Next on our list of “Jesus in the Marketplace Series” is singing artiste Sun Ho who serves as Music Ambassador for the Olympics Songfest for Beijing 2008. She needs little introduction as she is also widely known as the wife of Kong Hee, Senior Pastor of City Harvest Church. In a recent cover interview story with VANILLA magazine, she shares her reasons in moving from the church into the arts & entertainment world. Here’s an extract…

It was not a sudden departure or an uncalculated decision. It took a lot of me to make the decision to move into the secular pop industry because that had many implications and affected many parts of my life and ministry as the wife of a prominent church leader.

Many didn’t understand why I had to do it, and I am aware that some still wonder what my motives are: Am I desperate for fame or fortune? Anyone who knows me would know that money and recognition have never been and will never be the motivation for anything I set forth to accomplish in my life.

Kong and I thought long and hard before I finally decided to step beyond the four walls of the church. As head counsellor and music director, I was so happy serving and helping people with broken lives and hearts. To step into the music industry, a world so familiar to me, was very hard.

One of the questions that I have always asked myself and, in a real sense, built all my counselling and humanitarian efforts on is: “Can one make a difference?”

Helping others has always been a life-long passion in my heart. Ever since the day I was led out of depression by faithful friends who stood with me through my darkest times, I made a decision to use the second chance that I had been given to help others in the same way.

In the past, being a counsellor based within the church, the hurt and the broken had to come into the church to look for my assistance. One day I was given the opportunity to sing a secular song, and I was debating it when a friend said something that tipped the balance: “With counselling, you help one person at a time. With your voice and music, you have the chance to impact and influence hundreds and thousands!”

Many are skeptical about why I am in the industry. In truth, I believe that, as a Christian, my responsibility is to help and serve others, and to contribute to the society that I belong in, wherever I may go, with whatever I have in my hands.

In my case, it would be to sing and perform, something that I’ve done all my life, since the time I was a child singing and dancing in front of my mother, making her laugh out loud and de-stressing her!

Using my voice and talent is how I hope to make the world a better place in my own small way- singing songs of hope and love, strength and a future in the midst of imperfect situations, connecting with the youth of today and, hopefully, inspiring them to believe in themselves and the dreams that they have.