Vessel 7 Productions Presents

Samuel Lawson grew up in a musical home in Danville, Indiana.  Samuel has been playing the guitar in many forms for 17 years, and has been teaching for the last 7 years in many styles to many age groups.  He has received a master's degree in classical guitar performance from Butler University. Some other influences are Jesus Christ, Andres Segovia, Christopher Parkening, Julian Bream, Bret Terrel (Graduate Instructor), and Dave Morgan (a great mentor) to name a few. His musical styles and skills range from rock & jazz to classical & finger- style blues, and even to Spanish & sacred music. He has performed for various clubs, weddings and church bands, and was hired as a guitarist for Indianapolis area artists Shannon Campbell and Kate Dahlgren under producer Joseph Lamm, with whom he performed on WIBC Radio's morning show.  He has also put out several CD’s and is writing all the time.  He has worked as an instructor of guitar at Noblesville Music Center, at home, and at Fairview Music Studios.  He currently teaches at The Center for Young Musicians near Pittsburgh, PA, giving classes in early childhood  music development, music history, and private guitar lessons in classical and Suzuki guitar for children from age 2 to age 18.  Samuel ministers with his wife, Rebekah Lawson, at Wabash First United Methodist Church and in Isaiah’s Cry as Co-Director, produced by Vessel7 Productions, as they share the word of the Lord.    

Rebekah Lawson began ministering through music at the tender age of three in groups like Children Around the World, Fishers of Men, and King’s Kids/YWAM.  She grew up traveling in South Carolina and Florida with her evangelistic parents, and was under the leadership of Benny Hinn at Orlando Christian Center. She finished her BA in Music from Anderson College and started her masters in divinity at Anderson University in the spring of 2004. While in college she sang with her school’s Black gospel ensemble, as well as the college choir.  She has several CD’s out and is working on her 3rd at this time.  She was involved in an internship with Dana Russell, a local singing evangelist who has been ministering for ten years, for 1-year. She also experienced a 2-year internship with a producer/ music minister, Tim Pecorerow at Mount Zion Christian Fellowship. She also studied jazz vocals with Janice Jaffe.  She has worked in the leadership of Haven of Hope and is currently ministering with her husband, Samuel Lawson, in Isaiah’s Cry as Co-Director, Produced by Vessel 7 Productions, while teaching voice lessons.  She has finished her Masters in Divinity at Anderson University School of Theology in Anderson, IN this past May, 2008.  She has participated in a mentorship at Fairview Presbyterian Church with Pastor John Koppitch and Jennifer Loeb and lead and developed a once a month Naptown Disciples Meetings at Fairview Presbyterian Church for the 5th-8th Grade.  She was the Contemporary Music and Arts Director at Wabash First United Methodist Church, and is currently the Music minister at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA.

Rebekah Lawson's Personal Testimony:

          When I was 3 years old, my mother led me to Jesus at my bedside.  That same year, I contracted an incurable disease called Nephritic Syndrome, which causes one to lose protein when going to the restroom.  The end result of this disease is either kidney transplant or kidney failure and death.  My mother and father prayed for me every day and made games out of quoting healing scriptures around the house.  At the age of six, I went to the doctor and they could not find the disease.  God had healed me.  My father was a pastor, and we traveled to many places starting churches.  My parents ended up getting divorced when I was twelve.  I was left in a house with my mother, who we found out has bi-polar disease and thyroid problems, my younger brother who is attention-deficit/ hyperactive, and my two younger sisters.  I was instantly mother and caregiver.  I lost my virginity when I was about twelve years old but my innocence was gone along time before that because a neighborhood boy took advantage of me when I was about five years old.  There was eleven years of sex, drugs, and running from the one thing that I knew was bigger than me: God.  He put an anchor in my life by the name of Rhonda Mathews who kept me in church and around God. 

          Since I was 7 years old, I knew God called me.  There were many times in my youth when God’s calling on my life kept me from doing things that I should not have done.  My talent for singing was an avenue that God used.  From the time that my mother pushed me out on stage at the age of three, the longing to sing was placed in my life.  I sang and ministered in “Children Around The World” in Orlando, Florida and Orlando Christian Center’s Youth and Children’s Praise teams (now known as Orlando Outreach Center) with Benny Hinn.  As I got older, the calling became that nagging thought in the back of my mind that I grew very afraid of not being able to live up to.  Even though I still was involved in ministry groups like "Fishers Of Men" in Augusta, Georgia, "King’s Kids/ YWAM" in Montana, and others; I did not understand at the time that I could never do what God planned for me to do in my own strength.  I did not come to the realization that I was merely a vessel until much later.  At the age of twenty-one, I was going to college and had put my mind and body in a state of turmoil.  I never stopped ministering and singing in groups however, I thought of myself as someone who was not worthy of a man who had the integrity to wait until marriage to have sex with me.  My body craved marijuana and acid to the point that I had made them gods in my life.  I had begun to attend a young adult’s ministry called Haven of Hope about seven months before my rebirth.  God began refilling me with His Word and His Presence.  I still lived my ungodly lifestyle while going to Haven of Hope and sitting in His presence week after week.  Then came October of 1997 when I went to a youth rally at Evangel Cathedral in Spartanburg. God worked through the speaker and that night I completely gave my life back over to the Lord.