Glory by Pete Kauppi

In the spring of 1979, Pete attended a ski retreat hosted by a Finnish church in Vancouver and was introduced to guitar-led worship. As well as finding a personal relationship with God after a powerful vision and revelation of God’s mercy and grace, Pete immediately developed a passion for the guitar and for singing.

Pete began teaching himself on a guitar that his brother owned. The guitar was very cheap and difficult to play, but Pete had such a desire to learn, that eventually he was coaxing music out of the thing. Pete began taking guitar class at school and it was evident that a new guitar was needed in order to progress. His dad took him to a local music shop and bought him a fairly nice classical guitar that he still owns to this day.

Pete began writing songs almost immediately while still learning guitar, and began singing his songs at his church’s youth group. He then joined a Christian rock band in which he played bass, guitar, and keyboards, and learned several practical aspects of arranging music for a band. Shortly after the band broke up, Pete began leading worship at a small prayer group and discovered the power of intimate worship.

Pete married Anne Emes in 1987 and slowly became uninvolved in church music and only played guitar at home and did a little song writing. After several years of sporadic church attendance for the family, Anne got involved in a neighbourhood bible-study group. The couple that ran the bible-study invited Pete and Anne to their church, and it wasn’t long before Pete and Anne were involved in the music department. Pete began playing bass on the worship team and then switched to guitar. The Pastor and worship leader were trying to encourage Pete to sing, but after years of not doing any public singing, Pete was very reluctant to try. One night at a prayer meeting, Pete was moved to lead out in a few songs, and it turned into a very powerful time of worship. Pete’s gift was totally obvious to everyone in the room, but fear kept Pete from stepping out into his calling. During a transition stage after the worship leader left the church, the Pastor wanted Pete to try leading worship. Pete was very hesitant but eventually did it and has never looked back.

Pete began writing songs again and is using his gifts to glorify God.

RACHEL CAMPBELL:

Rachel Campbell was born in Burnaby, British Columbia, in 1973 and moved in 1985, to grow up with her younger brother in BC's sunny interior, to 100 Mile House.

Her passion to become a singer began at the age of thirteen. Having never sung seriously before, Rachel asked the Lord if He would give her the gift of singing after being inspired by a children's song. She sang her first solo at the age of fifteen at the Salvation Army Church in Abbotsford and dedicated her voice to the Lord. Over the course of the next five years, she trained her voice in a home style studio while her father critiqued and coached. With a sole dedication to God and her commitment to sing only for His glory, Rachel pushed herself beyond the comfort levels of a timid teenager in front of attentive listeners with vocal technique rich with tone and emotion.

In 1998 Rachel joined the worship team at Yarrow alliance church under the leadership of local recording artist Debbie Fortnum. After collaborating with lead guitarist Reinier Ketting-Olivier and performing in local shows for two years, she recorded the song “Surrender” on his album titled “Out of the Woodwork” singing lead vocals.

Rachel is member of the Loft Church’s worship team in Langley, British Columbia, under the leadership of Pete Kauppi. She sang lead vocals on three songs on Pete's newly released CD entitled “Glory” and leads worship for 'Girlfriends', the Loft's women's ministry.

She currently lives in Yarrow, British Columbia, with her husband, Nathaniel Campbell, and their two children, eleven year old Joshua, and nine year old Shania Joy.

Average Customer Review: