A Spiritual Journey

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A Spiritual Journey

Every year, dozens of Legacy students make the monumental decision to commit their lives to Christ and show this symbolically by being baptized. Some people make this commitment in front of just their family, some do it with a small group of friends and loved ones.

Recently, Kadynce Matsuoka ’24 was baptized in front of a packed sanctuary at Providence Church in Frisco. She was supported by her family, many of her close friends, and several Legacy staff, and even fellow Legacy student Ashley Webb ’24, who was baptized that same day.

Not all roads to baptism are smoothly paved, and Kadynce’s took some detours. She recalls attending church starting around the fifth grade, while living in California. She says she never felt connected to the people or to the material being taught. It felt like a waste of time, she says, and lacked any depth. She says she considered the heart of the people to be shallow, and it all felt like a big facade: people seemed to go to church because they were “supposed to.”

Two years ago, her family moved to Texas, she found her home at Legacy, and her world hasn’t been the same since.

Her first Bible class, as a 9th-grader, was biblical culture shock, she says, as they dove right into Judges, which is a heavy book even for a scholar. “I remember thinking How much do I not know?” she says now. She remembers feeling somewhat mortified but also mildly intrigued. Let’s face it, moving from California to Texas brings culture shock in general, but when you throw a biblical shock on top of that, it can be, well, shocking. Kadynce sharing her testimony before being baptized

Kadynce Matsuoka and Ashley Webb celebrate with several Legacy friends and teachers following their baptism

That first year at Legacy, Kadynce forged connections with her peers and her teachers. The people were just different, she says. “I saw a community of people who are learning together. They just had more depth,” she says. “I saw more compassion, a greater heart for people, and people who knew how to be kind and care for one another. I saw that firsthand at Legacy.”

Kadynce also began to grow by leaps and bounds in her faith. At about the midpoint of her 9th-grade year, she recognized that she had developed a strong desire to know more. She was invited to a Bible study, where, she says, “the sense of community showed me that Christ was working and moving through me — putting me where I was supposed to be.”

Kadynce had the first of many spiritual breakthroughs after Revive Week in her freshman year. She had been hardened and guarded before coming to Legacy, but throughout that week, she says, she felt “God continue to break down the walls” she had been building to protect herself. She walked out of the auditorium after the final worship service of the week and was overcome with emotion. She encountered Mrs. Hermogeno out in the hall, and though they’d never met, Mrs. Hermogeno began to pray over Kadynce, and asked her why she was so stirred.

That vulnerability enabled these two strangers to bond in a way that couldn’t have been predicted. And that bond endures: Mrs. Hermogeno was at Kadynce’s baptism and with joy refers to Kadynce as “my girl.” Though Kadynce struggled with and even fought against her breakthrough, she says it provided “indescribable terror and yet immense freedom.” A fire was lit within her and she was ready to start taking some pretty big steps toward change. She discovered her drive to minister to other people as she joined both the Worship Team and the Spiritual Formation Team in LEAD Legacy. She wants to be a part of the community she’s found and also to give back. She wants to offer encouragement and bring classmates under her wing so they can learn and grow together.

After attending a sermon on baptism last summer, Kadynce knew it was something she wanted to do. She was ready to participate in the outward symbol of her inward devotion to Jesus, and once she was in, she was all in. She began inviting influential teachers and tons of Legacy students. She was overwhelmed at the number of people who showed up for her, but they’d been showing up for her ever since she came to Texas.

Though she remembers the challenge of getting to that point, the reality has set in that what she does now is what’s most important and the most frightening. Kadynce knows God has been working within her all along. She’s grateful and humbled, she says, that the students and teachers at Legacy have poured into her.

The road for Kadynce is now clear to have an impact on the world for Christ.

Mrs. Hermogeno has recently been commissioned as a Colson fellow. To read her story, see page 76.