Naples, Italy
METRO BIG BAND
October 3 - 12, 2024
Metro Big Band had a great time in Italy working with our mission partners Tony and his son, Gabriele. Tony is a pastor of several churches and Gabriele served as our translator (and took care of a million other details). Over 1,500 people heard the Gospel during our project!
Sunday morning we played at Casoria Church. It's a unique experience worshiping with Believers in another country. Makes you realize that we are all one in Christ. It's so easy to think that the songs we sing are just American songs. To hear them in another country in another language is something to behold. Berry, one of our participants, so eloquently articulated this point. You'll want to check it out. We also got to enjoy taking communion that morning.
We also had the pleasure of playing at Gabriele's school to over 1,000 students! It was great to have a crowd of that size. Metro Big Band signed the first page of one of our songs and framed it as a gift to the principal. They were very hospitable to us and it was great meeting everybody.
This project was unique in that we typically play in churches, but this time we played in several bars/restaurants. It's a great opportunity to reach out to people that wouldn't normally come to a church service. We were somewhat limited in what we could say during the concert, but you never know how God will use the time we were there and the conversations we had. It was great meeting people afterwards. One woman even came to a 2nd concert and brought her friends!
One of our concerts was at The Pink Panther Bar, so naturally we played The Pink Panther.
One thing we always try to do is play music that’s local to the country we’re in. We were blessed to have our sound man sing this Italy medley with us. This video is the first time he sang it with us…we were blown away!
Our last concert was a fundraiser at a local church raising support to send kids to camp. It was a chilly evening outdoors with a full blown cookout including hamburgers and sausage. They have rather interesting hamburger toppings in Italy... eggplant, roasted red peppers, sauteed spinach, etc. Everyone enjoyed it, and it was a great way to end the week.
We got an exciting report about the lady that worked at the front desk at our hotel. She said they've had Americans stay at their hotel before, but none that were so kind to greet them every day and helping them with things. She asked for Tony's contact information to possibly visit his church. It just goes to show that it's not just about the music. You never know who is watching you and how you're making an impact.