I Ordered Josiah Queen’s New Album for My Daughter. Then I Learned What It Was Supporting.
What started as a gift for one very happy fan turned out to be part of something much bigger thanks to Josiah Queen’s new album.
Late last week, a package arrived that made one little Christian music fan very happy.
Months ago, I preordered a signed copy of Josiah Queen’s new album, Damascus Road, for my daughter who absolutely loves his music. I knew she’d be excited to finally have it in her hands.
What I didn’t know at the time was that our purchase would also help support Christians facing persecution around the world.
That discovery made me look at this album a little differently. Because behind the catchy songs, the signed copies and the excitement of a new release, there’s a story about a Christian asking a bigger question: What do you do with the blessings you’ve been given?
A Question That Changed Things
While Josiah was preparing Damascus Road for release, he found himself praying about what to do with the money the physical album sales would bring in.
He had a lot of time to think about it, too. He spent roughly four days signing around 20,000 CDs and vinyl records.
His question was simple: “God, where do you want this money to go?”
Then, one night, a social media scroll led him to a conversation about Christians facing persecution in Nigeria.
Josiah came across a video featuring Ryan Miller, an ambassador for Global Christian Relief, speaking with a Nigerian pastor about the realities facing believers there. What could have been another moment lost in an endless feed stayed with him.
So he reached out to Ryan and asked a straightforward question: How can I help?
That conversation helped turn an idea into a commitment. Josiah decided to dedicate 100% of the net proceeds from eligible CD and vinyl sales of Damascus Road to Global Christian Relief, an organization that supports persecuted Christians around the world.
Damascus Road: More Than Music
For Josiah, the decision was about more than making a donation. It was also about resisting the temptation to settle into a comfortable life as his music career grows.
As he discussed on an episode of Miller’s The Jesus People Podcast, learning about persecuted Christians challenged him to think about what it means to follow Jesus when faith comes with a real cost.
And he didn’t want to simply feel moved by their stories. He wanted to do something.
The commitment also involves the people working alongside him. Josiah has explained that his managers are sharing in the financial sacrifice, giving up income they might otherwise have received.
Rather than make the story about his own generosity, Josiah hopes the initiative will bring more attention to Christians facing persecution today.
“I feel like a lot of people watching this or in the future they might not even have heard about the persecuted church,” he explained. “They probably think it only happened in the book of Acts or something like that.”
But persecution isn’t just a story from the early church. It’s a reality for believers around the world today.
That’s why Josiah wants the initiative to do more than raise money. He hopes it will introduce people to organizations like Global Christian Relief and encourage them to pay attention to Christians whose stories might otherwise go unheard.
A Bigger Purpose
I bought Josiah Queen’s new album because my daughter loves his music and I wanted her to have an album she’d be excited about. I didn’t preorder it because I knew about this initiative—I found that out afterward.
And maybe that’s what makes the story worth sharing. Sometimes we discover a bigger purpose in something that began as an ordinary decision.
We may not all have an album to release or a platform that reaches millions of people. But we all have opportunities to look beyond ourselves and ask what we can do with what we’ve been given.
For Josiah, that question helped turn Damascus Road into something bigger than a collection of songs. And for the rest of us, it might be a reminder that faith is about more than what we sing on Sunday. It’s about what we do with it when Monday comes.
Stories That Remind Us What Faith Can Cost
Josiah Queen’s new album, Damascus Road, is a reminder that we can do something to support Christians facing persecution around the world. And sometimes, understanding their stories is a place to start.
On EKKL, you can explore stories of courage, conviction, and faith under pressure with movies like Between Borders, Polycarp, and The Hiding Place.
