BROWNWOOD, Texas (BP)–Kitty Huang’s journey from Taiwan to Texas three years ago seemed like a temporary escape from her past.
Problems at home and in school, along with the frustrations of a fledgling music career, sent Huang into loneliness and despair.
Huang recently recalled her desperate attempts for attention-shaped by rebellion against school policies, teachers or family.
“My life was filled with many unhappy experiences,” Huang, a business major who will graduate this month, reported. “Teachers and classmates did not like me, and I had a hard time getting along with my family. I felt like an alien, like I was all alone. I didn’t know where to go for answers.”
To escape her problems, Huang concentrated on music. While attending a college in Taiwan, she entered a singing contest. Huang earned first place, and she soon received offers to sing in restaurants and clubs.
Huang’s problems seemed to disappear when she received a recording contract from a company in Taiwan. Realizing a lifelong dream was about to come true, Huang began investing countless hours honing her talent in preparation for recording her first album.
“I put all my attention into singing because I thought if I became famous, I would be rich, happy and have lots of friends,” Huang acknowledged. “And the recognition I would receive through my music would help me forget my past.”
Huang’s plans for a music career ended two years later when the recording company went out of business, never producing her debut album.
“I kept asking myself why I lived such a sad life,” she said. “There was no answer; no one could help me. I tried to change the whole situation by myself, but I failed. I did not know what I could do next.”
Hoping a few years away from home would be good for their daughter, Huang’s parents decided to send her to college in the United States.
One of Huang’s brothers attended Texas Lutheran College in Seguin, and he knew that Howard Payne University offered an English as a Second Language program. Huang enrolled at the Baptist school in Brownwood, and during her first six months on campus, she kept to herself, preferring to be alone rather than making new friends.
Mariann Pettit, student coordinator for the language program, sensed Huang’s need for friendship and invited her to church and other events.
Huang began to reveal her pain to Pettit, providing an open door for Pettit and her husband, Mark, to share God’s love. Knowing she could not handle her problems alone, Huang turned her life over to Christ on Halloween night in 1995.
“Mariann told me that God is love, and that he was willing to forgive me,” Huang recalled. “I realized that it was sin that made me unhappy. God answered all my questions.”
Pettit soon noticed a difference in Huang’s life.
“When she arrived on campus, she was so lonely and depressed you could see it in her eyes,” Pettit said. “Now, you can see the joy and happiness. She has used her musical gifts to write songs about her relationship with God. It has been exciting to see the change in Kitty’s life.”
Huang was baptized and joined the choir at church. Word of her testimony and talent began to spread around Brownwood, generating requests for her to sing in other churches and at special events at the university.
“Making an album had become my master,” she said. “Now my music has a greater purpose.”
Today, Huang’s plans are built on God’s plans for her life. Following graduation, she will move to California to pursue a master’s degree. She intends to tell the story of what God has done in her life to others, with or without music.
“I have never known anyone who acted the way I did for so many years,” she said.
“There are many people who are suffering pain and disappointment.
“I pray that God will provide opportunities to meet them and to share what he has done in my life. All of my problems have not gone away, but they are easier to handle with God’s help.”
