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"MTV" Star Comes to Christ
Catherine’s Story - Bolivia, September 2002

Kandus Thorp

    “Don’t do this to me. You are really crazy!” Catherine’s mother shouted at her in the stadium that Saturday morning. “How can you be so unhappy as to make such a ridiculous decision—deciding to be baptized? I don’t like what you are doing. Why do you have to be so crazy?” People stared, but Catherine’s mother continued her loud raving.

    “Please, Mother, be quiet. Please don’t speak to me like this in front of all these people!” pled Catherine.

    On the other side of Catherine stood her friend and colleague, Harry, who had been raised a Seventh-day Adventist and who had introduced her to the Adventist Church. He was pressuring her too. “Everything is ready for the new TV show. All the choreography is done and the scores written for the musicians. Come with me—let’s do the show together, and then later I will be baptized with you too.”

    At that very moment, Catherine’s cell phone rang. It was someone from another TV station urging her to accept a very lucrative contract.

    The angry voices and the pressure whirled around in Catherine’s head. She looked up to the stage. Pastor Bullón called her name and invited her to come forward. Did she have the strength to go ahead with her decision to be baptized? As she stepped forward, Harry left in anger. Kind church brothers and sisters quieted her mother and surrounded Catherine as she walked toward Pastor Bullón.

    Catherine Molina’s story started many years before this first satellite series in Bolivia. She was an only child. She loved her parents, and they deeply loved her too. An ambitious girl, she had always wanted to be an actress, but her family disapproved. She loved music, but her parents didn’t support the idea of music education either.

    When she was in her late teens, she heard about a talent search in her home city of La Paz. She entered, and won third place. Not telling her family about her move into the world of music, she began to audition and sing at karaoke clubs. Doors opened wide, and soon she was recording her first CD album. A second album soon followed, and some of her songs hit number one in Bolivia. Plans began for a third CD and music videos. She became known throughout the country by her stage name, Taya.

    Catherine’s popularity as a singer led to a TV contract with Channel 7 in La Paz. Soon she had an invitation to host a variety show on Channel 21. She loved every minute of her work. As she hit the stage each weekend for her live show, the crew could hardly contain her. She danced, she sang, and she interviewed. Her success was mesmerizing.

    During this time, she began a search for meaning and purpose. She became involved with the reading of tarot cards. She also connected with spiritualists, and strange things began to happen. She went almost two months without sleeping. Voices haunted her, and more than once she was awakened from fitful sleep by the sensation of hands encircling her throat and choking her.

    Catherine’s family became very concerned and took her to various doctors to find help. She tried different therapies. Sometimes she tried to avoid the people with the tarot cards, but they scared her by saying that her success had come through the devil, and if she left them, she would lose her popularity and all it had brought.

    If there is a devil, then there must be a God, Catherine thought, so she began to try different churches. While visiting an evangelical church, she discovered for the first time the practice of reading the Bible. She went home with a Bible and tried several times to read it, opening it to various places, but it made no sense to her at first. Eventually, she turned to Genesis again, and this time, when she read “In the beginning, God . . .” it was exactly what she needed to hear. Now she couldn’t study the Bible enough.

    About this time she met Harry, and they clicked immediately. He wanted to do an album and a TV show with her, and he wanted to marry her. She laughed and said, “First, let’s study the Bible.”

    “If you want to study the Bible, I know where you should go,” Harry said. He’d grown up in an Adventist home but had left the church some time before. Despite his lack of interest in religion, he introduced Catherine to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. A young woman from one of the local churches offered to study the Bible with Catherine. She agreed, and they began studies immediately.

    They studied together for hours—sometimes until eleven o’clock at night. Catherine soaked everything up like a dry sponge. The answers to her many questions brought a corresponding peace. Soon she knew that she wanted to be baptized.

    Catherine attended the first meeting of the satellite series that was being broadcast from Cochabamba. At the end of the sermon, Pastor Bullón made a strong invitation. Catherine wanted to respond, but not in front of so many people, many of who would recognize her. But she couldn’t stay in her seat; she went forward in commitment, and in front of everyone cried like a baby. Then she felt an enormous sense of peace in her soul. Her search was over!

    However, Catherine was still the host of a live TV show each Saturday night. That Saturday evening she went on stage to host her show. For the first time in her life, she didn’t want to be there; it didn’t feel right. Something inside her had changed. She didn’t dance that night, and her manager and crew wondered if she was sick.

    When Pastor Bullón returned to his hotel room after the conclusion of the satellite meeting that evening, he switched on the TV. To his shock, who should he see but Catherine, who had come forward and given her heart to Christ during his invitation. As he watched her, he felt a deep sadness. He thought that maybe her conversion wasn’t genuine. He bowed his head and prayed for her.

    Pastor Bullón didn’t know it then, but that was Catherine’s last show. The Holy Spirit was working in a dramatic way. Catherine longed to be baptized. She had discovered peace and hope in her life. She was determined not to turn back. She prayed that God would do three things for her. Each would be a miracle. Her first request was that she be freed from her TV and music contracts.

    On Monday morning, she took all her dance costumes and dance CDs—and she had many!—to the TV station and told the management that she would no longer host her program. A very traumatic meeting ensued. The station management and producers were very upset. They loved her show. It was one of the most popular in Bolivia. She was supposed to release a brand-new music video in two weeks, and she was canceling everything! But they freed her of all obligations, and without penalty. That was one prayer answered. The other two were to follow later.

    Meanwhile, Catherine continued to attend the downlink meetings in La Paz every evening. She wanted to be baptized, but was she ready? Even though she had studied for months, however, her Bible instructor was hesitant because Catherine was very secular in her appearance. And many questioned if her dramatic change was permanent. She still had things to learn.

    One evening, Catherine became convicted about her jewelry. She said she was willing to take it off. The next morning, God helped her. Catherine had three rings in each ear. When she awoke that morning, she had a “mysterious” infection in her ears. She’d never had such an infection before. At that, she took off all her jewelry and never again put it back on.

    During this time, Catherine’s family was very upset and angry. They thought their star daughter had gone crazy. It was at this point that she convinced her mother to come to the Sabbath morning service in the stadium to hear Pastor Bullón, who was to preach in La Paz. During his invitation, when Catherine began to move forward in response, her mother erupted with shouts of dismay, Harry begged her not to go, and her cell phone rang with the unexpected offer of another lucrative TV contract. Talk about the great controversy being waged over a soul—this was a real battle! However, as Sonete Costa sang the appeal, Catherine came forward, determined to follow Jesus.

    Catherine requested a private baptism. But when she met with Pastor Bullón, he explained the significance of baptism as a public testimony of one’s commitment to Christ. Catherine was a national celebrity. Would a private baptism really witness to what Jesus was doing to change her life? No, Catherine decided. If she was going to be a Christian, then she wanted everyone to know. That Sabbath evening, she flew to Cochabamba and was part of the baptismal service broadcast via satellite. Her witness was electrifying.

    However, Catherine still had two unanswered prayers. Her second request was that God would provide religious books to satisfy her voracious appetite for reading. She wanted so badly to learn more of the teachings of the Bible and how to live the Christian life.

    God answered this prayer by providing her with $600 that she could use to purchase books. And the same day that she received this money, a pastor gave her his entire library of books by Ellen G. White that covered Bible history. Catherine was thrilled with this second miracle!

    Third, Catherine prayed that God would give her something to do for Him. She needed a job, and she wanted to minister for Jesus. The week she prayed about this desire, she received a call from the church headquarters in Bolivia asking her to come and work at the brand-new Bolivian Adventist media center.

    Catherine works there today—a testimony to God’s miraculous power to change lives. Once a popular TV star, she has traded worldly adulation for the quiet affirmation and peace of heaven.

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