This week we celebrate the 51st anniversary of Harvest Baptist Church with special guests from around the ministry and guest host Pastor Jared Baldwin.
Download the Anniversary 2026 Harvest Time
Episode Transcript
Chris Harper: Welcome to Harvest Time. My name is Chris Harper, and our guest host on today’s program is Pastor Jared Baldwin, one of the pastors, the executive pastor at Harvest Baptist Church. Every week, we spend these twenty five minutes together telling you the stories of our church by interviewing our members and other friends of the ministry. We have two services every Sunday, the first at 08:45AM, the second at 10:45AM. There is Japanese and Korean translation available during the second service at 10:45AM.
We also livestream that service at hbcguam dot org. Hbcguam.org. This week, pastor Gary Walton will be back. Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Jared Baldwin.
Jared Baldwin: Thanks, Chris. Glad to be here today and glad to be part of this broadcast as pastor Gary Walton’s on his way back from a stateside trip recruiting new faculty and staff members for Harvest Ministries. And it’s a special Sunday because it is our anniversary Sunday, and we celebrate it every fall. Even though the church technically started in the spring, we started celebrating an annual get together. It fits our timing really well-to-do it in the fall time.
And so we have our big anniversary Sunday service this Sunday and a fiesta for everyone as well, and I think it’s gonna be just a lot of fun. And speaking of fun, we wanted to do a little something different as far as interviewing some people for Harvest Time that span the ages of Harvest. So Harvest is 51 years old, almost 51 years old now. And we were trying to think of people that had been here at different periods of time in Harvest ministry. And so we have four guests with us today, Yoh, Bree, Brittany, and Gina.
And some of their voices are familiar on the radio here on KHMG. Some of their faces are familiar. If you’ve been around Harvest for any amount of time, you see them around. And that’s in our church, our college, our school, our foster care ministry, and I see a lot of them in the coffee shop a lot of times as well. So I’m gonna let each one of them introduce themselves and ask them to to not only say who they are, but when did they come to Harvest, and what was their original connection to Harvest?
And I’ll start right over here with Yoh.
Yoh Shirato: Hi. My name is Yoh. I came to Harvest, in 1988 as a tenth grade high school student straight from Japan.
Jared Baldwin: How was your English in 1988?
Yoh Shirato: Zero. Really? Yeah. Wow. My classmate sat in front of me, turned around, said, how many fingers in my hand?
The first day, and I didn’t know what he said. Oh, wow. I was so embarrassed. That was my worst memory.
Jared Baldwin: Oh, no. Okay. Alright. And we weren’t even gonna ask worst memories, but thank you for sharing that. Okay.
Bree Fain: My name is Bree, and, I was actually born here in 1998. My parents came out, the summer before I was born. And we spent four years here. And then I have the pleasure of coming back full time. So, yeah, my dad was, I believe, the bible teacher and then the youth pastor, and my mom worked in the front office.
Jared Baldwin: That’s great. And you had a few visits coming back over the years too.
Bree Fain: So I think I had three or four visits coming back, and then this past May made it permanent.
Jared Baldwin: Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. Okay.
Brittany Malomai: Hi. My name is Brittany Lang Malomai, married name now. I think I came for the first time in 2005 for one of the missions conference with my parents. The connection to Harvest is my parents. My dad graduated, I believe in ‘ninety two from Harvest Baptist Bible Institute, and my mom graduated in 1994.
Jared Baldwin: Wow. I think your dad was in the first class. Right?
Brittany Malomai: Yes.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. He’s in the OG picture of Harvest Baptist Bible Institute. Okay.
Gina Odermatt: Hi. My name is Gina Odermatt, and I come here in 1987. I wasn’t saved, and then I got saved over here, and I start working 1988.
Jared Baldwin: Wow. And what what did you start working? What was your job here?
Gina Odermatt: My job is a teacher helper. The three years old.
Jared Baldwin: Wow. Okay. And let me go back to Brittany. Brittany, what do you do on campus?
Brittany Malomai: I am assistant manager to the hub.
Jared Baldwin: That’s great. Alright. Bree?
Bree Fain: I am the event coordinator and social media manager at Harvest House, the foster care ministry.
Jared Baldwin: Okay. And Yoh?
Yoh Shirato: I teach at HCA and HBBC, teaching various Bible classes.
Jared Baldwin: Okay. Yeah. And, I think it’s a neat story, Yoh, because you came here not even speaking English, and now you teach in the college and in the school, and, I think it’s really cool how God’s worked all that out. And actually bringing all of you here to Harvest, you all happen to work here as well in different aspects of the ministry. Not everyone we have on Harvest Time are employees.
Most of the time, it’s church members no matter where they work, but it seemed like a neat opportunity because there’s so many intertwined parts of Harvest Ministries to talk to some people that are here every day. And so, I wanted to ask you each, what’s your earliest memory of your time at Harvest? Like, one of your first good memories you already talked about, maybe the not so good memory of not speaking English on day one, but what would be one of your early memories? And let’s go… Let’s let’s start with Brittany.
What… What’s one of your earliest memories of being here at Harvest?
Brittany Malomai: It wasn’t actually at Harvest campus, but I remember there was a time where families, they wanted to do a dinner with my parents and other missionaries. I remember going over, and I think that’s where I met your daughter, Kayla Ramirez now, and a lot of the other girls that I see still around on island, and we were just playing underneath. I guess they made a fort, and I I remember that because it was so much fun being around them.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Bree, what… What’s one of your earliest good memories?
Bree Fain: I… Oh, and anytime I think about this, I always actually… I have a memory of being in the nursery with Mama O. Like, I knew that we had those, like, triple decker, like, beds, like, the nursery beds. And, like, I remember Mama O braiding my hair and always, like, joking about, like, I would hold the babies, you know, even though I was a baby because I, like, always love babies.
But, yeah, I think my earliest is probably the nursery. Like, I remember moving back to The States, and I could, like, tell my parents the layout of the nursery, and they thought that that was, like, crazy. But I think it’s just because it’s such a loving environment and, you know, Mama O did so good
Jared Baldwin: Wow.
Bree Fain: Helping raise me. So
Jared Baldwin: Wow. That’s that’s a great memory. I don’t even remember the first time I met Mama O, and I was a full grown adult. So… But, we’ve enjoyed working together a lot.
And so, Gina, what is one of your earliest memories?
Gina Odermatt: Well, have too many good memories, but I’m just gonna, well, when I, I don’t know if this is good, are you asking good or know memory, just yeah. Well, first time I work over here, and I don’t know what to do because in The Philippines, if you disobey your teachers, they will spank behind, but I don’t know how to do it over here. So when the first time I work over here, when the first teachers get out from the classroom and I’m the only one staying with them, all of them get up. And then I said, what I’m gonna do? And like I said, the English is not good.
And I said, oh, I’m gonna say. So I go run over there and ask the supervisor, Mrs. Bell. I said, What happened to do? I said, She talked to them, and I told my husband, I’m not going back there because no children, there’s no discipline.
They just didn’t don’t listen to me.
Jared Baldwin: Oh, boy.
Gina Odermatt: But thank God I come back, until now, I’m still here.
Jared Baldwin: That’s great. That’s great. And then
Gina Odermatt: I I cry, by the way.
Jared Baldwin: Well, sure. Well, I’m sure that’s that’s a stressful that’s a stressful early memory of trying to be a…
And now you’ve helped raise so many of our kids, and, now some of my grandchildren are in there. So that’s awesome. Yoh, what’s one of your early memories?
Yoh Shirato: I have many good memories, despite the bad start. One of them… When I think of good memory, I got my first job, my life, cleaning cafeteria tiles after school under, Mr. Lovmo, and that’s when I met Helmer Lang, Brittany’s dad, and, had a great fellowship, fun time after school
Jared Baldwin: in captivating. What what was… What did you have to do to clean the tiles out? Like, on the hands? Oh, on the floor buffer.
Yoh Shirato: Got it. Got it. I learned how to run that.
Jared Baldwin: And Yeah. That’s a lost art, by the way. A generation that doesn’t know how to use a buffer, so it’s a skill.
Yoh Shirato: Missing the fun.
Jared Baldwin: That’s right. Okay. So I’m gonna ask you guys a question I didn’t prep you for, but what do you think makes Harvest unique or special? Because we have a lot of people here at Harvest, Harvest Baptist Church, Harvest Christian Academy, Harvest Baptist Bible College, Harvest House Foster Care, KHMG Radio. We have all these different things, and we have all these ministries under those.
And what we hear from a lot of people is if they move away from here, they say, boy, I just have a hard time finding a place like Harvest. What do you think it is that makes Harvest a little different than maybe other places? Not not always better, just different. Harvest has a unique culture, but what is it? What would you guys say would make Harvest unique?
Bree Fain: I think something that I’ve really loved to observe is, like, the different demographics that exist in… Within Harvest, like the military and the teachers and HBBC. Generally, like, a vast population is not from Guam. And so each of us are here without, like, family. Like, we’re all far away from family, and I think we each recognize that in a small or big way.
And so we find family within our cell… Like, within each other. And I think that, like, you you pour in maybe a little bit more than you would at… In The States, like, if you had your family close by. But there’s a lot more of, like, just intentional community because it’s the only community that we have, but it’s also, like, a great, beautiful Christ centered community.
So it’s it’s family. Like, you know, it’s the Harvest Familia, and it’s really… It’s it’s true. So not only does it become your, like, community group, but it… Or your…
And your friends, but it becomes, like, your your family. You know? Some some people begin to feel closer than… Or as close as, like, you know, your blood relatives. And, it’s, like, even sad thinking about going home for Christmas because I’m like, oh, I don’t get to spend time with my Harvest family for Christmas.
But, I think that’s what sets it apart is that you really have to lean in on each other a lot more than maybe in The States.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. That’s good. We… My wife and I experienced that before we were at Harvest being stationed overseas in the military, being part of a church community overseas, you do… Because you go through ups and downs together, you worship together, you celebrate holidays together, you end up getting really bonded with that group of people, and it does become your family for that period of time in Harvest because, there’s just so much…
I mean, we just all went through a typhoon together, and that really creates some really good memories and and makes the bond great. So what else do you guys think makes Harvest unique? Yoh, what do you think?
Yoh Shirato: I second, Bree said. You know, there are many countries with multicultural, background, like Singapore. I lived in Singapore for four years, and it’s multicultural. There are, you know, different people groups, but they are segmented. You know?
The people go to Chinese church. They go to Malaysian church, Indian community, etcetera. But here at Harvest, it’s all together as one people. And, truly, when you come to church and look around, it’s a microcosm, a glimpse of heaven would be like. Yeah.
And, the Lord really chose to bless the ministry here.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Yeah. I remember, David Ring, son of the founding pastor, saying that the original kind of slogan for Harvest, and it’s it’s on a picture of an old van that they had in the very first years, there’s no place like this place. And, Harvest seems to definitely echo what Yoh was saying. Gina, what do you think?
What’s what’s unique about Harvest to you?
Gina Odermatt: I never been in another church, so this is my church. And I think because different culture, just like they said, and then because of the word of God, we get along, you know, and we learn each other. I think that’s special, the word of God and then the preaching and Yeah. That should be in any church.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Well, hey. So You know, I’m I’m I’m glad you stuck with this one the whole time. That’s great. Brittany, what about you?
You’ve… Because you didn’t grow up here. You’ve been… You’ve lived in The States. You’ve lived in Micronesia.
You lived in Guam. You’ve been a part of multiple churches. What is it that makes Harvest unique to you?
Brittany Malomai: I think I wanna backpack out of all what they were saying just because there are many different cultures that you see at Harvest Baptist Church. And just going back home, yes, it’s my home family and I love it there, but there is something special about Harvest. I want to say it’s because of the Lord bringing us all together, but there’s also an understanding. Yes, you’re from a different island. Yes, you’re from The States.
Yes, you’re from somewhere else. But we, like I said, have that understanding, like this is awesome, just serving, having one ministry mindset.
Jared Baldwin: That’s good. That’s really good. Well, with that then, and knowing that we have a lot of new people that come to Guam, a lot of new people come to Harvest, Since you guys were all strangers to Harvest at one time and then came here, what advice would you give someone that’s maybe new to Harvest and they want to they want to get plugged in, they wanna have strong relationships here. What what advice would you give someone for them to be able to really get the most out of the blessing of being part of Harvest, whether they’re here for a short time or a long time? Yoh, what would you say to that?
Don’t be afraid of people. Open up yourself and just be part of the community. And the more you get to… More you open up yourself, the more the benefit you’ll receive.
Yep. Yeah. That’s great. Bree, what do you say? You’re you’re the newest of the group here as far as joining here full time.
Bree Fain: Yeah. I think something that resonates with me is, like, you know, southern culture is like, don’t be a burden. My mom always says fish starts to stink after three days. And so coming here… Coming back here as an adult, it was like that timidness to, like, step back in because, like, oh, this is this is not my culture.
This is not my… You know, this is not… I got to earn this. But when you… I think it’s just a culture of Guam too.
It’s very different, but Harvest really embodies it. It’s really like a welcome home. Like, it’s… Like, that’s… I got it the first four days I was here.
Welcome home. Welcome home. And I think, like, what allowed me to step in deeper was accepting that that, like, this is a this is a community. This is a family. And, like, I want…
I wanna, like, be a part of all that I can be a part of because I’m I’m I’m wanted, and I’m I’m a needed necessary part of this body of Christ. And so for me, like, an overthinker, I think that was huge for me to to accept that, like, welcome home, and this is yours. And we get to share… Like, Guam is nobody’s. It’s everyone’s.
Like, Harvest is ours. Harvest is the Lord’s, and it’s it’s something that gets to be shared and experienced. And so I would say that, like, accept the generosity because it’s from a genuine place and accept the hospitality. And, you know, when you’re poured into, you have a a better way of pouring, you know, into other people as well.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. Out of the overflow of your life, for sure. Brittany, what would you say is advice for someone that’s maybe new or pretty new to Harvest?
Brittany Malomai: So Harvest has a lot of events, and I know, it’s great to be plugged into those because you don’t necessarily have to be right in front of people. There’s always help that’s needed, whether it be in the background or right in front. So I would say just get plugged into any of those, like Festival of Lights or Harvest House. There’s a lot of things that Harvest House does. So just to get plugged into those kind of events.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Yeah. Great. Gina, you’ve seen a lot of people, come to Harvest over the years. What…
What’s the advice for someone that’s new to Harvest?
Gina Odermatt: Well, when you are a new when you are a new person, we… Of course, you’re gonna shy to, oh, I’m gonna get in that area. I’m gonna get… It was just the beginning. But my husband’s always are telling me that just in case if you’re gonna go to another church, give them a chance, listen the word of God.
If the preacher will preach the Bible, that’s the church that you need. But if you… If they don’t, get out. Yep. So if you are a new people, not because Harvest is well known, as a new Christian, listen the listen the preachers and study the word of God.
Jared Baldwin: That’s good. That’s good advice. That’s awesome advice. I think, all of you have touched on different things that are obvious to people that have been here for a while, but people that are maybe listening, you know, anywhere in the world, listening to the podcast of this or listening to our streaming or broadcast of this, they might be saying, oh, wow. That I would’ve never expected that.
And people that haven’t been to Guam, they don’t even know what to picture. Like, they don’t know what… What’s Guam like? Is it like one of the other islands? Is it…
And so Guam is very unique already, and then you add in what God’s doing here at Harvest for the last fifty one years, and it’s really a blessing. And I agree with everything you guys have said. There are so many blessings of being part of a good church community, and we, of course, you know, as as pastors and as a church, wanna make sure that we’re being a blessing to our community. So let me ask you guys one more question. As you guys have gotten involved in church and then, of course, in your day to day jobs, what’s one of the biggest blessings of what you get to do here?
Gina Odermatt: I do work with the children and… Because I am not good to share the gospel to the older people. I meant not older. But the children are just willing to listen what you’re gonna tell them. And I remember I was a helper K-5, and then the teachers give me this job that she’s only work half day, and she told me that just you don’t wanna give a Bible story every day.
So I did. And God give me wisdom to to talk to these children from the beginning to the end of the Bible. And then we have 25 students that time, and I count that 24 children got saved.
Jared Baldwin: Wow.
Gina Odermatt: Not because of me, but because of God’s. Because what I did to them that Moses’ God is my God. So if you want my God to be your God, you have to ask me. And then whatever you do outside, I’m just I’m just sitting down to come to me. So I’m just gonna make the story short.
And every day I give them a Bible story, and then they will tell me, they come to me, Mama O, I want your God to be my God. So that time I’m able to share the gospel.
Jared Baldwin: Wow. Wow.
Gina Odermatt: That’s the… And also, I have a one child that she is staying with me all the time because she didn’t obey her teachers. So she she told me, she have a Bible. I said, what what is that? Do know that Bible is the word of God?
And the Bible said, children obey your parents, but your parents is not here. Where are the teachers? You obey your teachers here too. So she said, we really… I said, I want God to forgive my sin, you know, because I kept telling him every day.
And then we come inside the classroom, we kneel down, I locked the door. And then we follow, I kneel down and she kneeled down too. And I said, and I asked God to help her, what she gonna say to you, you ask Jesus to forgive your sin, three years old. Wow. So don’t underestimate the children.
You just give them the gospel.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. That’s good.
And Then let the God touch their heart. And then she asked, Dear Jesus forgive me. Even remember everything what she said. And she’s folding her hands like this and kneeling down.
Gina Odermatt: And then I said, my knee is really hurting, but she still… I said, are you are you are you done, Nilin? She she said, I’m waiting for you, miss Mama O, to ask Jesus to forgive forgive your sins.
Jared Baldwin: Oh, that’s sweet. That’s sweet.
Gina Odermatt: That’s three years old.
Jared Baldwin: Wow. Well, thank you for doing that, Gina. There’s there’s generations of kids that heard the gospel.
Gina Odermatt: Just like I said, you are teachers. Tell them anyway.
Jared Baldwin: That’s right. Yep. Yep. I’ve… My my own grandchildren come out of the nursery singing sing high, sing low, and and all the all the little gospel songs that you guys, I can hear it playing all day long in there, and I know that you and you’ve trained your staff to do a good job with that too.
So, Brittany, what’s what’s one of the highlights of what you get to do here at Harvest?
Brittany Malomai: I get to work in the HUB where I see many people come through there. I love my coworkers. I love my boss, both of my bosses, Mikuni and Pastor Jared. So it’s great working with them. I’m very thankful for the crib too.
I just welcomed a new baby in February. So it’s nice that there’s people that love on her, and it gives me a peace of mind. So I’m thankful for that too.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Bree, what’s the highlight of what you get to do?
Bree Fain: I think generally just getting to see, like, being where my parents started serving together, you know, young in their marriage, getting to see, like, the fruit of of their labor still on this island is very, like, encouraging to me of, you know, saying yes every day even in this part of my life, no matter how many years I’m here, it has a lasting effect. And, like, that’s just been a huge highlight to see their faithfulness and God’s work through them… Just them simply saying yes to the Lord. And, you know, they would and I would as well just give all the the glory and credit to the Lord. But, yeah, getting to see that and hear people talk about, you know, how much they loved…
Like, my parents loved on them and the ministries that my parents were involved in and and, like, created and opening up their home. It’s an encouragement, it’s like, it’s it’s an example to me that, like, I wanna model my life around that, but, ultimately, they, you know, they modeled their life around the the lord and and hospitable… Being hospitable and things like that. And so I think that’s probably the biggest highlight. And…
Because they were only here for four years. Yeah. And, you know, the… What they did in four years has eternal impact. Yeah.
And so it’s just, like, my encouragement in my heart, like, every day to just, like, however long God has me here to leave an impact that lasts and matters in eternity rather than, like, you know, things that will fade away. So, yeah, that’s probably been a cool highlight to see in my adult years.
Jared Baldwin: That’s great. It’s the blessing of having a ministry that’s been around a while is that the… You know, you’re talking multiple generations of people coming through and being blessed and being able to rehearse some of those some of those testimonies and things. So, Yoh, let’s wrap it up with you. What what would be a blessing of something you get to do every day?
Yoh Shirato: Well, as a Bible teacher, I get to, preach the gospel, to multiple levels of maturity, high school students and college level, and, yeah, just love, the freshness, to get to preach the gospel every day and have different, reactions. Some harden their hearts, but some, really open up and, you know, come to know the Lord and get baptized, to see through that. And, even between classes, I enjoy, playing chess with, a high school student, showing up my skills, not… All those, little things keep me young.
Jared Baldwin: Sure. Sure. Absolutely. Yes. I remember when you had jet black hair, so, not so much now.
But you have lots of it.
Yoh Shirato: I got married.
Jared Baldwin: There you go.
Cut that out. Cut that out.
Well, wanted I to thank you guys for coming up today. I know that, taking a break from your busy schedule and getting to go back and do some of the same things you just talked about. You guys are a blessing to our ministry, and it’s neat to get a cross section of many years, many decades of our ministry. So thank you, Gina, Brittany, Bree, Yoh, for coming up to Harvest Time today.
Bree Fain: Thank you. Thank you. You’re welcome.
Chris Harper: And thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, at this point in the program, we always wanna personally invite you again to services at Harvest Baptist Church. We have services at 08:45AM and 10:45AM every Sunday. It’s during the 10:45AM service that we have Japanese and Korean translation available, and it’s also the 10:45AM service that we broadcast live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org. We hope to see you this Sunday.
Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.