar a month commitment, the Mocha Club can feed one Africa person for a month, educate two people, save one person’s life from malaria, or provide clean water to seven Africans for one year. The Club also allows artists, or any contributors, to build ‘teams’ or clubs within the club, to address different areas of ministry. Sanctus Real donates a free copy of their last album, The Face of Love, to any supporter who joins their Mocha Club team as an incentive.
“We explain every night what African Leadership does and what the Mocha Club is about, and we see quite a bit of response,” says Mark. “I don’t know the stats, but I’d guess about a tenth of the audience, or even sometimes double that. It’s pretty great. The Mocha Club is a good fit for the Starbucks generation, and it gives them an image they can grasp immediately. Every time you buy yourself a cup of white chocolate mocha, or two of them, you’re missing the opportunity to change an African person’s life drastically. Everything about that life, from clean water to clean sanitation to clean clothing, education, church, all of that can be provided for $7 month. Its ridiculous when you think about not doing it,” he adds.
African Leadership makes getting informed and involved with their organization very easy. Their website is extremely informative and user friendly. When I mention that I noticed you can pick the particular works you’d like your money directed towards, Mark’s enthusiasm is easy to spot. “We love that about it,” he exclaims, “that we can put the money raised during each tour to a specific project, and it gives us something to share with the fans. On each tour we do different projects, and we’re already talking about what to do this year. This is the We Need Each Other tour, so we’re looking forward to choosing the project and letting the audience be a part of that. Because we do need each other,” Mark adds emphatically.
“The new album (We Need Each Other) is all about that message. Basically it comes back to everything Christ taught us, about loving God by showing love to the orphans and widows. It goes naturally right from the first commandment to love God into the second commandment about loving each other. Half of our work is ripping off the blinders from the eyes of the American believer so they can see that if you have a computer and a car and a house, you living in the top 2% of the world’s richest people. Most of us in the U.S. don’t really realize that. Just a little from us goes so far for the world’s poor.” Mark breaks it down even further for our edification. “A handful of friends can throw fifty bucks in a pot once a month and change lives in another country. It’s so easy it’s silly not to do it.”
If like drummer Mark Graalman and Sanctus Real members Matt Hammit (vocalist/guitarist), Dan Gartley (bassist), Chris Rohman (lead guitarist), and guitarist Pete Prevost, you feel it’s silly not to help African brothers and sisters in need, please prayerfully consider www.africanleadership.org and www.mochaclub.org as very viable candidates for your donations. The Mocha Club especially makes it easy for you and invited friends to work as a team together to help those in need. Even if you work at Burger King.
Comments
No comments have been written about this yet. Be the first below!