Tony Cummings talked at length to Texas-based Kim Ruiz, better known as righteous rapper G.L.O GOD's LOVE ONLY

She recalled, "I met a gentleman that used to have a ministry after church called The Most Excellent Way. I loved going there because it was more intimate and down-to-earth. You met people who were drug addicts, who were into prostitution that had now come to Christ. It was raw; you could say it how it is; 'I know where you're coming from, I know where you've been'. I met a gentleman who did Christian rap called Leroy. I never heard Christian rap before, I never knew it existed. I had my little studio at home and I told him, 'May I have a digital recorder?' He's like, 'Yeah, come on over, we can play beats.' He started rapping and I looked at him; I was like, 'What are you doing?' He goes, 'This is Christian rap'. I said, 'That's OK? You can do that?' He was like, 'Yeah!' So he was rapping and I started trying to jump in. He said, 'Come on, do some more!' I was like, 'He's not making fun of me; he didn't shut me down,' and it encouraged me. As he encouraged me, I continued to go with it."

Kim's taste of the gospel rapping flourished. "It was like God was saying, 'Run with that'. You get a perfect shoe, you know it's comfortable, you know it's the right fit - that's what it felt like. I was like, 'Wow! This is good! I'll just go with this'. I just kept doing it." With a new name G.L.O (God's Love Only) her early efforts, she admitted, were a tad cliched. She recalled, "I had a, 'Jesus, take me back, heal my soul, wash away my sins, make me whole again' - that type of style. I was getting instrumentals off the web. I even had a little Casio keyboard - you press 'start' and it gives a little drum beat. I had a tiny little karaoke machine which was a cassette; I used to do that before I had the digital recorder. So there were ways. I don't know if you remember the tape recorder that was just a square; it had the buttons at the end of it, a handle that slid out, and the microphone was more like a stick. We would put the radio close and record. That would be awesome. You'd have the cassette, and if the tape came loose you would get a pencil and wind it back up; if it broke, you would get Scotch tape and tape it up."

Gradually as her primitive wrap demos increased so opportunities to perform her songs began to arise. She remembered, "There was a small church on the East Side that opened their door. We didn't know about being a member of a church as far as that covenant relationship. We were church hoppers. It wasn't intentional - like, 'OK, I don't like the choir', 'They don't have a good youth ministry' - it was doctrinal. Certain things didn't line up. There were certain churches we went to that we wanted to become a part of but they were going in a transition themselves; the pastors they originally had were out and the co-pastors were filling it. It was God's direction, because we were able to participate by helping open a church in San Antonio, on the East Side of town, then we attended there. We knew that, 'OK, we did our part; it's time to go. Every fifth Sunday my pastor allows me to go up and do my ministry - not only that, but he's opened the door to where I'm now allowed to sit amongst the elders and himself in meetings along with other members and glean from what God is showing them, or put input on the direction. I do evangelise and go out."

In 2003 her first rap album was released. She said, "It was self-titled - 'G.L.O God's Love Only'. I had songs on there called 'King Of Kings' and 'Lord, Teach Me To Fly'. God put on my heart 'glow'. It wasn't I looked in the sky and saw the letters. I had this perfume called Glow. I looked over at it and I was like, 'Glow. Huh. OK.' God will use a physical to give you what he wants to relate to you. That stuck. Where did I get the periods from? And there's no period at the end. At the beginning there was no period at the end because I didn't like the offset of letters: it threw everything off, there was no centre. I saw the lettering move to the left and I was like, 'That doesn't look good. What if I don't put a period?' G-period-L-period-O. Then later on God was like, 'God's love only'. That's what it stands for - God's Love Only! I could tell it wasn't me - I tell God, 'I'm not the brightest' - but God will use the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Then later it was, 'I add the period to your ministry. That's when you're done.' So when people ask, 'Why do you have no period at the end?' 'Because God will put the period when this ministry is finished.'"

The 'G.L.O God's Love Only' album had absolutely no distribution, other than the rapper herself. Admitted Kim, "I would sell it in front of my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's restaurant. People would look at me like, 'I'm not buying that!' Then I sold in front of my other sister-in-law's beauty shop. 'What's this? OK. See you later.' Some people would buy one, being kind. You know how you see people selling newspapers in the middle of the street? I got a paper board and wrote on it with a Sharpie, 'G.L.O CDs $10'. People are looking at me in their car like, 'What's this girl doing in the middle of the road selling CDs?' I thought maybe that's the way I'm supposed to do. I can't despise small beginnings."

G.L.O began to do more and more concerts. "I've been in free ministry for almost 15 years. I didn't charge. A lot of churches got on board with that one. 'Free!? Come on over!' God supplied Mario with the talent and the jobs so that I was able to do free ministry. Mario taught himself sound engineering and how to do production in a home studio. My husband built the studio in our garage. It was really nice, except it didn't have A/C and it didn't have heating. In the summertime it would be boiling, in the winter we'd be freezing. So we had fans for the summer and heaters for the winter. I was in a sauna in the summertime, sweating and rapping, then freezing in the winter to get these songs out." The second album 'Child Of God' came out in 2006. "It started off in most of Texas, then it went to Virginia, Florida, Cincinnati."

The third album 'Fire' came out in 2013 followed by an EP two years later, 'God Is Love'. Now with 'Fearfully And Wonderfully Made' this most spiritually militant of rappers is still as passionate as ever to communicate biblical truth. She said, "Things aren't always easy. People should know that although you have Christ in your life, although you're saved and have eternal life, you do go through life; the difference is you don't go through by yourself. I can't imagine the things I went though, even as a Christian, to go through them by myself. I would crumble. It gets tougher as a Christian, because now you're on the opposite team, so the enemy is trying to make it tough for you. I'm not afraid of the enemy - I don't have to be - and I'm not afraid of the demons. I'm just sick of them. I'm in that position I'm sick of them toying with people, getting in the way; I'm sick of seeing how they try to disrupt in my house. I see myself as a soldier in Christ: we are on a battlefield, we should suit-up and be prepared. I can't get away from speaking that out."