TWM Italy Tour 2023 | Recap
We set out with the mission to encourage the Italian people and help their worship leaders write worship songs in their mother tongue!
We hope this recap will give you a glimpse into how God is moving throughout Italy.
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We started our Italy tour in Piverone. We partnered with several people in the region, including Maria Hancock, who prepared so much for us before we arrived, for which we are so grateful.
We hosted a three-day worship songwriting retreat for nine worship leaders who came from all over Italy. One gentleman, Aranit, even took a train for ten hours to come be with us! Out of our time together, five brand new Italian worship songs were birthed.
On Sunday the team led worship for Maria’s home church, Chiesa di Piverone. They were a wonderful congregation and hosted us so well.
All of those in attendance kept commenting that they felt like they had finally been given the tools to create their own worship songs, for their churches and nation. Praise God!
We were able to visit Milan for a short while and it’s likely that we each had the best pizza of our lives!
From Piverone, we took the train to Rome.
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Upon arrival in Rome, we were joyfully picked up by Ester and Alesandra Masdea who had been preparing for our visit over months. In addition to helping us with housing, meals, and other complicated logistics, they had taken the time to create Italian translations for the lyrics of each song and hymn we were to sing for the church service and concert together. They also both also served as our translators throughout our time together….what amazing friends.
The first night we had a large group specifically from their church, Assemblea Cristiana Alfa Omega. We wrote a song together and had an extended time of worship.
Across our few days in the Rome area, we were able to see the Colosseum, eat lots of gelato, and climb the 321 stairs to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica dome.
One of the main events we had in Rome was a
worship & songwriting conference
with a concert the following evening…
DRUMS & BASS
Bryan & Sam led a workshop for drummers & bassists about things like groove & time…
lights, camera, action!
Amy led a workshop for fellow friends in audio, video, livestream, tech, & worship arts…
piano & keys
Jonté led a workshop for keyboard players discussing underscoring & being sensitive to the Spirit…
concert
The concert in the evening was well-attended & the Spirit of the Lord was working!
The following day, we headed to the Colosseum to shoot some verses and choruses in Italian for our “The Lord’s Prayer” video project. It was quite hot but we recorded two full takes and the choir sounded amazing! Perhaps you caught our social media post when we were finished. We can’t wait to share the finished video with you in a few months.
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On June 12th we took a train to Naples. We were greeted by Pastor Michele Passaretti of Chiesa Evangelica Nuova Pentecoste. It was so wonderful to see him face to face after months of Zoom calls. He took us back to his church and we set up for the evening meeting.
That evening we put on a worship workshop for worship team members from different churches in the area. Tommy spoke on how not to “burn out” as a worship leader, and he and the team took questions afterwards.
The following evening the team put on a worship concert. It was a beautiful night of praise to our God, in both English and Italian. Some of the church’s worship team members joined us on stage for a few songs… we felt the unified joy of the Lord!
For our very last day in Italy, Pastor Michele surprised us with a tour of the Almafi Coast, south of Naples. The whole team stated that we had never seen anything as beautiful as what we saw that day. We praised and thanked God for His amazing creation!
On June 15th we headed home. As we left Italy, we felt so grateful that God had allowed us to witness what He is doing in that country. Many of the Italian worship leaders and songwriters expressed that they felt the beginning of a worship movement happening in Italy. Please join us in prayer for that amazing part of the world and that God would continue the good work He has begun. Hallelujah and Amen!
Thank you to all our wonderful TWM partners who made this ministry trip possible.
Tommy Walker & the TWM Team