Joe and Garthea Henson were long-time staff members at Harvest. On this special 50th anniversary program, they discuss their time in ministry on Guam.
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Episode Transcript
Chris Harper: Welcome to Harvest Time. My name is Chris Harper, and our host on this program is Pastor Gary Walton, the lead pastor of Harvest Baptist Church. Every week on this program, we tell you the stories of our church by interviewing our members and other friends at the ministry. We’d like to invite you to Harvest Baptist Church this weekend. We meet twice Sunday mornings at 08:45AM and 10:45AM.
We have Japanese and Korean translation during our 10:45AM service, and that’s also when we livestream at hbcguam.org, hbcguam.org. In the month of October, we’re looking ahead to our 50th anniversary for Harvest Ministries, and we have special guests to mark that occasion. Here’s pastor Walton to introduce today’s guests.
Gary Walton: Well, as we’ve been talking about for a while now, Harvest is getting ready to celebrate our 50th anniversary. And in preparation for that time, we have been inviting some of our favorite people back to Harvest Time and some, some key staff, pastoral staff that have been a part of the ministry, have served alongside harvest during the, you know, a long stretch of the time. And today on Harvest Time, we have the privilege of welcoming back Pastor Joe and Mrs. Henson, and we wanna say welcome back to Harvest and Harvest Time.
Joe Henson: Thank you. Thank you. We feel very welcomed back. Thank you much.
Gary Walton: Well, we’re so thankful for the ministry that God gave you on on the island of Guam. We’ll talk about that in a minute. And then, for sure on Harvest, Harvest Ministries for a long time. Both of you came as missionaries. Pastor Joe, why don’t you start by telling us about how God called you to Guam, and did you know anything about Harvest at that time?
Just tell us about the the first steps of your coming here.
Joe Henson: Okay. Well, Garthea and I had gotten married. She she finished college a year before I did and went off to teaching. When I finished, we got married and served as youth workers in two local churches in the Mainland and over the time, I loved working with the young people, but over time the Lord started to burden my heart more for pastoring full time. I had a simple thought one day and that is this, if I really want to reach the kids, I need to be reaching parents.
And so the Lord worked in my heart that way and he led us to WEF Ministries. Now WEF was the old worldwide European fellowship way back in the day. And by the time we joined up with WEF, they had not just been serving in Europe, but started to branch out around the world. And so they just used the initials WEF, W E F. I kinda got stuck in the church one time when I told the pastor said, what does WEF stand for?
Said, nothing. So you’re with a mission, it doesn’t stand for anything. But anyway, WEF eventually joined up with another mission and came Biblical Ministries Worldwide.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Joe Henson: And we were with them. And they sent us to Guam. WEF Ministries at the time had a missionary here in Guam, and they needed him in another ministry elsewhere. So they needed a pastor here in Guam for Pacific Independent Bible Church and that initially is what led us or brought us to Guam.
Garthea Henson: We learned about the opportunity to serve the Lord here on Guam But Dave McKean was currently the youth pastor at Harvest at that time. We already knew him. And he heard that we were coming. And he knew that I had been teaching. I started teaching in 1975.
And I had taught first grade. And then when we started deputation, I homeschooled our boys. But we did a lot of research on Guam education through military printouts, through what we could find in the PDN, and everything consistently pointed to the best education there was offered was at Harvest Christian Academy. And we knew that’s where we wanted the boys to be. Well, Dave, knowing that we were coming, he said, Garthea, we’ve got an opening in first grade.
And he said, I need to get you connected with Roger Wood. So Roger was principal at the time, he and Maxine were here for years.
Gary Walton: Yes.
Garthea Henson: And he called me long distance and interviewed me over the phone and hired me on that phone call.
Gary Walton: Wow
Garthea Henson: So what became our deficit in support that would go for our boys education was made up in my working at Harvest and took care of their books, their tuition, their uniforms, all of that. And the verses that I just kept clinging to during deputation, we firmly believed that the Lord would get us to Guam when we were ready.
Joe Henson: Yeah.
Garthea Henson: Because I think deputation is preparing the heart of the missionary as much as it is gaining prayer support and getting people behind you. And the verses the Lord kept giving me over and over and they have become a life verse. Isaiah 41 ten and thirteen. Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God.
I will strengthen you. Yea, I will help you. I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. And then verse 13 says, for I, the Lord, your God, will hold your right hand, saying unto you, fear not, I am the one who will help you. And I think the Lord was showing us through all of that, that even though he was going to use churches, he was going to use my teaching at harvest, he was going to use the prayers of other believers, that it was him that was providing all that we needed.
And that He was right there holding our hand and would continue to do that as we served Him.
Joe Henson: Isn’t it amazing how many times in life you have to learn how to trust God? Yeah. And you reach a level and think okay I’ve got this thing and then other things come up that are much huge, larger, and you have to learn a lesson all over again. Seems like. So that’s at least that was true in our case.
Gary Walton: And Pastor Joe, you you came, as a, you know, church pastor, missionary pastor for a few years. How many years were you pastoring before you came to Harvest?
Joe Henson: Okay. Let’s see. We came to PIBC, and, oh, we were there from from ’86 to wow.
Garthea Henson: I’d have it it runs together for me because I was at harvest the whole time.
Gary Walton: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Henson: There was about five or six years there and then another seven years at Family Baptist Church.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Joe Henson: And then then I got to Harvest at, I believe it was ’89 no. Not ’89. Yeah. When it was ’99. 1999, I think is when I came to
Gary Walton: Okay.
Joe Henson: To Harvest. Yeah. They asked me to come over.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Joe Henson: So
Gary Walton: So many years of ministry on Guam, and I know that it’s it’s still in your heart, even even now that you’re stateside. Pastor Joe, can you can you tell me about your first days of ministering actually at Harvest, the transition here, you got immediately involved with the Bible College. Just tell us about those early days of your ministry here.
Joe Henson: It was absolutely wonderful. We had had fellowship of course with Harvest through the years before and so we had gotten to know a few of the kids, the Bible College students, but every time we came and heard them sing, it just absolutely resonated with our hearts. The messages of their songs, their joy in the Lord, and in a lot of ways, a very simple faith in Christ. And we just were so impressed with that. When we got here, I enjoyed so much being able to step into the classroom and began teaching the students.
That was just absolutely a thrill knowing that they were here for specific purpose, trying to learn how to be pastors, be teachers, be servants, to go back to their islands and serve. And I just resonated with that completely. I love the idea in missions of training national leaders to go back and do the work in their own places, and and we totally resonate with that.
Gary Walton: You had a chance to travel to the islands, a few times, seeing the ministry of the students, the graduates. Tell us what that meant to you, and I know your ongoing prayers for the islands.
Joe Henson: Oh, it’s just thrilling. When you pour your life into people and then you see them leave, it’s always hard to see them leave because you’ve spent time together, you’re friends, you love them and you’re concerned for them and then they go out to work to serve. But then to go visit what they are doing and seeing how they have taken what has been taught and put it into their lives, their systems of thought, their ministry, and see them take the scriptures, open the scriptures, feed people, and and their people respond. There’s just nothing like that. It’s just outstanding.
Yeah.
Gary Walton: Well, your influence of both of you together is ongoing, and continuing in the islands. And, of course, I’ve told you, many times about just your influence here at Harvest is ongoing. We just had the privilege of having you share in our all staff, our orientation meetings, and, your knowledge and understanding of our staff is just so continues to be an influence on us.
Joe Henson: Oh, praise the lord.
Gary Walton: Let me ask a let me ask a question for Mrs. Henson on the academy side. Mrs. Henson, you began, you know, right away in the school, so teaching first and then pretty quickly moved to some administrative roles. Can you tell us about that? You had some teaching experience before, but it was different here.
Garthea Henson: Yes. There were some very big learning curves because you’re the minority and you are the one that’s out of your element and with multicultural classrooms, often several students who didn’t even speak English, both in the academy, and it didn’t matter what grade it goes all the way up through. So I did a lot of tutorial outside of class just to keep them on pace in the classroom. Then after, oh, the first several years, and first grade, then third grade, then ESL for first through third grade, then high school lit, and then eventually into the Bible College full time when I stepped into administration. And that was the last fifteen years that I was there.
And that fifteen years was with the Lord’s help my goal to duplicate what the Lord had allowed me to do in the hearts and lives of those who would be in those classrooms when I was gone, to give them the heart of Harvest. I ask my ladies often, if we do all the mechanics, we follow the scope and sequence and the lesson plans to the tee, but we have not reached the hearts of our children, we’ve missed it. We’re educating people to go out and become the enemy, not part of the family. So that is I think the crucial part. And that’s what’s so beautiful about the Bible College.
Because they come sent by their missionary pastors with a heart to learn and go back to minister. And even with the language barriers because I did English remedial with the Bible College for several years at the beginning. Megan Herron was very instrumental in that area too. But our goal was to get them to the point that they could begin to think in English because that’s what they were being taught. And that is, we could talk here for a long time, that’s a multi step process.
But to get them to where they’re not just hearing English and then translating back into their own language, then thinking of the answer in their language, then putting it back into English and then telling us but to hear it and think it in English and be able to give it back. So it’s not just just remedial. And it’s it’s a big process. But that was one of the thrills of the college Because they were eager to learn. And they wanted to see the practicality of what they were learning.
Not just list, not just facts, but how am I going to be able to use this when I go home? And that’s really what all teaching ought to be, whether it’s to ESL students or English speaking students. How are you going to use this? And a step further, how are you going to use it for the glory of God? Joe always would say if we teach children math, but no character, they’re going be great embezzlers.
Gary Walton: Yeah,
Garthea Henson: if we teach them to write, but no character, they can forge really well. So that character has got to go along with that teaching. And in the Bible college, just such a liberty to do that because that’s why they’re here is to learn those things to use for the Lord.
Gary Walton: I want to ask this to both of you. When you look back on, I’ll start with you, Mrs. Henson. When when you look back on those twenty five years, really, what would be some of your favorite memories? Or maybe you’re is there something that stands out that, you know, this part, of those twenty five years is really my my favorite thing?
Garthea Henson: Oh my. I have written down a few things here. With the Bible College specifically, I could give you a list
Gary Walton: I’m sure.
Garthea Henson: Of things where students learned faith, courage, sacrifice, and growth, what genuine growth was. Many of them came in those days and probably still, they didn’t have a room of their own. They didn’t have a bed of their own.
Gary Walton: Right.
Garthea Henson: So their learning curve was huge on every level. Physical, spiritual, emotional, academic, everything. And they bred a spirit of familia. And that became family. There was a genuine unity with the Bible College students.
And I think one of my very favorite things about Harvest is the singing of the Bible College students. Because that harmony is natural.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Garthea Henson: And that’s just sort of an object lesson of what’s happening internally. Learning to be in harmony with their surroundings, walking with the Lord in harmony, learning to deal with authority. Because with some of them, that’s new also, and having to follow protocol. And I think a lot of that Well, you can tell, you know, when it’s a good week and when it’s not by how they sing.
Gary Walton: Yeah, you’re right, you can.
Garthea Henson: So I think it’s just a tremendous reflection of that growth that they experience while they’re there. And that’s one of the things we miss most.
Gary Walton: Yeah. I’ve never heard that analogy before, Mrs. Henson. I think it’s beautiful. Yeah. I I resonate with every part of that.
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Pastor Joe, what about you? What what would you say would be your fondest memories and joys of those years of serving together here?
Joe Henson: Oh, my. Obviously, the the students, time with them, the one on one counseling times with them. Pastor Marty challenged me, gave me the position of the disciplinarian. And so I really got to spend a lot of good time. Well, good time from my vantage point, I don’t know about them, but with counseling and just talking with them and trying to reason through scripture, reason through why I’m doing what I’m doing, what is it that God wants for me, What happens when I make bad decisions as it’s carried out?
What do I need to make right decisions? And so we worked with them that way so that that was a huge thing. I remember one young man who showed up on my doorstep in Guahan, oh it must have been around 11:30 or twelve one night and of course that means he was AWOL from the campus, he knocks on my door, he says I gotta get out of here, I gotta leave And just to bring him in the house, so we talked for an hour or more and the Lord helped us diffuse things with him and got him, I took him back. He was troubled, I didn’t, there was no such thing as demerits. I’m just trying to help this kid and the Lord got him past that hurdle and he’s one of the most faithful pastors I’m hearing from the islands these days.
And you see that kind of thing over and over and over where God where they each face their giants so they don’t know how to handle it, but God shows them how to handle the giant. Another kid came and said, Every time I go home, my people on my island tell me I will never be able to be a pastor. And I said, Why? He said, Because they tell me your dad was a drunk, your dad got angry, your dad blinded a man in a drunken fight one night, and you’re gonna be just like him. And he could not seem to get past those thoughts.
Well, it’s a wonderful thing to open up the scriptures, take him to Ezekiel and say, wait a minute, sins of the fathers, let’s see what scripture has to say about that. Amen. And to walk him through that. And he is also a pastor on one of the islands these days. So just what a blessing.
Gary Walton: Yeah. To look back on God’s work over the years and to hear those stories is is are powerful reminders. If you can, I know that you would say this, but if we can just think of how many specific instances like that, God has used the people of the ministry, to literally change the future, not just of individuals and families, but but sometimes, you know, whole whole islands and whole directions? It’s really thrilling.
Joe Henson: Yeah. It is, and only God can do that.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Time goes so fast, Pastor Joe. We’re we’re looking to Harvest’s 50th anniversary. What excites you about the foundation that God’s laid and the opportunities that are still ahead for Harvest?
Joe Henson: Oh my, Pastor. There’s so many things that come to mind and as I was thinking about these ideas about the 50th coming up, I marvel and I’m thinking back down, I wasn’t there for all 50, but we were there for almost, I think it’s five or six years we weren’t on island yet when going to school was going. School was 11 years old. Oh, it was 11, okay.
Gary Walton: Yeah, no, you were here during the heart of everything for sure.
Joe Henson: Well, actually the Lord brought some scriptures to my thinking. And when I think about God’s faithfulness in the past for Harvest, a kind of an odd passage comes up until you get to the last part, the last verse. That’s Lamentations three twenty two and twenty three. And when I think back over to fifty years, I’m reminded of the truth of Lamentations three twenty two and twenty three. It’s of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
Gary Walton: Amen.
Joe Henson: If there’s one thing we have to say is that God has been faithful to Harvest Ministries and to the people of Harvest through the years without belief. No one can walk the campus without seeing that God has been building something here that goes far beyond what any human vision could have accomplished. It could not happen. So I have to say, look what God has done. Yeah.
That’s been the past. But then when I’m thinking about the present, and I think of Philippians one six, because I really believe that God isn’t finished with Harvest yet. I watch you men and hear from afar what you’re still doing and God isn’t finished there because He who has begun a good work in the believers at Harvest will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. God is still working there. God is building believers there at Harvest.
We’re seeing God to continue calling young people from across the Pacific. He’s calling US service personnel who come to harvest, get hearts right, get their lives straightened out, and go into ministry. Mhmm. There’s Asian transplants to Guam that he’s called. There’s there’s local Chamorros that he’s called.
And God is still transforming hearts and and growing trained servants through his word. So I have to say then, not look what he’s done, but I have to say, look what he’s doing right now.
Gary Walton: Amen.
Joe Henson: And then I think about the future. In Ephesians three twenty comes to mind. And pastor, I truly believe that Harvest greatest days are still ahead in the future.
Gary Walton: I do too.
Joe Henson: Because our God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that is working in you all there. He is in you and working in you and through you. The foundation he’s laid here building a local church with extensive people reaching ministries, training island leaders to reach their own people with the gospel. And that vision is as relevant today as it was fifty years ago and maybe even more so now. Look what God is going to do at Harvest.
To God be the glory.
Gary Walton: Pastor Joe, I think about the the blessings that we find in the scriptures, and I have a sense just listening to you, listening to Mrs. Henson, it’s as if you have left us with this blessing of a godly man who’s invested and wife who’ve invested their lives here, have seen God at work, and, you know, with your words and with your prayer Mhmm. Are are leaving this, you know, sending us with this blessing, and I’m moved by it. I know our church is, and we’re we’re thankful thankful for your faithfulness, through many years, at Harvest, but but really on the island. We love Guam and the people of Guam and the churches of Guam, so thank you for that. And, we’re praying that God would allow us to be faithful to the heritage, to the baton that’s been passed for the last fifty years that we’d see a a future fifty years that God would bless in ways that would be exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
Joe Henson: Amen. Amen. That’s our prayer for you all.
Gary Walton: Well, thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Henson, so much for your
Garthea Henson: My pleasure.
Gary Walton: We’ll look forward to continuing our conversation. Thank you for your prayers for our fiftieth.
I know that our people will be thinking about you and others that have ministered through these years and thankful for you.
Joe Henson: Amen, brother. Thank you so much.
Chris Harper: And thank you for listening to Harvest timeT We’d like to personally invite you again to Harvest Bbaptist Church this week. We meet at 08:45AM and 10:45AM every Sunday morning. Japanese and Korean translation is offered during the 10:45AM service. That’s also the service we broadcast live on 88.1 FM and khmg.org.
We hope you can join us this Sunday. Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.