(Singing in Hawaiian)
My life really wasn’t… it was kind of stagnant. I feel like I really didn’t have a direction that I was really going. Yeah, I mean, at the time, I think I was just ok with where I was. I was in a Protestant church before, and they really like to tug at your heartstrings. A lot of the reason why I was there was because all my friends were there. In college, I met sister Wiedelyn. We met through music, in fact. We had a bunch of mutual friends that we would jam with, we would play music with. So, after we were doing that for a while. And then she eventually invited me to an evangelical mission. I came in with an open mind. He would quote specific things from the bible and for each of his points. And that to me was really… ’cause I mean how can you… Being a Christian myself beforehand, how can you not believe in that? It’s in the bible.So, for a while I was attending both my bible studies and still going to the other church. I just realized that I either have to choose to stay with my old church or to continue going to bible studies because that’s what they taught, is that the Church of Christ is where the truth is and the other churches is… That’s not where we belong.
My baptism was in Waipahu in Hawaii. And I just remember being nervous. Definitely being nervous going into it, but knowing that it was finally happening, that this is… that I’m here and this is where I know that I should be and definitely it was the feeling of a new chapter in my life being opened.
I think I’ve never really been good with words. Music was kind of that way to kind of express myself in a way that maybe words can’t. So me, coming from a choir background especially, I really… I really felt like the message was being conveyed rather than the emotional response. And I feel like through the choir music it just feels a lot more spiritual. It feels more like it reaches deep down. So definitely, there’s definitely a huge difference for me to sing music on my own and for my own enjoyment or you know… Compared to now, just being able to sing for a greater purpose, and it just… as fun as singing in a restaurant for total strangers is, I feel like my calling is singing in the choir and singing for God. So whenever there’s a chance to perform I definitely try to jump at that.
The first really big one was the C2C, the Countdown to Centennial performance here in Hawaii Pacific and that’s where my faith really started to grow… just being with so many other brethren that shared the same beliefs as you and have such strong faith. It really… I guess people say that you’re the median of the friends that you hang out with. And so just hanging out with brethren that have such great faith is… it really brought me up to their level of faith as well.
Being pulled to a purpose that’s so much greater than my own life and before I guess I would wonder like “oh, what am I gonna do?” and “what am I going to do in the future?” But now, I don’t even worry about that. I don’t worry about my career or my job. What I wonder is, is where God is gonna use me next in my life? And I constantly look for opportunities to be able to do good for the church and to do good for the people in it.
My name is Kelsey Inouye and this is my Story of Faith. [Kelsey Inouye]
