Today we are excited to announce the official online release of ‘Glorious Wonder’ - a 6 song mini-album - with the physical CDs soon to follow (links to the online music are at the bottom of this post). It’s only been about 4 months since the door first began to open for this, and we now have a professionally recorded and produced mini-album that represents a tiny, but very significant part of this amazing journey God is leading us on.

Worship. It’s who we are. It’s what we were created to do.

Over the years, Trevor has written dozens and dozens of songs covering many topics in many musical styles. But the common thread has always been a deep heart cry to Father God - expressing love, adoration, need, despair, hope, worry, desire, healing, freedom… all of the things that drive us to a place of longing and celebration. Over the last 15 years, these songs have emerged from time to time. We’ve used a few of them for worship services with the youth group we pastored, occasionally with the main church in Texas and here in Cornwall. But beyond that, most have just stayed tucked away like a caterpillar in a cocoon… waiting. For what, we didn’t really know. We had toyed with the idea of recording a few; even tried it on our own with the magic of modern ‘do-it-yourself’ software tools, but it just wasn’t right. So, at some point we decided to just let go. If God wanted to take us down that path, He would do so in His way, in His time, and for HIS purposes. And He’s done just that.

If you ask us “why”, we have some nice sounding answers that seem logical, but the bottom-line truth is simply that God led us to do it, so we did! What He does with it from here is up to Him! But for good measure, here are our top 3 reasons: 1) to provide something we can give to pastors and ministry leaders as we develop the UKFJ School of Worship and ministry training seminars, 2) to provide something that people can take away with them, so that the ministry continues even when an event is over, and 3) to provide a small additional stream of income back into the UKFJ ministry.

There are a few additional things you should know about “Glorious Wonder”…

1. The series of events that led to its creation are as miraculous and God-ordained as every other part of our UKFJ adventure has been.
2. These songs are absolutely God-inspired. Trevor doesn’t follow a method or formula for writing. He’s usually just spending time with the Lord or noodling around on the guitar when suddenly the music and lyrics start to flow. He grabs some paper (well, his iPad nowadays) and starts writing and recording. Anywhere from an hour to sometimes only 10 minutes later, the song is finished. It’s not about ‘hooks’, trend, or marketability, it’s simply about capturing the message the Lord wants to deliver.
3. Four of these songs were written as a direct outflow of our ministry in England. In fact, two were written AFTER we started the EP planning (which was originally only to be 4 songs!).
4. Even within the 6 songs, there is a broad range of style and intent. It’s lighthearted, yet deep. Celebratory, yet reflective. Quirky, yet relevant. And we like it. A future dream is to see these songs (and more) recorded in a live worship setting. But for now, we are happy to release ‘Glorious Wonder’ as a simple collection of songs that God has given Trevor to share with all of us.
5. All proceeds from the sale of ‘Glorious Wonder’ go directly back into UKFJ. The songs will be available for purchase through all of the mainstream online media outlets (iTunes, Spotify, etc.); however, some of those online retailers keep a much larger percentage of the proceeds than others. So, we will respectfully suggest the best place to make your online purchase if you so desire, so that more of the proceeds are fed back into the ministry. Our primary online store actually lets you ‘name your own price’ (with a minimum). So, if you would like to contribute a bit more than the base selling price as a further donation to the ministry you can easily do so, though it’s certainly not required. 🙂

AND FINALLY (drum roll please)…

To begin your own journey of ‘Glorious Wonder’, CLICK HERE. This will take you to our music profile page on Facebook where you can listen to the songs, stay up-to-date with upcoming events and connect to the online store. (A “like” on this page would be great too!)

If you are not a Facebook user, please CLICK HERE to go straight to our online store where you can hear the full songs and purchase them if interested.

We should have the actual CDs back within about two weeks, and they will be available for purchase as well.

We hope you enjoy this mini-album as much as we do! Blessings and more to come very soon!

- Connie, Trevor & Brooklyn Smith (UK for Jesus)