Singer returns with message and gift C.D.

Her name is synonymous with beautiful and soulful music…and while it’s been a long time since we’ve heard from Radiance Thompson, she’s back with a collection of songs that is surprising in more ways than one.

Radiance Thompson, Artist
?That C.D. is all about love. It?s all about issues in our lives that we come up against sometimes. ?I give you Jesus? is one of the songs on there. And in the song, it says if the ship of your life is tossing on the sea of strife, or if you?re home all alone and your house is not a real home, then I give you Jesus. If your body is in pain and your health you can?t regain, I think about the people who have AIDS, the people who have terminal cancer, the people who have diabetes, who have lost a limb, and I want to just touch them. I think about the elderly people who are all alone and they just feel that there is nobody out there. And if the songs on that C.D. can bring joy and bring a sense of hope where there is no hope, then I?ve done what I?m supposed to do.?

Patrick Jones, Reporting
What Radiance Thompson is doing is in sharp contrast to both tradition and the laws of economics. After labouring over her latest project for the last four months, she?s giving it all away, literally.

Radiance Thompson
?That C.D. is a free C.D. to the people of Belize. And that C.D. they will be able to get after July thirteenth at C.Y.?s. And I?ve made it available to C.Y.?s. It?s only a thousand that will be made, so the first thousand that will come in they can get that C.D.?

So what would motivate a successful Belizean artist to give away her work, even when she has to dig deep into her pockets to make it happen?

Radiance Thompson
?Because it?s really not my work, it?s Christ working through me. It?s a form of evangelism and I am an evangelist.?

Thompson says the Christian experience has been a spiritually rewarding journey.

Radiance Thompson
?For me it has been up and down. That?s to be honest with you. Sometimes I have been a very good Christian; sometimes I have not been. But I have not let that stop me because I realize one thing: there must be a balance in the Christian life. And not everyday is a sunny day. You have your storms. You have your cloudy days that it doesn?t rain, then you have your downpour. But if you put your trust in the Lord and just say okay God, this is your day and I will rejoice and I am going to be happy in it no matter what the circumstance. No matter if the government is acting crazy I am going to live because the government is not my source. God is my source and he owns the government. He put them there; he can take them down if they are not right.?

Patrick Jones, for News Five.

Thompson, who now resides in Florida, has been absent from the local music scene since her participation in the “Celebrations” project in the mid nineties. Her contribution to the album was “Belize My Homeland by the Sea.” Since that time, Thompson says she has been busy writing books and carrying on her evangelistic ministry in prisons and hospitals in the U.S.A. Thompson is planning a free concert later this year at the Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts.