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Hello, My Name is Jeramiah Giehl and I
am the creator and founder of Revival Times Web-Ministries including; Avid
Seekers Of Truth Apologetics, Real Answers to tough questions, Christian Reform
Coalition and Eternal Impact Ministries and the Dallas Holy Hip Hop Alliance
& Emcee paraDOX1 Ministries. Here is a little bit about me....
I was raised in Southern California, I grew up in the Ghetto (Oceanside "O'side" California to be exact) next to a part of town called little Tijuana or little Mexico because of its large Hispanic population. Oceanside is located in North San Diego county, between LA and San Diego about 50 miles for the Tijuana Mexico border. Growing up I was immersed in the Hip Hop and gangster culture. I saw some of my first friends in up in jail for theft, attempted manslaughter and I myself had bought's with the law and had to do community service for being violent. I was never a thug or a gang member. Well I did get jumped into a small gang in my neighborhood but that wasn't anything serious like the Crips or the Bloods. We called ourselves Bus357 (or something like that) because that is the bus we drove to school together in. It's kinda wack as I think about it now. It was something stupid I was pressured into but I didn't stick with it. I started asking myself do I want to end up dead or in jail for selling drugs and banging, I said to myself "no. " So I decided to live a good life, stay out of trouble, make a few friends that would watch my back and handle my business when people would step up. Yeah I did some partying, smoking marijuana and hanging with the party crowd but again that was only for a short season of my life as I explored what life was about and what I wanted to be about. I searched and found that all that stuff doesn't bring peace. It only hold back the pain temporarily.
Yeah, I was young and would get in fights over some of the stupidest things but
that's what people do when they are young and don't have a good solid roll model
or mentor. In my school I was known as a brawler as I got in many fights. I was
a troubled youth struggling to survive in a tough world. I was raised in a rough
family my father was an alcoholic and my mom was a devote Jehovah's Witness so I
had a battle between two worlds. Between good and evil. So needless to say
between my dads affairs - drug and alcohol abuse, my families fights and getting
in fights on the streets because I was one of the only white kids in my
neighborhood, growing up was rough. Allot of my life growing up I was a loner
because I was the minority where I grew up. There weren't a whole lot of white
kids around and most them that were got beat up and picked on by the Hispanics
and African American kids. I had to rely on myself, I found in times of struggle
that I would pray to God for guidance and help and it was during these times
that I would find peace and direction. Even though I wasn't on the right path
yet. God let me know He loved me, that he was there for me and that He had a
plan for my life. But rough experiences can either toughen you up and make your
better for the wear or you can play the pity roll and blame others for how your
life turns out. Even if you are dealt bad cards you can flip the script and
change things for good. However even though life was rough things started to
change when I started taking Tae Kwon Do with instructor Dan Allegro at Family
Karate Oceanside. During this time he found a father figure who taught him
discipline & structure that was lacking in his life & begun him on a
path of transformation.
My
First experiences with music happened in elementary school, listening to kids on
the playground blasting boom boxes and break dancing on card board boxes to the
Old School Hip 
Hop classics Grandmaster Flash, the Furious Five and all the other Hip Hopers
from the Golden days of Hip Hop. I initially loved Hip Hop. My first musical
influences came from listening to Old School Hip Hop. Once I started listening
to Hip Hop myself I started listening to Boogie Down Productions (who had me
from the go, the first time I heard them I was like "woo this is tight, I
like this," after that I became Hip Hop). I also started off listening NWA,
2Live Crew, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Big Daddy Kane, the New Jack City
soundtrack and of course Run DMC and old school Will Smith (Fresh Prince
and Dj Jazzy Jeff). I started developing a love for east coast hip hop; namely
crews like Erik B & Rakem, EPMD, Black Sheep and later on Onyx, Wutang Clan,
Redman, Methodman, Nas, DMX and Ja Rule. I also really enjoyed the music of Tu
Pac, Bone Thugs & Harmony and Mystical just to name a few others that I
liked.
I have always had a passion
for writing and poetry. I had a desire to rap since the first time I heard rap
music. I never acted upon it other than talking to a few friends about the
desire and writing rap music and rapping to myself and to some friends from time
to time. On August 27, 1996 I meet Jesus Christ as my personal savior at a
Wayman Mitchell healing crusade. After I became a 
Christian I found that there wasn't any good Christian Hip Hop so I gave up
music for a while and sought God. During this time I attended bible school for
about a year and a half. Because of financial reasons I moved back to California
and got involved with ministry at the church there. We started getting kids
saved from the streets, gangs and the thug life. One day at a youth outreach I
saw how God could use Hip Hop culture to impact youth and change lives so I
started writing again and seeking God. And this is how I become involved with
Hip Hop music. God started to lay it on my heart to write conscious hip hop
music that would minister to people who were into the music that I liked and yet
that didn't sound so Christian that they would not listen to it. My first solo
hip hop performance was in October of 2002 at a Mars Music open mic competition
put on by CMT. I performed a song I wrote titled Down on the Ground Again. It
was a song I had written the night before to a beat I remixed of Dj Maj/Corey
Red's song "Party Right" and the beat to Mary J. Blige/Methodman's
song "Your All I Need." I didn't win because most of the artist were
rock or country and it was put on by Country Music Television. However I did
place well. Better than a couple of my friends who had performed some rock and
worship songs that they wrote. This really encouraged me and made me believe
that I had a future and potential.
Not long after really getting back into writing Hip Hop again, he ran into a couple who were trying to get a hip hop crew off of the ground. He shared his vision for ministry with the group SoulFire & they agreed that they felt like God wanted us to join together to minister. During this season they traveled alot ministering on the streets, in community centers, detention centers, clubs, apartments, to homeless people and on the streets. During this time they released a CD, competed in a battle of the bands and received second place along with some tv exposure. It was as a good season of blessing and ministry for paraDOX1 & SoulFire. However something's changed in the group, through prayer they came to an agreement that it was time for them to go separate paths. paraDOX1 is now working on new music, collaborations, working on releasing an full length CD & preparing to do more shows & ministry.
Check out a story about the summer of 1998 - "in hot pursuit of revival"