Aloha Alive: The Dawn O'Brien Podcast
Why Aloha? the whole world knows what aloha is--love in Hawai'i--but better to ask WHY ALOHA? the answer is as essential as breath & as fun as whistling, so LET'S GO!
Aloha Alive: The Dawn O'Brien Podcast
Ep. 5: Aloha State Senator Samantha DeCorte: Leading in Fierce Love
Hailing from a small Hawaiian fishing village to become a powerful State Senator, Samantha DeCorte shares her extraordinary journey from trauma to triumph! She's now the 1st Native Hawaiian woman senator representing West O'ahu. Her faith changed curses into blessings & resurrected a dead marriage to be a blessed home with faithful sons.
How can this impossible miracle happen? "Get connected to a Holy Spirit-filled, Bible-believing church. Don't let the enemy isolate you with lies – when we stay under spiritual covering, we find the strength to fulfill God's purpose for our lives." ~ Sen. Sam DeCorte (2025)
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Aloha. Welcome back to Aloha Alive. Today I have the great pleasure of having another Hamahine. This is a mana hine, it's a koahine. All some great words here we say in Hawaii for a powerful woman of God. This is Senator Samantha DeCourt. Sam is my sister and I heard you speak. We were on a panel a few weeks ago. I heard your life story like I'd never heard it in my life. I didn't know a third of that and I have voted for you for years, well, since 2022. And you just won in 2024. Now, who are you? Where are you from?
Speaker 2:Where are you grad? Where are you grad? Oh man, you know, there's so much to unpack because God has done so many great things in my life. I mean where to begin right. But you know, I'm so thankful that I went through the life circumstances that I did. You know, born and raised on Big Island, miloli'i.
Speaker 1:Miloli'i girl. That is a small fishing village still in operation on the Big Island.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, and you know, I grew up in a family where culture was very much taught to us. We were rooted, we grew up on the ocean. My family were fishermen, hunters, all those kinds hunters, all those kinds.
Speaker 1:I seen pictures of you in the back of the truck yeah, scaling fish, cleaning the fish, and I was like not senator.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah well, we were the ones that would wait on the shore for rampa to come with the boat. I'll go to come with the boat. We would clean the fish, all that kind of stuff, so yeah you never went on the boat, but we were there waiting to do the, to do the real work which is clean, that's the hard work.
Speaker 1:So that's you, miloli girl, big island, and who's you give a shout out to your husband. I love your husband, I have the best husband.
Speaker 2:Okay, this year december we would have made 28 years. Wow, okay, I say together, right? Yeah, because you know, I think every day counts. Yes, ma'am, and I want to make sure that every day is counted. Good for you. Yeah, so we met when we were in high school. I was 16. He was 17. And you know, god had ordained for us to be together. I think that that was early on, earlier than God had ordained. But you know, we met. We started a family very young. I got pregnant in high school and you know how we just have to learn those lessons on our own. We just care for the life of us, take our parents' advice and listen to good counsel. We're like no, we know better, we get hothead got to learn the hard way, but we still learned, is the point.
Speaker 1:Now, tommy, a good man of God, and you have three sons.
Speaker 2:Now I have three boys Jordan, who is 26, 9-1, 22, and Elijah is 20.
Speaker 1:Girl, you did start early because you don't look like you're 26 yourself.
Speaker 2:Good job mom and almighty men of God that love the Lord, come on, raise them up in the way they should go.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I love that about you, sam, because you always speak, you always take time for the keiki and you speak to the parents. You know we were standing in sign waving for you this last election season and I want to talk to that a little bit, because you had two election seasons. This is a brand fresh new legislator leader, the very first native Hawaiian woman senator for the West Side, which is District 22. I'm like what First one. Nonetheless, you took time during the last sign waving to actually go up to each and every one of the youth. These are people in high school, right In Kumu Piper's class, and you took the time to go to these Nana Kuli, keki and Aloha each of them, you're so good at it, yeah. And aloha, each of them, you're so good at it, yeah.
Speaker 1:But that's because you came up, I believe, with a compassion and a passion for children, having been a child who went through a hard time and I want to get right through to that because, as a miloli, small fishing hawaiian village, you were a hawaiian girl, little hawaiian girl, who is now a majorly powerful wahine senator. How did you go from a girl experiencing some severe childhood trauma, which you shared a couple of weeks ago. I was in shock. Yeah, can you tell us about growing up that way and how you came to the woman you are today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and let's go there because, you know, I think it's so important to get the message out of the adversity and the things that we face and then the moment that we have to, like really surrender it all to the Lord.
Speaker 2:And so, growing up in a very abusive household. You know, my parents divorced when I was about four years old and really my whole life all I've really known is, you know, abandonment, rejection, not to mention I was around a strong influence of drugs and alcohol and it was just so toxic, right. But when you don't know any better, you think that that's life and that's how it is and you just kind of go on making certain decisions that aren't the best. But then what ended up happening is, eventually I kind of took on a kind of like a victim mentality, where I was using the pain and the abandonment and the difficulties and I was using it to manipulate the people around me, the things around me, to get what I wanted. So, as example, manipulate the people around me, the things around me, to get what I wanted.
Speaker 2:So, as example, when my dad ended up giving his life to the Lord when I was 12 years old and so praise God and I'm so thankful for my dad I mean he really had to love me back to life, because by the time I found out, you know all of the elements that I was faced with in life I had built up such a resentment and such a hate towards him for leaving me and abandoning me, and so because of that and I blamed a lot of my trauma on him because he was never there you were supposed to be there to protect me and you weren't there and so, because of that, I ended up, you know, really harboring those difficult feelings.
Speaker 2:And when he did really give his life to the Lord, he came after me and he tried to love me with the love of God and I said no, absolutely not, you don't deserve it, you have to earn it. And when I found him trying to earn it, I use that as a means to not just manipulate him but to make him feel really guilty about being the dad that he didn't know how to be at the time.
Speaker 1:Thank you for saying that, so many of us putting these huge expectations on parents who themselves were not parented? Yeah, and they're finding the way themselves, which is not to excuse a lot of things that happen, but thank you for acknowledging. Yeah, and so you had that come to jesus moment in your realization about dad.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so a funny story is that you know, and I I moved everywhere. You know, I was living with my grandma, my aunties, my mom, my dad. They're like, you're a like, oh, they're like, go live with your mother, go live with your grandma, go live with your auntie, go live in foster home. I mean, there were so many areas of unstable lifestyle that I had to live at such a young age so I never really had like a strong structure Right. And so through that, you know, I end up trying to validate myself, whether it be with my who's my husband now, at the time. But you know, I felt he was kind of like a man figure and he was going to fill the void that my dad wasn't able to fill and because of that I ended up putting a lot of responsibility on him. Now, remember, I'm 16. He's 17 years old. What does he know about himself, let alone trying to help somebody who's really been neglected and just like abandoned. So it was really rough. The first, I would say, 15 years of our lives was really tough.
Speaker 2:But so funny story, when I would go to live with my dad and you know he didn't have TV, he didn't have none of that. I mean, he was a sanctified Christian. He was really about it. I was like, so what? That you don't even drink nothing anymore? And he was like no, babe, like you know, we just living for God, and you know, this is where I learned about generational curses. And he ended up paying me to read the Bible. Oh wow, he said. He said, and I'm over here, I'm like let's do this Right. And so he's over there. He said I'll give you $1 for one chapter, one chapter that you read. And I was like, well, how long is a chapter?
Speaker 1:You know I don't like to read. She a smart business girl.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and, and. But I read it and that was sown. Now I was using it for my own selfish reasons, but my dad was trying to impart the word into me. Yes, and it worked. It took some time, the seed was sown, sure, but later on, when I really was at a crossroads with my family, with my husband I mean, we're really at the bottom here yeah, and it's like the only thing that I remembered was my dad saying go to God.
Speaker 1:Wow, Go to God. So simple, Go to God, yeah, and you're right, because the word of the Lord is seed and it says in God's word, the Bible, that the word shall go forth and it will not return void. In other words, if I'm writing that check or modern terminology if I'm dropping that PayPal, that Venmo, it is going to come back with extra. It's going to, and that's what it did for you. The word of the Lord when you went to God. Go to God came back strong, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I remembered that and when that moment came, I knew to go to the Lord and so, yep. So, you know, I ended up visiting a few churches. You know I ended up finding the church that God had orchestrated for me to find I have amazing pastors pastors Arden, kuna, sepulveda, word of Life Christian Center. I mean, they really took me in and they, they were my mama and my papi and I was so thankful for their love that, you know, here I am. I not only came from a broken home, but now my home itself is broken. Yes, and I don't even know how to pick up the pieces, because I don't know what a healthy household looks like.
Speaker 1:Right, you shared when we were together a couple of Saturdays ago. You said you couldn't go to the bathroom because there were people doing drugs in your bathroom when you were living with your mom. Yeah, I mean, you couldn't go home because you were Manuia girl, going from home to home, to home. So how do you build a home for your husband, yourself and your boys when you've never had a home? Home was never home. It was never a safe place. It was a place of hurt and destruction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and not only that, but I had two younger brothers also. So here I am, I'm older sister and I'm mom too. I mean, the drugs was so bad in my house like how I had shared earlier, you know, we had one bathroom in the house and half the time people were doing drugs, so we can't go to the bathroom. So most of the time my parents would just give me money to go take my brothers to Fun Factory, go take them to the store, go take them to get icy, go take them to the park, go take them everywhere. So here I am, at such a young age I have to walk my brothers to school and I'm being late now myself. So now I have like truancy court every single you know time a month. I have to go to Saturday school, you know, and those kinds of things. And so you know I had to really learn at a very young age to just really, you know, take care of my brothers.
Speaker 1:And what's the age difference?
Speaker 2:uh, eight years old, and how old were they? And 10, so I was still. Oh yeah, they were in elementary.
Speaker 1:I was in uh intermediate so just a few years different, and I think we're speaking a right now rhema word, which is a revelation of god right now word, because we have so many keiki in our state now in elementary schools. I visit them quite often with choose al Aloha program, where they are going to truancy court or they're being taken to court by their counselors, by the administration of the school, because of lateness. Tardiness because the parents on the west side, which you represent, district 22, are driving to work early in the morning. So the older kids and let's say it's a two years older, so maybe it's an 11 year old with a nine and a seven year old has to get the kids up, get them ready and take them to school, and that's just part of some of the trauma and what we deal with in the reality of Hawaii.
Speaker 1:But then you come into a church home Thank you to Pastor Art, pastor Kuna where they help to love you in what I I esteem as we draw a straight line. In a world that keeps going crooked and crazy, in this world where everything is just flying apart and the destroyers working to make everything chaos, crazy, I'm going to draw a straight line that, when I say yes, my yes is a yes, my no is a no. And that's where we see a senator today who is a Senator Wahine, mothering the next generation. Is that what happened for you? Yeah, senator.
Speaker 2:Wahine, mothering the next generation. Is that what happened for you? Yeah, and you know. That's why I feel so connected to the next generation, because if I had someone in my life that just showed me an example of something other than what I was seeing at the time, I was never shown that example, so I didn't know anything else but chaos, abuse, you know, toxicity, neglect, all those kinds of things. So I'm thinking that's normal, right. So then, when I finally surrender my life to the Lord and I surround myself with individuals that are really, you know, being the priestly family that God has called them to be, I'm like oh, what is this? You know, like you know how to treat my husband right, how to submit to the male right Submit. How do I walk in love? How do I?
Speaker 1:speak promises on my children's life when those promises may or may not have been spoken down on me. You know it's funny as we're talking and you said you had such a toxic place and we're not here to throw stones at our parents or grandparents. I mean, these things are transgenerational, as you just said. But I was looking on your website I saw a family portrait of yours and, interestingly enough, you know you have all three generations, from the Kiki to the Makua to the grandparents, and I think it was one of the adults even had a beer can in there. Yeah, that was my grandma.
Speaker 2:She had the Budweiser with a cigarette.
Speaker 1:Okay, but a cigarette.
Speaker 2:I knew that was a picture that we took right after church. That was actually the church in behind us. So my grandma's a smoky cigarette, drinking her beer.
Speaker 1:Which preaches to us as Kiki, because it would happen right after. Even during that, the men were back digging the emu at my house yeah, tongan digging umu and they were all drinking already right as they're digging, while we're at church, where the word was being spoken by my grandpa. So there's a lot of conflicting messages. I don't know how to build a safe home because I've never seen it in my life, but through the grace of god, it was done for you. Another you know I showed you that snapshot another one that I remember was sitting in your office a few weeks ago, because we get together and I go and I drop, lay and I pray with our senator and behind me on the screen was pastor art prophesying over you. Can you speak to, because there's so much goodness in speaking life?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know me, when I grab onto something, I grab on Like I'm all in.
Speaker 1:You're a pit bull girl.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not like half in. Oh, let me just try to say I'm like listen, I'm not in you are locked and loaded we got to do this, and so when I gave my life to, I felt the love of God.
Speaker 2:I knew that there was something there. I surrendered it all. I decided that I was going to be under the mentorship of the covering of Pastors Art in Kona, and I was obedient to that call and because of that I was able to really just be a disciple, you know, and to just sit under the covering of my pastors and just trust them and allow them to help guide my life you know how old were you. I was 27 years old, still young, still very young and you clamped on, I did.
Speaker 1:I will share something. Another pastor, alan Cardines, was here earlier filming and he said the one great, one of the great things about Sister Sam, senator Sam, she's so teachable, she's a wonderful disciple. And so you said you're all in, you're hardcore, and they had a great disciple. So speak into that, because when I saw that video of him prophesying and almost 10 years to the day, you fulfilled the prophecy.
Speaker 2:I mean, that was such a moment, right, because when you get prophesied over, you think in your mind you know what that's for, right. And I'm like, yes, I know exactly what he's talking about, it's for this moment. And then seasons pass and it's like I don't know, I guess that's not it. And then you know you're trying to seek it. But one thing that I made sure is to secure and protect that word that God had prophesied over me.
Speaker 2:Wow, so I would never lose sight of it, I would go back and I would watch it at least a couple times a year, because you know how, when you're in the church, the devil wants to get you out of the church. Yeah, so he's going to bring offense, he's going to bring up division, he's going to bring it all, yes, everything. I've heard it all in the book. I've even seen some casualties of the church and I said, no, god has a word for me, and that prophecy has not been fulfilled yet. And until that prophecy is fulfilled, lord, I don't know what it is, you know what it is, I don't know when, but I'm going to stay committed because this is where you called me to be. And so because of that, yeah, I stayed very faithful and you know how it is. You know the ministry can be a little political at times, but I kept my eyes on um, on the goal and, whatever it was, on the call of God that was prophesied over you.
Speaker 1:I saw this video and now get this. I'm sitting in her office with the Senator in the state house and behind me you had to grab a call by someone. It was very important, so we just stopped for a second. I look back and I see the date on this is 10 years prior. He's prophesying You're going to be a leader in government and I'm looking at this. You know young girl in her jeans. You know you're at church. You can see. You're just starstruck by the Lord's prophecy over you. But what I love about this family and listen with ears to hear and eyes to see is that you not only protected your peace, which I often hear from Pastors Sepulveda, but you also protected the promise of God, the flame, the fire that you were running, that the flame never went out. You looked at it twice a year.
Speaker 2:you said minimum, then I get there you know, come in to just lose sight of what God has called right, because you know it's like you get born, you know you're born again, you fall in love with Jesus. You hear these scriptures that are just so like, sound, are so great, sounding like, as example, you know, as for me, my house, we will serve the Lord, right, yeah, sure, 2415, that we all grab on to yes. And then you know, after a while, it's like, hey, the husband doesn't come to church. Okay, kids don't want to wake up. And it's like, oh, what happened, lord, I thought you had, you know, this call on my family. And it's like, but it's just so in the persistency of ourselves, right? So in my walk with the Lord, I realized and I think that this is important for you know, everybody to grab on to is really, it really is not about us, it's what about God, it's what about it's about what God is trying to do in our lives. And you know, pastor Kuna really instilled that in us.
Speaker 2:you, know, it's not about you. It's about what God wants to do through you. And there are people on the other side of your obedience and and and I carry all of those fundamentals now into where I'm at politically because when you're faced with natural circumstances and everything around you just does not seem like it's going to work out, yeah, and you have all opposition coming against you. It's not even just a natural aspect of like oh, I don't know if this is going to work, but you literally have people attacking you. Wow, People you don't know that you've never met Right Holding up banners and signs on you with, like, just lies upon lies.
Speaker 2:You really have to dig deep and remember the prophecy, Remember the call of God on your life, not just on me, but on the next generation. And so this is where the blessing is. It really is about how you are going to raise the next generation. And so for me, that's where that prophecy really came to life. You know, is when God had called me to this political field, and I remember the call and through all oppositions facing all the giants you could ever imagine mountains like you could never even, you know, but it was really. I knew God had something for me.
Speaker 1:Protect the promise and protect your peace Now, and I want to speak a blessing on you because, as I shared that snapshot of your family portrait with grandma holding the beer with a cigarette, and then I shared the video that I watched, with Pastor Art prophesying over you, and you held on to that Another picture that I have seen was watching you on opening day of the state Senate this year. This was your second run in 2024. In 2022, you lost by 40 votes. In 2024. In 2022, you lost by 40 votes. This time you won against a heavily favored opponent democrat as a republican. You won by a healthy margin.
Speaker 1:And as I sat there so proudly in the state senate gallery looking at our girl and I thought to myself this girl is scrapped spiritually, emotionally, mentally I mean physically holding up those signs. And you, we see this and I'm so proud to see you sitting there and to see you acknowledge you are sitting with Tommy and your kids, your husband, right, and not only blessing to the next generation and hopefully the third generation. But then I go upstairs to drop lay on you and there's your dad, the guy who was the deadbeat dad, the deserter dad that God redeemed and became a deserving dad and became a priestly family, and he stood right next to you. Was there a scripture verse that sustained you? Because I love that you reverse the curse. As we often say, we're going to bring the blessing and not just so that, as for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord and we will be blessed.
Speaker 1:You quoted Joshua, but not just for you and your kids and your husband, but you sent it back up to your parents and to your grandparents. Was there a scripture verse you held on to other than Joshua? Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean it really was learning about the generational curses and breaking that generational curse. Because what my dad had to come against in order to break those generational curses I don't even know what that internal fight looks like, but to know that he had to come after his daughter, who was blaming him, rejecting him, everything that you could think of, and he would try to just love me back to life, and I just wouldn't let him in and he never gave up on me, hallelujah. And it took probably about a good 15, maybe 20 years. I mean, it was so bad, don, I wouldn't even let my kids see him. I was like, no, I don't need you abandoning them, like how you abandoned me.
Speaker 2:I mean just the lies that the devil was continuing to play over and over in my head. And once I really encountered the love of God, I realized that it wasn't him, it was me and it was really my ability to take ownership of how I was going to utilize that circumstance which I had to. Okay, well, speaking of a scripture which plays over and over in my mind, is what the devil meant for evil, god will use for good, you will redeem it for good. And that's really what it is. He was trying to take me and my generation down off of a seed that was sown in a circumstance of my father that didn't even know any better at the time. But I was willing to hold on to that bad boy and then just use it to self-gain whatever I could in whatever area, because then people start feeling bad for you oh, poor thing. Okay, well, let her go. She had a rough childhood Right. Her parents were divorced.
Speaker 1:Her parents were abused, right yeah. And how long does that last? Because the wages of sin or the paycheck is real short-term yeah, to be real honest, it's short-term, and that you get little bit gains, but you have an eternity of suffering. That's what the devil promises us, right yeah. But when we're with God, it might be a short term pain for a long term gain. Right, that Christ leads us out of that. And you did that because I'm going to fight the battles. I heard a great quote lately that said if I don't fight these battles, I'm leaving it for my children. And you said to yourself, senator Decourt, I am not going to let my kids fight these same battles I fought as a child, so I will stand up and defend for them. And you're now reversing the curse and bringing transgenerational blessings, not curses.
Speaker 2:You're an amazing woman Go ahead. Well, I mean, that was so important is because, you know, I grew up seeing things that a child should never see, enduring things that a child should never endure. And when I had the opportunity to open my heart to the Lord, you know, I didn't feel worthy enough. You know, because the sins that I had committed, I knew what I was doing. I deserve hell. However, my children don't. They deserve to see another option, another way. I didn't get a chance to see that, so it was important for me to be able to show them, you know, and it was because of that that I was able to really, you know, just persevere in this walk, because, you know, because of the love of God and because he can truly change the heart of a man, amen. You know.
Speaker 2:I, you know, and, and my children, they have never and they will never come home and see, you know, dad beating mom or mom drunk, falling off the couch. They got to carry her into the bedroom like. They will never know any of that. All they will know is how to press in by faith. All they will know is when you know you speak the name of Jesus, even demons, even demons will have to bow. Even demons will have to bow. So, knowing their authority, knowing who they are in Christ and knowing how to use the word of God to their advantage to fulfill God purpose is really how I'm imparting this example into my children Is that we're fighting for something greater, not just these temporary satisfactions, but a long-term legacy, and that's what this is all about.
Speaker 2:In this time of you know, good versus evil, you know the enemy is trying to confuse who we are in Christ, confuse our identity, tell us that the word isn't working. Oh look, it's been, you know, so many years and your husband is still not coming to church. I literally Dawn for 10 years. Would save a seat for my husband next to me in church. Lay done for 10 years. Would save a seat for my husband next to me in church, lay hands on that bad boy and just believe God that he was going to fill it. 10 years it took me. Can you imagine waiting 10 years? No, most most people think you know I was gonna get a different husband already. Yeah, you know, but I knew. I knew that God had a call on my family and because of that, in this season that we're in in government I mean my husband was the backbone of my campaign he was there when we were sign waving.
Speaker 1:He's setting up the tour. He's got okay, we got to get the signs. He's building things. I'm like who is this guy?
Speaker 2:she better be married to him he's sure doing a lot here and I mean, gosh, I wish he had brothers so I can like share, but thank you, yeah. So so, seeing how the devil tried to really uh, bring separation in my marriage because I don't know if I shared this with you, um, but tommy and I had actually gotten divorced, um, in 2006. So listen to this, right, talk about a comeback testimony, right? So here we are, kids, raising kids, okay, 16 and 17 years old. We get married at 20 and 21. We get divorced in when we were 26 years old.
Speaker 2:And then that's when I found the Lord, and then that's when I was just so desperate and broken I was just willing to do anything, give up everybody. God said get rid of your friends. Boom, pow, like, okay, stop hanging out with the cousins, sorry, no, can anymore. Sorry, no, can you know? And then it really was.
Speaker 2:In that moment, uh, I went after my husband and I said I said you know? I said god, well, he was my ex-husband, right, and divorce. And then it was during a time, in a moment, that I was at the altar and god says I want, I'm going to restore your marriage. And I said there's no marriage, right, like I mean, there was really no marriage. Like Tommy hated me, he blamed me for everything rightfully so, but it was like you're talking about I mean, really trying to do a turnaround here but I was so like. I was so like driven by what God could do, and so I continued to go after Tommy three years, okay, okay, and then we got remarried. So we got remarried in 2010. And this is where God is so good, because Samantha Decord.
Speaker 1:I had no idea that God literally resurrected a dead marriage and the man hated you. Different relationships in every thing. For three years you pursue after a man you fired.
Speaker 2:Yes, and Amanda did not want anything to do with me.
Speaker 1:I am covered in God bumps right now. This ain't no chicken skin, because we are not created in the image of a chicken. Yeah, we are created in the image of God, and when the spirit of God rolls in, we stand up. That's shocking.
Speaker 2:I had no idea. But do you see, now, fast forward to the season that we're in now, if it had not been for Tommy, there would not be a success in this campaign. Thank you, lord, because I'm telling you he brought elements to this campaign that nobody else was weighing in on on my team, the people, the consultants that I had, I mean everybody. Tommy bought such an anointing.
Speaker 1:He was a spiritual backbone, he was a spiritual spine, the head, the head, the captain, the quarterback. He would run the ball. I'm like this man is a one man. She had better be married to this man because really he was knocking himself out cold for you. And then I found out, no, that is, that's Tommy Decor. I'm like, okay, we're all good now, cause otherwise I was like this guy's a huge crush, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, but do you see, like how god had a call not just for me, but for my husband, for my family?
Speaker 1:everybody had to play a part and all falling into alignment and in order, because god is a god of order. So powerful are the boys, your sons, allowed to see dad? Because I saw dad. I saw him on opening day, oh yes yes.
Speaker 2:So you know, it really wasn't until I surrendered that pain, because I was holding on to it, because it was an advantage for me for sure. So it was a security for me to say that, well, if you leave me again, I never really expected you to stay anyway. So in order for me to give that up, I had to trust God. Okay, god, no matter what, you got me, you got my kids, so I. It wasn't more than a few years after that that, you know, I just really had to surrender everything to God, even if that meant I would be rejected, I would be left, I would be abandoned, no matter what.
Speaker 1:God got me, okay. So you are speaking a right now Ramo word again. I just feel like I'm getting baptized and baptized. I'm just going to stay under at this point. We're just going to keep swimming. But many of you might be hearing this and thinking the same, because I was a child of divorce, a lot of similar childhood trauma. I'm not saying same same, it's just that I see you on that side in the trenches and I've known those trenches right. But maybe what we can say to people who are watching and relating to this is that and I did the same same thing. How do I play my parents against each other? How do I manipulate this? Because I'm the, I'm the baby boss, I'm the kid boss, um, but it goes nowhere. And you were able to heal that and say I'm committed to you, dad, even if you abandon me again, because that's aloha yeah aloha is unconditional, sacrificial love.
Speaker 1:That says, no matter what, I love you the same. I'm not walking out on this side of the table, I'm sticking it out with you. Is that what it was? Because, sam, I think you're speaking a right now word, even to me. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, what it is is do we fully trust God or not? And that's what it comes down to, because if you're hanging on to pain from childhood or the past, then you're really not trusting God, because then we're really not walking in the fruit of the Spirit that God had set up. For us. To be able to be long-suffering, you've got to be patient, you have to endure, you have to love at all times, you know, and for me, love was a scary word. You know. The world has manipulated the word love. That's good, and they say that oh well, if you love me, you have to do this for me. Yeah, love came with conditions from the world boom. And god was so unconditional in his love, you know, and when he told me in his word, as you were in your sin, yeah, yet I still died for you and I still loved you is I you?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so that was important to me, because he didn't love me when I got it all together. He loved me in the middle of my mess and that, if anything, deserved commitment on my end If you're going to love me in the worst time of my life, when everybody has left me. I was left, I was abandoned, I was feeling sorry for myself and God stepped in and he said you know what I made you that way. That's good, and I'm taking you through that season because I have a greater purpose for you and it was because I was able to navigate through that pain and still walk in the blessing of God, still be able to pray for my family and my marriage and my children.
Speaker 2:Yes Is now fast forward. Here we are today and I'm still able to carry on that same spirit because I know the call of God. So I'm sorry, fear, intimidation, you have no place in my life, because we have an end goal here and the victory is Jesus on earth, heaven here, and everybody will be able to make that decision on whether they want to receive Jesus or not. But just to know here that there's more to us, there's more to this life than just the circumstances that we're dealt and you know the community that I represent. You know Waianae is a very impoverished community. We're a very, very prideful community and if there's one thing that I resonate with Waianae is they are resilient man. Those people will give up for nothing. You ain't going to tell them Ride, or die.
Speaker 1:they ride and die, and then they get back on and ride again and die again, but they're fighters, right.
Speaker 2:So they come out of the ashes, you know, and they just come from nowhere. And now we're working with kids in our community that are, on a global scale, proposing projects on how to be more self-sustainable, how to reduce landfill waste. I mean, you're talking about children.
Speaker 1:kids we're talking about kids here, high school kids from Nanakuli High School, scrappa's Union, affecting so many other high schools with that. I love them. Those are our Kiki, but that's huge. Now let me just um recap. And then I know you got to get back to the state capitol.
Speaker 1:Senator, I'm so appreciative of our time. Thank you for carving it out literally. But here's what you just said and what was ministering to me in the right now. Truly it was. Is I, because of trauma and I'll own this right now on camera with you I became committed to uncommitment as soon as I find out that bad thing about you, because we're all human and I will find out that bad thing, I'm bouncing, I'm out bye. And so the Lord was saying through what you just said right, that you stuck it out with your dad, and then you stuck it out with Tommy, you're sticking it out with your kids that no matter what I'm here, I'm the ride or die, and that God who loved us even in our sin, right.
Speaker 1:And then 1 John 4, 8 is another great scripture that comes to heart.
Speaker 1:It says perfect love casts out fear. But too much of what we see in our ohana, especially in the hard sides of, let's say, wai'anae or Miloli'i or maybe parts of Hilo, maybe where you're from is that the devil knows that love is the gold, so he covers that gold with this black smut of fear and so that a child like yourself, a trauma child, or trauma child like me, we only see love as something that always hurt us, the people who are supposed to love us, our moms and our dads, other people in our lives that either they sexually abused us or they sold us out, they tricked us out, all those bad things. Now it's black smut on a gold thing called love, and when we grow up, love is no longer good, it's something bad. And what we're here to say today and what I see in you, hamahine Wahine, senator, who comes from this tiny little Hawaiian girl from a tiny little village with a lot of trauma trauma is that God can remove that black smut and make give us golden lives of abundance. He really can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and before he actually can put that smut over and this is something that, you know, I also want to bring to the table is that he has to separate us, right, you from from, from whether it be our pastors, whether it be our wife, our husband, our parents, whatever is, because once he can isolate you, then he can really start deceiving you. Yes, and that's why I feel it's so important. You know, even till this day, I'm very connected with my church. I stay under the covering of my pastors, because we are in a spiritual warfare, Thank you. And if I don't have the spiritual covering.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be vulnerable to the enemy. You're going to make it, yeah, and so this is why this season in our lives are so strategic, so it's so important to get connected to a Holy Spirit church. That's good, an anointed church.
Speaker 1:And a Bible reading. Believing church right, the Holy Spirit and the Bible Pair those up.
Speaker 2:Thank you, yes, and because that's why the enemy, you know, as soon as he can divide us, then he can start manipulating us, which is what he tries to do all the time. Oh, you don't want to go to that church, you know they talk too much about the tithe. Oh, they're asking you to volunteer again, Don't they know you have work? And oh, prayer at 5 am is too early, don't they know you got to sleep, right? I mean, it's one thought after another and we've got to kill those things immediately, because it's the same kind of deceptive lies with our husbands oh, look, he came home late again today. Look, he's not even cutting the grass. Oh, da-da-da, oh, he's getting comfortable, and you know all those kinds of things.
Speaker 2:One lie in there. There is no compartmentalizing the way that the enemy wants to deceive us. A lie is a lie is a lie. So if he can convince you to get away from your pastors, away from your church, with one lie, he'll use the same spirit to get you away from your husband, away from your job, away from your kids. I'll let them go. They just have to be themselves and learn the hard way. Like are you crazy, right?
Speaker 1:like are you crazy, right? No, I'm not leaving my children for the devil to come have playground with them. Yeah, I love what you're saying, but he says don't let one lie in. Yes, and I've often said that if the devil gets a toe hold, if he gets a foothold is when the Bible says, then he's going to have a strong hold and once he gets a strong hold he's going to take the choke hold. Yeah, he will wipe you out.
Speaker 1:The devil has never, ever taken a knee. You know, back in the day in football it used to be if somebody's down, everyone takes a knee, which was kind of to take a breath, give them breathing room, but it was also to say a prayer for that person who's down. Devil don't take a knee to say a prayer. He comes up when you're down on the field to take the kill shot. So I love that you don't allow one lie in, because that spirit of divorce is done in Jesus name by the blood of the lamb. It's done.
Speaker 1:And what I also want to encourage and add on to, because you're already getting the triple scoop banana split today with Senator Sam, you're getting the full, huge thing, the buffet, because God sets a feast before us in the presence of our enemy. She got you the buffet. I don't put the cherry on the buffet is this is that not only did you stick it out with your pastors and come under their discipling, and you ate it full core. We know these things, but we are blessed when we do them. You do them. You're a good disciple. But I will add, not only did you get their covering spiritually, but you also went out and got other spiritual battle. Wahine, you came to me, you humbled yourself with tears in your eyes, senator, if I may be so bold and so transparent. You came with tears in your eyes and said, sis, please pray for me.
Speaker 1:I'm here in this square building. You fought to be there. But what you realize is, once you're there, it's kind of like paddling canoe. We got to the end, but we're not done. Now the battle begins right. You landed woohoo, lays all the green bottles seven up. Also, we drink, not all the other green bottles, but we do that, we celebrate. But now was the fight and you got yourself extra protection, spiritual detail. Speak into that if you will, and we'll bring this in for a landing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, that's why it's so important, because different seasons right, god brings different people, you know, and so it's so important to be sensitive and discerning to the Holy Spirit on who those people are. I love it. And so, you know, you came in at the right time. And you know, at this point I'm like I'm like I'm crying out to God, I'm like, god, you got to help me. Yes, because I'm getting so consumed in my thoughts I'm starting to overthink, you know, and it's starting to become very unhealthy for me, and I'm like I don't know what to do, you know, because your first time is my first time, you know, and so, anyway, you know. So, so, in that I was starting to feel very insecure, like, okay, god, can I really do this? What does this look like? You know? I mean it was almost to the point of like gosh, am I making it worse by being here Because I don't know what to do, and am I hurting my community? You know, like, lord, you gotta help me, I need guidance, you know. And so, like when I say God put you here at the right time, I mean literally like within seconds. Right, boom, here comes sis, she's coming in and she does this very often. She brings us a beautiful overthrow, lay.
Speaker 2:I'll tell them about the story later, um, but you know, um, I was just so thankful for you also being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, because when I was in that thought, I pulled you in, I closed the door, you did, and I just was brought to tears and I shared with you.
Speaker 2:I said, listen, like I'm feeling so insecure, I don't know if I can do this. I don't want to make things worse. What am I doing? You know, yeah, and you, you did exactly what I knew you were going to do is you fired up that conquering spirit that God has given me to conquer divorce, to conquer abuse, to conquer addiction, to conquer all that. I felt that boldness again, yes, and you just fired that up for me and you're like come on, let's go. We got this, you know, and that's what I need. I needed the word of God, I needed a sister to link in and lock in with me, to be able to bring me to the place of okay, the battle is here and the battle is now, and so you are the chosen warrior for that battle and I don't want to hear the lies that you are going to make it worse, or?
Speaker 1:I hear the lies, but these are the themes. Right, it was lies. I had to rebuke her, first thing, and then bless her.
Speaker 2:I was like I don't want to hear those lies. But I pulled Don in and I was like listen, I got to tell you what's going on Because something has to happen.
Speaker 1:This stuff got to go a goal. But there's goodness in that and, as we end, because I want to get you to your next meeting faithfully, I know your office manager and she's from YNI so I just make sure I keep my YNI people happy. But the goodness in that was you let yourself have that moment. I believe strongly and going honestly before the Lord, because David was honest before the Lord and then the Lord picked him back up and set him forward and said you're going to take Goliath today with your knees knocking, but you will take that giant, because courage is fear. That has said its prayers and, all through the word of God, he raised up the least likely to succeed, the least likely to get it, and would say hi, general Gideon, faithful man of God, mighty, valiant warrior. Oh me hiding down here in this dark little cell threshing because I'm in fear.
Speaker 1:So, samantha, I thank you for what you're doing in the state capitol. I thank you for fighting for the people of Hawaii, for the many people out there who are watching this, who can't travel to Baratania Street, to the capitol, to thank you. I know you even mentioned and we'll have you back if that's okay but you mentioned people who hate you? Who come against you? Even people in the building. Surprise, surprise, but you keep working it out and walking it out, because the prophecy and the promise of the Most High God has always come to pass, it has never failed and you are his victory in the making and for the taking. So thank you to Senator Samantha Decourt, District 22, but fighting for all of the islands of Hawaii, including the ninth island of Las Vegas, the 10th island of Alaska. She fighting for all this islands, all the aina. We're going to have her back, don't you worry. Thank you again for joining us for Aloha Alive with this feisty Aloha Wahine. Senator Samantha Decord.