From worldly pleasures to God’s honour
The ministry of DJ Malachi
MANDEVILLE, Manchester: HE WOKE up every day purposed to use his talent to entertain dancehall lovers, but after a series of heart-rending events, the realisation of his true purpose hit home and there was nothing he could do about it.
The call of God on the life of André ‘DJ Malachi’ Ellis came through a vision that was so chilling, he said he needed no other sign.
“I was there lying in bed and I felt my spirit leave my physical body. I was brought to a graveyard and I just could not move. When I looked on one of the graves, I saw a donkey which then changed into a photo of Christ (like the one) normally displayed on calendars. I looked on the headstone and it said ‘I am the resurrection and the light’ – I can’t forget it. As I was standing there, I saw some women dressed in black and red gowns which covered their faces. I tried crying out, but nothing came out. I thought this was it for me. As the women stretched their hands out for me to take it, I woke up.”
PSALM 28
When Ellis woke up he said he was instructed to read Psalm 28, a passage, he said, represented everything he experienced in the vision.
“I told my mom of my experience, but she said it was just a dream. I knew it was much more and that I needed to start serving God. I called my aunt, who is a deaconess, along with her husband. She prayed for me. She told me if I had reached out to those women in the dream, I would have been dead.”
Ellis knew he was being rescued from a life that was sending him to eternal damnation.
“I wasn’t a bad person. I had good intentions, but when things got tough, I was willing to do all I could for my family and myself. I went back to school and got trained in a skilled area, but everyone but me got a job. We (friends) relocated, did the same course, but I still could not get a job. I remember things got so bad, I had nothing to eat and I passed out once while at home. It was during that time that I recorded my first secular song on a home-made system and track my father had given me.”
He continued, “When I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I had to leave the house I was staying. A Good Samaritan came my way, though, and I got a job and a place to stay. But the devil was persistent. I soon lost the job because of people who were not happy I was there. I had no other choice but to go back home.”
His next option was to turn to violence.
“My mother has 11 of us and, at that time, I felt I needed to make a change for them, though I wasn’t the oldest. I remember once I called a friend and told him I needed to borrow his ‘tool’, but he refused. I asked another friend and he told me that that life was not for me.”
He continued, “After that vision, my life changed. When God has a plan for you, the devil can only try. God was preparing me for greater.”
EP TO BE RELEASED
The gospel minister, who deejays and sings under the anointing of God, will release his EP on June 24.
“God has been good to me. I have had two songs charting on Love 101 at number seven and number two: Fighting the Flesh and Hol on Pon Him. My main aim is to use my God-given talent as it regards encouraging and bringing young people to Christ and, more important, to bring forth the gospel worldwide.”