From 1991 to 1996, Roma Waterman was among the busiest Australian Christian singers to perform around the country touring with David Meece, DC Talk, Newsboys and Margaret Becker. Her beautiful voice catapulted songs such as People Change, We All Need Some Love and Freedom to the top of Christian airplay charts. But working at a hectic pace week after week, month after month, Roma became so physically exhausted that she collapsed on stage during a performance in Adelaide.
Diagnosed with fibromyalgia (similar to chronic fatigue syndrome) doctors told the hard working singer she would have to give up being a performer. For 12 months, Roma did nothing, but sit in church.
“I realise now how much I’d always done in my own strength,” Roma says. “I used to push and try to make things happen because I wanted to be a successful artist and performer who was liked by people,” she admits.
Three years later and still fearful of performing, Roma faced the largest number of people she’d performed to in years. Roma can’t really remember much about that night except it was the “easiest thing” she’d ever done in her life.
“I heard God saying to me, ‘that’s what it’s meant to be like, Roma, when you work with the Holy Spirit’. My healing began that night, and today I’m totally healthy,” she says.
PEOPLE CHANGE TOUR
With a series of recent radio hits behind her – I Was Carried, Lifting Me Up and More Than Ice Cream – Roma is preparing for her first national tour in seven years, a tour taking in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Launceston, Geelong, the Gold Coast and Townsville.
The tour takes it name from the title of her latest CD, and a song she wrote more than ten years ago.
“When I wrote it I didn’t think too much about why I was writing it. But now, that song has incredible meaning for me. Thanks to God, I think that we can change and be better people. That’s really the focus of this tour,” she says.
ROMA TOUR DATES are listed in our International Calendar
