Guatemala City, Guatemala
METRO BIG BAND
February 5 - 14, 2026
This year marks the 20th year that we’ve been going to Guatemala. We love returning there year after year (sometimes even multiple times a year!) and forming deeper relationships each time. The people in Guatemala are the reason we keep coming back.
This was a packed project with 11 concerts and multiple master classes. Over 2400 people heard the Gospel!
One of our Guatemala mission partners, Vivian Douglas, teaches music at an orphanage. This serves as her platform for reaching these kids for Christ and giving them hope where there is so little because of their situation. She has been doing this for nearly 30 years. Her legacy with these kids is a powerful statement of her faithfulness to God and using her talent for His glory. Vivian is also a very accomplished french horn player, and we were blessed to have her play with us the entire week!
Many of these kids have parents, but live at the orphanage because their parents can’t afford to raise them. They are some of the most loving kids and we cherished our time with them. We played games together, did master classes with them, and closed our evening with a concert.
We had the privilege of performing an outdoor concert at Francisco Penzotti Christian School to over 300 kids. The weather could not have been more perfect, with bright blue skies and a beautiful breeze that made being outside absolutely wonderful. The kids were incredibly energetic and you could tell they were loving every minute of it.
After the concert, the kids had a homework assignment: come find us and practice their English. They asked us everything from "What do you like about playing your instrument?" to "What is your favorite color?". We had just as much fun answering their questions as they did asking them.
We also went to the city of Villa Nueva to perform for the Youth Municipal Symphony Orchestra. This orchestra is led by Gerardo Villagran, who we first met on our project to Guatemala in 2018 when he was 12 years old.
We’ve been blessed to see his growth in the Lord and his growth in his musical ability through the years. He is now teaching and mentoring these kids as the conductor of this orchestra, which is so amazing. We are so thankful for God allowing us to be a part of his life over the years. He also played trumpet with Metro Big Band during our time in Guatemala.
One of our band members received this sweet hand-drawn card below. You just never know how you will impact someone. This is exactly the reason that we do these projects and go back time and time again. It’s all about the relationships. (click the image to enlarge it)
Our mission partner, Heber Morales, teaches at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), which is the largest and oldest university in Guatemala. We had the honor of playing for their 350th anniversary celebration at the main campus, and even had a few of their students join us for the concert.
They have 22 campuses across Guatemala, with over 100,000 students just at this main campus. Even though this is a secular university, we were able to share our faith and the reason that we play, which is to celebrate our Lord.
Maddie has served as our interpreter on multiple trips to Guatemala, and now works in the mayor's office in Mixco. She arranged for us to perform in the city's newly renovated main auditorium. The people of Mixco embraced us warmly, and we were given the freedom to share our faith openly throughout the concert.
Before our concert, we had the privilege of leading percussion master classes with a local marching band, and were able to donate much-needed supplies, including drumsticks, cowbells, wood blocks, claves, and more. These small things mean everything to a program with limited resources. Maddie is a great person with a great testimony, and we left Mixco deeply grateful for our time with her.
We ended our week with the kids from Coro Filarmonico. We’ve been ministering to this group since 2006 and have seen a number of them grow into adulthood and become leaders in the group. It’s amazing to see the baton passed on to them as adults as they continue to grow this ministry and reach inner city kids for Christ.
We loved getting to spend the entire day with them. They performed a concert for us, we did master classes together, shared a lovely meal they prepared themselves, and then we performed a concert for them. They even planned a birthday surprise for Camp with a cake and a box full of handwritten notes from them. Very thoughtful.
Camp turned 80 just before the project started, and apparently word got out. Nearly every church we played at and every restaurant we ate in had a cake waiting for him. By the middle of the week it had become the running joke of the trip. It was the best kind of problem to have, and if anyone deserves a week full of cake, it’s Camp.
More pics!
