Peter Kahikina: I grew up angry and hating God, and hating my parents and wanting to leave Hawaii as soon as possible.
[Show open]
My father was physically abusive, horrifyingly abusive for the smallest infraction, and my mother enabled him by covering up the bruises so that we could go to school the next day. And I couldn’t understand how this, there was a God that would allow that to happen to me. I grew up angry and hating God, and hating my parents, and wanting to leave Hawaii as soon as possible.
My out was the military and was shipped off to Vietnam and many of them on the wall are dead as a result of commands I gave. I had to put somebody on point on a search and destroy mission. And the point man got killed. I was only 19. I went from severe trauma to extreme trauma. And my PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) runs deep. I couldn’t make sense of this God, that treated me so poorly and handed me this bad hand of cards. I rejected God. He had no place in my life, and I had my fair share of successes. I never gave God credit. I never thought God was real.
I didn’t know about the INC (Iglesia Ni Cristo). So my first introduction to INC was Teresita slipping me the Pasugo (God’s Message magazine) and asking me to, you know, read it. You might find it interesting. So, you know, it stayed in my dresser drawer for a long time, unread. My best friend is Vincent Morales, and I tell the story about having volunteered at the VA hospital. And there was a chapel in the hospital, and a Catholic priest would come every Ash Wednesday and do the ashes on the Catholics.
The whole ward was Filipino healthcare workers. And they would all take the ashes on the forehead, but not Vince. And now I realize that they are in the INC (Iglesia Ni Cristo) community. And so it helped me get closer to making the decision to thinking about accepting INC (Iglesia Ni Cristo) in my life. I needed to learn about the Church and whether or not I could reconcile the differences. The vast differences that I had coming from no God to one filled with God, one absolute God, the true Church. I came from the belief of the trinity, you know, in the Catholic faith, “Father, Son, Holy Ghost.”
Interviewer: Was that surprising to you when that was brought up?
Peter Kahikina: No, that. No, that, the Bible, backs up the reality of Jesus Christ being a man. I asked questions every lesson. Challenging the doctrine, challenging what I was hearing. You know, I accept, Brother Felix and his being the Messenger and the reemergence of the Church Of Christ. I accept all that. Learning about the Church Of Christ, that their beliefs are, you know, strong, that they back up their beliefs with clear thinking and reason.
While I was going through Bible study, I got cancer. I struggled through Bible lessons. I went through surgery. I had chemotherapy and radiation. Painful. Painful! But all the while, going through cancer and learning about the faith and going to worship services and meeting the people I’ve met and praying, learning to pray. You know what I did fear? You know what happens? Judgment Day happens. And I’m still scrambling to learn the faith. But I came through that and maybe that was God’s will. God is the greatest presence in my life. Becoming baptized is the single best decision I ever made in my life. I think of myself as having been in the darkness all my life. And that accepting God is walking in His light.
