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Sharalee Smith is releasing a new single and using what she learned while at Hillsong College in Australia.
Smith grew up in Manitoba but did a bit of world travelling before settling down again in Manitoba with her husband and their four kids.
"We went to Hillsong International Leadership College back when we were first married. We headed off to Australia and did a couple of years of school there. In the first year of marriage, we moved across the world together and just had a great experience and establishing roots in our faith together," says Smith.
The couple lived there during their time in college from 2001-2002.
"We loved it there, the warmth, the people. We probably could have stayed if we hadn't felt so strongly like we were supposed to come back to Canada."
The couple went from Australia to B.C. where they did church planting for a few years. Then eight years ago the Smith's moved back to Winnipeg.
Smith is the worship director at Grant Memorial Church in Winnipeg.
"Before I was married I was in a band with my sister-in-law and brother. Once I got married I did a three-song demo and then when I started at Grant, we were looking at some music in-house," she says.
Her new song, 'In Us' was written out of a series her church is focusing on in Matthew.
"I wanted to write something that would give our church something to sing in this season and I love the simplicity of putting scripture to music."
Smith loves to write music but often asks herself a question before she shares it, asking, "God, is this just for my personal time with you? Or is this for my local church? Or is this for the greater body of Christ?"
This song is mostly the Beatitudes found in Matthew put to a melody.
"It was an exciting project that we could launch out to our church."