No Regrets | Story of My Faith | MCGI

On your next performance, we would like to change your outfit a little bit. Do a full makeover on you, okay? Your hair, like your dress is going to be like this. There's going to be some glittering on it. Is that okay with you? The time that I started to introduce him to dance, my main purpose was for him to have the confidence to use the Church Of Christ at TK. Being able to express my feelings and my emotions through movement, and just being on stage, whether it's a solo or a group dance, just performing in front of people and making them happy, myself being happy. It was fun for me because I was able to perform with my friends. People come and congratulate me and it makes me feel good. And I was able to perform in front of a huge audience and be able to get paid for that. But I'm very used to the world of dance, especially here in America. So I didn't anticipate how extravagant the world of dancing is here in America. They really put in a lot of time, money, and effort. Because at the end, the return of those efforts, if there are people who know about dance moms, if there are children who became millionaires and multimillionaires, they travel the world just for dancing. One of the owners of the studio always had something to say about my hair if I were to be fixing it in the dressing room or anything. And she would make jokes about, like, let's cut it now. And we're like, oh, if we have to cut it, then we'll leave the studio. The clothes are probably the biggest part of why I stopped. Having to wear these mahalay clothes and tight clothes. On your next performance, we would like to change your outfit a little bit, do a full makeover on you, okay? Your hair, like, your dress is going to be like this. There's going to be some glittering on it. Is that okay with you? During practice, you'd have to wear leggings or leotards. And then on stage, a lot of skin was exposed and jewelry. Sometimes they would wear clip-on earrings, or some would have holes in their ears, and then they would have to wear that or necklaces. It was nice getting the praise and center of attention and having people come up to you, like even strangers. If I would win the award, strangers would come up and give me compliments. It was nice. But if I had to give that up to be with God and to be in heaven in the end, I will do it 100%. During quarantine, I was able to do more activities in the church, dance more and listen to Brother Eli and Brother Neil more. And just one day, I came up to my mom and I just said, Mom, I want to get indoctrinated. I just had this feeling that I wanted to join the church because I know that this is the true and only one. If I do this, like get baptized and stuff, then dance would not be a part of my life. But it wasn't a huge thing. I was like, I don't care. If I had to get rid of dancing, then I would. When he told us that he wanted to get indoctrinated, of course, we told him to get indoctrinated because we were not thinking that he would get baptized after getting indoctrinated. But that time when he said that he would get baptized, we did not discourage him from getting baptized. Especially Brother Anthony, when he was still very young, he did not see the true meaning of worshiping God in the world. Especially here in America, we know that the culture of young women is different. When he said that he would get baptized, actually, when Brother Marvin told him that he could not get baptized, because the night before, he was crying and sobbing, and Brother Marvin did not allow him to get baptized. On the day of his baptism, Brother Marvin asked him not to get baptized yet. Actually, Brother Marvin told him to wait until he was 14 years old, and if he still wanted to get baptized, at that time, Brother Marvin would allow him to get baptized. I was nervous. I was very nervous and scared because I did not want to stop fighting for my faith, and I wanted to keep going. I was very happy that I was baptized, but I knew it was just the beginning. We would still have to face hardships and continue on the road of being able to go to heaven. Although I was very joyful that I was able to be submerged into the water, I knew it was the beginning only. I've been in TK since like six years old, and I'm able to continue with that with God's help. Recently, I was assigned the duty of assistant TLC. A duty I would like to have, God willing, is a servant. No matter all the worldly pleasures that you'll feel, like the joy you'll feel on this earth, the end results of being with God is way more powerful than being happy on this earth. And if I had to say it in like one sentence, I have no regrets. My name is Iskirsten Vanina, and this is the story of my faith.