Wellspring has recently returned from a ministry trip to the USA. Those involved were Sally Thornton, Jon & Sarah Blamire, Huw Humphreys, Mark Blackwell, David Howles, Chris Swain, Helen Pitstow, Corinne Frost, Alan Tokeley and myself (Richard Williamson). We all give thanks to God for the warmth of the welcome we received wherever we went and we’re also grateful for the many words of encouragement received throughout the trip.

After several weeks of preparation here in the UK (including 2 rehearsal days and several last minute crises!), we finally arrived in Washington DC on Maundy Thursday. We were taken by some of the staff of the Church of the Apostles in Fairfax VA to a very comfortable hotel near their church – and subsequently to a wonderful meal! Right from the beginning we experienced American hospitality which is second to none!!

On the 2^nd day, Good Friday, we spent a very busy day setting up and rehearsing for a major Good Friday presentation in the Church of the Apostles. We were invited to that particular church having previously got to know the church’s rector, David Harper, at the pre-Lambeth conference in Canterbury 1998. He invited us to minister at his church when he learnt we were coming over to the USA.

Jon Blamire, our sound engineer, had spent many weeks writing and putting together this multi-media service which was a meditation on the events surrounding Good Friday. The service comprised more than 130 computer projected slides, music and videos. The whole evening went far better than we could ever have hoped for. It clearly had a major impact on the several hundred people who were there as we considered all that Jesus had done for us at Calvary. The worship time at the end, as the instrumentalists walked amongst the people to minister, was a very moving time. We even managed to stay awake throughout the service even though the service began at 7pm (which was 2am in the UK!).

The next day (Easter Saturday) we left fairly early to make the 4 hour car trip to the Church of the Good Samaritan in Paoli (on the outskirts of Philadelphia). Here we’d been invited by the rector, Greg Brewer, to help lead worship for an Easter Vigil, which is one of the church’s main services of the year, dramatically celebrating Jesus rising from death. The service traditionally begins in darkness, then a single candle is brought in and gradually candles held by the whole congregation are lit until the church is a blaze of light! We contributed several songs – some liturgical in nature as well as praise items. We also used a video from the Good Friday service which was based on Graham Kendrick’s song ‘No Scenes of Stately Majesty’. Graham wrote this song as a response to Diana’s funeral, and the video we put together contained scenes from Diana’s funeral contrasted with scenes from Jesus death taken from the film ‘Jesus of Nazareth’. Again, all that we did was very well received and we have been invited to return to both churches if we are ever in the States again.

Easter Sunday saw us on the move yet again, this time taking 2 flights to North Carolina – eventually arriving in a town called ‘Black Mountain’ which is high up in the beautiful Appalachian mountains to the West of the State. This was our first opportunity to rest since we arrived and we enjoyed the opportunity to ‘chill out’ and have a relaxed evening meal together.

Our main reason for travelling to the USA was to lead worship at a large Episcopal conference entitled ‘New Wineskins for Global Mission’. On Monday we finally arrived at the main venue for this conference. ‘Ridgecrest Conference Centre’ is just up the road from Black Mountain. After settling in, we had a day and a half to get the stage in the main auditorium ready for the conference, including more rehearsals and the inevitable sound checks. After literally hundreds of emails over several months back and forth from America, it was lovely to finally meet the organisers of the conference in person - especially Sharon Stockdale and Julie, her assistant, who had done a brilliant job putting the conference together. It was also good to get more of a feel for what we would be doing over the next few days.

On Tuesday evening we met the other leaders of the conference and led worship during a prayer time in advance of most of the delegates arriving. Then on Wednesday morning we led worship for a special service for a new partnership of organisations (entitled EPGM - Episcopal Partnership for Global Mission) which had come together to work jointly towards global mission It is so good to see Christians wanting to work together to see the gospel proclaimed throughout the world. This set the scene for what was to be a memorable and challenging few days – encouraging us to take seriously God’s call in the ‘Great Commission’ to proclaim the Good News of the gospel to all creation until Jesus returns.

The main conference began on Wednesday evening, and sessions ran right through until Saturday evening, each looking at different aspects of evangelism in many different parts of the world: Africa, The Middle East, South East Asia, Latin America, the USA - also looking at the persecuted Church, the challenge of pluralism, inner cities, students etc. The speakers chosen from all over the world were excellent and challenged all of us to take Jesus command in Matthew 28 seriously.

Our role in Wellspring was to lead worship at each session using a range of worship material from traditional hymns to modern praise songs and also taking songs from many different nations and cultures. It was quite a challenge to learn songs from Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East – in some cases singing in languages quite foreign to us. Our efforts were clearly appreciated! Some English songs which are very popular here in the UK were almost completely unknown there – well known songs such as ‘Be still for the Presence of the Lord’, and also newer songs such as ‘Men of Faith’, ‘Before the Throne’ etc. These had quite an impact on many delegates and we were besieged with people wanting to know where to get the music! It seems that some people experienced a greater depth in worship than they have known previously.

Here's a picture of Wellspring leading worship at the New Wineskins conference

And here's another!

And one more!

On the Sunday morning the conference ended with a special communion service based on a Kenyan liturgy. This was a moving finale to the conference, ending with delegates marching from the hall singing ‘Siyahamba’ (We are Marching in the Light of God).

Our journey home was the only sour note to an otherwise really enjoyable and worthwhile trip. To cut a long story short, we had to leave 2 of our members stranded in Washington Airport - Corinne Frost and Helen Pitstow. The flight was overbooked and following a catalogue of disasters and gross incompetence on behalf of the airline staff, they were not allowed on the plane. No offer of any help was offered to them at all and they had to find and book into a hotel at their own expense in the middle of the night – with no guarantee of when they would be able to fly home. Meanwhile the rest of us arrived in Paris and due to chaotic scenes at Charles de Gaulle airport, we missed our connecting flight home. The 2 stranded girls eventually arrived home 24 hours late. Every one of us returned to find our luggage had gone missing! Thankfully we’re now all more or less recovered from the strain of the journey – though we still have a battle with the airline to get compensation for all that went wrong on the journey. It makes us realise that we can’t put our guard down until we’re well and truly back home!

Thank you for all your prayer for us on this trip. God gave us great favour with the people and also gave us strength to cope with a very busy schedule. I suspect this will be the first of a number of trips to the USA in the future. We give thanks to God for all he did – and are also very grateful for making many new and special friends.

Here’s a personal reflection on our trip by our keyboard player, Huw Humphreys:

I don't know if you've ever had the feeling of being taken out of your working environment and being set down in a place whose perspectives and understanding of life are quite different from your own. This is the simplest way that I can describe the 10 days we spent in the United States and in particular the week that we spent at Ridgecrest. I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to experience the (welcome) culture shock of encouraging, polite and open-hearted American Christians in Fairfax and Paoli before we got to the main missions conference. It did take a bit of getting used to! We all were overwhelmed by the generosity of spirit and appreciation shown towards us by everyone we met. There was a great deal to learn from our US brothers and sisters - I know that cynicism is part of every culture, but it was simply so beautifully underdeveloped in the folk we met. And the cultural politeness, of "completing the loop" of a conversation, of ensuring that you always knew where you stood, was a revelation after the taciturn relationships we often content ourselves within UK churches.

Finally, here’s some comeback we’ve received since we returned home:

• Thanks and blessings to you and your entire group for the way you led us at the New Wineskins conference. What a delight to be led by such skilled and devoted musicians! The arrangements are beautiful and your instrumentation creates a unique sound. I also appreciate your thoughtful blend of traditional and contemporary selections

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