Songwriting for the poor – Interview with Jennafer White of Wrent

Jen and Brady White were simply counting on a getaway, not on God changing their lives.

The young couple – known to audiences across America as the band Wrent – visited the Dominican Republic in September of 2007.  They became part of a trip organized by Cross International to help donors understand and appreciate the work being done overseas to care for the poor.

Jen was working for a Cross International board member at the time that was not able to come, so she and Brady came on his behalf.

“We didn’t know anything about Cross International or what we were going to see,” says Jen, “We were just excited to go.  So we went, and the LORD changed our hearts forever.”

Jen says the ministry began before they even got off the ground:  “We had already formed an unbelievable community as a group going down, even before we arrived in the Dominican.  Cross International set the tone for the whole trip – we felt so loved before we even got there.”

Brady & Jenn White (Wrent), Coral Ridge Presbyterian, March 2009

Once touching down in Santa Domingo and driving 30 minutes out of town, Jen says they “became immersed in the most severe poverty I’ve ever been around.”

“The floors in homes were made of dirt and it would rain every night,” she explains, “and since there was only one bed for 12 people, the family would have to sleep in shifts for 2 or 3 hours.  It was horrible!  The floor was literally washing away from under them.”

Now Jen uses this story to illustrate the conditions to their audiences across the U-S:  “It’s a perfect picture of how desperately people need help.”

Brady and Jen’s song Believe – birthed from their time in the Dominican – illustrates in music the cry of the poor for deliverance from wretched circumstances and conditions.  They have given it to Cross International to distribute to churches that want to focus on serving the poor during worship.

Jen explains the process of writing Believe:   “We started writing it before the trip, but we just couldn’t finish it.  We just had a couple of lines and a tune, but that was it.  But after the first day in the Dominican, when we got back to our hotel room, and Brady started playing with it again, and it just came together then.”

“God used our time in the Dominican to call us into our current ministry,” says Jen.  “It was then that we decided we wanted to raise money for and awareness about what ministries like Cross International are doing to serve the poor and fight poverty around the world.”

• Jen and Brady White travel extensively as the band Wrent, and share the love of God and the needs of the poor with hundreds of people at churches, youth camps, radio audiences every year.

• Music charts and video of their song “Believe” are available to church music directors free-of-charge through Cross International’s Harmony of Hearts program.  Click here to preview and for details