This week, Pastor Walton is joined by four HBBC seniors. They discuss life together, the things they love about it, and some of what they have learned.
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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 by interviewing our members and other friends of the ministry. We’d like to invite you to join us at Harvest Baptist Church this week. There are two services, the first at 08:45AM, the second at 10:45AM.
We have Japanese and Korean translation available during the second service at 10:45, That’s also when we live stream at hbcguam.org. hbcguam.org. This week, it’s Mother’s Day, so join us for a special Mother’s Day message and service. Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey. Hafa adia, Chris. Yeah. Mother’s Day is a special weekend for us, and we’d love to have you come and join us. We are gonna be talking about the scriptures.
That’s what we do every Sunday when we get together. And but a special message on the theme of, mothers and God’s gift of mothers, to us. We’re also gonna be having a period of time. We call it a parent dedication over the last few months. We’ve had a number of babies that have born to couples in our church, and so, we’re gonna combine them all together in both of the services, get a chance to introduce them to the church family.
We, we don’t talk about baby dedication as much. We really talk about parent dedication. There’s nothing spiritual that’s happening for the children, but the parents are saying together, you know, we would really like to dedicate our lives to God and in our role as parents. And so it’s a sweet time, and, and then we’re gonna join together in fellowship and worship and singing worship praises to God. So we’d love to have you come and join us.
Well, I’m really glad to have a happy, group of young people here in the radio station with us today. These are some of the happiest people I know, smiling people that I know. We’ve got four of our Harvest Baptist Bible College seniors with us. We’re coming up on graduation, in fact, just the next couple weeks. And, these seniors have been on our campus and in our school for the last five years.
And, so I’m gonna introduce you in just a minute. We’ve got Diane, Kathleen, Mike, and Talents. So hello, you guys. Thank you for being with us.
Diane: Hello. Hi.
Gary Walton: Hello. Good to have each of you here. Nobody’s nervous because we all of a sudden just put a bunch of mics in front of them and headphones on, but they’re doing great, and they’re excited about this time together. If you’re not familiar with Harvest Baptist Bible College, or HBBC, we say for short, is a Bible college that is on the campus of Harvest Ministries, Harvest Baptist Church. For over thirty years now, God has blessed our ministry with students that come primarily from the islands and are training in our school.
We have a five year college that is training young people for service for God. And so we have two primary majors, teaching and pastoral. These young people are fantastic, and we love what they add to our campus and to our church ministry. We’re really thankful for that. And sad that they’re getting ready to go.
I know they’re excited about graduation and maybe a little sad about leaving too, but we’re excited about what God has done in their lives. And pretty amazing, you guys, to think back on five years ago, and you guys came all nervous about coming to college and all the new things that were happening. But to see what God has done to mature your lives and grow you in Christ. And you’re ready to, go out and serve him, and and, we’re excited about that. Let’s do this.
Tell us, I’m gonna have everybody introduce yourself. If you could, give us your name, where you’re from, and, what brought you to HPBC. Alright? Talents, we’re gonna go ahead and start with you. And we’ll go Talents, Diane, Kathleen, Mike.
Talence: Alright. My name is Talence. I’m from the Island Of Yap. And I think the Lord has worked in my life, and He brought me to HBBC. Yeah.
I have other plans, but the Lord have His own plans.
Gary Walton: Yeah. So, how did you find out about the college?
Talence: Oh, I have siblings that I joined the college and, yeah, some cousins. So, they’re the one who encouraged me to come and join HBBC.
Gary Walton: Alright. Great. Diane?
Diane: Okay. My name is Diane. I’m from the outer island of Chuk, Tol. And I came to know HBBC from my mom. She graduated from here, I think in 2015 or so.
So that’s how I know HBBC. And I think God has a plan for me to be, to just come here. Because I had, I applied to the college in the state, but it was hard for me to get in. So, this door was opened up for me to be able to come into HBBC. And God just let me to be able to be here.
Gary Walton: We’re thankful for that.
Kathleen: Hi, I’m Kathleen from the outer island of Yap. I came to know about HBBC through my brother who came here, and my other cousins. But one person that really invested in my life and told me more about HBBC, his name is Richie. I don’t know. He graduated a long time ago.
Richie San Tipas. Something that I He is always happy. Like, when I look at him, I want to have that thing that he Mhmm. So he was the one who really encouraged me to come to HBBC.
Gary Walton: Richie’s a legend of HBBC. We love Richie, you know, came here actually, came to Harvest for all the time he’s grown up, lives here in Guam, and then came to HBBC. So we’re thankful for his ministry. Alright, Mike.
Mike: Hi, I’m Mike from Yap Fais. I have three siblings that graduated from HBBC. First was our sister, only sister, she graduated Joyce. And then Klinton, Now he’s one of the pastors here at Harvest. And then Chester, the recent one, and then came down to me.
So and then that’s that’s what I that’s where I heard about HBBC, and I wanted the same the same life that they had. So they weren’t themselves when they come here, when they go back to our home homeland, they’re changed people. And when I come here, I finally found out that it’s not harvest that changed them, but it’s Jesus that Yeah. Amen. Did the work.
So that’s why I wanna wanna come.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’s really great. Thanks, Mikey. I wanna ask each of you this the same question. Maybe, Mikey, I’ll start with you again.
What’s the thing that you like most about being here?
Mike: It’s hard to point out, number one.
Gary Walton: So many good things, right?
Mike: Yeah, yes, for sure. But one thing that I really like is the fellowship with the students, a variety of students all across Micronesia, Pompeii, Kosrae, Marshall Islands, and all over. So that is very unique to fellowship with all those students. Yeah. And then singing, I will say that.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah. Our students love to sing, and we get the privilege of hearing and singing all around our campus. And I love that, too. I’m thankful for it.
Kathleen?
Kathleen: It’s the same for me, the fellowship with the students and the ministry. Just getting to know other people from different islands. I’m going to miss that, though.
Gary Walton: Yeah, I want to ask you about that later, maybe even all of you guys together, because there is relationship that happens. You know, you guys come from, if you came from your island or outer island and then connected with students from all across Micronesia, and it’s pretty cool, the relationships that develop. I think it’s very unique for Harvest. Yeah. Diane?
Diane: I would say same thing, fellowship. I just feel comfortable around these people, students, especially like when it comes to just open up with, you know, just talking to them, they open up with different things that we go through. I just feel comfortable around them. And I feel like it’s something that is very unique to have.
Gary Walton: Think it is. Yeah. I I have told you guys this before that there is a special privilege about being an HBBC student and the relationships that you guys develop. I just don’t I think it’s different from any place in the world. So, I love that.
Talence, you’re the last one. What’s been, the thing that you’ve liked most?
Talence: A lot. Same as these people, they say a lot. But one thing I really like here is when you’re surrounded by Christians, you feel comfortable and it’s good. I’m not saying it’s bad. It’s really good.
It helps us with our spiritual walk the Lord. My life before, I was in a different world. When I came here, it was totally different. And I really enjoy it. But we’re graduating and we’re going out, so we need to be flexible.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You guys just came from last weekend was your senior your senior trip, senior weekend. In fact, I was really hoping that one of you would say your favorite thing about being at Harvest was going bowling with miss Faith and I or Oh, yes.
Thought that was gonna come yeah. I knew that was, you know, maybe gonna come up. Anyhow, you guys had a great time on your trip, and Faith and I had a chance to spend one of the nights together doing some devos and playing ping pong and bowling and all kinds of fun stuff. That was awesome. But tell us about that.
Tell us about your trip. I don’t remember who I was going to ask about that. Kathleen, tell us about what happened with your senior trip.
Kathleen: It was good. It was a good time just to get together with all my classmates and Mr. And Mrs. Mills, and reflect on what God has done in our lives.
Gary Walton: Yeah, because you guys have been together for five years.
Kathleen: It was a blessing. It was good.
Gary Walton: So tell me about what you did.
Kathleen: We went bowling with
Gary Walton: Yes, we did.
Kathleen: With Pastor.
Gary Walton: Thank you for saying that.
Kathleen: We went on a boat ride, but then I got seasick.
Gary Walton: I didn’t hear about that part. Yeah, you guys did a lot of activity kind of stuff, just hung out, you know, for some days. But I know Mr. Mills and Mrs. Mills always talk about just the reflection, right?
You’re able to look back and think about what God had done. Didn’t Mr. Mills bring, like, some cards or something that you’d filled out as freshmen? What was that about?
Kathleen: It was about what our goals and what we’re scared of or afraid of.
Gary Walton: So you wrote those out when you were freshmen?
Kathleen: Yeah.
Gary Walton: Did you remember that when you looked at it?
Kathleen: No.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Pretty amazing what God’s done with you and through you through that time. That’s that’s great. Thank you for that. Mikey, let me ask you about this.
Very often when I’m around you guys or listening to you, you’ll you’ll call your fellow, you know, students, your brothers. These are your sisters from all different islands. Why do you call yourself brothers and sisters?
Mike: Yeah, so here at Harvest, we feel like we’re one family, one big, big family. And then one is narrow it down to HBBC, same thing. So we’re one family. We think about Mama Mills and Papa Mills, and then Pastor Gary and Miss Faith, and pastor Klinton and his wife Lucy. We consider each other as brothers and sisters.
We felt comfortable calling each other that. Also, the reason why is because we come alongside each other and just encourage and lift each other up and stuff like that. So we felt very comfortable calling each other brothers and sisters.
Gary Walton: Well, just like in a family, you you guys are together twenty four hours a day for five years. Sometimes you have some conflicts, right? You stay in the same dorms, but we learn a lot about each other, help each other when we’re going through tough times, which is what the family does for each other. I watch it. I hear the words, but I see it even more, and I’m thankful for that.
I want to get a couple of you guys’ testimonies, just your spiritual story. I don’t know if we’ll have time for everybody, but, Talence, let’s go ahead and start with you. Tell us about how you became a follower of Jesus.
Talence: I don’t really remember what grade I was saved. Maybe somewhere in grade fifth or sixth grade. Remember this night when my dad called me and because my dad knows knows the Lord and he’s saved. So he called me and we sit down and we talk and he asked me some questions about the life after this life. And I was a young boy.
I didn’t really think about about that there is life after this. Mhmm. And he mentioned that one day we will we can be separated when we go to God if I don’t believe in God and I won’t be with him, with God and also with my dad. And I you know, it’s sad to see your families walking away, you know, when you know that you guys will not see each other forever. And that caught my attention.
Right. So that night, he mentioned some verses, books from the bible like Romans six twenty three for the wages of sin is death. But he told me to told me that I am a sinful sinful person. Even him is sinful too. And all I need to do is just call upon the Lord.
And we talk from there, and then we pray. I ask the Lord to be my personal Lord and savior. That night, I was in tears. And, yeah, it was it was it feels good when you accept the Lord as your personal Lord and Savior.
Gary Walton: Bible talks about a relationship with God happens, and anybody who has had that experience of a genuine faith where you call upon God, respond to his, call in your life, there is a a physical feeling that’s a part of it, an emotional part. It really is the presence of God. I mean, that’s what the Bible says. The Holy Spirit, who is a living who is a real person, comes to indwell our lives. The The Holy Spirit of God doesn’t come to indwell your life without you feeling it, without you knowing it.
And so, yeah, I love that Talence. As a fifth grader, you knew God had touched you and called on you and you had to either say yes or no to His call, right? Yeah. That’s great. Diane, same question.
Could you tell us about your spiritual story, how you became a follower of Jesus?
Diane: Okay. So mine is very different from Talence. He got saved when he was fifth grade. Yeah. Mine, I got saved when I was two years after high school.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Diane: So I graduated in 2016 and then I got saved on 2018. And so all my life, I thought I was safe just because of the good things that I do or I thought I knew God. But there’s one Sunday that I attend our church in the state, and my pastor was talking about heaven and hell and how we’re gonna we’re all gonna die and we’re all gonna end up somewhere in those two places. And so he said, he just gave us invitation. Invitation.
Yeah. So he asked that if we know that we’re not safe, or if we wanna accept the Lord to be our Lord and savior, then we have to surrender. And so I just felt the Holy Spirit that time, and I just prayed to God to save me that time. He also shared in Romans five:eight that we’re all sinners, but we are saved by God who loves us so much. And so I I felt the Holy Spirit and I just, I accept the Lord to be my personal Lord and Savior.
But after that, my life is not perfect. I still face a lot, but I know that I have Jesus and God in my heart that He will watch over me and He will take care of me. So
Gary Walton: Amen. Thank you. That was fantastic. It’s so encouraging to hear. And I love the two different times in your life because that’s how God works.
It’s not always the same. His Spirit touches us at different points in our journey, and we got to decide whether we’re going to say yes to Him. And, yeah, that’s very encouraging. We’ve got just a couple more minutes. Let me ask a couple of you about at HBBC, we have five core values.
We talk about this idea that when a graduate leaves Harvest, we want these five biblical values to be so ingrained and embedded in your life that they become the framework on which all the rest of your life is built. We really believe that if these things are central to your life, that it’s going to produce a life of God’s blessing. So we talk about these five things. Let me just ask you if you’d give us one of them and maybe what it’s meant to you or what you’ve learned about that. Mike, let me start with you.
Anything that you’ve got?
Mike: I think the first one was to love God and love others.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Mike: At first, this is love God, so that part is, it really, God reflects His goodness and His faithfulness through us. And so I think that if we love Him first, we would love His people as well.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Mike: So that make me, I think about it because here at Harvest, it’s really a reflection of it. And even in HBBC itself, we see that we try to love God and make Him first in our lives, and it’s much easier to love others. So, God love, love God and love others.
Gary Walton: Awesome. Just for time, can you guys just give us the five help each other out? What are the five? Love God, love others is the first one.
Kathleen: Love Scripture.
Gary Walton: Love love the Scriptures is number two.
Diane: Love the Church.
Gary Walton: Love Church is number three. Understand our mission, which is about disciple making and the multiplication of churches, right? That’s the mission. And then what’s the last one?
Mike: Then live passionately.
Gary Walton: We really believe those five things. Love God, love others, love the Scriptures, love the Church, understand our mission, live passionately. Those will allow us to live a life that God blesses. We hope are praying that those would just be never forgotten, central, central part of your life. Last thing, tell us about what would be the top lesson that you think you’ve learned while here at Harvest?
Telence, let me start with you.
Talence: So, took a pastoral major, and I learned a lot from there.
Gary Walton: Good.
Talence: Yeah. Learned Greek. It’s crazy, but it’s fun. I’m thankful for Dr. Yoh. And I learned that God loves us and we should always pursue Him in life because He is the source of everything we need.
Gary Walton: Amen, Talence. I hope He’ll do that. Diane?
Diane: I would say the biggest lesson that I learned here on, here at Harvest is just loving people, even though they do us wrong or stuff like that. But we just have to love them and show that God loves them, too. So, that’s the biggest lesson I learned.
Gary Walton: That’s a great lesson. Yeah. Kathleen?
Kathleen: For me, it would be God’s grace is sufficient. Wow. Because my freshman year until, I would say my second year, I went through so much where I was just doing the wrong choices. But because of God’s grace, I’m still here and graduating soon.
Gary Walton: God’s grace is good, and it’s enough. Yeah, it’s great.
Mike: Mikey? Encouragement is a very big part of my life here at Harvest and HBBC. Same thing with Kath. There’s years in my time here at Harvest that I was just being down. And I see people surrounded by people that comes and encourage me and not just me, looking all around campus, seeing people, even a person like pastor Jake comes alongside and help and courage and just point each other to Jesus.
And I think about Hebrews where we have to fix our eyes on Jesus because He’s the author and the finisher of our faith.
Gary Walton: Amen. That’s good. That is great advice. Put your eyes on Jesus. Don’t let it get distracted by all the things going on, by all the people.
Keep your eyes on Jesus. He’ll be enough for you. Man, it’s kinda sad thinking about this. I want you guys to know again that you’re loved. We’re so grateful.
I it was great, again, to hear how God brought you here, and we’re so thankful, each one of you, that God that God did that. You’ve been such an important part of Harvest and, HBBC, And we believe that God’s just got abundant blessings in store for you as you follow him. So we can’t wait to see that and watch that. Be faithful to him. Don’t get distracted.
Keep your eyes on Jesus. And, can’t wait to see what God’s gonna do in your lives in the future. So thanks for joining us today. Graduation’s coming up. Just a week and a half out.
All the festivities that go with that, it’ll be a great time together. Praying for God’s blessing on you.
Chris Harper: And thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, at this point in the program, we wanna personally invite you again to services at Harvest Baptist Church. Two services, Sunday, 08:45AM and 10:45AM. We have Japanese and Korean translation available 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.