Petrina Williams Rush left Vicksburg to get closer to a big sister she hardly knew and, in the process, found a group of “sisters” and a career sharing her faith through song.

To buy the CD

“Now Faith,” a CD by Daughters of Christ will be available at the end of this month and is $7.99. Order here; by calling Felicia Daniels at 916-924-1534; or by e-mail.

The Vicksburg native is the founding member and lead singer of Daughters of Christ, a women’s gospel group. Though they’ve been singing together only six months, the group is up for two awards tonight at the Second Annual Bay Area Black Music Awards Show and Expo in Oakland, Calif.

“It’s just so beautiful how it all came together,” Rush said of meeting group members Shelia McIntosh, Yolanda Banks and Latonya McDaniel. “Now we’re like sisters. We all bring something different to the group.”

Rush, 30, has family in and near Vicksburg. She is the daughter of Henry Williams and the sister of Richard and Michael Williams. Her sister, Nanette Morgan, lives in Clinton.

Other members of the family are in California — her mother, Carolyn Williams, and brother, Henry Williams Jr., live in Sacramento, as does the sister who got Rush out to California, Toni Evans.

Rush said the idea of forming Daughters of Christ was like “a vision” given to her by God, and that their primary focus is sharing their faith through song and giving glory to Jesus Christ.

“I know that God has put us together,” she said this week in a telephone interview.

Growing up, Rush knew she had a half sister, also born in Vicksburg but who had moved to Oakland before Rush was born. Evans, seven years older, would come back to Vicksburg every five or 10 years, and the sisters would talk on the phone a few times a year.

After Rush started college, the girls began to talk more frequently and, during her senior year, Rush began to consider moving to California to be closer to her sister.

After graduation she talked it over with her husband, Wilson, and, in 2002, he gave his blessing to the idea. Rush went ahead to get a place for them to settle.

She found herself homesick. “My whole family was in Vicksburg,” she said, and she was lonely for them. Wilson ended up joining her sooner than they had planned.

Though she’d been a computer science major, Rush began to pursue a singing career, first on her own and later with McIntosh, whom she met in March 2002. The two called themselves Purified Divinity, and shared songwriting duties.

When her son, Wil’Shon, was born in March 2004, Rush focused on mothering duties for a time. She also went back to school and earned a master’s degree in business administration, but did not lose the vision of sharing the gospel through song.

An invitation to sing at a local festival in May, along with Rush having a set of songs she had written for herself as lead singer with three-part harmony backup had Rush and McIntosh looking for two more singers to fill the parts. Banks joined in April, but McDaniel was an 11th hour answer to prayer — the tenor they desperately needed was provided a day before their performance.

Later, Banks revealed that she had been praying for something to “keep herself busy and glorify the Lord.”

Rush sees both as divine intervention. “God has us here for a reason, and we just want to be able to reach someone who needs to hear the gospel,” she said.

All four women are active in their church, Macedonia Baptist Church of Sacramento, singing in multiple choirs and serving in women’s and youth ministries, theatrical arts and outreach.

Six months after forming, Daughters of Christ has performed at park openings, birthday celebrations and church programs, and is up for two awards, Best Gospel Group and Gospel’s Rising Stars, at tonight’s show, one of a number of regional programs sponsored by the Black Music Association Academy of America and presented in conjunction with the Bay Area Gospel Jubilee Awards.

The group also will issue a CD, “Now Faith,” at the end of this month. Rush wrote the lyrics to the songs, with music by Christopher Rhone.

Evans, the sister who got Rush to California in the first place, works in management at an area hospital but supports the group as their health adviser. For Rush, who is expecting her second child in June, that’s just another reason she’s sure that she’s a daughter of Christ.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com.