Randy was born in Hilo, Hawaii and graduated from Hilo High School in 1965. He received a B.A. in English from the University of Hawaii in 1969 and graduated with a Master of Church Music from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky in 1978. Randy became a Christian at age 16 through the Youth For Christ ministry at Hilo High School.

Gay was born in Tokyo, Japan and moved to Hawaii with her family in 1953. Raised in the sugar plantation town of Waipahu, Gay graduated from Waipahu High in 1965 and from the University of Hawaii in 1970 with a Bachelor of Secondary Education in Music. She became a Christian at age 19 through the outreach ministry of Kalihi Union Church.

Randy and Gay married in 1971 and moved to Hilo where Randy worked at Haili Congregational Church and Gay was a choir teacher at Hilo High School.