This choral medley of “As Sisters In Zion” and “We’ll Bring the World His Truth” has touched hearts across the world.
Commissioned by CES Youth and Family Programs, this medley was first used by the EFY program during the summer of 1999.
Listen to samples of EFY Medley CD Single with bonus tracks:
Notes from Mike
One January day in 1999, I received a phone call from CES Youth and Family Programs asking me to arrange the song “As Sisters in Zion” for the young women of EFY to sing. I didn’t know much about the song (because I really hadn’t sung it much in my lifetime), so I sat down with my hymn book and read through the lyrics and melody.
I liked the message of “As Sisters In Zion”, but I felt like there needed to be a little more to this arrangement in order to accomplish the goal EFY had for this song. After thinking about it for a while, the thought came to use the young women’s theme. It was a “light turned on inside of my head” moment.
After writing this arrangement and recording a demo, I recruited two former EFY girl counselors to sing it for the EFY Coordinators and some of the Administrators for the first time. After performing it for them, I spent the next few minutes teaching the girl coordinators the song.
In the mean time, the guy coordinators huddled over in the corner. They then asked if I would arrange “We’ll Bring the World His Truth” for the young men of EFY to learn. I immediately started thinking about the two songs together and it occurred to me that the two chord progressions were very similar and that the two melodies could work well together. I couldn’t wait to get home to write what ended up being the second half of the EFY Medley.
The rest is history. As a Building Counselor for EFY that summer, I had the blessing of hearing thousands of youth learn and sing this medley of As Sisters in Zion & We’ll Bring the World His Truth. The thing that gives this song its wings is the youth who sing it with all of their hearts.
Since EFY 1999, “As Sisters In Zion & We’ll Bring the World His Truth” has been sung all over the world, from my Salt Lake ward’s youth choir to a combined Stake Youth Conference in Lithuania, from a small release-time seminary class in California to the 2000 BYU Women’s Conference. To you who have sung this medley, I thank you and hope you will always remember the message and symbolism of this song.