What are the main purposes of your visit to Hong Kong, and what plans do you have for here?

This trip specifically is sort of two-fold.
I’m here to promote the release of a music album that will release in Hong Kong and China within a few months. This began as a prayer I had five years ago when I adopted our first daughter Shaohannah. On my way home I prayed…and it was one of those prayers that were crazy to pray-- it was too big, too much.
I said, “God, I would love the privilege of giving a gift back to the people in China that has given us so much from our daughter. The only thing I feel that I have to offer is the gift of music, and the message of Your truth, through music…”
But that’s kind of a crazy thing. Number one, I don’t speak the language, number two, I don’t know anyone here, they don’t know about my music, so how is it that I will ever get my music heard in China? Five years later, and two more daughters later- because we’ve adopted three daughters from China now- I came in May of this year and asked the people with my record label in the U.S., EMI, if they had an office in China, and if they would be interested in putting my music in China, Hong Kong and other Asian countries.
Back in May, I stopped in Hong Kong in EMI and told them about my desire to spend more time here, to bring my family here and help both the orphans and also to share the music that God has given me. Whenever I share the music, I feel like I am also sharing the message of the truth, the Gospel.
And they said, “Yeah, we will be interested in doing that.”
So the purpose why I came her [Hong Kong] is to come back and prepare for the launch of that record, which will release in November, and to get the word out that this music is coming.
And also, I want to visit with children and share with them the music and the message that ‘God loves them.’ I have been given that privilege of doing that here, and I will do that for Beijing, in a few orphanages there and other places… and hopefully, I will come back for a concert tour next year.

That's very interesting. Can you tell us more about your new album?

Well, when the people from my record company came back to me…EMI is not a gospel music company that only puts out gospel music… EMI is the parent company. The record label I record for is Sparrow Records, they do primarily gospel music. The EMI here [Hong Kong] has no gospel music category or genre. People in China especially, don’t know what that is.
When I came to EMI, I said, “You all tell me what you think I should put on this album. Obviously I write all my songs, and a lot about the miracle of adoption, what that’s meant for us to get the privilege to adopt a child into our home, and how much deeper of a understanding of God’s love that’s given to me. I've written songs about that, but… You all tell me… do we need something to build a bridge between me and the audiences here, for those who will not know my music?”
Then they suggested that I record two songs that will be familiar to the audience out here.
One of the songs is the “Circle Game” song… I guess this song was a very popular song here a several years ago. People at EMI thought if I did a new version of that, people will be able to recognize it. They also suggested a song that is called “The Blessing” by Jackie Cheung.
“If you do an English version of that, as far as the words, you can sort of adapt it to something you can sing. Why don’t you do those two songs? And we’ll fill the rest with your songs with songs from your existing albums.”
So I was very excited when they showed me the list of songs they have picked, because they are some songs that I feel very strongly about sharing with the audience here, songs like “More To This Life”… songs that I really think that answers some of the deep questions of the heart of every person that says, “Why am I here, what is my purpose?”
It’s exciting for me to share those kind of messages through my music.
Music has a way of opening the heart to allow the message to get in. That’s why I feel so excited that God has allowed me to have the opportunity to do this. I feel like God has opened a door here in a pretty amazing away.
The album will be called Musical Blessings From Steven Curtis Chapman, which is again so exciting for me because that’s coming from my record label who doesn’t necessarily know all of the reasons why I wanted to come here [Hong Kong]. They just knew that I wanted to come to share my music, but always in my heart, I had the desire to give a gift back to the people in China, because of the blessing that they have given to us and our daughter. It will be the gift of music, the blessing of music… and the message in the music. So they decided to title it Musical Blessings–
I was like, “That is amazing, that’s exactly what I hope this will be, to be a blessing through music to the people who hear it.”

To be continued...