Geraldine Latty » Full Biography

Full Biography

Verse 1
When the day begins
Let the morning bring
Mercy melodies that feed my soul
When the evening comes
And the day is done
Father, quiet me with songs of love

Chorus
So I can know you
Hear what you say
So I can walk with you
To the places that need your grace

Verse 2
In my hopes and dreams
In everything I see
Your perception is the truth I need
In the things I do
All that I pursue
Thread your presence through the heart of me

Chorus
So I can know you
Hear what you say
So I can walk with you
To the places that need your grace,

Bridge
Lord I often trust in
What I see and what I touch
Let my choices rest in everything you are

Chorus
So I can know you
Hear what you say
So I can walk with you
To the places that need all that grace has achieved
For us

Chorus
So I can know you
Hear what you say
So I can walk with you
To the places that need your grace
To the places that need your grace
Father this is my prayer today

When The Day Begins. Written by: Geraldine Latty and Busbee
From the album ‘Surprising’.

Geraldine was born in Crewe, Cheshire to George and Loleta Latty, both from Jamaica in the West Indies.

A close family – she is one of three sisters and three brothers who initially worshipped at a Pentecostal church in Crewe. They later moved to a Methodist church in the same town.

Her parents, two of the founding members of the Pentecostal church, have now returned as pastors to that church.

After completing her A-levels, Geraldine moved to Bath in 1984 to study Music where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree three years later. She then gained a teaching qualification and for twelve years until October 2000 was teaching at a Catholic school in Bristol. Here she headed up the music of an active department including running a Soul/Gospel choir.

She considered her role with other Christians at the school to be an important one and in many ways this ‘earthed’ what was done in her ‘life’ outside school i.e. her involvement in running workshops, leading worship at conferences etc.

Geraldine first became involved in leading worship when she was a child in the Pentecostal church her family attended and later as a student in a Methodist church in Bath.

Churching it at a local Baptist church in Bristol, Geraldine is involved in leading the music in worship and heading up the music teams there.

In the early 90s, David Peacock – now the Director of Music at London School of Theology – invited Geraldine to be involved in national events including the Baptist Conferences and Spring Harvest ‘reflective’ and ‘celebration’ venues.

‘I began to understand that maybe the kaleidoscope of my family, church and school teaching experiences were a gift from God and enriched what I was able to bring to local and national events’.

It was becoming a little busier too – with travel to Australia, Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Amsterdam, Budapest and Bulgaria!

…as well as more diverse – leading worship at teaching conferences, working with teenage mothers, charity conferences, running a community gospel choir, recording albums and contributing to several ‘live’ albums, coaching youth drama groups, band coaching, solo concerts, facilitating team in church at Cairns, songwriting, worship conferences, BBC appearances on ‘Songs of Praise’, café concerts, mentoring writers, training and teaching, coaching music teams and writing articles for magazines.

It was about this time that Geraldine started to receive invitations to be director of music at other churches and at other schools.

She recalls…

‘This was such a key time for me as I was faced with a choice to leave teaching for something new or to stay at St Thomas More [which incidentally, that time was one of the most difficult periods in my 12 years at the school]

I in fact declined the invitations to leave teaching – a decision that perhaps seemed strange and irrational…

…irrational because all the right things were being offered in the invitations and they seemed ideal in prospect and location – but it just didn’t feel right.

In fact, the sense I had was that in taking up these invitations God would be with me – but it would be slightly ‘off kilter’ and not the right moment…

Even so – as I made the decision to stay in teaching with it came a sense of loss!

…with questions too – What if I’m missing the boat? Will this scupper my chances for the future? Honest questions and not a little heart searching and praying with others’

The breakthrough for Geraldine came, when one morning [about 2 weeks after deciding to stay in teaching] she knew a quiet conviction that now it was time to move on from musing on the past.

Teaching at that time was difficult for her and others of her colleagues, but there was what she calls a ‘quiet persuasion’ that God had not ‘released’ her from teaching yet.

Also in this time there were other questions that filled her prayers…

‘I was prepared [and prayed as much] to retire in that school if need be – although I confess some of those prayers were prayed through gritted teeth! But, if that was where God was calling me to – then that was where I wanted to be…

…and with it came with a strong cry to God that I didn’t want to leave an environment where I knew I was ‘salt’ and ‘light’ to go to an environment where there was lots of salt and lots of light! unless there was a strong sense of calling from Father God’

Geraldine in fact remained in teaching for a further two years and it was, as she puts it ‘as I was minding my own business and school was going great, that I felt a prompt from God ‘right – now it’s time to leave teaching!’

She asked a few friends to join her in praying about all this [the decision process lasting about 7 months] and she eventually handed in her notice after teaching for over 12 years at St Thomas More RC School!

‘I guess I felt that if I stayed at St Toms I would be ‘useful’ but the question at that point was ‘is this where Father God is calling me to be’? Or was God calling me on to somewhere/something else?’

I knew too that there was no church or school invitations, I only had two events in the calendar for 2001 and I had a mortgage! – but there remained a peace from God even as I faced the unknown’

That was over six years ago – and the journey continues.

‘In all of this though – my driving passion is to ‘get into God’. To know this awesome, life-transforming, FULL of love and welcome, passionate and compassionate God.

To know this God and how much I am loved will be a lifetime of discovery.

To bring to others, learn with others and live out with others this love is THE adventure.

To have the ‘music in me’ be a part of that expression is a gift, a treasure and an offering’.

October 5, 2006