Home! but not settling.

I know, it's been SO long. But it's better to write now than wait another number of

months, right? ;)

Where do I even begin? School of Worship was not what I expected; it was so much more!
I grew in security, confidence, and love of God. I made some friendships that will last a lifetime, deep ones that I know will stand the test of time and distance.

Outreach to the United States was incredible--it was a specific focus on youth and bringing the message of the Father heart of God. We had an original production formed from 4 of our testimonies (mine was one of them, almost exactly like it happened for me) and the School of Worship team worked lights (I teamed up with a lovely Mexican girl for this) and sound (We had a Chilean girl and a great guy from Nigeria working on these :) Our band is pretty multicultural!

I am home! but not settling. God is already opening up opportunities for me :). I am planning to work with the youth group at my home church (Vineyard Community Church in Gilbert) and do some childcare for some conferences, including one in Malaysia (that one is coming up in early April, and I'm flying back on Easter)!!

I want to start posting every week or every other week minimum, so you can be looking for more exciting new things that God is doing, and feel free to comment here or send me an e-mail at outofthebox.beautiful@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you.

Praise God! He has done so much!

First week of School of Worship!

hello Friend of Camila (FOC)! Hope this post finds you all well and happy.
Well, I can't believe it's only Friday of the first week. So much has happened in the way of spiritual growth and revelation and creativity in the past four days that it feels more like two or three weeks! I'm glad that my days are so full; it gives me very little time to be homesick or miss my family. I dearly love them, but most of the time I try to put them out of my mind, only because otherwise it hurts a lot.
On a happier note, School of Worship. God has more than proved and confirmed that I'm supposed to be here. The last week has been much more than incredible. I will try to sum it up somehow, but I probably won't do it justice.

Monday:
We had a worship night with the discipleship training school and God's presence was so thick. There are a lot of worshipers in that group.

Tuesday:
We had a jam session together, all 15 of us, so that the leaders could figure out what cell bands to put us into. That was awesome, and brought a lot of unity.
I started reading the book "God Songs" that we have a book report on, and got really excited about the potential for writing worship songs. What especially stuck out to me was "When you get an idea, WRITE IT DOWN". But I wasn't expecting to use that knowledge so soon...God woke me up at about 2 am and started flowing words, concepts, and ideas through my head. It was as if he was asking me, "Will you be faithful no matter what time it is?" And I'm glad I did wake up. I actually never went back to sleep, and finally came out to the lobby because I felt he had a lot more to talk to me about, so I just never went back to sleep that day. BUT--it was so worth it!

Wednesday:
One of the staff members came in and talked about the significance of the Shofar in the context of the Bible and Jewish history, and actually quoted one of the verses God had put on my heart the night before!!

Thursday:
We had a beautiful morning session and then a powerful afternoon one. And then a party at night! dancing :)

Friday: Well, that's today! Who knows what could happen?

Resting In Grace,
Camila

New month of possibilities

Needless to say, it has been way too long since I've written on here. And unfortunately, not a tremendous lot of exciting things have happened, so there isn't a lot to catch you all up on.
However there is anticipatory news that is very much a dream come true for me.
On September 25th, I head off to a School of Worship in East Texas and serve God with my voice and musical abilities.
I will write more about it later, but I just feel that I should post SOMETHING...it's atrocious that it's been this long.
More later and I hope you all are well! :)

a symphony of extremes

"Our full range of emotions is our palette with which we bring color to our lives."
~Anne Copeland~

I think sometimes I forget this in the squish and pull and demands of life. Contrary to what people think, ignoring the demands don't exclude them from life, they just make them a curled up tickley thing at the back of your brain that wakes up once in a while and makes you feel quite uncomfortable (I'm not saying you personally have this problem, but I get tired of always saying "me" and "I"). But really, when I ignore the dreams, the desires, the feelings, and decide to just live this lukewarm life, I end up only living vicariously, living through someone else's eyes. What a sad fall from the precipice of desire. Just because it's a precipice, and dangerous in places, doesn't mean I should hide in a cave. It means I should learn to navigate it safely, to procure the proper tools, to find the right one to pull me up safely and cradle me against his chest. But running away quite cheats me, and the people that love me most.
I want to find that full range again and learn how to navigate the precipice. I want to do things in my life, to try, and to try my best. I want to learn better how to live, not just survive. I thought about this question the other day.
What would you do if you were going to die tomorrow? Because I could, not to be morbid, and I don't want people to say that all I did on my last day was surf facebook or do laundry or clean my room, although those are perfectly acceptable things in the balance of others. At the end of every day, I want to be able to say that I loved extravagantly, that I forgave generously, that I gave of myself with all the passion that I used to hold back. I want to be fully captured by the One who rescued me, and continues to. I need his colors in my life, the beautiful and full, rich colors. Let me offer a question to those who find this ringing true with them:
If you really were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today? If it's something you can do, why not do it? What's holding you back? That's my bit for the day. Feel free to comment on this; I'm interested in your thoughts. :)