Lecrae
AC & Brady
Brooke Nicholls
Jason Ballard
Lecrae
Laura Fess
Matt Tapley
Jason Ballard
Brooke Nicholls
Amber Jo-Bowman
Here on Planet Earth
Tim works as the National Youth Director for Alpha Canada and is passionate about empowering youth workers and students to share the good news of Jesus everywhere they go. He is also a pastor and teaching team member at his local church, in Langley BC. He’s married to his incredible wife Chanel and together they have two beautiful and energetic daughters, Ellie and Sunday. He’s passionate about Jesus, golf, cycling, good coffee, and the enneagram.
Anthony “AC” Carrai - Anthony has a passion for showing people where true life is found. He believes that being real and vulnerable, while applying God’s word to life is crucial for students who are following Jesus. He’s been involved in youth ministry for close to 10 years on Long Island, NY and loves to meet new kids and share the gospel with everyone.
Robin Wallar is the Lead Pastor of LIFT Church. LIFT is a church that believes the university campuses of Canada represent the greatest opportunity for the hope of Jesus. While studying nuclear engineering at McMaster University Robin worked to plant LIFT Church which is now seeing a discipleship movement across our nation’s college and university campuses. Robin and his wife Laura have an energetic two year old daughter, Kai and an orange cat named Samson. They live in the beautiful city of Hamilton.
For the past 20 years Chris has served as a Pastor in British Columbia, Alberta and Texas, but most importantly is a devoted family man to his wife Amanda, and 3 amazing boys, Ashton, Maddox and Jaxx. He currently serves as a Project Manager with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association & is the Weekend Experience & Communications Pastor at his local Church in Calgary. Chris has travelled nationally and internationally, speaking, mentoring, training and equipping the local church. Chris loves to travel with his family, motorcycles and fried chicken. In his spare time he serves as a Police Chaplain to the Calgary Police Service.
Laura Bronson is passionate, creative and entrepreneurial leader who travels across Canada and the world as a missionary inspiring young people to be real in their faith.
Laura is the founder and director of the ministry known as “Keep It Real” because she believes it is a powerful message that the younger generation needs to hear.
“Keep It Real” is a ministry of Youth For Christ - Canada, where Laura is part of the national staff team. “Keep It Real” ministry travels to schools, church's, skateparks, camps and drop in centres to share the gospel in a relevant way.
Ultimately, Laura is a unique individual who loves to minister to the next generation and point youth to Jesus through the use of graffiti, music, skateboarding, breakdancing, YouTube vlogs, speaking and fashion.
“History does not happen in a straight line…” -Barack Obama
Neither does hip hop nor its prolific breakout rhymist/activist/author/voice of conscience Lecrae.
Never afraid to move the needle, few would argue that his much anticipated Columbia Records debut album (due out this summer) comes at a pivotal moment for the artist, as hip hop’s torrent now moves to him.
Surging or insurgent - depending on your point of view - he’s blessed with a visionary verbal arsenal and an abiding faith that’s piloted a unique career trajectory defying the typical hip hop storyline. ‘The system may not have planned for this,’ wrote Vibe about Lecrae, ‘but it’s definitely coming around.’ “More caught than taught,” is how the artist describes his incredible journey that includes two Grammys, a history-making #1 album with his masterful 2014 offering, Anomaly (topped multiple categories, including the Billboard 200 and is RIAA Gold certified), and a compelling live resume, most recently notching a headlining 2016 ‘Destination’ tour which Lecrae says was about “real unity, not pretend unity.” He continues to thoughtfully engage the culture, reeling off a NY Times Bestseller (last year’s riveting memoir ‘Unashamed’) and a breakthrough spoken word performance at the BET Hip Hop Awards last fall that had the twittersphere heralding his arrival as truth-telling firebrand. BET hailed it as an “epic poem,” of “necessary affirmations.”
In the summer of 2016, while making beats and running out of acapella samples from other songs, AC.jR started making original music and getting close friends to rap/ sing over his beats. During that summer his friend, BradyJames, featured on a track and people started to take note of their combined talent.
Over a year later, they are still producing their own originals that provide a unique sound experience unparalleled in the music industry.
For Canadian Worship Leader & Songwriter Brooke Nicholls, the key to weathering different seasons of life is all about shifting your perspective. The first time Brooke felt this kind of shift was in 2015. Seven years into a pop music career; three independent records and many missed successes later, Brooke began looking backward, at all of the heartache and disappointment, and saw very clearly the hand of God guiding her each step of the way – and so she wrote.
What came out of that season was Brooke’s debut Worship/Inspirational album – ‘Found In You’ (rel. Dec 5, 2016). The songs on ‘Found In You’ were milestones of how God had been working in her life, bringing her through tough seasons and helping her find hope and healing. What she didn’t know was how those songs would connect. God began opening doors for Brooke to share her songs and in the year that followed the release of ‘Found In You’ Brooke was able to travel across Canada, playing a total of 97 times in 2017, opening for acts like MercyMe, NewSong, The City Harmonic, Love & The Outcome and Dan Bremnes. The album’s lead single ‘Home’ charted Top 10 at Canadian Christian Radio and went Number 1 at the largest Christian Radio Station in Canada. 2017 culminated in Brooke being nominated for New Artist of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year at the Canadian Gospel Music Awards.
Jason is one of the hosts of the Alpha Youth Series and a pastor at his home church, Christian Life Assembly in Langley, British Columbia. He works with Alpha to build resources that serve the local church. Jason and Rachael have three kids: Hudson, Mary, and Millie. He loves preaching about Jesus, eating chocolate chip cookies and posting pictures of his kids on Instagram. Jason does a weekly podcast called Hidden City that you can find on iTunes.
If you want to find out more about him, you can find him on Instagram: @jasonaballard
For Alpha: @alphacourse
It was when Laura was 17 that she had an overwhelming encounter with God, that began an exciting journey of "no turning back". Since then she has been doing her best to follow the heart of God and do whatever it takes to build His kingdom. Laura's punchy style, combined with humour and ‘stripped bare authenticity,’ makes her a riveting communicator to people of every age. Her warm and engaging manner and the habit of not taking herself too seriously make her a disarming and potent preacher of truth. You’ll love Laura’s infectious joy and obvious passion, to help build strength and courage into the Kingdom of God.
Matt Tapley has been the Lead Pastor of Lakemount Worship Centre in Grimsby, Ontario since 2008. He is a gifted leader who serves the Church by developing leaders in a culture of dependence on the Spirit with full devotion to the unchanging Word of God. He frequently travels the nation as an insightful preacher, anointed worship leader and a keen contributor to leadership team environments. His personal life message demonstrates a confident faith in declaring the relentless goodness of God no matter life’s circumstances.