To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Harvest Family Radio, Chris and Deborah Harper join Pastor Walton this week to discuss their ministry in radio on Guam.
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Transcript
Chris Harper: Welcome to Harvest Time. My name is Chris Harper, our host on this program is Pastor Gary Walton, the lead pastor of Harvest Baptist Church. And 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 at Harvest every week, the first at 08:45AM, the second at 10:45AM on Sunday. We have Japanese and Korean translation during our 10:45AM service, and that’s when we livestream at hbcguam.org.
Hbcguam.org. Now this week, join us for resurrection Sunday. It’s a special Easter service in our road to the resurrection series from John 20 verses 19 to 31. This week From Doubt to Faith. Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton.
Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey, hafa adai, Chris. We’ve spent a couple of weeks leading up to the resurrection. So the last three weeks, Chris just mentioned this, the road to the resurrection, but we’ve looked at, select passages from John eighteen nineteen. And then this Sunday on Resurrection Sunday, Easter Sunday morning, we’ve got some special things planned. Our choir is gonna sing.
We’ve got some great Easter anthems that we’re gonna sing and worship our risen savior. All of that’s gonna be great. And then as always at Harvest, we’re gonna conclude that time by going to the scriptures. And, we’re gonna look at the story that follows in John immediately after the resurrection of Jesus. And it’s his connection with his disciples.
If you can kind of imagine, they still were very unsure. And there’s a very specific story about Thomas who had doubts and how, God, met him in his doubts and brought clarity and faith to him. It’s a fascinating little ending to, the disciples’ story of the resurrection, and I’m looking forward to teaching through it. I’d love for you to join us. We’ll have a good crowd this Sunday.
Just a lot of people will be here for Easter, and, it’ll be really a celebration of God’s goodness to us. It’s sort of the highlight of the worship year, for us at Harvest and really most churches. So we’d like to invite you to join us. Well, we’re gonna do something a little bit different this morning, and, I was thinking as we set this all up, we should have done this a while ago, but we’re gonna flip the mic. We’re gonna interview on harvest time some people that are very familiar to you, but Chris and Deborah Harper, our radio station manager and their family.
And so welcome back, Chris. Welcome, Deborah, to, Harvest Time.
Chris Harper: Yes. Thank you.
Deborah Harper: Thank you.
Gary Walton: We have had the privilege of working together for, almost eight years going on eight years. But Chris and Deborah have been here at Harvest for ten years, ten years going. Came in 2015 and, yeah, it’s been a great run. Thank you guys for your ministry but, yeah, God’s used you powerfully. What’s your what’s your big, memories of the last eight years?
Chris Harper: People that we interact Yeah. That we interact with, people that we spend time with, that are listeners to the station, and that connect with us both at church, but then also through things that we produce on the radio. And we have the ability to to, you know, minister to people throughout their week.
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Chris Harper: You know, through for something that that happens on the station, and and they connect that with us in a lot of ways and and thank us for our ministry, and that’s probably the biggest highlight.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Deborah, you’ve been right alongside your husband throughout, these ten years and I’ll ask some questions about earlier but what about for you? What’s the involvement in the radio station meant for you?
Deborah Harper: Well, one of the things that I think about with the radio station is the time that pastor Herron came to me and said, I want you to do the student of the week interviews. And I was like, I don’t want to because that seems scary. And he’s like, I want you to do it. And so I did. And I actually enjoy it.
It’s really fun to interview the students and hear what they have to say and sometimes you don’t know exactly what’s going to come out of their mouths but it’s kind of fun.
Gary Walton: Yeah, that’s great. What a neat long tradition of those interviews, you know, just week after week. Yeah, thankful that you do that, that’s really great. I was thinking about this. 30 we just celebrated thirty years anniversary of the radio station, and there’s only been two station managers.
Chris Harper: Well, there’s three because of Jared.
Gary Walton: You’re right.
Chris Harper: Pastor Jared Baldwin was the station manager for
Gary Walton: the Oh, don’t wanna we don’t wanna forget pastor Jared. You’re right. He let us forget. So Well, okay. So three.
Yeah. But, three in thirty years, pastor Jared had a shorter stint, than than you. But, what does that responsibility feel like? What’s it meant to you personally, Chris, to help steward something that has impacted Guam for three decades?
Chris Harper: Yeah. That’s what I thought of from the beginning, of the ministry as a a stewardship of what John had already done.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Chris Harper: One day, Kyle Eckert was in the the studio, and he’s he called John Collier a legend. And that’s sort of how I felt when I came. I mean, everybody you know how what happens when you’re new to something and somebody else has had such a long history and, you know, everything references back to. Yep. But John Collier did this, and do you remember when John Collier did that?
And and so I sort of caught on right away that I just needed to take what he had done and sort of carry on because there was already a great history and people remembered things that happened. And there was a lot of parts and pieces to the ministry here that he did a really good job with and that people people just remember him for.
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Chris Harper: And so you think to yourself, okay. Really? This is carrying on, you know, not trying to do something big and different and and make, you know, make something that would make a splash. In fact, trying to avoid that almost, trying to keep everything pretty slow and gradual in whatever changes were made. And so we we did we did everything pretty slowly and pretty, deliberately, and we explained to people on air why we were making these changes.
Because I did I at the time, I got a lot of comments about, you know, well, when John Collier was here, we did this and that, you know. And so if you can be slow and deliberate and sort of explain why this change at this time is necessary. And so there’s a lot of that. When I talked to John a few days ago during the anniversary celebrations, I I said this is a a stewardship that we’re that we’re carrying on here.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah. I love that term, that stewardship of what God has done here. I mean, in multiple areas across the ministry and and actually, I mean, you guys have been involved in more than just the radio station. I mean, so many things, but but very specifically, the stewardship of this piece of the ministry has been been so significant.
Let me back us up a little bit. You actually met in Alaska, so we have this Alaska to Guam story, I think with Wisconsin in the middle of it. Yes. But that’s just, you know, pretty amazing in itself, about as different from Guam as you can get. Can you take us back to that season?
Maybe let me ask you this Deborah, how did God bring your paths together? What were some early signs that God was, you know, directing you together and writing your story together?
Deborah Harper: Well, I I was working at the missionary radio station in Nenana, Alaska, and Chris came to intern there for a few weeks and we met each other and at the time I decided, I don’t think so. But he had already decided that he was gonna come back and work at Alaska And God brought him back at the time about the time he said he was gonna come back. He had the support he needed and we became friends. And that’s the best way to start.
Gary Walton: Absolutely.
Deborah Harper: And God convinced him before God convinced me that we were meant to be together. But I knew I knew it was it was right when I went on a family vacation with my parents and my sister, and we’re talking about things. And they didn’t understand me, and I’m like, if I said this to Chris, he’d know exactly what I was talking about. Mhmm. And I’m like, I think this is what is what’s meant to be, you know?
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is so interesting to me. So how long did you think it was a friendship before it became kind of a, whatever, dating or whatever you’re
Chris Harper: We we never really dated. We went to church together is basically what happened because we lived 60 miles from our church.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Chris Harper: And so to drive 60 miles and, sometimes 30 below zero
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Chris Harper: Temperatures, being a team is a better situation than being on your own. And so we drove to church together quite a lot. And that’s pretty much what we did for three years, is just spend time that way. Wow. In fact, it’s funny that Deborah says that I was convinced about our relationship before she was is because my pastor, like, took me aside and said, hey, When are you gonna ask her to marry you?
And I said, well, you better talk to her about that because, I have already expressed my intentions, and she’s been a little bit hesitant about it. So so, yeah, he had taken me aside and thought that somehow I was dragging
Gary Walton: Trying to get you get your act together. Yeah.
Chris Harper: Yeah. So we last time we saw him, we laughed about that in his living room, you know, talking about, hey. We were trying to convince you, and actually, we found out Deborah was dragging her feet. So so yeah.
Gary Walton: It’s a great story, really. I mean, I love how God puts the right people together, you know, makes you a team, your family is so great. And then together, your ministry effectiveness is multiplied. I mean, we can see that many times but we see that for sure. Yeah.
You know, in your family and that’s great. I don’t wanna spend a bunch of time on this, but I do wanna hear it. Let’s back us up even be beyond that. Chris, tell us where you grew up and your faith story.
Chris Harper: Yeah. I grew up in Spokane, Washington, and, I lived there until I moved to Alaska.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Chris Harper: My family is always believers, but there’s a long portion of my growing up years where we were not in church. Okay. So there was some some offense taken and some things that happened, and this was always a great regret of my dad’s life that, he got out of church and never went back. And so that that affected my life quite significantly.
Gary Walton: Yeah. How old were you when you stopped going to church?
Chris Harper: I had been pretty little. Six, seven, eight years old maybe.
Gary Walton: K.
Chris Harper: But it was a period of years. You know? It was a period of a few years. But I do remember distinctly rejecting the gospel in a sense that it was a little bit offensive to me that I had to, you know, sort of humble myself and, you know, accept Christ. I remember this pretty distinctly in my mind
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Chris Harper: Being pretty antagonistic toward the gospel. Although I enjoyed church. I liked going to church. You know, it’s a strange thing where you’re sort of you know you should be there in church, but you’re sort of rejecting the gospel at the same time. But then finally, when I was 11, that resistance was really broken, and I knew that I needed to be saved, and I knew knew I needed to come to Christ.
But, I mean, my my life was really changed from that that point on.
Gary Walton: Deborah, what about you?
Deborah Harper: Well, I I was born in in Colorado, and my dad, when I was five years old, went into the military as an army chaplain. So we traveled quite a few places, South Carolina and Germany, New Jersey, ended up in Kansas for quite a few years. When we were in Germany, I realized I was a sinner and I needed to be saved. And I talked to my dad one night before going to bed and accepted Jesus as my savior. And the thing that I remember is the very next day he was already planning a baptism at one of the chapels there.
And so he just added me to the list, and so I was able to get baptized the day after I got saved, which is very unusual.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Deborah Harper: And, yeah.
Gary Walton: And then, so just military life, chaplaincy all the way through when you went to Alaska?
Deborah Harper: So when I was in high school, my dad was stationed in at Fort Riley, Kansas. And he had a one year unaccompanied in Korea and then he came back. So I actually had seven years in Kansas not moving. So I went through junior high and high school in the same place. Was very unusual for a military child.
And then my dad got out of the military, became a pastor and then I went to, after college is when I went to Alaska.
Gary Walton: Okay. That’s really interesting. I didn’t know that military part of it. I mean you have an understanding of so many of our military here that a lot of people didn’t because you lived that, and the chaplaincy especially. Yeah.
Yeah. That’s that’s an interesting add to my to my understanding here. So you met in Alaska. Now you’re serving in Guam. So be honest, who had the harder adjustment going from freezing to sweating?
Or humidity no humidity to a 100% I don’t know. Is there humidity in Alaska?
Chris Harper: Not where we lived. No. It was a it’s a desert. Fairbanks is a cold desert. Okay.
So
Deborah Harper: I would say that God was preparing us. We moved from Alaska to Wisconsin. And to be honest, we were colder in Wisconsin
Gary Walton: I believe that.
Deborah Harper: Than in Alaska because
Gary Walton: I totally believe that.
Deborah Harper: It’s it’s a it’s a dry cold in Alaska. Mhmm. And Wisconsin had this wind that took all the heat out of your body and blew it away. And I was freezing. And by the time we were talking about coming to Guam, I was ready to go someplace warm because I was just freezing all the time.
Gary Walton: No. That’s great. You know, sometimes God has unexpected assignments in our life. Most people don’t grow up dreaming about managing a radio station. How did God lead you from well, I mean, to Alaska.
Was that in your heart? And then you did, you know, kind of some different things in Wisconsin and back to your how did God put this burden in? Was it
Chris Harper: No. I I thought I was gonna work in a newsroom. Okay. So when I started in radio, I thought I was just gonna and I did. I worked in a newsroom right from the beginning of my career, and I thought that I would be in news forever.
I I never thought I would get out of that. But, not too long after I started working at the news station in Spokane, I got a call from, the Moody radio station in Spokane to see if I might be interested in coming to work for Moody. And I don’t really know that I knew anything about Christian radio. I mean, I I knew, I think, that it existed, but I didn’t didn’t really know anything about it. And so it was a little bit intriguing to me.
Oh, this is a Christian radio station? What, you know, what is on this station? What do they have? You know? And so I started working there, and that opened up my mind to being to working in Christian radio.
And then from there, I really wanted to do that. That was just the beginning, and then I said I wanna do more. And that led me to Alaska and to be we were missionaries there. At the it was a missionary station, and everyone was on missionary support and supported by our church in in Spokane and Deborah with her churches in New England. So
Gary Walton: How long were you in Alaska total?
Chris Harper: Deborah, four years, and me, three years. Okay. Well, that was just for the missionary part of it. Okay. We we lived there ten years.
Gary Walton: Okay. Ten years total.
Chris Harper: So we left our ministry, but we wanted to stay at our church. Yeah. So, I had lots of opportunities to go lots of different places, but we were absolutely convinced that we needed to stay at our church because of the ministry we had there with some people, particular people that we’re helping and ministering to. And we said, okay. I have no job here, but we’re staying at our church.
And God, I think that decision was the right decision God wanted for us because God made a lot of things happen from that time forward.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’s interesting how, I mean, God prepares us in every way. I mean Yeah. So clear that God’s equipped you, both of you, but Chris, you in particular with the knowledge, the background. I mean, frankly, if people know this, even the voice, I mean, it’s just God has done all that.
We’ve talked about that in fact, alright, Deborah, just so everybody knows this, this isn’t like a radio voice for Chris. Mean there’s not like a different voice for him when he’s at home. This is his voice, right?
Deborah Harper: That’s his voice, yes.
Gary Walton: Well I just wanted to let everybody know this is actually Chris. And it’s such a great, it’s such a great radio voice. Listeners, they hear the music, the teaching, the encouragement, don’t always see what it takes behind the scenes. So what are some of the unseen challenges or even maybe funny moments that come with running a Christian radio station on Guam?
Chris Harper: Well, we were we were just talking about it a few minutes ago, and that was that, if there’s a sickness in our house, it takes out me and Deborah usually.
Deborah Harper: And we’re the radio station. So
Chris Harper: And sometimes that makes it difficult because then things can’t get done. So there’s there’s that challenge, but that can also be funny. Mhmm. That could you know, you can laugh at it, but only afterward. But there’s the other thing is that you’re sort of identified as Harvest Family Radio.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Chris Harper: So, you know, when we’re out we’re out hiking one day, and and I was telling some people, don’t go down this way because it’s super muddy. Maybe you could go that way. And they say, hey. We recognize your voice. You know?
And and all of a sudden, you are Harvest Family Radio, you know, to them. And
Gary Walton: So do they say, I didn’t expect you to look like this, though?
Chris Harper: Always. Always. Always they say that. Yeah. And, usually, what I get is, I thought you would have a beard.
Gary Walton: Really?
Chris Harper: That’s almost always what they say. It’s like a I have this gravelly, like, prospector voice.
Gary Walton: Oh, okay.
Chris Harper: And I think maybe they’re imagining. So and then the other thing is, Frank Cruz’s son listens to the station, and he really he really wanted to meet me. He, Frank says. And he said that, he said, I thought you would be a lot older. Oh.
So I can understand that too.
Gary Walton: Well, good for you, though. You look young.
Chris Harper: Oh, well, perhaps.
Gary Walton: Don’t have a prospector voice or face.
Chris Harper: Yes. No. Not that.
Gary Walton: No. Yeah. That’s interesting. I mean, genuinely, the identification for a lot of people with the radio station. Of course, you guys have another life, and I said this before, you’re serving in so many areas.
But the reality is, I mean, you have invested your lives for ten years here and, in, you know, in so many ways. Yeah, if you both go down, I mean, operations pretty tough because you do just really there’s a lot of other people involved. It’s not like you’re the only people. No. But you’re the key.
There’s no question.
Chris Harper: Well, just for the day to day operations. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Gary Walton: This is great. Actually, I I think a lot of people are gonna say, hey, I didn’t I never thought of that. Some interesting things about, Chris and Deborah. That’s good. Moments that make it worth it, Chris Deborah.
Years of serving, there’s always those moments that remind us of why we do what we do. Can you share a story or listener response or something where you saw clearly God was using KHMG to change lives?
Chris Harper: I I was going to maybe talk about someone who came to know Christ or or something that, was a little more dramatic, but I actually think it’s good to to give this feedback, and that is that it is heartening to hear that the radio station is sort of part of people’s everyday discipleship. You know? And and especially, I’ve talked to a couple of people who are going through difficult things. Sometimes they describe to me it’s because of life choices they made. Right?
So they will readily admit I’ve made some bad choices in my life, and so I’m going through some difficult things. But I listen to the radio every chance I get or all the time, and it sort of helps me to refocus or to to stay in the word or to hear something that just directs me back to the savior. And, really, they’re using it as a a constant tool to help them. And if the radio is supposed to be anything, it’s probably supposed to be that for believers to to just, you know, turn on the radio when you get in the car and to to redirect your focus back to the savior because whatever you were doing five minutes ago may have taken your mind to something else completely. And the radio tends to just the lyrics of the songs and the the words of the speakers just takes you back to to the Bible and back to Christ.
Gary Walton: Yeah. I so much agree with you. I mean, there’s a little piece, and and I think maybe early on even for me, little piece of this idea that, we hope people are reached with the gospel Yeah. You know, through the outreach of the radio station. And we still think that and people are listening and we probably don’t even know, the people that, you know, in a moment of crisis or just question, God put them we do have stories of that.
It just came upon the, you know, Harvest Family Radio. But I agree with you, Chris. I think the real benefit is in the discipleship areas, just regular teaching and learning. And we really believe that music is formational. We’re called songs and hymns and spiritual songs forming how we think.
Yeah, I love that idea. I’m glad that you communicated that. Such an important direction and perspective of just constant discipleship of people that are listening. That’s good. You guys have given so much to the ministry of KHMG, but often God, takes those who are serving and, uses the ways that we serve also in in change for us.
I thought that might be an interesting way to to finish this. How has serving at the station changed you guys? So change your faith, your marriage, your walk with God in, maybe ways you didn’t expect.
Chris Harper: It has to do with our family, probably. Our family winds up being involved with a lot of things around the station. Yeah. And, actually, it came home to me when Bryce Collier came to work here for three or four years that they were here.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Chris Harper: And he was reminded of how this station what he’s John Collier’s son, by the way, and he was our IT director. And he was reminded of how big this station was for his development and growth. Yeah.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Chris Harper: And our kids will have the same testimony. And I think it’s a good one because they are constantly hearing the music. They are constantly hearing the programming. They are you know, they sometimes for us say, hey. This would be a good song for the radio.
Or, you know, they
Deborah Harper: Or we run run a song by them, and we’re like, what do you think of this one?
Gary Walton: That’s great. Wow.
Chris Harper: Yeah. And they they’re right in the middle of it. Mhmm. And I think it’s a good thing because I and it was the same with Bryce. I noticed that he had a good connection to the station, and it represented good memories for him.
And I think our kids will be the same way, and so, you can’t beat that. That’s it’s great.
Gary Walton: No. I love that. Yeah. Not something that’s taken their parents from them. It’s something that they’ve invested in together.
Your family has participated, served together. We are so thankful for your ministry. It really is a great time at thirty years to think back and and be grateful for those who have served. And there have been three radio station managers Yes. That stewarded this, and, you guys have such a big part of it.
We’re praying that God will continue to bless your ministry. We wanna say thank you, And thank you for opening up your story a little bit more to us. I think people will be blessed by all of that.
Chris Harper: Thanks, Pastor. Well, and thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, at this point in the program, we always wanna invite you again to services at Harvest Baptist Church. We have two services Sunday, 08:45 am
And 10:45 am We offer Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45 am Service, and that’s also the service we bring you live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org.
We hope to see you this Sunday. Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.