Over the past year, the music in me has been led on a fun and Spirit-filled journey – a journey that has only just begun. From a place of spiritual hurt and anger, the gentle hand of the Almighty has moved me into the world and opened the doors of ministry!

KGRV Radio with Linda Lanier

Early in 2011, I met Nashville recording artist Linda Lanier while doing a live worship concert on-air at KGRV radio. I later contacted Linda and asked what it would take to get her to come out to headline a gospel festival I had begun to plan with the city of Oakland, Oregon. Over the next few months, Linda became my mentor and friend. She had me accompany her at some of her patriotic concerts and music ministry events and in December, I co-produced a single for her called “Where Are You Now”. This was a great experience! I played piano and my wife sang backups as we recorded in SuperDigital Sound’s studio in Portland, Oregon. It is such an honor to be part of Linda’s ministry – I’ve enjoyed every minute of that and have gotten to play for some great audiences, including a naval base in Washington. 

Cloud City Studios, Portland, OR

In July, the City of Oakland held the first ever Oakland Gospel Music Festival. It was a success and was a whole bunch of fun! There was an incredible amount of work that went into it, but we pulled it off. Upon the completion of the festival, I found that I had acquired all of the equipment necessary to put on large, indoor and outdoor shows of my own. My brother mentioned that I should rent out the

Playing at the Oakland Gospel Music Festival

equipment to other bands and this triggered an idea in my head to provide technical services to the Christian community in Oregon and surrounding areas. As my mind ran with the possibilities, I realized that this idea was “sound” and that it could be expanded upon. Hence, the formation and creation of J. A. Mantle Ministries , an organization that will connect the Christian community with the talent and technical expertise needed to pull off successful events – ministry and otherwise.

This is a new venture, but I can see that it is going to take off. What would be those signs, you may ask? Within a few days of creating this organization, I connected my first need with a service – Grace Chapel at the Sea is a wonderful little church in Seaside, Oregon. They will be hosting gospel singer Emil Evi on September 15th! And my band, Jethro Abe Mantle & The Rising, will be playing and ministering in January! How cool is that? If you are anywhere near Oregon, check out this little church and catch Emil’s concert.

Part of my vision for J A Mantle Ministries involves providing teaching and ministering conferences to those in the creative world. In my first endeavor in this capacity, I am acting as an event coordinator for Incubator Creative Group’s Music Ministry Explosion conference to be held in Roseburg, Oregon on October 19 and 20, 2012. If you are involved in music ministry, or if you WANT to be, but aren’t sure what steps you need to take, I would encourage you to attend this conference. Registration is done online, by following this link: www.IncubatorOnline.com/OR

Yes, the past year has been incredible. And today I received news that we may be playing a gospel concert for a large sporting event during a special Faith Night event. I couldn’t dream this stuff up as my tendency is to limit a limitless God. It’s His business and I pray that I can remain a humble servant right up to the point where He welcomes me home.

Good News! Get some!

I have been told that we should have a CD ready for our sporting event concert. We are fund-raising to do this. If you want to support the dreams of a cool man of God and his gospel band, go to my website and click the Donate button. God bless you!
www.JethroMantle.com
JAM

Hello Friends,

 

A family friend was murderedin New Mexico. His name was Chad Mercer. He was 36 years old. He was taken from this world by an evil man, leaving behind a fiancée and a 9 month-old baby girl, Ayden Raine Mercer.

Chad Mercer and Baby Ayden

 

My wife, Jolene, grew up with Chad. The Mercer family was close to her – Pastor Brian Mercer was a second dad to her. Pastor Mercer married Jolene and I, and his daughter is one of Jolene’s closest friends. Needless to say, this is a tragedy that hits home – straight to the heart. The Mercer family is grieving deeply at this time.

 

Jolene and I are asking you to help Chad’s family. We will be broadcasting a special benefit concert on Sunday, August 12, at 6 pm (Pacific) to lift the Mercer family in prayer, and to raise money for baby Ayden. We cannot change the past; but maybe we can shape the future.

 

This will be a free concert that you can watch on your computer or smart phone. It will be broadcast via Ustream.tv and will be viewable on my website:

www.JethroMantle.com

 

Donations are accepted through my website or may be mailed to the care of Chad’s sister:

Lanae Jackson

PO Box 105

Huntley, MT 59037
In the Memo section, please write “Ayden Raine Mercer”

 

Please forward this information to anyone you think can help. If you are a Facebook user, we are asking you to Share the Event announcement on your own page. Here is the Facebook Event link:
http://www.facebook.com/events/226597790796901/

 

From now until the event, I will be donating a portion of all music sales from my website to baby Ayden’s fund.

 

We thank you in advance for your generous hearts.

JAM

www.JethroMantle.com

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I don’t have love, I am just a loud and meaningless sound – a clashing cymbal…

Excuse my paraphrasing, but I woke up to this. We can be the coolest, most awesomest dude around… but without love, it is meaningless.

We can preach at you and tell you how to live and how to be… but without love, we are nothing but noise.

Without love… that is love from us to you – from me to you. This love is not a sappy, drippy love; it is not a lustful, self-serving feeling. It is a respect for you as a fellow human, created as I, for the same purpose, I am no better than thee. 

This is the love that will stop you, turn you around, and walk you back to the man who is filthy and ‘dripping of stink’ and give him your coat and your last dollar, when your mind is telling you that he somehow deserves to be standing here and it is none of your concern. 

Love is in your heart, sometimes in direct opposition to your mind.

I am preaching to myself now! This is the love. This is the love. This is the love that is not easy to conjure, when the world is nasty and full of hate – full of darkness – full of evil and we just feel like it is washing over us in a dark tide.

Love is the light.

Love is. 

Love is a choice.

Love is an attitude.

Love is a command.

Love.

Good News? Yep! Good News for the Soul – that is the title of my new CD. Described as Gospel / Christian / Soul music, this CD will include a collection of songs I have written over the past few years and have been performing for live audiences with my band, The Rising. They run the gamete from fun to fantastic and from soul to salvation – and they all are about Good News! This CD will include my song, The River, which is a song about the seeking humility and purity while drifting down the river of life. Also included will be the new song co-written with my wife, Jolene – Blessed Be, a song that pulls no punches while describing the saving grace of the Heavenly Father – He came for the down and out, the dirty and the down.

I don’t want to talk about it. I… I… I want to sing! And singing I will be, with my band, The Rising at the upcoming Oakland Gospel Music Festival. July 28 and 29 in little, historic Oakland, Oregon. I hope you will be there. I really do.

Do you love Good News? Do you need some for your soul? Do you love helping people accomplish positive things? Great! You can help me! I am accepting donations in exchange for promises of CD’s and great events.
Your donation will help produce this CD! 

• $  5 – gets you Good News for the Soul in MP3 format
• $10 – receive an autographed CD
• $25 – above, plus a ticket to the CD release concert
• $50 – all of the above, plus dinner with the band after the CD Release concert!

Now that your heartstrings are humming, you can go to my website, scroll down, and donate to this cause. Here is the website: www.jethromantle.com

Do you know how much I appreciate you? Seriously.

Let’s do this thing! Everybody can use some Good News for the Soul!

As a 7 time FOTY Award Winner (Father of the Year), I offer my annual installment of free parenting advice:

This year – Raising Boys – The Most Annoying Creatures Ever Made

Thinking of having kids? Think harder. Do you smile when you see little boys running around and shouting for joy? There’s something wrong with you; you need professional help.

Here is the hard reality. Boys are annoying. They are loud. If there isn’t noise coming out the front, then it is coming out the back. Half of the time, you cannot tell which end the noise is coming from. Boys make sounds that I can’t even spell. At this moment, my young son is making sounds to the tune of music that only he hears. Let me give you a sample of this wonderful music:

“WEE WHADA WHADA. WHADA. Bleer bleer bleerdee. OOKACHOOKA WUSSU!!! DI DI DI DI DIIIIIIIII DER DER!!!!!!”

(Make sure you turn the volume up all the way until your ears bleed so you can experience this in stereo pain)

Not only are boys annoying and loud, but they are also hard of hearing. Perhaps this is because they have deafened themselves. A boy’s response to nearly every question will be, “What?”
(At this point, I must offer the following important disclaimer: A boy’s hearing loss is selective and applies only to questions posed directly to him. If you and your spouse are discussing issues of a sensitive nature and you are certain that your son cannot hear you because he is in the furthest corner of the house and is singing at the top of his lungs, you are wrong. He will hear you and will shout, “What does ___ mean?” This is a sacred law of nature, like Gravity, and cannot be violated.)

I hope I have made my point. If not, let me reiterate here: boys are annoying. At this point in my speech, I must pause to answer your eagerly shouted questions. “Abe! Honorable Sir! If boys are so annoying, why do people keep having them? Sir, if you please?”

The answer is not simple. Nor do I know it. Here is my theory. We are human. As such, our brains are designed to forget pain quickly. Pain is erased by something I call “Goodness”. Goodness erases pain in an exponential manner. In fact, I have deduced the mathematical equation for this phenomenon:
M = P + (A1 + (A2 X 0.6)) x G x 0
Where M = Memory, P = Pain, A1 = Mother’s age, A2 = Father’s age, and G = Goodness.

“Honorable King Abe! Please define ‘Goodness’. Please sir, and may we have some bread?”

Me and my boyz

No bread for you! But let me see if I can define Goodness:
When the noise stops. When the mouth farts cease. When the last echoes of horrible chipmunk voice screeching fade into silence. When the boy turns and smiles at me and says, “Dad? I love you.” When he climbs on my lap and hugs me tight; when he climbs in bed on a Saturday morning and snuggles while we watch cartoons together; when his face lights up as he opens a gift; when his joyful laugh echoes through the trees as we walk the trail together; when he makes me feel that I am the luckiest man alive…
This is Goodness.

And this is why we continue to produce the annoyance which is Boy.

To you fathers who are striving to win the FOTY Award, keep trying. You’ll make it. Don’t give up and feel free to pay me for my advice. They say ‘nothing is free’ but that isn’t true. I don’t get paid anything for this blog. Case closed.

My past few posts have been in regards to Brianna Wheaton – a teen who suffered severe brain damage following complications from a MRSA bacterial infection. Last month, my wife and I streamed a special internet concert to help support Brianna and her family. We called this Gospel and Praise for Brianna. While the broadcast raised some funds through Brianna’s Give Forward site, I  believe the concert blessed my wife and I most of all.

I know that there are many who have been praying for Brianna throughout her ordeal. In the past couple of weeks, it appears that those prayers have begun to be answered. Doctors had told her family that she would remain in a vegetative state – that the only part of her brain functioning was that keeping her heart pumping and her lungs breathing. But then Brianna began to laugh.

 On April 11th, the following update was posted on Brianna’s Give Forward site:
“A miracle!!!  Brianna started laughing and smiling yesterday!!!  Although laughing is a brainstem function..Brianna is laughing at jokes and funny faces and especially at stories that everyone else laughs at.  Her doctors are amazed!!  This is a huge step for her and the only real “breakthrough” since her accident in January!!  We are jumping up and down with excitement!!!  We have spent the last 2 days finding ways to make Brianna laugh just to see her beautiful smile over and over again!!!  Check out the videos and see for yourself what all the prayers and thoughts for Brianna have accomplished!!!  She is going to beat this brain injury!!!!”

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=337209542994590

I hope the link above works – it shows a video of Brianna laughing and responding to her daddy. I can’t watch it without crying…but I am kind of a sap like that.

On April 26th, Brianna was holding her own head up for physical therapy. I believe a miracle is happening. Amazing.

 Keep praying for this young girl. If you have not done so, visit her Give Forward site – give what you can and if you cannot give financially, give her a “hug” by leaving a message of encouragement for her family. And follow her progress as this amazing young girl fights to emerge from this injury.

Thank you and God Bless!

JAM
http://www.jethromantle.com
 

Hello world! Did you miss last night’s live internet podcast? Don’t worry, it was recorded and you can watch it on my website:

www.jethromantle.com

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

You can also link directly to the video on Ustream.tv

http://ustre.am/:1sPsa

I want to appeal to your hearts. Visit Brianna Wheaton’s Give Forward site and donate. If you cannot give money, please give a “hug”. Her family is struggling with the profound change to their lives. Here is the site:

http://www.giveforward.com/blessingsforbrianna

Much love brothers and sisters,

JAM

In my last blog I talked about the online streaming concert my wife and I will be performing on Friday, April 6, to help the family of Brianna Wheaton. Brianna is a teen who suffered severe brain damage after contracting a MRSA bacterial infection. Doctors continue to attempt to communicate with Brianna, but to this point she has been unresponsive.

I wanted to give you all another way to help Brianna’s family. Purchase my solo piano CD, Ready to Wait, or download it as an MP3 from now until the concert event and I will donate a portion of the proceeds to Blessings for Brianna.

Buy Ready to Wait for yourself or as a gift for a friend. You can purchase it on Amazon, iTunes, or CD Baby.

I thank you and Brianna’s family thanks you. God bless you.

jam

www.jethromantle.com

 

Brianna Wheaton was an average 17 year-old. She lived in a small town in Oregon and was enjoying her youth. Then she got a bump in her arm and her life took a terrible turn. To read her whole story, go here. 

After a series of medical events, Brianna is now left with tremendous brain damage and is unable to care for herself. This will be her life from now on. 

Her family is faced with a mountain of current and future medical expenses. A move has begun to help them by securing donations through Giving Forward, a donation site designed to help with medical costs and other expenses. 

My wife and I have decided to do a streaming concert to help with this effort. It is our hope that we can spread this story across the globe through the power of the song and the technology of the internet. We will broadcast Gospel and Praise – A Benefit Concert for Brianna Wheaton, via streaming video on my website: www.jethromantle.com on Friday, April 6, at 6 pm, PDT. 

A donation link has been set up on my website. Please donate whatever you can and let’s help this family. From now until the concert, I will be donating a portion of my Ready to Wait CD and MP3 sales to this cause. This is a solo piano CD. Buy one for yourself and for someone you love. 

Here are some important links:
Blessings for Brianna Facebook
Blessings for Brianna Donation Site
My Webpage for Video Concert

Thank you so much.
jam 

 

Once again, the mid-western US has been hammered with deadly tornadoes. Worldvision reports, ”Severe weather continues moving northeast from Mississippi, pounding Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois, states that are still cleaning up debris, having taken a beating from storms that hit earlier in the week.” Entire communities have been wiped out, and the season has only just begun.

Last year, we held a special gospel concert in Roseburg, Oregon and raised money for tornado and flood victims. I want to help again, and this year I am going to try something a little different. I will be broadcasting a live solo piano session via Ustream. The stream will be viewable on my website: www.jethromantle.com .

I will broadcast live on Sunday, March 11th, beginning at 6 pm, Pacific time. It will be free to view. From now through the broadcast event, I will be accepting donations on my homepage: www.jethromantle.com . In addition, I will donate a portion of every Ready to Wait solo piano CD or MP3 sale during this time. Funds will be donated to Worldvision’s US Disaster Relief Fund for tornado relief

Please spread the word, friends. It has been exciting to see sales of my piano music across the world, including Korea, Portugal, and Hungary! I would love to attract a world-wide viewing audience to this and future streaming broadcasts.

Ready to Wait is also available on Amazon and iTunes.