damascus catholic mission campus. home of cysc, a camp i attended for 4 summers between 2016 and 2019. where i got brought back to the Lord. where eucharistic adoration was introduced to me, where jesus encountered me.
i went back one summer to visit my friends who were working there in 2022, but i haven't experienced a retreat/conference there since 2019, aka five years ago.
the last time i was there, i was a junior in high school who had no idea what the future looked like- i didn't expect covid, and i thought i would attend franciscan university of stubenville for all four years of college and get a degree in history and theology.
little did i know...
anyways, now, as a 21 year old young woman- i attend ursuline college, i am moving back in with my parents next semester, and i will be getting my degree in the fall, a semester early. many other unprecedented (lol i hate this word) things occured to me in between then and now, which you guys have mainly heard about since ive had this blog since 2020!
so, i went back to Damascus.
for the worship conference. and worship was led by one of my favorite artists, abbie gamboa (linked below). her album "pure" is such a good authentic mix of feelings and worship, and trust and surrender in the lord. it grounds me.
needless to say, i was hype. two of my good friends are missionaries there, and, i havent seen them in a while.
however, i went in not knowing anyone besides them. i went in with a lot of fear, and doubts about worshipping without the presence of jesus in the eucharist, and worship being led by protestants.
here's my recap a week later.
i met some BEAUTIFUL people there, one's i would never have thought of meeting before, but that is how the Lord works and He is so good.
in my tiredness, i was able to worship and surrender to the lord fully, without thinking about the 100000 other things on my mind.
i learned that worship doesn't have to be led by fancy people with big names or for long hours at a time in the presence of our lord in eucharistic adoration- it can be in your car, getting ready for the day, or simply offering up your work to him.
planned worship is beautiful. there were many moments of that at the worship conference. however, spontaneous worship seems to be almost better.
here's my story. i met a guy named ricky gonzalez (spotify linked below). he is super cool. anyways, after the outpouring (fancy big planned worship led by abbie and brittany, members of upperroom and bethel music, respectively), ricky started worship outside the chapel with, a group of five or so people.
more people joined (10). then i joined (15). then more people joined, and then the missionaries came out of their meeting, and there was approx 30 of us worshipping the Lord.
at some point, all of us ended up facing the lord in the tabernacle in the chapel.
someone went and asked the priest to bring out the monstrance.
we all rushed into the chapel as the doors were opened and the Lord was brought out in the monstrance, and we had eucharistic adoration, in which we worshipped Jesus.
it was beautiful.
and all because of this little teeny tiny moment of a group of 5 getting together spontaneously to worship.
now im crying, because the lord is so so good.
pax,
nora
worship conference- https://www.damascusworship.com/damascus-worship-conference
damascus- https://www.damascus.net/
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