We had to die

We got a phone call yesterday from one of our friends in Italy, who has been a great supporter of the Rock on the Rock festival from the start and who, along with his wife and kids, has served on staff at the festival since its second year. He lives near Lake Garda and is a leader in the church he and his family are a part of, which is one of the few Evangelical churches on the lake. I remember being at a meeting of all the church leaders in the area a few years ago (there were three churches at the time) and meeting the young pastor of the largest of these churches, who flat out told me that he saw no worth in what we were doing, not only with Rock on the Rock, but with music in general! So, needless to say, we never got any support for the festival from him or his church!
A couple summers ago, I was invited to go and do sound for a youth conference at the beach, put on by the denomination that this pastor belongs to. I went along with Maureen & Isaac (they covered all our room and board for a week at the beach, so we thought it was a good deal). I was surprised to meet some decent musicians in the worship band and two of them were in a progressive rock band together. In fact, the one evening, the band was able to let loose in worship and I cranked up the PA, which got the whole place rockin'.
What had, up until then been pretty cut and dry worship times, brought the house down and all the youth were out of their seats dancing and praising!! And guess who was there, quietly observing from the back?
So... back to this phone call from our friend, Giuseppe Sosa. He was calling to tell us that he was at this young pastor's church last Saturday for a prog rock concert (yep, the guys we met at the youth conference) and not only was this pastor enjoying it, but at a certain point got up and started letting lose himself - running, shouting and dancing!!! He confessed to Giuseppe that he has changed his ideas concerning music, so we're hopeful that he will get on board with promoting the next Rock on the Rock, as well!!!
One of the verses that came to mind as we were praying about moving to Portugal and about what would become of the festival if we left, was John 12:23 which is:

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Maureen had sensed that our leaving Italy would in some way cause the festival to grow even more and that God would raise up Italians to carry it on. So we're excited about this news about our young pastor friend and are looking forward to hearing many more stories such as these in the coming months.