Sometimes we have to say goodbye to our old life, before God can give us a new one.

Such was the case for Kamila Burgess.

Her father, Milton Burgess, was pastor of St Luke’s AME; she was taught about the Bible, knew certain scriptures and knew how to worship.

Despite that, the 25-year-old didn’t start building a deep and meaningful relationship with God until three years ago.

“It’s kind of like if you read about Napoleon in a history book,” she said. “You know a bit about the battles he fought, but only the people close to him on his life journey knew what kind of person he was outside of a textbook.

“My journey started when I stopped looking at God as a textbook God that you read about in a book and then go about your own life.

“I started to learn, through daily communication and prayer, more about His characteristics and traits — what makes him happy and sad.

“And once I came out of the status quo and just living out the religious aspects of a church experience that’s when I really started to have a real relationship with God and figure out who He is.”

Miss Burgess is now a student at Christ for the Nations Bible College. Her dream is to use her love of worship music to share God’s glory with others.

Drums and the piano are among the five instruments she’s taught herself to play by ear.

“I think what I kind of see myself doing is something a lot of people from this generation and younger desire … I want to do something different and out of the box,” Miss Burgess said.

“I don’t want to be a performer, necessarily, in the music industry. My heart is to minister to the next up-and-coming generation.

“I see myself pushing out music CDs and travelling a lot. I don’t see myself keeping still in one location.

“I see myself stepping out of the status quo and travelling and doing music and spreading the gospel through music all over the nation and going beyond the four walls of the church.”

Miss Burgess had to make some hard decisions and cut off some old friendships before she enrolled at the Texas school. She was frequently out partying, drinking and smoking; her life began to feel like a rollercoaster ride.

“I hated the lifestyle, but of course it was something I chose to do,” she said.

“It wasn’t until something within me had enough of the cycle that things started to go downhill.

“I started to feel trapped and I had to break free somehow. I’d hit rock bottom and didn’t know what to do.

“I believe that once I’d reached a place where I no longer wanted to be a part of that lifestyle, God took care of the rest. It was a hard transition, but a necessary one to save my life.”

God gradually started revealing Himself to her during this “desert place” in her life.

“I felt like everything had stopped for me,” she said.

“I had separated myself from all of my friends. I was going in one direction and they were going another. When that happens and certain people don’t see the same vision as you then it’s not really good to continue on.

“Going through that was a trying time for me and I kind of felt like, ‘Lord what do you want me to do?’. I was kind of in a place where I was still trying to figure out is God real, or as real as the old-timers make Him out to be?”

Over time she gradually learnt to communicate with Him but her Christian walk got harder before it got easier. At Christ for the Nations, she noticed God was putting her through a refining process to get her heart in line with Him and His Word.

“Now I don’t have all of the worldly drama that I once had, but I’ve had to deal with my own heart’s drama,” she said.

“It’s the moment when you have to look in the mirror and deal with your own demons.”

Her advice to new Believers is to get rid of any notion you have about God and search for Him yourself.

“The best advice I can give to young Christians is to seek God out for yourself,” she said. “Don’t rely on what someone else has said to sustain you. They will always let you down.

“Read the Word for yourself, seek His voice for yourself. Don’t let what you see in people portray a bad or negative image of who God is.

“I promise you, I’ve been there and He is so much better than that. He loves you and is only waiting just to hear your voice.”

Miss Burgess’s CD, I Got Joy, is intended for release mid-December.

She produced it with Bermudian Roxanne Ford and Americans Lafael Banks and Andrew Greek.