Minister Marion Hall Plans To Give Away 2000 Bibles At Reggae Sumfest
She made history in 2015 by becoming the first female artist to close Reggae Sumfest. This year, Minister Marion Hall will again do the unprecedented, giving away thousands of Bibles at the festival on July 22.
The Catherine Hall, Montego Bay, performance will mark her return to Sumfest since retiring her life as Lady Saw and joining Christendom seven years ago.
Appealing to her virtual congregation today, Hall expressed her desire to buy bulk Bibles, adding that she’s already found a supplier.
“I want to buy 2000 or 3000 Bibles,” the Mi Soon Alright singer said. “I saw one with a good deal. The large prints are very expensive but the one that everyone can see, there’s good reviews on this. They are US$3,526 and we can get 2000. I want to take them to Sumfest with me; I want to issue out the Bibles.”
She’s getting support from Sumfest principal Joe Bogdanovich, from providing an address to have the books shipped, to organising queues at the venue for orderly distribution.
“I believe that if there’s ever a time that people need to get into the word of God, it’s now because we are at war,” she justified. “The devil is out. There’s so much mess on this Earth, so much going on and even our island Jamaica. We need the word in the streets.”
She’s still sorting out the logistics of raising the funds, and said she’ll perhaps launch a GoFundMe campaign or create a wishlist for people to “sow a seed.”
This won’t be her first Bible donation. Shortly after baptising in December 2015, she distributed several Bibles to inmates at the Fort Augusta Adult Correctional Centre in St. Catherine.
On the matter of Sumfest, Hall spilled some tea on the conditions under which she accepted the booking. She got to choose her performance night and went with night two for complementary reasons.
“I chose to go on the night with Gramps Morgan (Morgan Heritage) – a Jesus man – and Freddie McGregor… King Jammys will be honoured that night so Lieutenant Stitchie is on the night that I am on, so, it’s a night with some powerful people of God.”
She also asked for two songs on Bogdanovich’s Downsound Records, one of which is out now.
“’For me to come to Sumfest, we have to do two songs’,” she told Bogdanovich.
“’You gotta help me now to produce two songs’. There goes Gramps Morgan and the three of us got together. The next song that’s coming is a beautiful song… It was done in Nashville also and that’s Gramps’ favourite.”