Pastor Walton is joined by Bethany and Devin Taylor this week, as we look ahead to Orphan Sunday. They discuss the way God uses families to change lives.
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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, we spend these twenty five minutes together telling you the stories of our church, interviewing our members and other friends of the ministry. We’d like to invite you to join us at Harvest Baptist Church this week. Two services Sunday, 08:45AM and 10:45AM.
We have Japanese and Korean translation available during the 10:45AM service. That’s also when we live stream at hbcguam.org. Hbcguam.org. This week, it’s orphan Sunday at the church, and we’re back in our series, the 10 foolish things people do to mess up their lives. This time from Exodus 20:8-11, failing to honor God’s day.
Let’s begin the program by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton. Hi, Pastor.
Gary Walton: Hafa adai, Chris. I’m excited for this weekend. We love Orphan Sunday around here. It’s a special reminder to us of God’s care for those who are most vulnerable. And this Sunday, we’ll be able to celebrate that together, and I hope share the burden again with our church family.
I’ll talk with you about that in just a minute. And then we’re coming back after a few weeks off in our series, the fall series on, 10 foolish things people do to mess up their lives. Really, it’s a teaching through the chapter, chapter 20 of Exodus and the 10 Commandments. And we’re coming along to commandment number four and talking about this idea of failing to honor God’s day. It is an important conversation in the world that we live today, and so I’d invite you to come and join with us at either one of those morning services.
Well, we’re really happy to have Bethany Taylor with us and also Devin Taylor. Bethany is the Executive Director of Harvest House, and Devin is Josh and Bethany’s son. And we’re gonna have a chance to hear Devin’s story, his spiritual story of his life, and then also talk with Bethany about Harvest House, about the needs for foster care here on Guam. So I’ve been looking forward to this. First of all, I want to welcome both of you, and I want to welcome you specifically, Devin.
Thank you for being with us today.
Devin Taylor: Good morning.
Gary Walton: I’m glad that you’re with us, and I know you’ve been pretty excited about coming and being on the radio, right? That’s true. You listen to KHMG, is that right? Do you listen a lot?
Devin Taylor: I listen to it on the weekends because I don’t have it available because I’m at school.
Gary Walton: Okay. Well, you can’t listen to it at school. That’s true. But listen on the weekends. Devin, often talks about programs that he’s hearing on the radio and things that he’s learning.
He’s got a pretty good perspective of what the timeline of his events on the radio, and so that’s really great. So it’s a thrill for us to have you here, Devin, and talking to people that are listening today. Really, thank you for coming and being with us.
Devin Taylor: You’re welcome. And I also said that this will air at six tonight.
Gary Walton: It will, yeah. You knew exactly when it was going to be on Friday night and then, Saturday morning and Sunday morning too. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
That’s great. Bethany, welcome back to Harvest Time. Thank you again for being here.
Bethany Taylor: Thank you, Pastor. It’s always a privilege to be here and speak on our story and talk about Orphan Sunday coming up. It’s something heavy on my heart and just really looking forward to the opportunity to sharing about that.
Gary Walton: Yeah, it’s an important time of year as we’re leading into the Christmas season, some very specific needs with families here on island. And then it’s just generally, it’s good to keep this idea fresh on our hearts. And so thank you for being willing to come back and talk with us. Sunday is Orphan Sunday, and we desire this Sunday to put a light on the tremendous need for foster families on Guam, and we want to talk about that. But it’s also, I think on Harvest Time, a chance for us to talk about one of the amazing stories of grace that, has happened here at Harvest and particularly in the Taylor family.
And, that’s in God’s good work in Devin’s life. So Devin, let me ask you a couple of questions and we want to hear how God has worked in your life. How old are you, first of all?
Devin Taylor: I am 16.
Gary Walton: Okay. 16, and you go to school. Where do you go to school?
Devin Taylor: Here at Harvest.
Gary Walton: Alright. Do you like school?
Devin Taylor: Yeah. I do.
Gary Walton: Yeah? What’s your favorite thing about going to school?
Devin Taylor: I like to my favorite one is having lunch.
Gary Walton: Well, that’s a pretty good thing. Yeah.
Devin Taylor: But my favorite subject is world history and art.
Gary Walton: Those are great to study and and to learn from. Yeah. I’m thrilled. Just recently, officially joined Harvest Baptist Church. And I was able to lead, we call it our Foundations class.
It’s sort of the information about Harvest that leads those to know whether they’re going to join together with our Church family. And part of our process as a Church is that a full member for a young person would come after they’re 16 years old. And as Devin came up to the point of the age 16, he came up to me and said, I want to join Foundations class. Right? Isn’t that what you said?
Why did you want to join Foundations Class?
Devin Taylor: Because I wanted to help people that needed help around Harvest Baptist Church and Harvest Ministries.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Devin Taylor: Usually, would like to help out with the maintenance group.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Devin Taylor: See what they could have me help with and stuff.
Gary Walton: Well, I loved that. I mean, just his very genuine desire to be, you know, committed. That’s what membership is. It’s a commitment to the family, to the Church family. And Devin was, Hey, when I can, I’m ready to do that.
I want to join together with this Church family and serve together. And you are serving in a number of areas. We were just talking about that before we started recording, but you, serve with the bus ministry. Right? Yes.
What other things are you doing to serve God’s church here at Harvest?
Devin Taylor: I, I’m in a service club here at Harvest Christian Academy. Okay. So what it basically is is you help around and, like, just clean up the campus and see if there’s any trash on the ground you could have.
Gary Walton: Yeah. That’s a good thing. And you’re involved in Heart for Christ. Right? Yeah.
Our student ministry here. Your family’s very involved in church and you are together with that. So that’s really great, Devin. You and I have talked about this. That was so fantastic to see you desire and to join with this commitment to the church family.
And actually, your testimony has been a good example to others, in their teens on that same commitment. So so proud of you, about that. Let me ask you well, let me ask you this question first. You are, the son of Josh and Bethany Taylor, and you have how many how many children are in your family?
Devin Taylor: So five boys plus me. Okay. And we all stay in one room, and we have one girl in one room, and Annabelle’s already off in college.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’s a great family with, a lot of other brothers and sisters coming coming in and going. Devin, what you think is the best thing about being in the Taylor family?
Devin Taylor: The best thing? I like to, like, help out with stuff. Usually, I help out with laundry.
Gary Walton: Wow. That is good.
Bethany Taylor: Way to go, Dev.
Gary Walton: Your mom is a lucky lady. Your mom and dad both. Right?
Devin Taylor: Yeah.
Gary Walton: No. That’s great.
Devin Taylor: I also do my own laundry.
Gary Walton: Good job. Good job. I’m proud of you.
Know, Devin, the main thing I wanted to talk with you about is just your spiritual story. I know that you love Jesus. Can you tell me how you became a Christian?
Devin Taylor: Yeah. So I became a Christian when I was 10 years old, and I wanted to know what salvation meant. So I asked my sister, Annabelle, if she could help me, and she did. And she she read, Romans six twenty three, which says, for the righteousness of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So at that point on, I knew I was a sinner, and I needed to put my faith in him.
But before that, I was a shaken baby at three months old, which resulted in many health complications, and the doctors didn’t know that I was gonna survive, but God knew. Amen. He had other plans for me. And I was brought into a loving family who cared for me. And before I was praying that I would one day be saved, and I thought I was, but actually I was not.
And that was when my sister helped me, and she came along. She came by me and helped me getting to know the Lord and helping me be saved.
Gary Walton: Devin, that’s a fantastic, powerful story of God’s work in your life. That verse that you quoted, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It’s like a gift. This salvation is a gift that God had available to you, and all you had to do is to reach out and receive it. Right?
Devin Taylor: That’s all you have to do.
Gary Walton: Yeah. And what happens when you reach out and receive that gift of salvation?
Devin Taylor: You are able to get it?
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You are. The Bible says that you become a child of God.
You are adopted into his family, and he is your he forgives you. He becomes your leader, your lord. It’s really it’s really a powerful, story of what god, that what God does in our lives, and thank you for being willing to share that. I know that we’re on the radio, but that’s just coming straight from Devin’s heart. He didn’t have any notes in front of him.
And thank you, Devin, for really sharing exactly what God has done for you in, in your life. Bethany, you’ve sixteen years with Devin. Can you tell us a little bit more of that story?
Bethany Taylor: Absolutely. You know, there’s something beautiful about looking in the past. And when God plants a seed in your life of a very scary thing to say yes to, that was fostering for Josh and I. We’re like, felt called to do it, but a lot of questions which can bring fear and can can keep you from saying yes. But we signed up to foster.
And CPS, that was our very first phone call.
Gary Walton: Child Protective Services.
Bethany Taylor: Child Protective Services call us up and say, we have this 18 month old baby boy who has who’s cortically blind, severely disabled, who is a shaken baby. So he would have had a normal life, yet was his life was completely altered by the hands of physical abuse. And I remember that phone call. Didn’t expect that to be our first phone call and hung up, talked to Josh. And I said, Josh, can’t believe CPS is calling us to take this little 18 month old baby.
He was shaken baby at three months old. What are we gonna do? Like, this is transforming. This is gonna completely change our lives. Are we ready for that kind of challenge?
Disability? I I’m not called for this. Like, are are you sure? You know, like, and I just remember him looking at me like such a dead face. I’m just like, hold up in in Josh’s way.
Hold up. He’s like, why are we doing this? And I was like, oh, like, I could think of all the little expectations I had of why I was doing it. Oh, I would hold this little baby from the hospital. I’ll be his mommy.
I’ll take care of all these little kids. And it just was like a shock to my brain and my heart. And he goes, no, that’s not why we’re doing it. He’d read me completely. And he’s like, we are gonna say yes, Bethany, because people on Guam are hurting, and we’re gonna start helping people on Guam.
I still get chills talking about it.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Me too.
Bethany Taylor: Like, to have that kind of man’s voice and that kind of leadership, for one, it was hard for him to say yes in the first place to this big calling. And for him to say that, I it was such a release of fear and anxiety and just like, yes. Really? Like, yes.
I can say yes to that. If you’re on board, I can say yes to hurting people. And we both can say yes to Devin and not accept all like, think about all the challenges he’s gonna come with, but literally accept the fact that we’re gonna help another family on Guam that’s hurting. And he looked at me and said, if this is who CPS is calling us for, this is who God is calling us for. I still remember these as very powerful words.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Bethany Taylor: When a husband can speak that kind of truth to his wife. And I was like, yes. I called them up. I’m like, yes. We’ll take him.
And immediately that little boy comes through our front doors. They carry him in. He’s just full of smile. Like, one thing Devin never lacked was emotion. He was a happy baby and just full of life.
Lots of movement going on. His eyes moving. His hands moving. And Annabelle just fell. She was three years old.
She fell in love with Devin. Was they were by, you know, each other’s side the entire time. Just best friends. They grew up together. I can tell his he’s looking over there like, yep.
She’s my best friend. And they were just super cute together, and I’m just so thankful we got to say yes to that. But even more than that, I’m just so thankful we knew our why. Mhmm. So from that point, every other call after that was a clear reason we’re gonna say yes because people are hurting, and we are gonna help people on Guam.
And just bestow that love. We’re not we don’t have any expectation of adoption or how long they’re gonna stay in our home or whatever it is. We’re just gonna help people.
Gary Walton: Devin, do you remember how old you were when you were officially adopted by the Taylor family? Or maybe your mom could help us.
Devin Taylor: I don’t think I remember.
Bethany Taylor: I think he was about four years old when we finally got to adopt him. And that was a hard story too because his biological mom really tried, and we had a really sweet relationship with her. Remember sitting on her living room floor, talking with her, and trying to talk to her about forgiveness in Christ, and walking a new life, and how she could help Devin. But in the end, she really asked us to adopt him, and it was a sweet thing. She knew that he was really well loved and cared for in our family.
And I don’t think she could offer that. But it was a sweet it was hard for Josh and I. We didn’t go into that. So it was a very hard conversation for us. But, God gave us the peace for that when we had to walk that journey.
Gary Walton: Yeah. And, you know, Devin, I know that maybe you and I have talked about this before. The Bible says, that in the same way that you had this experience of being adopted into the Taylor family, that’s part of the way that God describes what it means when we become part of the family of God. Right? We are adopted into God’s family.
What do you think is the best thing about being adopted into God’s family?
Devin Taylor: I can I can pray to him? Wow.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Almost well, in fact, just like we can talk to our dad and mom. Right?
Devin Taylor: Yeah.
Gary Walton: That, that relationship with Jesus and, and God his father is that we can pray to him and talk with him. Yeah. And we can pray for other people. I know that you do that.
Devin Taylor: I do that.
Gary Walton: Bethany, there’s still a big need for foster care on Guam. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Bethany Taylor: Yeah. 675 foster kids on Guam. You know, the whole reason Harvest House exists in the first place is because of Devin’s story. He was inspirational to us, and we tell people all the time. He’s the face.
He’s the reason. He’s the story behind 675 other kids out there that have suffered from some kind of abuse, abandonment, neglect as well. And the really cool thing about Devin’s story is that what’s our phrase, Devin? Jesus what?
Devin Taylor: Changes everything.
Bethany Taylor: Jesus changes everything. So when we can offer Jesus to this very hopeless situation, sometimes, very traumatic situation, we are really hoping to introduce Jesus who changes everything. And even after that, we are really hoping for a generational effect. We’re really hoping that generations will be changed by it. We only have 81 licensed foster homes right now.
Big difference from when I started out. There’s only 10 when I started with Devin. We have a lot of relatives that we help out, 150 maybe relative placements. We have five shelters on Guam we help as well. There’s a very big need for children to be safe.
We hit sibling groups of 10 kids coming through Harvest House needing showers, clothes, food. And it’s really sad to see siblings all separated. It’s sad to see that there’s no place for them to go beyond Harvest House. We’re always recruiting. And, you know, we have about 19 foster families just within Harvest Baptist Church.
It’s incredible. Like, I really, we’ve been in existence long enough, fourteen years now, of seeing how Jesus is changing everything and how our children are being impacted by the gospel. Devin, salvation story. Our other son is adopted. He also has a salvation story now.
And I just think, wow, God changed them. They have hope in heaven. They have hope on this earth. They have a purpose driven life. So it’s pretty awesome.
Gary Walton: This Sunday at our Orphan Sunday, we’d like to invite, if you’re listening today, we’d like to invite you to come just to hear a little bit more of the burden. But part of that service, will be sharing his testimony in our service. And in fact, Bethany and Devin were just talking about this idea that Jesus changes everything. There’s a little pamphlet that Devin has written, along with his mom and dad, but it’s really his story that we’re gonna share with everybody that comes. And you’ll be able to hear how God changed, how Jesus changed Devin’s life, impacted his future, but how he could also change your life.
And so it’s Devin’s got it in his hand right now, and, it’s a good, story of how God has, changed your life and changed everything for you. Right, Devin?
Devin Taylor: Right.
Gary Walton: He’s showing me right now, there’s pictures of him and his sister and best friend, Annabel, right there on the pamphlet, and it’s really a great thing. Bethany, tell us about events, things coming up for Harvest House leading up to Christmas.
Bethany Taylor: Well, we always enjoy our beautiful Christmas event. It’s supposed to be a Christmas morning for our foster children. There’s something about the smell of Christmas, the look of Christmas. And, you know, hopefully our foster children are placed in families. Some are not, unfortunately.
But this is not only do we target at Harvest House helping the foster child individually, our events are a place that they can come as a community. And they might have a family unit or they also feel like they’re one big family. It’s a community of people that share the kind of the same pain or the same journey as them. So we’re hoping through these events to say, hey, we’re all in this together. We see all of you.
Your story can relate to another person’s story. And let’s celebrate Christmas together. The greatest gift that Jesus gave us is life, and he’s given us life more abundantly. He’s given us eternal life. And let’s all just come together and have some good breakfast, have some toys.
We’re asking our we will have it at orphan Sunday, a display, but we do have stockings you can pick up at Harvest House. They’re empty. You get to fill them. So you get to fill up a stocking, get fresh pajamas, underwear, and socks for a foster child, toys, of course. And, they’re gonna be gifted, physically, but I also hope it’s just a beautiful social environment, a beautiful spiritual uplifter and encourager to them, and they walk away happy and filled.
Gary Walton: If somebody’s listening and they say, how can I help? You talked about the stockings. What else kind of immediately?
Bethany Taylor: You know, we have this really awesome program of sponsoring a foster child. It’s our Plant the Seed program. We really want you to think about planting a seed in a foster child’s life. And when you do that, you are helping them through all the programs we have at Harvest House so that their journey in foster care is really one of success. Right?
It’s one of stability. So their first day of crisis, they come to us. Then we recruit and train and retain a foster family so there’s no instability in that. Right? They’re gonna be they have a family unit that we have their back.
We’re gonna help support them. And then we also have our monthly shopping appointments for our foster children. So we’re investing in the kids every month. And then we hold these annual events about three a year. So all of these little things that you’re planting seeds in all cost money and really need a there are amazing programs that are in place to help that foster child from that first day of crisis all the way till reunification or adoption and say financially, we’ve we’ve taken care of you in the Harvest House programs.
So if you wanna be a part of that, it’s our Plant the Seed program. It’s it’s really just sponsoring a foster child. It’s a $100 a month. You can go through PayPal or drop a check, but I always like to do that because it’s a very individual personalization. I may not be able to foster, but, you know, even if you only can give $25 a month or $50 a month, anything you can drop a a monthly donation is a huge help.
But we also have foster friendly businesses and Harvest Health sponsors. If there’s a business that wanted to get involved, there’s always really great ideas just to have your hand. Now I’ll always love to say, like, it’s not Harvest House. Like, we’re just the we’re just the tool that God is using. It’s the island.
I don’t we’re not taking government funding to do what we do. Everybody takes responsibility in caring for the foster child’s life, whether it’s mentorship or or having your own clothes donated or hygiene products or donation drives or the sponsorship program, whatever you do, just take part in it. Just move toward compassion and do something.
Gary Walton: How can people find out more information?
Bethany Taylor: And always come see us. I like personal come see us. We’ll give you a tour. We’ll talk to you personally Monday through Friday, eight to four. We always love to see our people walk through our facility.
Gary Walton: Our Harvest House Resource Center is on the campus at Harvest Baptist Church, Harvest Ministries. If you come on campus and ask any of the security people in Middle Crossing, you can find out where Harvest House is.
Bethany Taylor: Security is great at pointing people to us. Yeah. Right over there. Yeah. But we do have a great website, Harvest House Guam.
You can also check out social media pages, and we have a phone call. Yeah. You can text us or give us a phone call.
Gary Walton: Okay. Yeah. Very good. Hey, Devin. Thank you so much for being with us.
I get a chance to talk with people on the radio all the time, but this is a privilege for me to have you sitting right beside me and talking on the radio. So thank you.
Devin Taylor: You’re welcome. I’m usually listening to it every Friday. Yeah. Saturday.
Gary Walton: You were telling me that. You hear the Harvest Time almost every week, right? Yeah. Yeah, that’s great. Bethany, thank you again for your burden, you and Josh together, your burden testimony in in Devin’s life and really the impact across the island.
Bethany Taylor: Thank you so much, pastor.
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 an 08:45AM service and a 10:45AM service. We have Japanese and Korean translation at 10:45, and that’s also when we livestream at hbcguam.org. Hbcguam.org.
If you wanna find out more about Harvest House, find out those contact details. It’s harvesthouseguam.org. Harvesthouseguam.org. We hope to see you this Sunday, and thanks for listening to Harvest Time.