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They've been compared to the Jackson 5, but this family group’s harmonic tones don’t just make good music, it makes good ministry as well.
God's Blessings No Chains Holding Me Down, the talented youth quartet from Camp Springs serve up Gospel harmonies week after week, along with meals for the homeless. Ranging in age from 6 to 14, the three brothers and sister have been crooning their redemptive tunes in churches, and nursing homes for two years now, establishing a reputation among supporters of a youthful group that is serious about ministry.
“When they came, they really impressed me with their singing. And one little fella had so much Word in him where he can encourage the other youth,” said Doris Boyd, pastor of We the Friends Outreach Assembly in NE Washington. Boyd heard the group on the radio and has invited them several times to minister on her television broadcast, “Let’s Talk.”
After two years of singing in malls, and anywhere else they could find an invitation, the group has released a self-titled CD Project available on CDBaby and Itunes, and they are scheduled to appear on an episode of the Bobby Jones Gospel Show this summer.
All the while, these young singers have learned to minister not only with their voices. After each ministry engagement, they make it a point to find a homeless shelter, and give back by feeding or providing clothes to the homeless.
“It’s good to see how [people] walk in with just a regular face and leave with a smiley face” said Ezekiel Stoddard, 10. “When you say, ‘I’ve got a new walk, I’ve got a new talk’ its saying how you’ve just turned your whole life over to Christ.“
Fourteen-year-old Corinne Stoddard; Hezekiah Stoddard, 12, Ezekiel, and Micah Stoddard, 6, have found themselves as a singing group at the center of a legacy born out of family adversity.
Their mother, Adrienne Smith, had 10 children when she left an abusive marriage and found herself living on the streets. It was during this time, when Smith said she was “sleeping on grates,” that God gave her the songs that her four youngest children are singing today.
Now, many years later, Smith is married to pastor Vasconcellas Smith, who also found himself homeless earlier in life, and the two co-pastor Fullness of Time church, in Capitol Heights, MD.
Hezekiah said he did not want to sing when their mother first organized them two years ago, but that now he enjoys seeing what their singing means to others.
“I started to realize how many souls you could save by just singing one song,” he said.
The Smiths make sure that each of the children is involved in feeding the homeless weekly, most often with homemade meals that the couple prepare themselves. At one time, they would take food to the shelters and serve, but now they are bringing known homeless people to their church for a meal. One of the goals the kids have is to personally stop in each state to feed or clothe the homeless.
“I like to help people out and let them know they’re not always going to be in that predicament,” said Corinne of her work with the homeless. “It has made me look at life differently. Instead of worrying about what I don’t have, I’m grateful for what I do have.”
Today the children are involved in a mind-boggling number of projects – everything from singing and promoting their latest CD project, to working on a clothing line and an autobiographical movie depicting the life of Adrienne Smith and the blessing God gave her in her children. This summer, the singing group even has job openings for the youth to help on the project.
In addition to the Bobby Jones taping, God’s Blessing is appearing in concert at churches throughout the area over the summer. They will be at New Life Community Baptist Church June 19, and have an date in August at Forestville Memorial United Methodist Church.
“I just love them. They’re awesome. They love what they do, and they are god's blessing,” said Apostle Brenda Matthews of God’s Prophetic Army Church in Clinton, MD who has known the family for years and has watched the youngest children grow.
“They just love singing praises to the Lord. They just put their whole heart in to it, and after they get through singing, they just serve,” she said.
Said Vasconcellas Smith, that’s just the purpose of their music.
“All of this .. the singing, their success.. is to benefit others,” Vasconcellas Smith said. “When they do well, it is to benefit the other things in [ministry]”
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