Gary Walton speaks with Christian Lange about his recent deployment and how God sustained his faith and helped him growing during this time.
Download the Christian Lange Harvest Time Episode
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. 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. You can join us at either 08:45AM or 10:45AM every Sunday.
We have Japanese and Korean translation during the second service at 10:45AM. We also livestream that service at hbcguam.org, Hbcguam.org. This week, it’s Vision Sunday and we will be in Acts chapter one verses six through 14. Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton.
Hi, Pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey. Hafa adai, Chris. Yeah, every fall, the first Sunday of September, we have this Sunday that we set aside and we call it Vision Sunday. It’s really just a day that we think ahead to the future, the coming year, talk about some of the things on our calendar, some burdens and opportunities in front of us as a ministry. Then we introduce our annual theme, and so it’s kind of just a fun roll out of that.
So we’ve been working on, honestly, this Sunday for more than six months, talking about the life of our church and where we’re at in the different seasons. You know, we just finished fifty years. Our last theme was the fiftieth anniversary celebration of Harvest Baptist Church and Harvest Ministries, and so, you know, it’s kind of a big season for us. What’s next? Where do go from here?
And so, we’re gonna introduce a theme this, Sunday that we’re just thrilled about in the life and the season that God has us as a church. And, you know, as you come, we’re gonna talk about what your part could be in God’s plan as it’s unfolding here in his church and Harvest Time, and so we’re looking forward to the Sunday. We’d love to invite you to come. We started teaching in Acts chapter one. Chris just mentioned this.
We started it last week. We’re going to come to the end of that, just a little short teaching, but one of the most important mission missional texts, I guess, in the New Testament about what we’re called to do as a church. And the last part of it just leads us right into our theme for this year. And so I’d like to invite you to come be a part of what God’s doing here this Sunday. Well, I’m glad to have Christian Lange with us in the studio here for Harvest Time.
Christian, welcome.
Christian Lange: Thank you, sir. Glad to be here.
Gary Walton: Christian is a crew chief in the Navy, been five years, and been here at Harvest for three years. I think you came to Guam in 2023. Tell us, tell me a little bit more just about the specific role in the Navy. What are you doing?
Christian Lange: Within my job, I first our basic qual is we’re, aviation rescue swimmers. We get trained to deploy from helicopter, for maritime or overland, situations that require us to grab people, recover people, or just even move them. And then, we come here, get some more qualifications that leads to our main qual of becoming a crew chief.
Gary Walton: Great. And, so five years in the Navy, three years here in Guam. You just have returned from almost a year deployment, right?
Christian Lange: Yes, sir.
Gary Walton: So just kind of getting back into the flow of things, back on Guam with your role in the Navy and of course connected again at Harvest. Christian has been very involved, really right from the beginning of his time here, and it’s been fun to watch him grow in his faith and grow in the ways that God’s prepared you, and we’ll talk about that a little bit later. Maybe we can talk or ask about you know, before the Navy, before Guam, what’s your spiritual story? How did you come to know Christ? What does your walk with him look like?
Christian Lange: I always grew up in a church area or church environment. There was I was checking the box. My parents were just, oh, go to Sunday. Let’s go. We got our check for the week.
I grew up going to children’s ministry at Newbridge Baptist Church. I then transitioned to the youth group program, met with a lifelong friend, my former youth pastor Dave Wilde. He’s gonna be the person that officiates my wedding. He’s been a confidant ever since then. And I ended up choosing to accept Christ because of him and my former child pastor, Pastor JD Sluss, at this camp called we call it Adventure Camp.
Made that decision there, but at that point in time, did not realize the the gravity of what that meant. Mhmm. Made that choice, and I thought it was just, I I’m good. Through throughout that time period, growing up through high school, learning, realizing what it takes to it, I kept asking the same question. I made this choice, what does it mean to be an adult in my faith?
Mhmm. I had to make that decision, and then I get thrusted into the real world for it. We go into I went to college, went to Christopher Newport University, realized how hard it is on your own. I realized I was the definition of keep touching the pants till I realize it’s hot type of situation. I made many mistakes.
I learned that our faith is gonna be tested daily, and I have to make the choice to keep building up my armor and building up my resiliency to keep, pursuing God first and the earth, last. And I ended up getting, right after I graduated, graduated during COVID, I ended up getting rebaptized, at my, original church, redeclaring myself, there, and then really feeling a lot of things hit when we went to when I went to boot camp. I’ll never forget hearing, Corey Asbury, his song, Reckless Love, and just breaking down, realizing what that love meant and what that love’s done for me, throughout my life. And I ended up the thing that I relied on most in boot camp because my boot camp was a little different. I ended up going to a special program PT, 3AM wake ups, really late going to bed.
I had this little pocket bible. I was just reading it cover to cover every chance I could and breaking down that breaking down that blockade of me not reading helped me to go into the Bible more, helped me to pursue it more, but I still had a lot to learn. And once I started getting to different places, kept trying to pursue it, kept trying to find a vehicle to go to church, kept trying to find connection, friends, but still battling the worldly temptations, of course. And then I get to Guam in October 2022, and I ended up finding this new group of people by realizing that being a Christian in any military environment is challenging. The looking at how I was then to now, and if I did tell my own self advice from back then, I would say hold fast.
Hold fast and stay true to yourself. There’s a lot of appeasement to worldly and different things because you think it’s the right thing based on what the world says, but God made you the best outlier, and you’re the best you, and you’re the first you. And realizing that we have this instruction manual that’s gonna take you farther than any manual you can get from the military or anything you can get from someone else in the world. And from then, I ended up finding, Harvest, and I credit Jared Ball. And we ended up meeting at Southern Mountain Gear, and we ended up talking.
Gary Walton: I Remember that story. Yeah.
Christian Lange: And we ended up talking, and, I came to Young Pros that night, and the rest was history. From then on, I was able to plug in to many ministries here, and the it’s been amazing. It has been a time I will I’m gonna cherish forever, honestly.
Gary Walton: Love hearing that whole story, Christian, you know, and there’s a lot there of what God’s done. Let me back up to a couple of areas. I wanna ask you about the comments you made about, you know, your faith as a young person, genuine, but then hitting the real world. Let’s hang on to that for a minute. But maybe just a quick question.
You you I love this part. You mentioned David. Was that the name? Dave. Dave, you know, a lifelong mentor.
What does that mean? What what do you mean? What what was his role in your life?
Christian Lange: He was my, I first met him as my youth pastor. He is a former marine. He is also a middle school teacher, but during the day, and he became a confidant. I would go to him for everything, questions.
He would never hold back. He would always be honest, but he also genuinely cared for me. And he looks out to me for to this day, like he’ll be the first person I call with questions going through it. He’ll never he’ll never hold back. He’ll always be the person that I can go to for any spiritual advice or any just life advice.
And he’ll do it in a way that is still putting God first, but ensuring that he won’t sugarcoat it if I am messing up. And it’s the honest accountability.
Gary Walton: Yeah. That’s so awesome. I mean, for anybody to have the privilege of I think the Bible talks so much about this. Mentors in our life, spiritual Pauls that go before us, hold us accountable, direct us towards Jesus. It’s great to hear the very specific role that he played in your life, and it’s such an example for all of us.
I I just think the Bible teaches that so clearly. So you talked about, you know, your early life, college, you know, kind of finding your way in there. And then and then the Navy. Why the Navy? And then what how did you get into rescue diving?
Christian Lange: The my whole family was military. Okay. My sister, she’s currently a pilot in the Coast Guard. My father was a crew chief, in the army for, Hueys. Okay.
My my grandpa, he was in the navy. And then, it was currently COVID. Everything was closed, shut down, and I needed something to kinda start my life, starting to pay my bills back, and the navy was a good option. I always knew I wanted to do something a little bit special or particular, and they had this pamphlet for aviation rescue swimming. And he sold me with the amount of medical training we get.
And they said they can jump out of helicopters. So I said, Okay. And, ended up passing the physical screening, and they gave me a contract for it and went to boot camp.
Gary Walton: Okay. So I didn’t realize that part. I mean, this was the goal from the beginning. I mean, you went directly into some specialized training in
Christian Lange: Yes, sir.
Gary Walton: That Yeah, great. And yeah, really interesting hearing God’s leading in your life through all those seasons. And then, you know, you talked about, Harvest, which, is good for us to talk about. It’s good to hear. How has Harvest impacted your life?
Christian Lange: Harvest has changed my life in many ways. Harvest was the first group of people that made me sit down to understand things, but taught me how to do it on my own. The it taught me not to rely on external sources to fuel my faith, and I learned from so many people to put that trust in me, but most importantly, have trust that God’s gonna show me how to do it. The seeing how God’s worked in many different ways here, getting a chance to see it from people my age and young pros to prison ministry, to the big events we do on campus, to even just seeing how God works even in the schools here from subbing. It shows that every little piece works in different ways, but the effects may not be immediate, but they’re gonna they’re gonna have that forever.
You’re gonna have that interaction. The Yeah.
Gary Walton: I’ve loved that part of your story here at Harvest. You know, I I didn’t see the the part before that. But as God connected you here, Christian, I mean, really have poured yourself in a lot of different ministries. And you talked about you actually have volunteered as a substitute in the school, which has been really great. I think good for you, but just a good connection with students and then involved with Festival of Lights and all kinds of other things.
You talked about Young Pros. Give a little Young Pros plug.
Christian Lange: The Young Pros meets every Thursday nights at 6PM right across the street in the Harvest House Center. It is a group for any college age kid or upper twenties adult who is trying to find their place with a group of believers. It’s a fun time to where it doesn’t matter what level you are or what area you are. If you’re a new believer or an existing believer, anybody is welcome.
Gary Walton: Okay. Awesome. Yeah. We love what God’s doing in that group, and you’ve been a you’ve been a big part of that as well. We talked about just coming back from deployment.
I mean, not not a lot of details on that, but you and actually we had several others from our church that were on the same crew and the same deployment. What was, you know, you weren’t supposed to go for a full year. Originally it was, I don’t remember how many months.
Christian Lange: Was supposed to be six.
Gary Walton: Okay, six months, then it extended and gone almost a year. What did that season this last year, what was it like for you, personally?
Christian Lange: It was challenging. This deployment was much more difficult than my last one. I learned I guess I can put it like this. There was a shell shock that kind of happened as soon as I left. Yeah.
The I thought I was stronger than I was, And getting thrusted out of an environment that I love so dearly and seeing where my struggles were, I realized that my I needed to hold strong in my faith for a longer time because I thought I was gonna have many more resources. I’m gonna be able to stream Harvest, watch watch the services. But being thrusted away for so long, I had to realize, woah, let me take a step back and figure out what’s going on. Where are my holes? Where can I fix those?
And figure out where I need to strengthen my particular areas in my own faith.
Gary Walton: No. That’s really good. Thank you, Christian, for that transparency and the honesty on that. You know, without getting into anything that that you can’t talk about, were there any times when just this the seriousness of where you were and what was happening around you that that really hit home?
Christian Lange: It did. It did. There were there were things that were going on that we had to just take a breath and realize what was going on.
There’s things that were in that spot, we can’t change it. The God’s present even in the chaos, then there’s gonna be a result from that chaos, that could happen, but God knows it. And it’s we’re trusting, and that’s where the trust really does come in. Most of the time, was just me taking a breath, realizing that God’s even present in the chaos, and just trusting what’s gonna happen next.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. You kinda talked about this, Christian, but, you know, you’re you’re far from home, under pressure, dealing with things most of us, you know, don’t experience. Is your faith does it become different somehow?
Christian Lange: I think it’s grown in a sense that it’s made me it’s made me a lot more trusting and a lot more at peace with a lot of things. There’s to put it for an example, the there are dreams that I have that in my own life, like, hope to someday be a father and a loving husband someday, but I’m not lonely. I’m at peace with who I am. There’s a lot of things that God has put a lot of peace towards a lot of things and accepting where we’re currently at. And when God shows us things, it’s gonna it’s gonna happen his way.
Gary Walton: You’ve said trust a couple of times. Learning to trust God, growing and we talk about this growing our faith. Right? And sometimes I think we that term becomes like a we lose the clarity of it. It’s almost like a buzzword.
It’s like it’s sort of a buzzword for I’m a Christian and I’m growing. But I mean, is a very specific word. Our faith grows. How did your faith grow? Like, the your trust system, your you don’t understand what I’m asking?
Christian Lange: Yes, sir. I think one way that I saw my faith grow was realizing that I didn’t have to speak to prove who I was as a Christian. Mhmm. I lean on Proverbs a lot as water reflects the face, someone’s life reflects the heart. And I realized two things.
They’re gonna see me for who I am as a Christian based on my actions. I don’t have to I don’t have to sell it. If we have the conversations, that’s great. But I’m I don’t have to make it upfront and show them and every single day to a point where it gets annoying to them. I can prove it through consistency in my own actions.
And I found that even the darkness, kindness comes through. And there are there are points where I got it I got debriefed through this whole deployment, and one of my critiques was I was too nice.
Gary Walton: No. So I can’t believe it, Christian.
Christian Lange: The and that was real that was a real debrief point and one that kind of shook me a little bit, but I found that kindness breaks through even in the chaos, breaks through in the darkness And I didn’t wanna hide that. I wanted to embrace the the gifts that God’s given me, and I wanted to let them run through, run forward. And people are gonna see that, through my consistency and myself. I’m not gonna alter for the world. I’m gonna be the best me that I can.
Gary Walton: Mhmm. That’s good. That’s good. I like it. Yeah.
Debriefs, you know, they help us to grow. We learn some things about ourselves, and then we still gotta be ourselves, you know, the way that God made us, through all that. So, you’re back on Guam, and I know you haven’t had a lot of time to process, but, what do you appreciate differently?
Christian Lange: I appreciate I appreciate the community. I appreciate the the excitement to just get thrusted back in again. The I’ve already told Josh Taylor, Dr. Ring, me, I’m a call away if you guys need another sub. Just getting a chance to excitement, to build the drive and to just the welcome embrace was amazing. That community feeling was surreal this time coming home.
Gary Walton: Nah, it’s great. I love to hear it. It gives, I I think, a clear understanding of the community. And actually, I’d say this too though, Christian. I mean, community is what we build in it.
So there could be somebody in your exact situation come to Harvest and not have the connectedness that you do. Because, you know, a lot of it is what you put in. And we were talking generally over the last month about church, about community. And there’s a very distinct connection between my commitment and the sense of community that I have. Community doesn’t come without costs, without investment of time.
And so we hear a lot of that and I think especially among young men, young women on our Island, really, there’s a sense of where do I fit, where do I belong. So we desperately understand the need for community. And a church needs to be wired in order to be able to provide that, right? So there is a responsibility for the church. But at some point, you know, it’s directly connected with what you put in, the commitment that you make into it.
So I’ve watched that. I’ve watched that happen with you. Yeah, maybe I’ve been asking this already, but what do you wanna make sure that you don’t forget now that life is kinda back to normal, you know?
Christian Lange: I want my commitment that I put in to be quality. I I know we’ve said it before. I was like the Energizer bunny going to so many different ministries. Mhmm. But the areas that I’m in, they have to I wanna make sure I blossom there.
Sticking to young pros, Heart for Christ, the lab on Saturday mornings, men’s bible study, and ensuring that where I can be the best, it’s not me spreading myself too thin. It’s really running with where I’m at because it’s not at the end the day. No one’s gonna look at my resume and be like, were in all these ministries. I want to take the ministries I’m in currently and be the best that I can in those.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Very good. I like it. What would you tell the Christian who left on deployment? Mean, if you could talk to yourself just before you left, you know, a year ago, knowing everything that you know now, what would you tell him?
Christian Lange: Never change.
He he would need to know that you’re gonna get told to change. Embrace yourself. Embrace your embrace who God’s made you to be and the gifts that you have.
Gary Walton: Nah. It’s great. Christian, I love what God’s doing in your life. I love the I love the full story, you know, of giving your heart to Jesus as a young person but not really understanding what it is. You know, the growth connected with your church and some significant mentors in your life.
I I love the fact that you name them, that you know who they are. There’s a lot of people that can’t do that. Here’s some people, I’m sure you could come up with some other names, but some very specific people that invested my life, kept me on track, you know, through those tumultuous teen years. It’s so critical. And then, you know, the shakeup that happens in, you know, in our lives when it’s not on our own.
We gotta figure this out. And then, you know, at this season, you know, the part that Harvest has played in in your life as you’re growing. I I love that whole, you know, that whole spectrum and excited to see what God has, you know, for your future. How much longer do you have on Guam if, you know, depending on or maybe you can’t tell us that.
Christian Lange: My contract ends February 2028.
Gary Walton: Okay. So a couple more years. And, we’re thankful that God brought you here, thankful for what God’s doing, look forward to, seeing, you know, your life, your ministry poured back into others and see you continue to grow. So thanks for joining us here today.
Christian Lange: Thank you for having me, sir.
Chris Harper: 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 meet at 08:45AM and 10:45AM on Sunday. We offer Japanese and Korean translation during our 10:45AM service. We also bring you that service live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org.
We hope to see you this Sunday. Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.