Welcome to our website! We’re glad you are here. Please have a look around and we’d love to stay in touch with you through one of our social media platforms.
We are more than just a band, we are a ministry. We go into all the world and share gospel through music and call it the musicommission (ref. Mark 16:15).
Music is an extremely effective way to reach the world. Melodies get imprinted on our minds and lyrics written on our hearts. In difficult times, it is often songs that bring us hope and build our faith. Music builds bridges across cultures, generations and religions. That is why we love to sing the gospel and produce songs that point to Jesus.
All over the world, persecution is on the rise. In many places it is no longer safe to preach the gospel. People are being prevented from going to church in all kinds of ways, including the recent pandemic. Songs are sometimes all that people have, so we want to make sure they have powerful ones. We spread the gospel through music during concerts and events but by far our biggest reach is online. With hundreds of thousands of followers across our various social media and streaming platforms, there is no stopping us.
We have made all our music available for free because, again, we are not just a band, we are a ministry, we are not in it for the music, but for the gospel and we want to share the love of God no matter the cost.
Meet Cameron and Jenny Mendes (and their son Zac), the heart and soul of Yeshua Ministries. The ministry was founded by Cameron in 2002 in Mumbai, India. The first album ‘Yeshua’, with hit songs like ‘Yeshu Tera Naam Sabse Uncha Hai’, ‘Hum Gaye Hosanna’ and ‘Tere Paas’, was released in 2006. After they got married, Jenny joined the ministry and together they built it to what it is today. In 2021, they relocated to Seattle, USA and joined Evergreen Church as worship pastors.
Yeshua Ministries still continues, both in India as well as the USA and most importantly, online all over the world!
Growing up as a pastor’s kid in India, Cameron witnessed his parents serving God and dedicating their entire lives to the gospel. Multiple times his family, and especially his father, suffered severe physical and emotional abuse as a result of religious persecution. Cameron’s desire was to have a ministry that could reach the world without it being able to be shut down by opposition… And that is exactly what happened! Through social media and online streaming platforms, we can now reach out to millions of people and no one can stop us!
However, when he started writing songs, Cameron never intended for them to leave the local church. In those days there were international worship bands like Hillsong, releasing powerful, contemporary worship music in English and there were popular Bollywood artists, coming out with catchy secular Hindi songs. Unfortunately, there was nothing new and refreshing for Hindi speaking Christians, which led Cameron to write Hindi worship songs that would bless their church.
He recorded his initial songs on cassettes and what happened is that people started copying those cassettes and spreading the songs all over. Before he knew it, these songs were being sung by Hindi speaking believers all over the world. Cameron then launched Yeshua Ministries and started travelling in India and later all over the world to minister through worship concerts.
It is safe to say that Yeshua Ministries pioneered and transformed the face of Hindi worship and inspired a new generation of worshippers in India to rise up. Unlike 20 years ago, when we started, today there are many great worship leaders and gospel bands that produce a vast array of powerful worship music in Hindi and many other Indian languages. We continue to produce songs, travel for concerts and teach about the power of worship during seminars. If you would like to support our mission, you can do so here (insert link).
We are not in the business of making money nor do we strive for fame. Everything we do, only points to one name: Jesus Christ.
That is why we named our ministry ‘YESHUA’. ‘Yeshua’ is the Hebrew name of Jesus. But, when pronounced in Hindi, it is actually ‘Yeshu Aa’, which means ‘Jesus come’. So, whenever the crowd at a concert cheers for us and shouts out the name of the band, they are actually inviting Jesus to come! And it goes even further… did you know there is not a single song written by us that does not have the name of Jesus in it? Cameron always says ‘chicken curry without chicken is just curry. In the same way, a worship song without the name of Jesus is just a love song.’ We don’t want our songs to be used to worship any other God or person, so we make sure Jesus is glorified in every single one!
Yes, God has blessed some people with a special ministry or anointing but meanwhile, we are ALL called to lay our hands on the sick and pray for anyone in need. We do not believe that prayer is only effective when received from a famous person. In Mark chapter 16 Jesus told ALL His disciples, even the ones who doubted, to go out and make disciples. We encourage everyone to participate in the function of the kingdom of God and to develop a lifestyle of praying for others in Jesus’ name and to present every need before God. After all, at the end of the day, the band and preachers return home… but the Holy Spirit remains inside of you.
People often enter a time of worship with a lot of baggage. We want to remind them that Praising Jesus is FUN! During our concerts we encourage people to dance, shout and let it all go. Jesus asks us to leave all our sorrows behind and rejoice in the Lord! However, in all of this, we take God very seriously and don’t show Him any disrespect! Even when we do ‘masti’ on stage, He is our King and He is to be honoured and glorified above all else. We believe that fun and celebration go hand in hand with can go hand in hand with reference and awe.
As much as it is important to win souls for Jesus, it is equally important to turn those souls into disciples. That’s why we think that the time spent off stage is just as important as the time spent on stage. Disciples fellowship together, pray together and always encourage and edify one another to become more and more like Jesus. We are grateful for our pastors, leaders and mentors who have trained us as their disciples, and similarly, we often bring young people into our team who want to be trained and mentored by us. After all, we are all still learning.
Of course, we too believe that true beauty comes from the inside, but at the same time, there is nothing wrong with looking your best at all times. We are the King’s representatives and ambassadors of Christ here on earth, so let’s dress and act like one. We serve a God who created the universe and displayed His creativity and style in the splendour of nature and its diversity. The Bible says that God doesn’t look at the outside… but men sometimes do. This means that along with keeping our hearts toward God, we can show the world that Christians are cool, stylish and awesome people who serve a cool, stylish and awesome God. Moreover, we love giving glory to Jesus our King even in the way we look which is why you will never see us wear anything with unbiblical signs or derogative prints. We love dressing up in cool clothes that promote bible verses, positive and encouraging messages and accessorizing ourselves too.
We strive for excellence in everything we do, whether it is making music, writing songs or producing music videos because believe that Christians can also be thorough professionals. However, relationships are more important that perfectionism. Quality is necessary but community is valued more than results. We believe in making room for mistakes and second chances and the more we spend time in God’s presence, the more we will become like Him, transformed into His image.
We want to engage with the world around us and not escape it through creating a Christian sub-culture. We believe that worship, evangelism and justice are equally exclusive. Yeshua Ministries is much more than just a music ministry. Firstly, the reason we started this ministry is not to produce songs, but foremost to spread His gospel through music (#musicommission). Hardly anyone would ever remember a full sermon but songs get imprinted on our memory. In areas where possession of a bible is illegal and preaching of the gospel is banned, worship songs work as unstoppable tools of evangelism.
Secondly, the Bible, apart from worshipping and evangelizing, tells us to care for the poor, the broken-hearted, the marginalized and to stand for justice as an expression of the Kingdom of God. Did you know that Yeshua Ministries is very closely connected with several other ministries that work towards feeding the poor, sheltering widows, and caring for victims of injustice?