Mission Statement:
Formed in December of 1994, NATIVE ROOTS strives to fulfill the Lord’s great commission to “Go into the world and preach the gospel…” (Mark 16:15) Fresh and exciting, the music of NATIVE ROOTS shares the gospel through their music – combining scriptural messages with the Roots Reggae vibe.
Group Bio
Wa sup you guys! Hope your enjoying the website so far. I bet you’re trippin’ out on what’s going on with Native Roots!! I mean they sound like regular “Roots Reggae,” But some songs they talk about Jesus. What happened to Rasta? Then some songs they talk about regular worldly stuff. So what, they Rastas, Christians or they Party Animals? Now relax and I’ll tell you.
When I first started playing music, it was just to party, party, party. Music for me was totally for the wrong reasons. I played music and got all messed up almost every night. My biggest problem was girls. The more parties, the more girls. I never cared if I hurt them or what, just as long as I got what I wanted. But I was never satisfied. I always needed two or three girls and that was a big problem. Then Native Roots was formed and I met a beautiful girl (I was with another girl at the time too) and I fell in love. Everything was going perfect. I had one pretty girl and one cool Reggae band and I had enough money to party.
Then all at once everything went bad for me. First I lost my job. I couldn’t go anywhere without depending on someone. Then big problems at home started. My mother and father was stressed out because I wouldn’t come home. And when I did, it was when the sun was coming up in the morning and I was wasted. My sister just got pregnant from her boyfriend and the whole family exploded. Everyone in the house had something to say and everything was not nice!!! There was screaming, swearing, crying, and sometimes fighting. No bloody good!! Then on top of that, my pretty girlfriend found out she had cancer. It was the end of the world. Everything was bad.
One day a good friend of the family was talking to my father. My father was telling him about what was going on. So my friend said, “Why don’t you come to church with me?” My father, not knowing what else to do, finally said “O.K.” So my father called me up and said, “Boy, Sunday we go church.” I said “What?!” He said, “Yeah 9:30 we go.” I was trippin’.
Sunday came and we went. We only knew one person in the whole place but everyone was very friendly. It was weird!!! The service went on and it felt like the message was for us. Me and my father was trippin’. After that, we went home to tell my mom and my sister that church was awesome and they should come next week.
Next week, my whole family came and the same thing happened. It was a service just for my family. This time we were in tears. I could hear the sobbing of my strong father as well as my sister and mother. At the end, the Pastor asked anyone to raise their hand if they wanted to know Jesus. I thought about it, then I did it, I repented and put my trust in Jesus. Then all at once I was totally cleansed. I felt like I took a shower on the inside. Burdens were lifted and I felt a peace that I never had. It was unreal! From that day on I was a new man.
Then next day I still felt the same way. It was awesome. So I shared it with my Band and my girlfriend. It was a struggle at first because some didn’t believe. It took a couple of services then my girlfriend got saved.
Native Roots went through a big change. I wanted to use this band to spread the Good News and some didn’t. So God changed the band. There was only Raine, BJ and me. BJ started coming to church with me, and in a month accepted Jesus. And, Raine started going back to his old church and accepted Jesus.
We needed more members for the first album and this band so we asked Jeff from church, and he agreed to play (he already was a Christian). The incredible thing is from only three members, the Lord put this band together two weeks AFTER we signed with Tropical Jams. In other words having faith in God that it was His will we sign a contract to make this CD with only three members. GOD Is GOOD!!!
Ten members, ten different stories ended up playing music for the same reason, to spread the Good News about Jesus Christ. So that’s our story. Hope you enjoy.
God bless you,
Leighton Mendiola
P.S. My sister gave birth to a healthy baby boy. I married my beautiful girlfriend whom the Lord delivered from cancer and who just gave birth to our beautiful baby girl Hailey in January (Praise God). And my Mom and Dad finally found peace in their house.
