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Debbie

Can you bring me back to the beginning of Brother's Keeper?

John:

Really the beginning of Brother's Keeper was before we were called Brother's Keeper.

Brother's Keeper was back when we were in high school with best friends and went on church choir

tours. I remember hearing that was the place to meet girls, so me and my brother decided we

should

go. At the last minute he backed out though.

We went on a lot of church trips as our church afforded us a lot of opportunities to go out and be

involved in the Christian project. So we went out on tour, and we were all talking about holding each

other accountable--just the peer pressures that we would face going through high school. We said,

look let's be four best friends and hold each other accountable. So we did that and singing just kind

rolled out of that and developed.

We went singing in Sunday school class and then, you know, one thing after another. And then the

Lord blessed. Finally we had won some artist's searches and then Dana Key of DeGarmo Key

finally

gave us our first record deal.

Debbie:

Were you surprised when God chose you to be in a group?

John:

Well no! The reason why...it's not that God chose me but I believe that God is not concerned

with anybody's ability. I'm thankful for the talents God's given me, but there are a lot more talented

people, a lot of people are better looking, a lot of people are smarter. But here's the thing...the

bottom

line is that everything we've been given is from the Lord anyway. Who would anybody be to

take

pride in what they do? You know to me it's a matter of being in the Lord's will, and it's us being

available. So what I really wanted to do I read in a book in high school by John McCarthur, and it

said

there's six steps to knowing God's will in your life. The sixth step is to do whatever you want to.

I went

on to read the book, and it said you know if you were saved and your spirit filled, if you're

sanctified, if

you're submissive and if you're suffering for the cause of Christ, if you're doing all those

things you

can't help but be in God's will. I'm just thankful for Him for what He's been doing in our

ministry. I

want to be available to God. To me, it's about a ministry, and it's more about a calling.

I say, well, you know what, when I was eleven, I gave my heart to Christ, and I've always wanted to

be used by Him to lay up treasures in heaven. That's what it's really about for me.

Debbie: Tell me about the making of Beyond Beautiful?

John:

The making of Beyond Beautiful was an album that we chose to take our time and make.

Our

first record, you pretty much do whatever it takes to get a record deal and hope that someone

notices. And your second record the record label is just trying to, you know, release singles. When it

came to the third record, we said, look, we want to make the record musically that we enjoy and

from

a lyrical content that represents our heartbeat. So we took our time and picked the songs that

believe God placed in our lives that really ministered to us. So Beyond Beautiful was what we

think is

our most spiritual record to date and really has songs centered all around what Jesus has

done for us

on the cross and what's done in our lives.

Debbie: What about the new single that's out, "Beautiful Stars?"

John:

Well it just came out a month or two ago and we're really excited about it. As a matter of fact,

it's about to hit the charts and getting a lot of great feedback. We're really excited about that, and I'll

tell you why I get excited. It's not because it's a Brother's Keeper recording or anything like that, but

we literally chose that song because we'd been thinking about Easter and how He took the scars. It

brings us to the focal point about what Christ did for us on the cross--His life, His death, His

resurrection--and gives us a hope. So we're really excited about that song and find that our songs

are

geared toward the cross. I mean, on our last record we had a song called "Take Me To The

Cross."

Now we have a song on this record called "Cross of Christ and Passion," and in this he took

the

scars. So we're in light of Easter. We're really excited about it. I hope it ministers to a lot of

people.

Debbie: When did the spark arise to start the Premier Christian Cruises?

John:

Well, when I was out with Brother's Keeper, we were doing a tour called "Winter Jam." One

of the owners of the tour is Roy Morgan, and he just so happens promotes the tour and owns it. He

said, "John you wanna play some golf?" We had talked about real estate, and he knew my

background was business, so we just go talk. And so we just developed a friendship around the golf

course talking business, and then probably several months later I was at home watching a movie

and

was thinking about spring break and what kids are going to do. The Lord just gave me an idea.

Let's

get the biggest DJ's, let's get the biggest artist and do a cruise. And then it just morphed! We

did the

first K-Love Friends & Family Music Cruise and now we have the Music Boat and others, like

The

Girls Get-a-Way Cruise.

Debbie: Do you have any favorite Christian Artists who come aboard frequently and do they

bring

their families along for the get-a-way?

John:

Favorite Christian Artists that come aboard? Let me tell you I really like, now a group that's

splitting up, called 4HIM. I grew up listening to those guys.

Mark wrote a song for us on this record, and actually performed on the record with us, called "Walk

With Me." I like them, and I'll tell you why. Deep down in the core you look at all the artists, I really

think their heart and love for the Lord is real, a hundred percent. When I recognize that, it's a lot of

fun for me. We've had Newsong on the cruise. I like those guys and their heartbeat and then all the

big ones. Uh, you don't want to get anybody mad. They all have such unique gift...I mean

comedians,

to the illusionists every different one.

Debbie: Do you have any stories to share about some mishaps on the ship?

John:

Mishaps on the ship? Well, I got one that brings my partners Roy and Gary. We do this thing

called "we hang people," and the whole thing of hanging is really mean practical jokes. So the very

first cruise, as we get closer to a cruise that actually sails...by their personalities Roy is a very

detailed, organized person, and Gary is very casual and laid back...as we get closer to a cruise,

Gary

gets more relaxed--it's no big deal, it's gonna be fun. Roy gets more stressed--I got to get this

done,

what's going on? So I had this idea, and I was kind of the culprit behind it. You build a cruise

around

the fun, entertainment, laying out in the sun, the pool or beach...so we got all the Carnival

staff

involved. I mean, we had everybody involved. And except, this is kind of funny, the travel agent

that

we used to make the reservations didn't know about it. So we're all sitting around like in the

lobby of

the ship, and we said, you know, Roy there is one slight thing that you need to be aware of

on the

Carnival. The pool up top is leaking into the casino. Gary is telling him and said it's leaking to

the

casino, so for the first three days of the cruise, the pool's not going to be available until she gets

fixed. So it's no big deal. We made it believable enough, man--Roy, you know we chartered this

whole ship and told these people about laying out and getting in the pool. And we can't get into the

pool. Well, I didn't know it, but the travel agent gets on the cell phone instantly and calls the bigwig

power of the Carnival just like, Get me to the president, this is ridiculous. We're charging for cruise

ships and the pools don't even work. So finally, we told them, and there's a big laugh. He called and

told Carnival it was just an accident, it was a joke. It was so funny. So we do that kind of stuff all the

time, and Roy about had a nervous breakdown.

Debbie: What glorious blessings have you been a witness to since the start of the cruises?

John:

Start of the cruises? It's endless. There's been a lot of personal ones and stuff I dreamed

about that I never have been able to do that I can. My parents have never been even to Texas, so to

get them to go on a cruise and take them with me and my family... although they are not the biggest

CCM fans they appreciate the heartbeat for Christ. So I was able to take them--that's just a personal

note. But on a more practical business note, it's cool to see us working with sponsored organizations

like the Christian Blind Mission, etc., seeing those people benefit. The underlying thing is seeing a

family come and go on a Christian vacation, be encouraged and say I want to come. I saw a girl last

week, her whole family signed up. This will be their fourth K-Love cruise. They've been on every

single one, and so it's a lot of repeat people who love what we do. It's basically saying how if people

are gonna take a vacation anyway, why not take a Christian cruise? But people get saved, there's

just so many blessings you know. From people getting saved on the ship to being encouraged, but

really for me, to see the families together is the biggest part.

Debbie: I noticed that you're having the Comedy Connection and The Kids Corner..

John:

Yeah, it's a lot of fun. We try to do things. When you're gettin' on the ship, we do everything

from have a cruise newspaper, so when you're walking by, we'll have all the listings of who's playing

when, things you want to know about the DJ's or radio station you might not have known. We also

give them a devotional book that they can use everyday on the ship. We have devotions every

morning, but even when you're walking on the ship, you'll see Bob & Larry of Veggie Tales. The kids

can get pictures--it's really a family environment.

Debbie: When and where was the first embarkment and who was booked if you remember?

John:

I could tell ya'. We went out of New Orleans the year before the big hurricane hit. There

were

some other hurricanes that hit, but it was actually January of the year before. It was 4HIM,

Avalon,

Rebecca St. James, FFH and I think we had Mark Schultz, Chonda Pierce and Brother's

Keeper.

Debbie:

Who are they? haha

John:

A really great band...you got to get to know them.

Debbie: Oh so what about your marriage? Do you want to talk about your wife and you can

some bragging?

John:

Yep!! Yeah definitely!!! Kari!! I don't know if you heard this story, but it was my parents. They

were music ministers at a church with a young pastor who moved to Ohio. Years later, I started

going

to church with the pastor's wife's brother who still lives in Memphis. So I knew his brother-in-

law in

Memphis and the pastor living in Ohio, and they decided they wanted to set me and Kari up.

So Andy

and I made some comment about my wife dying at birth. And he said, Man, you just got to

look for

her. So he said, Why don't you call this girl and sing Happy Birthday? He would not leave

me alone. I

mean he just begged me to death--sing Happy Birthday!!! So finally, I just did it, and that

was it. I

don't know if it was because he bugged me, if I was interested in somebody else or what,

but I sang

"Happy Birthday." We emailed once or twice and that was probably in April. She was

talking about

coming to Memphis just for a little trip to visit, and that was it. Then so it went all April,

May, all the

way to the end of the year. Kind of scary looking back I'm like no...my wife. And so in

January, mom

would go on the K-Love cruise, and you know when I was saying I took my parents?

And she said,

You know I'm praying. I got three main prayer requests this year, and I'll tell you what

all of them are.

I'm praying that by the next K-Love cruise you're married.

And I remember going, Yeah that's gonna happen. I said I'll believe it when I see it. I just didn't

believe it. Then I was going across some emails, and I saw an email from Kari. I was like, Why did I

stop talking to her? I don't know why but I emailed her, thinking she could be married, I don't know,

but two days later she emailed me back. Then we started emailing, and I got her phone number. We

just started talking right away, like three hours a night for a whole month. So finally, I'm thinking I

need to go see her. I went and remember when she walked out and said, Can I have a hug? I

remember just thinking to myself, Wow if she likes me, this really could work.

April 2nd last year she had just flown to Memphis and my two funny things..my mom said to me, We

have just been praying for you, like we're getting married. Then we're sitting down to lunch, and my

brother-in-law goes, Well, one of the things you're gonna have to get used to about Memphis...

What's

so ironic and funny is this is her first trip to Memphis, and they're already acting like we're

getting

married. But I think everybody from my family and her family just kinda knew.

And then we got engaged in July and got married in January.

She loves Jesus and every thing I've been praying!!!

* To obtain more information on John Sanders log on to http://www.brotherskeeperonline.com
                                                     Email: mike@haloproductions.net
                                                     Booking Agent: Halo Productions
                                                   311 Cherokee Dr.; Clanton AL, 35045
                                                                        205-755-9077