Testimony:

Our beloved Women’s Pastor, is a native to Hawaii and was born and raised in Kailua.  As destiny would have it,  right at the time of the first year anniversary of Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay at Kapunahala elementary school, she was invited to a service and gave her life to the Lord.   

It was a close friend who was most instrumental in preparing her heart to receive the Lord and encouraging her to visit HCKB, a friend who later became her husband-Guy Souza.  They were married by our very own Pastor Ralph in 1986.  They have three beautiful children Kelby, Taylor, and Joelle.   

Deeply rooted in her life and family here in Hawaii, Corrine had no idea the adventure the Lord had planned for her.  Not long after her youngest child was born, Corinne was challenged to leave all the security and comforts of her island paradise.  The family was to move to the unknown in Guam for two years due to the travel demands of her husband’s job.  They prayed and believed that God had confirmed his will for them to go.  Everything in her was panicking to leave the home and family she loved so much, but she knew in her heart she needed to obey the leading of the Lord. 

The Lord blessed them there, but what was supposed to be a two year assignment in Guam, ended up being only five months.  Next, her husband was transferred to Australia, where Corinne and her family spent the next eighteen months.  “I thought I had died and gone to heaven after all we had been through and I know it was because of our obedience to go when the Lord said go.” But the journey was not over yet; Corinne's husband was transferred to Virginia. 

With each move, Corinne yearned to return to Hawaii, her friends and her relatives there.  She found herself right in the middle of her greatest battle.  What started as discontentment, stress, and homesickness ended in deep depression which took her nearly two months to overcome.  Through the Lord, the help of a good home church, and fellowship in a strong bible study group, Corinne not only managed to gain victory in this battle, but even started a new career as a distributor of Christian books. 

Just when everything was going great, once again, destiny played a role in their circumstances changing.  This time she and her family was faced with a decision to stay where they had thrived successfully for four years or move back to the home they had kept in Hawaii…

“ Now that I had learned to totally depend on Him, not my family, and be obedient no matter what, God gave me the desires of my heart.”
“ I had learned to accept that where ever I was, being in God’s will was the best place to be.”  

Even though she was tried, she believes it was through their faithfulness that God blessed them, and all their family.  He gave her a ministry and a job with “Choice Books” as a distributor and allowed her to be the first to be a representative here in Hawaii. 

Even as they were flying back home to the Islands, the Lord gave them a sign.  Corinne and her husband ran into some friends from Hope Chapel Kaneohe at the airport in San Francisco, and they asked them to start a mini-church with them.  Before they could even arrive home, the Lord confirmed their decision and gave them comfort in knowing he was already preparing a place for them.

It is with this same trust in the Lord and faithfulness that Corinne Souza accepted her position in the Women’s Ministry here at Hope Chapel even when she really did not imagine herself in it.  Once again the Lord was stretching her to take a step in obedience out of her comfort zone and rise to occasion.  She stopped thinking about reasons not to do it, when a friend spoke these prophetic words to her:  “Maybe this is not only about you, it’s about God and that you were born for such a time as this.”  The very next service she went to, the Pastor ministered on the same scripture.  Corinne knew that was all the confirmation she needed.

Ministry:

Corinne feels her strengths are as an exhorter-encourager and that she is a people person.  She started out in the ministry of greeting and hospitality and continues to this day.  She and her husband have been hosting and shepherding a mini-church from HC in their home since 2002.  She believes that the Lord has been stretching her by serving in the Women’s Ministry and in Hospitality to lead her into her role as Women’s Pastor.  As a minister, her heart is for outreach.   Her vision is to have “intentional outreach events” to reach the community. Besides keeping the women in the word, her desire is for them “to know Him and to make Him known that all would give Him glory.”