Homelessness to entrepreneur: CSB+SJU student launches Christian streaming service

Editor’s note: This article discusses topics related to mental health and suicidal thoughts.

Lilly Goyah was not always connected to the church. At age 19, her mom immigrated to the United States from Liberia to escape the civil war that was happening there. She got married and had Goyah and her little brother, then got divorced, leaving Goyah’s mother single with two children in a new country.

A senior here at CSB+SJU, Goyah recalls moving around in different governmental housing, rarely staying at a school for a full term. One thing that was steady in her family was the music that played on cassette tapes, music from Benny Hill and Billy Graham, she specifically recalls.

“I didn’t really understand [the music] at the time—I used to call it ‘Jesus propaganda’—but now that I am older, I can really see how it might have been pivotal to her mental health, kind of keeping her sane in that moment she was very much alone,” Goyah said.

Goyah remembers coming to Minnesota to live with her father around the age of 7 or 8.

“My dad was more stable in terms of finances and housing, but I would say, probably emotionally, not so. He was also remarried… There was a lot of conflict in the family. It started to take a toll on my mental health as well… It was tough to stay there,” Goyah said.

Goyah’s mom eventually moved to Stillwater, Minn., where she and her brother joined their mom in transitional housing. Goyah’s family then moved to Champlin, Minn., living in a home that was officially lent to them. One day, when Goyah and her family got back to the home, there were locks on the doors and all their stuff was gone.

“We were back to square one. All our stuff had been taken, besides the items in the car, and thankfully we were doing laundry that day, so we had some of our clothes with us,” Goyah said.

This led Goyah’s mother to find Mary’s Place, a shelter for homeless families with children in Minneapolis.

“At that point, everything really sunk in for me. It was the summer before freshman year of high school. There was a lot of internal, mental conversation. It just felt like there was no reason to continue on,” Goyah said.

Goyah hit a low point, and she made the internal decision to commit suicide. Goyah said she had a level of disconnect with the church at that time, a sense of anger toward the church. However, her mom remained involved with the church. At the same time that Goyah made the internal decision to commit suicide, her mom sent her and her brother on a church retreat in Olney, Md., at the Harvest International Church, which was a 16-hour car ride from Minneapolis. The retreat ended up changing her life.

One of the first nights of the retreat, there was a youth performance with skits and dances. In one of the skits and dances, a kid struggled with suicidal thoughts and depression, and a mother consistently prayed for this child.

“From a spiritual standpoint, these angels were fighting off spirits that were taunting or haunting this child, until the child was safe. That was just totally crazy to me, because, like I said, I hadn’t told anybody what I was going to do. I wasn’t praying about it because I had this anger towards God, but it was in that moment that I really felt like ‘I’m being heard’,” Goyah said.

After the retreat, Goyah’s family still lived in the shelter, but the retreat brought a spark of hope back into her life, and she has been passionate about music since.

Goyah began her college career at Augsburg University, but she transferred to CSB+SJU after her freshman year.

She discovered CSB+SJU’s Entrepreneur Scholars program, or E-Scholars begged to be let in. Someone ended up dropping the program, which opened the door for Goyah to join.

She started to focus on trends in music, specifically in the Christian music industry, and began drawing connections between Christian music and mental health.

With E-Scholars, Goyah has had the opportunity to travel to Vietnam and meet with software developers, as well as the opportunity to connect with people in the St. Cloud area, many in business development. Goyah has found these experiences, and more, to be pivotal in her business, introducing her to mentors and new ideas.

Goyah had the opportunity to travel to San Francisco to meet with a music therapist and learn about the field’s impact on mental health.

Through E-Scholars, Goyah created A New Psalm (ANP) Streaming, a streaming platform that allows people to find Christian music and podcasts based on their emotional needs.

The name comes from the psalms of the Bible. Goyah also wanted to highlight diverse artists in the Christian music industry, which she has done, offering a place for those artists to be heard and emphasizing their music on her platform.

“The vision and the mission are to inspire behavior that people are consistently turning to God and recognizing their emotional states and being aware of how they feel, and actively doing something to aid [their emotions] in that moment, but then also revolutionizing the Christian music industry,” Goyah said.

ANP Streaming has an official website, and Goyah is working on launching an app for the platform in late November.

“One thing that’s hard sometimes is to talk about [mental health], especially with other people. I think that’s why it’s important for you to find those individual, intimate connections,” Goyah said. That’s what music was for me.

It opened a door for me, in terms of religion and faith. Having something that is bigger than you that you trust in helps repurpose your mind. I hope my platform can be that resource for others.”