Funky, From Now On

By Funky

This is a story that will not leave you indifferent. You will identify with each one of the details, anecdotes and episodes in the life of Luis Marrero, better known as “Funky.” In this book you will find that behind his greatest achievements there are great stories that few people know about. In his honest way, Funky will take us to the most intimate places of his heart, his family and his dreams. “From Now On: The true story of Funky” is a book that will confront you and challenge you to understand and continue along the paths that God uses to take us to our destinies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Nov 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9780829763065

Funky

Funky, es uno de los principales exponentes del reggaetón cristiano, con cuatro álbumes en su haber y múltiples proyectos como productor. Ha sido nominado a diversos premios a nivel mundial incluyendo el Latin Grammy y otros reconocimientos a nivel cristiano y secular. Funky reside actualmente en Orlando, Florida, junto a su esposa e hijos, desde donde dirige las oficinas de Funkytown Music Inc. con quien produce sus propios álbumes y los de diversos músicos de la música actual.

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FUNKY FROM NOW ON

My Status

PROLOGUE

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I’ve always liked Funky. From the first time I met him I found him to be a passionate person, full of energy. Shortly after meeting him I realized he had a great sense of humor, and that he not only laughs easily but he also makes whoever’s by his side laugh too. I can say that wherever he is, there is always a party.

Funky has a strong singularity of purpose and a clear vision. He is a tireless worker, with an energy level that would put to shame the famous bunny from those battery commercials on television. He has a tremendous vitality, not only on stage, but in his personal and family life as well. This man never gets tired!

I’ve known him for many years, and I’ve seen his growth, both in his personal life and in his ministry. I can say with ministerial certainty that I admire him and respect him as a musician, psalmist and musical prophet. I’ve also had the pleasure of spending time, two or three times, with his whole family, and I’ve seen how he treats his wife and children. There is among them as a family a mutual love, appreciation and respect. Anyone can see that the relationship he enjoys with his family is real, not superficial.

However, nothing I know about Funky, nothing I’ve learn about him through the years, could prepare me to read these pages that you have right now in front of you. His story is truly moving. Through this book, Funky has allowed us to enter an absolutely intimate world in which we are told, with a surprising openness and transparency, his mistakes and setbacks, as well as all the hard knocks and sorrows that life handed him from a very early age.

I found myself quickly turning these pages with anticipation to see how he got out of this jam or that trouble. Likewise, he shares with us some of his triumphs, letting us know how God took a restless Puerto Rican, full of uncertainties, and converted him into a great man of God. Without a doubt, Funky is a living example of how the grace of God takes something that the enemy wanted for evil and turns it into something glorious.

I have to make a confession: This book brought me laughter and joy, but it also made me cry. I cried with joy at the wonderful times that Funky lived through and at the great victories that he experienced. But I also cried because I felt the deep pain that Funky and his family had to go through in order for the purifying fire of God to prepare them for the ministry that they now enjoy.

After reading this book, I was able to understand more clearly many things about Funky. I understood his absolute devotion to his calling. I understood the origin of his sense of humor and the reasons why he laughs so much. I was also able to understand clearly how God has taken him with His powerful hand and has poured onto him a singular anointing that manifests itself in making him one of the main prophetic voices to his generation. I feel honored to share his friendship and to be able to call him a collaborator in the task of building the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Marcos Witt

FUNKY FROM NOW ON

My Status

INTRO

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I can have my friends on Facebook

I can have MySpace and videos on YouTube

I can have friends who follow me on Twitter

But if they are following me I must be a good leader

You can have your friends on Facebook

You can have MySpace and videos on YouTube

But stay alert, partner (friend), and don’t forget

That you must connect to Him

Don’t be careless

//This doesn’t work, partner, if I’m not connected//

If I’m Not Connected

[Album: Reset]

@FunkyPR

To be connected is one of our most important needs, and it’s vital in order to socialize with other people, even in other parts of the world. A while back, while connecting online through social media it occurred to me: Tonight I’m going to greet all my friends from different countries and take some time to chat with them. The response was so huge that the hours passed, and my enthusiasm remained, and I ended up staying up all night. It was a social networking overdose.

Early that same morning while my wife still slept, I started to sing under my breath: I like to connect to people, but it’s more important to connect to the source. I put this phrase on Facebook and someone responded with a verse that went like this:

I can have my friends on Facebook. I can have MySpace and videos on YouTube. I can have friends who follow me on Twitter. But if they are following me I must be a good leader.

So, many continued singing this song via Facebook without music. This tends to happen to me a lot when I wake up in the morning humming a few words and put a couple of lines down on the net. My friends around the world quickly pick up the song and sing the next line, so we all sing it together.

Even though I’m a big fan of social networking and I understand the importance of being connected, I also have to explain to you, my friend, my people, that there has to be a limit to this wonderful technological social resource. Otherwise, the wonder of the connection becomes a trap.

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That night of excitement in which I stayed connected for so many hours chatting with my friends, I lost valuable sleep and rest, which were so important in order to be fresh the next day and do what I needed to do. There is a balance we have to find. It’s important for our friends on Facebook and those who follow us on Twitter to see the proper balance in our lives, so we can be good leaders to those who are following us. It’s important that we find a balance between virtual communication and real communication. In general, what’s most as risk is the communication with our family.

I have five teenage children and each of them is always connected through his cell phone, iPod, iPad and every new device that comes out. But on special occasions such as family meetings or outings I ask my children not to take their cell phones with them, because we need to talk as a family and communicate directly through our words and expressions. Communicating through social media, using new technology is great, but there’s nothing better than communicating with family and loved ones face to face, making eye contact.

In the United States it’s common, watching the tables at restaurants, to see families sitting around without even looking at each other. All of them—or most of them—are connected to their phones or the Internet, eagerly checking their text messages.

I personally believe in and defend personal communication as an extremely important bond in relationships. I love being connected with friends from so many cities around the world. We can share comments and stay in touch. But it’s important that they know life has taken me through a lot of situations in which I had to learn by getting knocked down, and not just by fists, but by emotional hits to my heart. They need to know that the priority in life is other people, that what is true is what sustains us, that reality is much more tangible than a computer, an iPad or a cell phone.

That is what I want to tell you in these pages …

Come with me. Check out my pictures and scroll through my timeline. Read through the status updates of my past that are still shaping my future.

Follow me. I’ll open my life’s album. You’ll have direct access to see all of it without restrictions. I’ll leave nothing private as I look at my own life … from now on.

I like it!

@FunkyPR

FUNKY FROM NOW ON

My Status

Relax, Funky Was Getting Ready

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"Funky returns to report

I know many have been asking themselves

About the project and why it was falling behind

Relax, Funky was getting ready!"

Have you ever tried to turn on the TV, and after a while discovered that it simply wasn’t plugged in? The cord was just disconnected. There are a lot of people who live their lives that way.

It was a difficult time … I couldn’t write the lyrics for even one song. I didn’t feel any inspiration. I felt an emptiness inside me. And why deny it? I felt alone. During this long creative drought a lot of people were asking me about my new album. What’s going on? Why is there no new material? What is taking so long?

And my answer was always the same: I’m preparing something special.

But one day I refused to continue being like that. I realized that I was no longer communicating with God as before, and I began to pray. This time not just to do my duty as a Christian, but because I really needed to talk with God. When I locked myself in that room and realized that I wasn’t plugged in or connected, I began to feel something different that flooded my whole being. It was necessary to get plugged in again. I needed to reconnect. That is how I came to feel the flow of God in me once more. It was like a river that brought new songs.

Due to my many activities, I had gradually ceased talking to God the way I used to talk to Him. Every day I connected with my friends and my family, but I had ceased connecting with my Creator, the source from which all creation flows. I had neglected the depth of that relationship, until I confessed to Him face to face how I felt. I talked to Him, and I said, Here I am again.

Since I was young, I always tended to try to get ahead of things. I always wanted to mature faster. Grow beyond my years. And that’s why I started to organize new things without consulting my Creator. I wanted to do everything. Little by little I started filling my time with other activities and put aside my communion with God and my time to write.

I had to learn to put my life in order, to dare say NO—a word that not everybody likes to hear but is necessary in order to have a healthy life. I couldn’t afford to make the same mistake. I couldn’t afford to leave out the important things, and I needed new priorities. I needed to focus again, but I could only do it with help and guidance from God.

During the run up to this defining moment, many friends who were singers starting up in the ministry were coming to ask me for help. They would say, Funky, here’s my album and I want to launch it. Can you help me? And of course, since I didn’t dare say no, I ended up committing myself to almost everybody.

Pictures from the cruise

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So that’s how I got involved in so many projects of reggaetoneros who wanted my help. And while I really wanted to help out, I wasn’t ready to start a business with that purpose. But I did it anyway.

I must confess I’m not that good at being a manager. My wife, Wanda, has that gift. I’m sure that those young men and the people around them expected more from me, more than what I really could do. Perhaps