Dingwall Castle Street Church of Scotland

Dingwall Castle Street Church of Scotland

Eilidh Newsletter - 01 (2011)

Dear Friends and Supporters

Welcome to the first ANS:UK Newsletter! We hope to send these updates out each month so you know what’s happening in the life of this new ministry venture, and so we can share with you our concerns and prayer requests. Although this is the first letter, we have a surprising amount of news: an update from a trip to Romania, news on where we’ll be over the next couple of months, and things to pray on as we begin to think of the long-term work of A New Song in the UK…

Romania – ANSY Festival

On the 16th August, Eilidh and her brother, Matt, travelled out to Romania to take part in a music festival organised by our sibling ministry, ANSY Romania. This was a two-day event, although Matt and Eilidh were in Romania for about a week, helping set up for the Festival beforehand, and helping clear up afterwards! The Festival was an opportunity for ANSY Romania to launch their new CD, ‘Arise’, as well as to share the gospel through live music. Eilidh writes:

"My brother and I play a lot of Scottish music together, Matthew playing fiddle and me playing guitar, so we brought a bit of a Scottish flavour to the proceedings. Neither of us was very sure how the Scottish music would be received in Romania, but the tunes we played went down well, thankfully! Our last tune which involved a bit of audience participation was particularly enjoyed, both by us and those listening! While we struggled in some ways with communication at times, since our Romanian is non-existent, it was really interesting seeing how music broke down the language barrier, and reinforced the concept of music being a vital way of communicating the gospel, across all cultures and age groups. The trip to Romania was a good opportunity for me to see what my future involvement with Friendship International might include, as well as being a good opportunity for me to spend time with Cristi and some of the other members of ANSY who I will be joining on the ANSY Fall tour in the States. Given that God first placed in my heart a desire to serve Him through the ministry of FI at an ANSY concert at my church on Easter Sunday, it’s been a thrill for me to begin serving Him in this way with the young people of ANSY."

The time spent in Romania was very much a blessing for all involved, Matt has apparently spent the past few days commenting that he misses being there with everyone! It was truly a joy to be involved with this event, and we hope that next year at ANSY Fest, there will be a full compliment of ANS:UK musicians involved! We are thankful to God for a good trip with good health, and thankful to the Wilkinson family who made it possible for us to be there, Matt for supporting Eilidh, and to Matt & Lorraine Marshall who, along with Cristi Aliman and the others involved in ANSY Fest, made us so welcome and looked after us so well!

ANSY Romania US Tour

On September 11th, we fly out to Atlanta, Georgia, as part of the A New Song group touring the East Coast of the USA. Since not all the ANSY Romania members are able to come to the States, Eilidh is going to sing alto with the choir to boost the numbers, and Jamie will be sound engineer for the tour. This will be our first official trip as new mission partners with Friendship International, so it’s all very exciting. We begin in Georgia, travel down to Florida, then work our way north through the

Carolinas, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, finishing with several dates in Ohio. All this will take us from the middle of September to the end of October – it’s a long trip! However, we’re very much looking forward to the opportunity to sing to God’s glory in so many places, and spread the word of the work that Friendship International is doing in Romania, as well as the new work He has in store for the UK ministry. It is our intention to record a video diary while we’re away and this will appear on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ANewSong.UK). We’ll also try and get another newsletter out around the beginning of October. We appreciate your prayers for this; see the close of this letter for specific prayer points.

The Future

The past few weeks, we’ve been starting to consider what the ministry of ANS:UK will look like. Much of the time we’re in the States will be spent discussing our ideas and thoughts with Del, the Director of FI, and when we come back from the tour we’ll be meeting with various Christian organisations based in central Scotland. Also during the tour and on our return we will be working to raising financial support for the work, and again we ask you to remember this aspect of our work over the coming months.

Prayer Points

1. Firstly for the tour, we’d ask you to pray for safety in travel. We’ll be covering thousands of miles while on tour, not to mention the fact that ANSY will be flying from Eastern Europe! In connection with this, please pray for good health for the whole group while we’re away. It’s a lot of travelling and a packed schedule, and the potential for getting run down is very real, so we pray that we will all remain healthy and strong for the duration!

2. Also for the tour, please pray for a sense of unity and peace while we’re travelling. Two months is a long to spend with the same small group of people, and there is the real possibility that irritations will arise! However, there is also great potential for this to be a time of real encouragement and fellowship, so please pray that the latter will be the case.

3. As mission partners, we do not receive a salary: everyone who works for Friendship International is dependant on donations. Please pray that we will be able to build up a good foundation of support over the coming months, and pray that we will have faith that God will provide. We have both already seen God’s good provision, but it is so easy to get caught up in our earthly worries! Pray that we will not worry but trust God (Matt. 6:30-32).

4. Finally, please pray for the meetings with Del in the States, and the meetings with various organisations in Edinburgh when we come back, as we consider how we move forward with ANS:UK. Pray that our focus will be on God, on the furtherance of His Kingdom, and on glorifying Him through music.

Thank you for your interest and your prayers! Until next time, grace and peace be with you.

Jamie Pringle & Eilidh Wilkinson

Coordinators of A New Song: UK, a division of Friendship International.