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March 2001 Table of Contents
Special Feature
Music With A Mission
By Enoch Fernando
Born in India, Enoch Fernando, a brilliant concert pianist who travels over 250,000 miles each year, has performed in over 3,000 concerts worldwide, fashioning a unique "worship experience" with his concerts across America that help the needy of India and the children of the world.
Music With A Mission
As he sat in the early hours of the morning, under the flickering light of a kerosene lamp in his tiny home in Madras, India, he watched his uncle, Ed Samuel, play the great classics on a rundown five and a half octave piano.
Little did Enoch Fernando realize that one day he would himself become a great concert performer playing in some of America's great churches and arenas.
But now, living in Southern California with his American-born wife Becky, and their three children, Andy, Rachel and Sarah, Enoch can be found each Sunday seated at a grand piano in a church somewhere in America giving what he calls "A Unique Worship Experience" as he plays a combination of great hymns, worship songs, classical music and his own compositions.
But this classically trained virtuoso doesn't just give a concert: each of his performances has a purpose. He wants to draw people closer to God in worship, and also help raise support for "Christ For India, " a great outreach headed by his father, Manuel Fernando. This outreach program supports an orphanage, a leper clinic, mass crusades attended by up to 120,000 people, and pastors seminars. He also presents the possibility of child sponsorship through World Vision's program.
In The Beginning
Enoch Fernando was born in South India in the city of Madras more than four decades ago and grew up in this tiny house with no electricity or running water. "As a young boy, I was very touched by the need around me, the poverty around me," he said in an interview. "Many of the children who lived in cardboard shacks nearby suffered from leprosy and polio, and in order to survive, they had been taught by their parents to steal and beg. Even at that early age, my heart would ache as I would see the poverty, pain and suffering of these children, and I would ask God in prayer what I could do to reach and help these people."
Enoch then told me more of the story of his family. "Prior to my birth, my father was preparing to go to Rome to become a Roman Catholic priest," he revealed. "Needless to say, if he had gone through with his plans, I would not be here. While he was waiting to go to Rome, he had taken an office job in Madras and one day, a young lady who was one of his co-workers, asked him if he was 'born-again.' She also invited him to go with her to her church.
Just to get her off his back, my father decided to go with her to her church, Emmanuel Methodist Church, and there a missionary from the United States was preaching. "My father heard the message and accepted Christ and his life changed radically. He gave up any idea of going into the priesthood and a few months later he married Lillian, that same lady. I am the oldest of their seven children-six boys and one girl."
He then explained how an Indian came to have a Portuguese surname. "About 500 years ago, the Portuguese priests and nuns came to India and converted Hindus," he said. "As many as 30,000 to 40,000 in a day changed their religion. As soon as a priest baptized them into the Catholic Church, he would give them his surname. One of my predecessors, some 500 years ago, was one of those converts, and so our family name was changed from an unpronounceable Hindu name to an unpronounceable Portuguese name."
So how did he get the name Enoch? "Well, not quite 500 years ago, when my mother was expecting me, a Bible Woman came to our home and placed her hand on her head and began to prophesy," he stated. "She said, 'I believe you are going to have a son whom you are going to call Enoch, because he is going to do God's work.' So I never really had a chance. Ever since I was a young kid, I was dedicated to God's work."
The Confusing Start Of A Music Ministry
From an early age, Enoch said he knew that music was going to be his ministry. "As a young child, my mother would send me to accordion lessons that I hated," he confessed. "But that was the thing to do in those days. So I took accordion lessons for a few years."
"When I was 17 years old, I was involved with a rock band called The Confusions, and we were very confused. Amazingly, we won the All-India Beat Contest and we had a hit record out, but I felt God was calling me to come to the United States to study music. I received a letter from Dr. Lorraine Berry, from Los Angeles, California, and she had a magazine called 'Healing Hope' which she published and she took my picture and put it in her magazine. She drew an offering plate around that picture and at the bottom she wrote that God had impressed upon her heart for me to come to this country and would the people help. Within a couple of months, the money came in. I can still remember getting off the plane at Los Angeles International Airport and I was scared to death."
"A couple had kindly agreed to provide accommodation for me and they took me to their home near Southern California College in Costa Mesa, and in their home they had a nine foot concert grand piano on which I could do my studies. I was fortunate enough to be able to study piano with Lazlo Lack, who was the piano teacher for Richard and Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters. I studied the Bible and also music for a couple of years. Then I got married to a beautiful lady named Becky, whom I had meet at a service at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. She, too, was interested in music and had (and still does) a wonderful singing voice."
When he finished college in 1984, he said they both felt God call into a full-time music ministry. "So we sold almost everything and what was left we put in storage," he said. "We bought a motorhome and with a tank full of gas and a hundred dollars in our pockets, we took off across the United States with our two children, Andy and Rachel who was just four weeks at the time."
We had a few scattered bookings, but one would lead to another and then to another. Our first tour, we went all the way to New York and up into Canada.
When we came back from that tour, we had enough money to buy a little condo.
"Life on the road, however, was not always easy. When our son Andy was 10 years old, we were driving through northeastern Ohio and the car window was rolled down and a kid threw a rock and it hit him in his right eye and caused severe eye damage. In fact the doctor told us that it had burst like a grape. We had no medical insurance at the time, but the Lord provided us this physician in this tiny town who literally sewed his eye together. We still believe that one day he will have sight in that eye, but the doctor says that the optic nerve has been damaged."
"So we did two or three other tours like that and then I started flying out on the weekends, which I still do, leaving every Saturday and coming back on Monday morning. We have been in all denominations, all settings. We are fortunate to be part of one of the largest churches in the United States-Saddleback Community Church in Mission Viejo, California-with Pastor Rick Warren, who wrote a great book, 'The Purpose Driven Church.'"
In fact Rick Warren has said, "Enoch's music will thrill your heart and cause you to rejoice in praise to God."
Pastor Daine Demaree of the Church On The Move in San Diego, California, said, "The evening with Enoch could best be characterized by the word excellence. He is extraordinarily gifted yet skilled in directing praise and worship to the Master. His artistry is truly world-class and is released through a vessel that is unmistakably sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leadership. Without a doubt, Enoch's ministry far exceeded my expectations and will be remembered as one of the very best our church has experienced."
Enoch said that he has not only performed at places at big as the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, as well the Portland Coliseum and the Anaheim and Bakersfield Convention Centers, and has made numerous television appearances, but he also plays at missions conferences. "I am very pleased to say that the Lord is using us not just in concert ministries, but also helping people realize and feel the need for world evangelism. In fact, from a couple of churches I have been to, the pastors have written to us to say the pledges doubled and sometimes tripled for their own missions program after we have shared."
"I am also a World Vision artist and over the last few years, we have been able to find some 3,000 sponsors for needy children around the world. We like to give that opportunity for every person who would like to sponsor a child and we give them one of our recordings free if they will pick up a little child."
Enoch, who has shared the platform with Carmen, Phil Driscoll, Debby Boone and the Archers, also provides an opportunity to support Christ for India, a powerful ministry started by his father. "The reason I believe so strongly in missions is that I'm the product of a missionary," he explained.
"I have a deep purpose in what I do. I believe that if I can merge a high quality musical program with a ministry and a heart to reach out to missions, that this is what God wants me to do with the talent He has loaned me."
Enoch's mother passed away in 1986, and his father has since married Jasmine, her sister, who had been a widow for many years.
Said Becky: "Jasmine had caught my wedding bouquet at our wedding and I said to her, 'You know, you are going to get married again.' She had been a widow for 25 years and she laughed and said, 'That's ridiculous.' However, it wasn't so ridiculous and they both are at the forefront of reaching out to the people of India with the love of Christ."
Enoch said that he never quite knows how God is going to use his music and his many recordings. "I received a letter some 10 years ago from a woman who was on the verge of a divorce," he said. "She had packed all her things in her van and was taking off, leaving her husband and three children. About an hour into her drive, she accidentally hit the wrong button on her van stereo and one of my tapes was in there. She told me later, 'As I was listening to your music, I heard the Lord speak to my heart. I stopped my vehicle and turned around and went back to my husband and children.' What makes this story even more wonderful is that the whole family have been missionaries for the last five years and it is all because of the power of anointed music."
Despite his background, Enoch doesn't yet use Indian music in his performances, though he says he may in the future. "As my last name is Fernando, I am playing some Latin music. So in keeping with that Latin theme, we do have a new album out called 'Rhythm and Roses.' However, I mostly play music I have written. One of the recordings is with the Sandy Patti family and the Otis Skilling Orchestra. It has done very well and we have sold quite a few albums. During most of my concerts, I play some of the tracks like, 'I'll Sing Praises to Your Name,' and 'We Are Standing On Holy Ground.' This is worshipful music. My intent is to lead the congregation in a unique worshipful experience."
"I have entitled our concerts, 'A Unique Worship Experience.' It's not just a performance, although it could stand as a performance, but we want to minister to the hearts of the people. That's our desire."
Enoch then issued a challenge to all Christians. "I believe that God has called each one of us to a particular task and possibly each task may seem impossible," he said. "But if you and I will do all that we can do, He will do all we cannot do, for God is not looking for ability, but he is looking for availability. We all need to say to the Lord, 'Lord, help me to be available to reach out to all people in a dying world.'"
Although most of Enoch's performances are in North America, he says he is willing also to consider overseas tours. For further information on Enoch's ministry, write:
Piano Praise International
PO Box 726
El Toro, CA 92630, USA
Phone: (714) 597-9825
or check out the website at: www.Enochmusic.com
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