Pastor Walton spoke with Drs. Rob and Barb Gregory this week. They discuss their family, getting started in chiropractic care, and history at Harvest.
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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 this week. There are two services every Sunday morning, 8:45AM and 10:45AM.
We have Japanese and Korean translation during that 10:45AM service, and that’s also when we live stream at hbcguam.org. hbcguam.org. This week, it’s part eight from our love is series from first Corinthians 13:4-8. Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey. Hafa adai, Chris. Yeah. We’re coming off a little break, for Easter, which was fantastic. We had such a great, couple of services, a great day together.
But coming back to our series in first Corinthians 13, we’ll be picking up in verse seven, and, this is one of the sections that, you know, you hear a lot about when you’re talking about this love chapter, but it’s the verse that says, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And so we’ll be talking about two, maybe three of those descriptions of what it means to to genuinely care and love for each other in the way that the Bible describes it. So we’d like to invite you to come and join us. It’ll be a great service together. We’ll worship the Lord in song and fellowship, and, we’d love to have you come and be a part of the Harvest family this Sunday.
I’m really glad to have doctor Rob and Barb Gregory, with us on Harvest Time today. So first of all, welcome. First time up in the studio, so welcome you guys.
Rob Gragory: Thank you.
Barb Gregory: Thank you. Good morning.
Gary Walton: Good morning. Both Doctor. Rob and Doctor. Barb are chiropractors, with Pacific Life Chiropractic, for a while, like, right?
Rob Gragory: Thirty years now.
Gary Walton: Thirty years. Okay. I want to hear that story, how God brought you together. That’ll be, a part of that. You’ve been part of Harvest family for a while.
Members, I think, for a little bit more than ten years, but been around for a while. Kids in the school. Right, Barb?
Barb Gregory: Yeah. We’ve been, the children started Harvest in 2002, 2001, long time.
Gary Walton: Yeah, it was fun. We were just walking up to the radio station together and looking at stuff and talking about, you know, when your kids started here, and school experiences and all of that together.
Barb Gregory: Yeah. It’s really evolved.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Well, that’s great. Thank you for joining us. You know, this this show is kind of conversations with our Harvest family about life and their relationship with God, and I’m looking forward to talking about that with you guys. You have a family.
Right? Rob, tell us about your your kids’ names, where they’re at.
Rob Gragory: Well, our our oldest son is 42. He’s in Los Angeles. Our second son who went here to Harvest, Jordan, he’s 30, about to have a baby, with his wife. We have a daughter who’s 26 in Salt Lake City, Sierra. And then Chloe, our youngest, is 20, about to be 21 in San Diego.
Gary Walton: Okay. Yeah. Spread out.
Barb Gregory: Yep. Mhmm.
Gary Walton: A ways from you. So we know that a little bit. That’s new life experiences with our kids all out. Maybe I’ll ask you about that a little bit later. Barb, you grew up here.
Right?
Barb Gregory: Yes.
Gary Walton: Tell me about growing up, your family.
Barb Gregory: Well, our family I grew up, Catholic, and our family is very close.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Barb Gregory: We’ve always done things together, church and stuff. I went to Santa Barbara School and Academy.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Barb Gregory: And, it was a it was a good experience learning about, God and, you know, community and and and, stuff like that Yeah. As a child.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Rob did not grow up here. Tell us about growing up for you.
Rob Gragory: I grew up in a small farm town in Michigan, about a thousand people. Went to college in Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant, and, that was an experience because there’s more people than I’d ever been around. But, yeah, the farming community is very close also, so we took care of each other.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Rob Gragory: Grew up, I think I went to Methodist church when I was younger. Okay. Sunday school every Sunday. So, yeah, it was a was a great place to grow up.
Gary Walton: You’d mentioned earlier, I didn’t ask if I could ask about this trait, you’re adopted. I am. Right?
Rob Gragory: Yeah. Found out when I was five. I wondered why I was already taller than my mother. She was about four eleven. Grew up with my adoptive father.
Father was in the military for thirty five years. And, yeah, it a good experience. You know, there’s a lot of introspective thought going on when you’re adopted and when you’re figuring out what does that mean. Yeah. But recently, my birth family found me through ancestry.com.
Gary Walton: Yeah. You were saying that. So fascinating.
I mean, just recently, right? After all these years. Wow.
Rob Gragory: So, yeah, I was 58 when I finally met. Well, I had to have biological children to meet someone that I was physically related to. But, yeah, I have a half brother, and my biological father passed away, but it was very nice.
So we flew all our kids up to meet their children, and it was a great time.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s so fascinating to think about how God designs our lives and our steps and to have that part of your background and then God clearly directing you to family, you know, that you grew up in.
Rob Gragory: Well, I had to come to Guam to really understand family, I think. Because my my dad wasn’t around a lot when I was growing up. So it was just my mother and my sister. And coming to Guam, I really learned what family meant.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Rob Gragory: Especially, you know, being with Barb’s family for over thirty years now. So, yeah, Guam’s been a great place to live. Great place to raise the kids.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah. That’s fantastic. Barb, tell us how how you guys so you grew up here. Did you go to school stateside?
Barb Gregory: I did go to school. I went to UOG for a few years and, finished in in Georgia. That’s where we met. Okay.
Gary Walton: Well, tell us about that. Yeah.
Barb Gregory: We met in chiropractic school. A friend of mine, you know, just I was working for an airline while I was in college here, and, you know, I just wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to go to chiropractic school.
Gary Walton: What what was the desire for chiropractic? To me, Oh,
Barb Gregory: I was in a really bad car accident when I was 16.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Barb Gregory: Or 17, like at the end of high school. And for two years, I was in miserable pain. I saw a neurologist, so many doctors, and I don’t like taking painkillers, so I didn’t take any of them. And I would walk to my classes and I’d literally drop to my knees because I was in so much pain. And one day I was driving by Tumon, and I saw this sign that said back pain, and I thought, you know, what do I have to lose?
I’ve seen almost every I mean, there weren’t that many doctors here.
Gary Walton: Right.
Barb Gregory: So, you know, I went in, and after he did the assessment and he adjusted me for the first time in two years, I had hoped that it would go away. So that’s how I got involved. I thought about chiropractic. And while I was working for the airline, I thought, you know, I’m not sure I could go, it’s expensive, I don’t know how I’m gonna get there. So I just said to myself, If this happens, if I can move my car, my household goods, and my cat, I I’ll go.
And I just filled out a form in the airline, and somebody signed it. So I thought, okay, God wants me to go. Wow. So I went. And fortunately, I had a friend, May’s daughter, June.
Yeah. She’s one of my best friends.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Barb Gregory: She was already there with her husband, who was in chiropractic school. He kind of gave me the idea of that school. You know, I had gone around and looked at different schools, and I applied to that, got accepted. And when I went, we had found out that, you know, that she was starting chiropractic school at the same time.
Gary Walton: Interesting.
Barb Gregory: Yeah. So, it just worked out. And then I met Rob, well First day of school. First day of school.
Gary Walton: Wow. So Rob, what’s your story of getting to that spot?
Rob Gragory: Well, was working for the Defense Department for four or five, six years, and I had close to a 20 foot fall out in the jungle, and I landed on my back and I couldn’t walk for a bit. Once I started walking, still had a lot of back pain. Did all kinds of therapies. And then I got out of the hazardous stuff that I was doing for the defense department. I worked at a top secret radar site in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and I rented an apartment from a chiropractor.
And he fixed my back. And I said, I’d like to do that, you know, help people like that. So I quit my government job and I went to school. The night before I met Barb, I swore to my mother that I’m never getting married.
Gary Walton: And that changed in one day.
Rob Gragory: And we met the next day. Yeah. Yeah. It took me a while to convince her. Yeah.
Seven or eight months later, we eloped. Wow. Thirty three years now. Yeah. Thirty three.
Gary Walton: Wow.
Barb Gregory: Going to be 34. Yeah.
Gary Walton: Okay. So you met from very different parts of the world.
Barb Gregory: Mhmm.
Gary Walton: I mean, this is like the typical, I mean, not this amazing love story, right? Both go to school in Georgia, connect Okay. And then, Barb, tell us after that.
Barb Gregory: Well, you know, being married isn’t that easy. So, you know, moving to Guam, that’s what we did. After we graduated, we moved to Guam. And the culture shock between We didn’t realize how different it was at first, right?
Rob Gragory: Yeah, for me.
Barb Gregory: For him, yeah.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Barb Gregory: And even for me, just, you know, we didn’t realize the difference. So it took a lot of patience on both our parts to try to understand each other. Some, I read somewhere, well, anyways, I read somewhere that you marry someone you think you have a lot of things in common with, but then as you start living with them, you realize you don’t. You know, there’s just a few things.
Gary Walton: We’re different people.
Barb Gregory: We’re different people.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Barb Gregory: But then it allows us a chance to grow up together. Yeah. You know, and I think that’s what we’ve done. We’ve grown together.
Gary Walton: Well, that’s fantastic. The testimony of being together for thirty three years, you know. It takes a faithful commitment together. And I know your story is, God is such a critical part of that, too. How about on your side, Rob?
So you moved to Guam, came here after school, right? Yeah. What was that like? How would you describe it?
Rob Gragory: Well, we visited for about a month during a Christmas break the year before, and I realized I wanted to to live on an island. I thought that would be great. I think Barb liked Atlanta, but I talked her into coming back to Guam, and I’m glad we did. Yeah. And I think for me, think the only missing piece really was studying the Bible and getting to know God.
I mean, like I said, I did Sunday School a lot when I was a kid, but there was a big gap in between, and finally somebody did sit down and study the Bible with me, and after a while I felt like the Scriptures were actually talking, like, directly to me. It wasn’t just words anymore that I was reading on the paper. I mean, resonated with the Endures All Things, For Barbara, and the Scripture you’re reading. But things started to feel like it was coming right at me. And and I know when I got baptized, it was I mean, I really felt different coming out of the water.
Yeah. I could feel it.
Gary Walton: Yeah. That was how long ago?
Rob Gragory: Twenty six years.
Barb Gregory: Nineteen ninety eight.
Rob Gragory: Just prior to or was that after Sierra was born? Before. Just before. Yeah.
Barb Gregory: I was bapt you you were baptized first, then I was.
Rob Gragory: a month Earlier. Yeah. And she was nine months pregnant when she got baptized, so it took us a few of us to hold her, get her all the way submerged. But, yeah, no. I that I think was the missing just the missing piece in my life that kind of filled everything in.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Did you guys kinda come you know, you talked about spiritual background, of course. Mhmm. Did you guys feel like kinda together then around that time there was some you know, spiritually, was that kind of a reawakening? Tell me about that, Barb.
Barb Gregory: It was a rough time because we had been living here on Guam, and we still had navigated through our differences.
Gary Walton: Right.
Barb Gregory: So, him studying the Bible was great. I grew up Catholic, so I’m like, He’s going to church, yay. You know, but it’s not a Catholic church. And I was open, I was open because since I was little, I felt like God was always watching me, protecting me, directing me. It was very, it was just there.
I don’t even know the word to describe And so when he was baptized, I saw some changes in him. So I said, okay, that’s great. You know, so I started, studying the Bible also. Not that I didn’t study the Bible when I was at parochial school, because we did study the Bible a lot during that time, that was just something we did.
I don’t know if they do that now, But I did see some changes, and so I studied the Bible again, but specifically to learn how to be a Christian, you To learn how to do the right things or just be on the right path. Yeah. Whereas the path is narrow. Right?
Gary Walton: Yeah. No. I like that description. Yeah. I mean, there’s paths in life, and there’s one path that’s narrow that leads to Jesus.
I mean, that’s what the Bible describes.
Barb Gregory: Right. Yeah. So, you know, I followed, you know, I followed him. We went to this church, it was just coincidental that I had been searching a while, and when I was in chiropractic school, this church that planted a church here on Guam was actually a church that I attended in Georgia.
Gary Walton: Okay, wow.
Barb Gregory: So I think that was a phase that we needed. That church really helped us to grow together and to love each other more and know what love means in a relationship. And we just, you know, it was up and down, up and down, but it’s patience, endurance, and what was that other word? Faith? Yeah.
Like, yes, faith, you know? So, yeah. And then who reached, oh, Benny. Do you know?
Gary Walton: I do know Benny.
Barb Gregory: Yeah, Benny Crawford. We used to go to church. I mean, not church, we went to the gym a lot. So him and Denise and Rob and I, we worked out at the same time and he would always talk to Rob, and I could see that Rob was being inspired, right? Mhmm.
Yeah, he really inspired Rob.
Gary Walton: Benny has such a passion for life, but passion for God and the things of God
Barb Gregory: For Christ.
Gary Walton: That’s very, you know, Yeah.
Barb Gregory: Yeah. So he invited Rob to church, to a Bible study with Pastor Heron on Tuesday afternoons. Then our kids were going to school here, I mean, since 2000, and we had gone to church since 2013 or 2014 for a while, but we never committed to being members, because we were kinda still part of the other church.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah.
Barb Gregory: But then, one day, we just said, oh, no. This is where we need to be. Mhmm. Right?
Gary Walton: Yeah. Rob, tell me a little bit more about your journey, you know, through that, those Bible studies.
Rob Gragory: Yeah. Like I said, I really felt like the Scriptures were not just words that I was reading, but they were actually talking to me. It was something that was resonating with me.
Then as each study went on, I realized this is the right way to go. And that I’m not so smart that I can figure out which ones I have to listen, I can listen to and which ones can I put aside? I’m not smarter than God, that’s for sure. But I did need people that were, I think, older spiritually than me.
The previous church that we went to, suddenly I was becoming one of the oldest people there, but I still needed a lot of help. So Pastor Heron, Benny Crawford, and some of the older people that were studying at the time when he invited me, said, This is perfect. This is exactly what I need to be led. And I still need to be led. I can be honest, some of my old, the old parts of me still kind of creep out every now and then.
If it weren’t for, you know, Jesus and that boy, think about the sacrifice often. And that keeps me grounded.
Gary Walton: Yeah. That’s really helpful. Thank you guys both for sharing that, because that’s very clear, very helpful for people. A couple things I was thinking about. One is the unique way that God leads in our lives at different times and different seasons, and he uses different circumstances for all of us.
There’s not you know, religion teaches us kind of a sort of a cookie cutter. Here’s this is the time. You do this. You do this, and then everything’s good. But that doesn’t seem to be at all what the Bible describes as the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and it is unique.
There are, there are commonalities. I’m not saying that to to become a true believer in Christ, there is a clear, you know, faith step that takes place, but it comes, in the Holy Spirit’s work in our life at different times, using different circumstances to draw us to that same place where each of us determines whether we’re gonna be a follower, a disciple, you know, of Jesus. So, think that’s interesting in your story. But the part, Rob, about just needing guides, we all do. And unfortunately, for a lot of people, for whatever reason, they they don’t end up getting that.
And sometimes it’s out there and we don’t avail ourselves of it. But we need other people that have walked the path with us. I mean, this is just it seems like it makes sense, but somehow spiritually we lose track of that. If I’m going someplace new, it’s awesome to have a guide with me. Now we got GPS now, that helps a little bit, but to have somebody that’s been there before, maybe a little bit further along the path that says, hey, here’s some things to look out for.
Here’s some ways to walk in it. Here, let me help you read the map, the guidebook. Let’s walk through that. I don’t know very many people at all that their spiritual life grows without that. So it’s cool how God brought that into your life specifically.
And then Barb, you too, right? Just people that will walk alongside as you’re, say
Barb Gregory: Sometimes chasing.
Gary Walton: Yes.
Barb Gregory: Come, come. Yeah, that’s how we went to that other church too. Yeah. Had some friends that Rob knew from soccer, who they were just, you know, they wanted us to know Christ. So, yeah.
Gary Walton: Yeah. That’s fantastic. Thank you guys. Thank you for sharing that. So that was 2015 connection here, right?
Just tell me a little bit about Harvest, what that’s meant for you, for your family.
Barb Gregory: You know, it’s been nice to have the community, but I must say that since COVID, I have to be honest, I kind of am one of those people who’ve been, like, out of touch, because I, you know, travel, and then illness, and then other responsibilities. But it’s nice to be in church. When I go to church, or even when I see people that I know from church, I could feel the love, you know, and the kindness and the and genuine caring.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Barb Gregory: Yeah. So that’s been important to me. Yeah. You know?
Gary Walton: Awesome.
Barb Gregory: Yeah. Sometimes I feel I have to add one more thing. Sometimes I feel guilty or like a sinner, you know, so to say, because I’m not doing things correctly. You know, that’s my upbringing. Right?
When you don’t follow the directions or the rules, then you’re you’re bad. But I don’t feel that way here. Mhmm. You know? I feel like we’re all trying to get to the same place.
Gary Walton: Mhmm. So God’s grace is good.
Barb Gregory: God’s grace is good. Yes.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’s always enough. Yeah.
Rob Gragory: Yeah. Well, I think for me, I’ve been lucky to help with a few of the soccer teams here, helped a few teams get to the championship, have one of the teams win the championship. Even gone to a few of the middle school just to help out, not be the head coach, but just help here and there. So that’s it’s great to see Yuri again. Yeah.
I’ve known him for a long time, especially with soccer. And, again, it was such a help to find some mentors. That’s helped me a lot here at Harvest. And you can see we’re usually the last four or five people at church, because she’s making connections everywhere. So, the community part is great.
Gary Walton: You mentioned, Rob, the idea that, in fact, the Bible describes this, that when we come to Christ, Christ gives us a new nature. But the old nature doesn’t go away. It’s not going to go away until eternity. And so the Christian life is a battle in that way, where my old nature, I am continually saying no to the old flesh, that old desire, saying yes to Christ. And the community is such an important part of it.
You both described this sense of, you know, sometimes chasing us. I think you said that, Barb, helping us. That part is so critical because we do. We get off track.
Barb Gregory: Mhmm.
Gary Walton: We get distracted. And to have brothers and sisters that are there to graciously say, hey. Let you know, let’s let me help you. I wanna stay on the track together. We need that from each other.
Mhmm. And it’s such an amazing
Rob Gragory: It’s crucial.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah. So I’m thankful for I’m
Barb Gregory: thankful for Pam, too, because she always reaches out to me.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Barb Gregory: Yeah. And so I think we’re really lucky to have her.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Well it is about people. I mean, the Church is people that continue to care in that way, walking along beside us as we’re following Christ together. Well, I love your journey. For you guys, for all of us, it’s not over.
God is continually changing, growing us, creating in us, you know, his heart. So I love seeing that, walking that together. Thank you for being willing to come and share Sure. What God’s doing.
Barb Gregory: Yeah. Thank you.
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 begin at 8:45AM on Sunday. We also have a service at 10:45AM. There’s Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45AM service.
We also broadcast 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.