Talks started a little over a year ago about recording the next Willet album. Actually they started, stopped, started again, got tossed out, got dug out of the trash and then got thrown out again… you get the idea. You may or may not know that 2016 will mark our 10th year as a touring band. In the past 9 years, we have played over 1,000 concerts, released multiple albums, driven hundreds of thousands of miles, and toured to over 40 of the 50 states! In addition, we have had experiences in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Haiti, The UK, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Thailand, India, Jamaica and The Bahamas that we will never forget! We still remember the feeling of learning that Willet fans had sponsored over 2,500 children from around the world and the excitement when we announced that we were going to fund, pack, and ship 1 Million Meals for school feeding programs together! Some of our greatest memories have come from traveling the world together as 3 brothers from Maryland!With some of those tremendous memories come the burden of some of our greatest struggles. For almost a decade, we attempted to create a live music experience that was open to everyone to participate in. Without going into specific details at this time, we are finding it increasingly more challenging to be who we really are as individuals in a culture where we see some of the greatest division of all times within our Churches. The assumed expectations by some host churches and conferences has led us down a road of spiritual doubt, frustration, exploration and questioning. Whereas these themes could make for some great songwriting (and probably will in the future), these are words that describe the past 2-3 years of our lives, and it has actually left us…exhausted.

After sitting in hotel rooms, retreat centers, vans, planes and participating in lots of Skype calls, we all felt the process for creating our next album was different this time. In the past, writing songs came with a natural passion and we felt we had something to share with the world. This time we felt our hands were tied.  At this time we also felt a growing responsibility to be creative with our platform and not make another album just because someone told us to or because it is what was expected. We have since halted all talks of another album until we felt it would be our best album ever, created with no strings attached. 

After spending nearly every single day in a different church for 10 years, you gain an interesting perspective of the health of the Church. Over the past 10 years we’ve been hurt by the church, loved by the church, kicked out of churches, helped start churches and helped end churches. We’ve done our best to call-out pastors, speakers and leaders in love who were discriminating against race, social class, and sexual identity while also trying to make sense of all of this for ourselves. We were also lacking a healthy church body to call home because of our constant touring. We needed a church we could consistently attend and grow from. After a slower year this year, we are excited to share that the 3 of us all attend different churches, and have started the process of joining a community of believers that are passionate about being more like Jesus. 

As an independent DIY band, we have always focused on being intentional with decisions. For years, that meant strapping on our guitars as 3 brothers from Maryland in order to get children sponsored and be a voice for the voiceless around the world. After evaluating the different opportunities that have been presented to the 3 of us individually, we now feel we can be most effective by serving separately at this time. Please know that more goes into a decision like this than can be shared in a short press release. As brothers that make up the band Willet, we believe in Jesus. We know what He did for us and we’ve spent a decade telling others about Him. But, for the sake of each of our own personal spiritual journeys and the health of our young families, it is time to take a musical hiatus. Jeremy is living in Westminster, MD and working out of Franklin, TN, traveling as a spokesperson and consultant for Childfund International, Feed The Children and Show Hope.  Justin is doing freelance graphic design from Westminster, MD and touring as a hired guitarist for other bands. and Jordan is serving as Assistant Director of Music and Media at The Center Church near San Diego, CA and launching a videography company.

Therefore we’ve decided to enter a new phase that we’re dubbing ra•di•o si•lence (a period during which one hears nothing from a normally communicative person or group.) During this time, we will not be making new music or playing concerts. We will focus solely on completing our One Million Meal goal and removing all other distractions. Once the remaining 180,000 meals are funded, packed and shipped, we will begin discussions about the process of writing, recording, and releasing our next album. Although we will not be touring or recording at this time, Willet will continue to operate as a ministry of New Mission Systems International. All donations designated towards our 1 million meal goal will be used to pack meals for hungry children, and we invite you to host a meal packaging event in 2016 by emailing booking@willetonline.com.

We hope to return as a recording and touring band in the future, but this current season is needed in all 3 of our lives. We stand united as brothers, as friends, and as co-laborers in God’s Kingdom with this decision, and we pray for a similar unity within our churches.

Thank you for being a part of our journey and still supporting our million meal goal.

Jeremy, Justin and Jordan Willet

It is with mixed emotions that I write this letter to you. As many of you know, my wife and I have been working through a very long, and tedious international adoption from Ethiopia for the past 5 years. We were blessed to do a concurrent adoption from Ghana for our son, Evans in 2013 during this wait, but now, the time has finally arrived for us to travel to Ethiopia to meet and bring home our daughter!!! My wife told me the news when I was in South Africa this past week on my way back from a trip to Kenya, Malawi and Zambia! I was dancing in the airport!

Because of constant delays through this process, our daughter has been in an orphan transitional home for over a year. It is very common for adoptive families to travel for a week to Ethiopia for the court date, then return home to the U.S. for 3-6 weeks to wait for the visa to be approved before traveling back to Ethiopia to actually bring their child home. Without going into too many sensitive family details, as her parents, we are not comfortable leaving our daughter without the individual attention that she deserves. Therefore, we will be traveling to Ethiopia on May 29th as a family of three, and we will all live in Ethiopia for 6-8 weeks until the visa is approved for us to come home as a family of four. Our daughter needs individual love, some specific medical attention, and the space to start the attachment process to her new momma, poppa, and big brother.

With this decision comes the tough decision to cancel all of Willet’s Summer Tour, including all festival appearances. As many of you know, one of my favorite things to do is to worship with you across America, but this Summer, I need to be a husband and a Dad, and next to my relationship with Jesus, this takes priority. I am very thankful for my brother’s unanimous support in this decision. I would do the same for them, and through this whole process, they have supported me.

I have personally called each promoter, festival director, and camp minister to explain the situation, offer a recommendation for a replacement band (where applicable), and to request prayer for our family. Each promoter was extremely gracious and understanding of our decision, of which I am very thankful for.

In addition, Justin and his wife are expecting a baby girl in August! Praise God! Jordan and his wife are considering another puppy…. (for now).

Rest assured, all dates on our SPRING SEARCHLIGHT AND MEAL PACKING TOUR are happening as scheduled. This announcements pertains only to June, July and August shows.

My plan is to start touring again with Willet as well as speaking on some tours for Feed the Children and ChildFund International again in September 2015.

As i wrote in our song “Miracles” on our latest album, Searchlight,

“Orphans will become, daughters and sons”
For my daughter,

Jeremy Willet

In 2007, we partnered with Food for the Hungry and traveled to Zeway, Ethiopia, a community of over 1,000 children orphaned and/or vulnerable due to HIV/AIDS. The artist director at the time, Jeff Miller, invested in our band by sending us on this trip with a videographer. Jeff’s initial investment of $10,000 to send us to Ethiopia in 2007 has produced fruit of over 2,500 children being sponsored, raising over $8 MILLION DOLLARSfor community development projects around the world in Ethiopia, Haiti, and Mozambique!

In addition, we created a partnership with Stop Hunger Now by launching a ONE MILLION MEAL SCHOOL-FEEDING PROGRAM INITIATIVE. We are getting ready to hit the road for our Spring SEARCHLIGHT WORSHIP AND MEAL PACKING TOUR to package more then 100,000 meals in 7 cities on the East Coast.

The past few years as a band, we actually took a break from presenting child sponsorship through our concerts as we focused on other global mission projects, our meal packing goal, and international outreach events with New Mission Systems International.

In December, Jeremy reconnected with our former artist director, Jeff Miller, as Jeremy was asked to speak on the Donny & Marie Christmas Tour for ChildFund International. This tour resulted in hundreds of children being sponsored, but also opened doors for more opportunities. Since then, Jeremy has been on tour with CARMAN for 2 months, in Kenya shooting a short-film with ChildFund, and speaking on the month-long BIBLE TOUR with Steven Curtis Chapman, Brandon Heath, Francesca Batistelli and Danny Gokey,resulting in close to 3,000 children being sponsored from the Rift Valley!

As we are only 200,000 meals away from reaching our 1 Million Meal Goal, we are ready to announce our next phase of ministry! We have prayerfully decided to once again work closely with our friend, brother-in-Christ, and artist director, Jeff Miller, to impact a specific community of orphan and vulnerable children with ChildFund International. We are very aware of the fact that many of our supporters have sponsored children through Food for the Hungry in the 3 areas where we advocated on behalf of (Ethiopia, Mozambique & Haiti). First, we would like to say THANK YOU! We believe you were, and still are truly changing the world, and we ask that you please continue your sponsorship through Food for the Hungry. We have dear friends that still work there, and we are still very passionate about the work being done on the field. Willet fans have been a vital part of making that ministry to the poor possible. Thank you again!

Moving forward, we will begin advocating on behalf of child sponsorship through ChildFund International, a development organization that has been serving children in poverty for over 76 years! In the next few weeks, we will send additional information about the community we will be serving, ways to sponsor, and when we will be traveling to visit the children!

Thank you for your continued support of our band and ministry, and we can’t wait to see you on tour this month!

Jeremy, Justin and Jordan Willet

Over the past 9 years, Willet has had the opportunity to mobilize over 700,000 nutritious meals for school feeding programs worldwide while also raising over $8 million for community development projects through child sponsorship. Still, over 2 Billion people in our world have never heard the name of Jesus! Therefore, the band is working to Inspire the Next Generation of Worship & Missions by launching a nationwide WORSHIP & MEAL PACKING TOUR in 2015 to mobilize 10,000 volunteers in worship through song and packing meals for hungry children living in poverty towards the band’s 1 Million Meal School Feeding Program Initiative in partnership with Stop Hunger Now & New Mission Systems International. 

DATES:
May 15th – May 31st, 2015 East Coast (Now booking)
Fall 2015 Midwest (Booking starts in spring)

EVENT DETAILS:
Acoustic Worship by Willet
Missions Testimony / Gospel presentation by Jeremy Willet
10,000 Meal Packing Event

INCLUDED:
Full sound system & lighting
All supplies for 100-150 volunteers
Ingredients to package 10,000 meals
Transportation (box truck & van/trailer)
Event Coordinator
Promotional Graphics

CONTACT:
Email booking@willetonline.com for more details

PROMO VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEwgZwVdY-w

Today is release day for our new “community worship album”, SEARCHLIGHT! STREAM the full album and purchase on CD, iTunes, or any major digital retailer! Also, WATCH a message from the band on YOUTUBE.  

For a limited time, we are offering the “Searchlight Lead Sheet” as a FREE PDF DOWNLOAD (sponsored by www.ignitecharts.com)! Click the score below to be directed to the dropbox folder.

Thanks for your support of #willetsearchlight! We can’t wait for you to hear the new album on 8.26.14 and we pray that God would use it to enhance your worship of Jesus in your lives, homes and Churches! PRE-ORDER THE NEW ALBUM TODAY HERE.

Jeremy, Justin & Jordan Willet

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Stop Hunger Now Partners with WILLET BAND to package 1 Million Meals

 Band announces that “Every $1 spent on Willet Merchandise will = 1 Nutritious Meal”

(WESTMINSTER, MD, 8.5.14) – Stop Hunger Now and Christian band, Willet, have joined forces in the fight against hunger for over 3 years, together, mobilizing over 640,000 nutritious meals and engaging over 5,000 volunteers nationwide. Stop Hunger Now meal packaging events are a volunteer-based program that coordinates the streamlined packaging of highly nutritious dehydrated meals comprised of rice, soy, vegetables and 22 essential vitamins and minerals.

On 8.26.14, Willet will be releasing the highly anticipated Full Length Album called “Searchlight”. The album is a “community worship album” with songs touching on themes of global poverty, orphan care, and missions. Along with the release of the new album, the band has announced an aggressive campaign to complete their 1 Million Meal Goal with Stop Hunger Now by sharing that “Every $1 spent on Willet Merchandise (online & at live concerts) will = 1 Nutritious Meal through School Feeding Programs in over 65 countries!” In 2015, the band will embark on a unique “Worship & Meal Packing Tour” where volunteers will receive a free acoustic worship concert by the band before packing 10,000 meals in each city.

“For several years, we have been encouraging Willet fans to give generously towards our vision of mobilizing 1 Million Meals for hungry children around the world, and they have responded.” says lead singer, Jeremy Willet. “With the upcoming release of our new full-length album, we recognized that there would be a lot of attention surrounding the release and tour, and we wanted to prove that “Searchlight” is more then just a collection of 10 songs; it’s about being willing to go into dark places in our world. Our band exists to be a voice for the voiceless, and often times, the voiceless in our world are young children fighting starvation and malnutrition in developing countries. We have a unique opportunity to use music as a platform to raise awareness and funds for the most vulnerable people in our world. This is the next generation of worship and missions.”

Around the world, nearly 870 million people lack adequate food and about 25,000 die each day from hunger-related causes. Stop Hunger Now operates meal packaging locations in 17 cities throughout the U.S. and four international locations in South Africa, Malaysia, the Philippines and Italy. In 2014, a new location is slated to open in Houston, TX. More than 400,000 volunteers from corporations, churches, schools and civic organizations have packaged Stop Hunger Now meals.

Founded in 1998, Stop Hunger Now has delivered aid and disaster relief supplies in the form of food, medical supplies, clothing, school supplies and more to thousands of disaster victims and other hungry and vulnerable people in 65 countries.

“We have personally visited the international school feeding programs supported by Stop Hunger Now’s packaging program, and we are seeing the evidence that education, nutritious food, and community involvement can literally transform an impoverished community!” said Jeremy Willet.

Pre-order packages for “Searchlight” are available August 1^st on www.willetonline.com and the full-length album will be available in digital format worldwide (itunes, spotify, rdio, xbox music, yahoo music, etc) on 8.26.14 with physical CD’s available online at www.willetonline.com or at all Willet Live Concerts on a pay-what-you-can donation basis.

For more information, contact the band at www.willetonline.com, by emailing booking@willetonline.com, calling 707-948-6437, or writing to P.O. Box 123 Westminster, MD 21158.

For more than 15 years, Stop Hunger Now has been creating a movement to end hunger with more than 140,000,000 meals distributed along with other aid to 65 countries. Driven by a mission to end hunger in our lifetime, the organization provides food and life-saving aid to the world’s most vulnerable and helps mobilize the necessary resources impacting millions of lives.

Stop Hunger Now meal packaging programs offer volunteers the opportunity to participate in a hands-on international hunger relief program and to become educated, engaged advocates for the world’s poor and hungry.  In 2013, Stop Hunger Now packaged 38.6 million meals in the U.S. and an additional 3.3 million meals were packaged by international locations.

In its efforts to respond to emergency needs around the world Stop Hunger Now receives and distributes significant donations of in-kind aid. These donations are large quantities of food, medicines, medical supplies and other such items as may be of use in fighting hunger and providing relief in a crisis. For more information visit www.stophungernow.org.