The day of small beginnings: pray for the one who pressed play
Someone in Kuntaur, Gambia. Someone in Tuensang, India. Someone in Bolivia.
Songs written in the Adelaide Hills have now reached people in 95 nations and 563 verified cities. Some are big cities. Some are smaller signals from smaller regional towns.
The days of small beginnings
When the foundation of the second temple was laid, the older ones who remembered what the temple used to be wept at how small it looked, while others shouted for joy. “No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping” (Ezra 3:12–13).
Into that mixed sound God sent Zechariah:
“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit… The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it… Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.” (Zechariah 4:6, 9; 10)
Zechariah 4 has been part of the journey since March 2025, when we were dipping our toes into songwriting, before the name vssls was ever on our minds. On 4 January 2026, an intercessor prayed Zechariah 4:10 over us at church, not knowing any of this. The same verse found us again on 18 January at a church in Brisbane, again on 13 March, and an intercessor prayed Zechariah 4 over us again in April.
A true word from God always aligns with Scripture, his heart, his voice, and his character. And it brings life to the hearers, even if it involves obedience, faith, and surrender.
Not by might
Captured from recent activity and verified for the first time in the week to 13 October: Bolivia, Uganda, Armenia, Barbados, Croatia, Egypt, Honduras, Jamaica, Jordan, Nepal, Samoa, Serbia, Sri Lanka, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
What little we offered, left in God’s hands and in His presence. It’s already bigger than we first thought it would be, but it’s exactly the kind of small beginning heaven celebrates. We didn’t make any of this happen. We’ve just kept going back to what God said.
The hands that laid the foundations will complete it. The capstone will be brought out with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”
All the nations that bear my name
Since June, Amos 9 has been in our prayers and declarations: “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills.” (Amos 9:13 NIV)
Two verses earlier, Amos gives the reason: the fallen shelter of David restored “so that they may possess… all the nations that bear my name” (Amos 9:11–12 NIV).
When the early Church asked whether the gospel was really for the nations, James quoted this passage: “that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name” (Acts 15:17 NIV). It echoes what God said of Paul: “a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name” (Acts 9:15 NKJV).
The hand of God and His glory that rises upon us cause nations to come to our light and kings to the brightness of our dawn. The plowman is already on the reaper’s heels before the harvest is in.
Hold on to what he’s spoken
Paul told Timothy to keep “the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well” (1 Timothy 1:18).
On 2 December 2025, one of our intercessors said of our songs: “[People are] still singing it 60 years from now. That’s what I’m seeing.” That’s still ahead of us. The nations below are what we’re seeing now.
In January, reading Proverbs together, a footnote led us to Galatians 4, and one verse was highlighted in the study that followed: “you… are children of the promise, just like Isaac” (Galatians 4:28 NLT). Isaac, whose name means laughter, was “the child born by the power of the Spirit” (v. 29). That’s the same Spirit as Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.” Galatians 4 and Zechariah 4 make it clear: what is born of the promise, through God’s word and in his voice, and what is born by the power of the Spirit can only be stepped into, laid hold of, walked out, and continually sustained by His Spirit.
Just before that, Paul quotes Isaiah 54: “Rejoice, O childless woman… Break into a joyful shout” (Galatians 4:27 NLT). It’s the same chapter that says “Enlarge the place of your tent… For you will spread out to the right and to the left” (Isaiah 54:2–3 NIV). She sings, and enlarges, stretches, lengthens, strengthens without holding back, all before the promise.
What has God spoken over your life? A verse that leapt off the page, a word someone prayed over you, a promise you sensed in worship. Write it down. Go back to it, especially on the days it looks small, or slow, or nothing like it yet. You are a child of the promise, and the God who spoke it rejoices to see the work begin.
Pray with us
Below are the nations the songs have reached, as of 13 October 2026. Pick one and pray for the person there who pressed play: that they’d meet Jesus as a friend, with a faith that’s their own. Our prayers do more than we’re often even aware of.
And to anyone in confinement and condemnation, the oppressed and bruised, those bound in the dark, we proclaim deliverance and the opening of the prison and of the eyes: “See again! You can go free!” (at liberty, out into light).
The 95 nations — as of 13 October 2026
Oceania
🇦🇺 Australia 🇳🇿 New Zealand 🇫🇯 Fiji 🇼🇸 Samoa
Asia
🇵🇭 Philippines 🇮🇳 India 🇲🇾 Malaysia 🇨🇳 China 🇰🇷 South Korea 🇮🇩 Indonesia 🇵🇰 Pakistan 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan 🇸🇬 Singapore 🇹🇼 Taiwan 🇹🇭 Thailand 🇦🇲 Armenia 🇧🇩 Bangladesh 🇰🇭 Cambodia 🇭🇰 Hong Kong 🇯🇵 Japan 🇳🇵 Nepal 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka 🇻🇳 Vietnam
Africa
🇿🇦 South Africa 🇳🇬 Nigeria 🇬🇲 Gambia 🇬🇭 Ghana 🇰🇪 Kenya 🇲🇼 Malawi 🇹🇿 Tanzania 🇺🇬 Uganda 🇪🇬 Egypt 🇲🇺 Mauritius 🇳🇦 Namibia 🇷🇼 Rwanda 🇿🇲 Zambia
North & Central America
🇺🇸 United States 🇨🇦 Canada 🇲🇽 Mexico 🇸🇻 El Salvador 🇬🇹 Guatemala 🇧🇧 Barbados 🇨🇷 Costa Rica 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic 🇭🇳 Honduras 🇯🇲 Jamaica 🇳🇮 Nicaragua 🇻🇨 St Vincent and the Grenadines 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
South America
🇧🇷 Brazil 🇪🇨 Ecuador 🇦🇷 Argentina 🇨🇱 Chile 🇨🇴 Colombia 🇬🇾 Guyana 🇺🇾 Uruguay 🇻🇪 Venezuela 🇧🇴 Bolivia
Europe
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 🇩🇪 Germany 🇸🇪 Sweden 🇫🇷 France 🇮🇹 Italy 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🇩🇰 Denmark 🇮🇪 Ireland 🇸🇰 Slovakia 🇪🇸 Spain 🇨🇭 Switzerland 🇨🇿 Czech Republic 🇭🇺 Hungary 🇲🇹 Malta 🇵🇱 Poland 🇧🇪 Belgium 🇪🇪 Estonia 🇱🇻 Latvia 🇳🇴 Norway 🇷🇴 Romania 🇺🇦 Ukraine 🇦🇱 Albania 🇦🇹 Austria 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 🇭🇷 Croatia 🇫🇮 Finland 🇬🇪 Georgia 🇽🇰 Kosovo 🇱🇹 Lithuania 🇷🇺 Russia 🇷🇸 Serbia
Middle East
🇴🇲 Oman 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia 🇮🇷 Iran 🇮🇱 Israel 🇯🇴 Jordan 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
