Tanya Elias is sharing her new single about the power of praying parents in the home.
Elias is one of the worship leaders at New City Church, and she is also the bookkeeper. The church has run fully online since the pandemic, however, before that time New City ran two services, one out of Winkler and the other out of Winnipeg.
"I've done music on my own within churches since I was very young, but this is my first official recording and music video," she says.
The single Elias is releasing is called 'Find You', available for viewing on May 7.
"It was inspired by my dad who always had a real strong prayer life when we were kids. He was always faithful in praying and leading our family. Now that I have my own kids, I realize how important that was."
Elias saw that her father's prayer life was intentional and she is aiming to do the same in her life.
"The other inspiration is just being in our houses right now. Being cooped up right now, a lot of us are missing our church family and sense of community. The truth is that while we can't replace the church as a community we can still experience the presence of God in our own homes. It's what we are called to do."
The song came from both these inspirations. Working with a crew, she also turned the song into a music video.
"Being able to work with a bunch of other creatives who saw it, they were able to visualize how we could make a visual representation of it. It was a vision carried by a whole team, not just me."
Elias lives in Darlingford, Man. with her family. However, she was born in Alberta and took her schooling between Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
"My dad was a pastor as well, so we did a lot of church planting across the Prairies. You could say we were a bit of an adventurous family and it was a great way to experience the whole country."
The team that helped create this video, Created by Made, also filmed a mini-documentary about this song. It stars Elias as well as her dad, who was a big inspiration for the song.
"My biggest hope is that people will take away the importance of prayer and creating a prayerful atmosphere in their own home. It serves you and your kids to make that the norm."