The Navy brought Matt and Jessica Tipton to Guam. When they arrived, they had no idea how God would use the move to grow their faith and their family too!
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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 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, Sunday mornings.
We have Japanese and Korean translation during our second service at 10:45AM. We also livestream that service at hbcguam.org. Hbcguam.org. This week, we’re in part four of pray first from Matthew 7:7-11. Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton.
Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey, hafa adai, Chris. Yeah. Matthew chapter seven is one of those interesting passages of scripture. Jesus is talking. It’s part of the Sermon on the Mount, but he asked this question.
What man is there of you if your son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent? And And then he goes on to say, If human father wants to give good gifts to his children, how much more so would our heavenly Father, our good heavenly Father, want to give good things to his children? And then tells us to ask. Come to him and ask.
And we’re going to follow-up our series on Pray First with this fourth study of just praying bold prayers because God our Heavenly Father desires to meet us and answer our prayers and desires to give us good things. And so we’ll look at that in its context and talk about what it means for us today. We’d love to invite you to come and join us this Sunday. Chris mentioned the two different service times. You can catch us online, but we’d love to have you in the service.
There’s just something special about being in the Harvest Worship Center and worshiping God together and hearing from His Word. I’m excited to have in the studio with us Matt and Jess Tipton, and their little foster baby, Paco, is also with us. She’s looking around here. But welcome, Matt and Jess. Hey, how are you?
Doing good, doing good. I’m really thankful that you guys were willing to come in, figure out the work and home schedules and come in and talk a little bit. God has been doing some good things in your life and it’s been exciting just to see God’s work on you both. Matt, you just were baptized after coming to Christ earlier in your life. We’ll talk about that here in a minute, but welcome.
Matt serves fourteen years in the Navy. Is that right, Matt?
Matt Tipton: Yeah, that’s correct. Been in for a couple of minutes.
Gary Walton: Yeah, a little bit of time. Then how long on Guam?
Matt Tipton: Right at three years. It’s definitely been a treat being out here for sure.
Gary Walton: Well, we were just talking about that. Mean, we love having your family here. Always in the military, the next step is a little uncertain, but maybe coming up on some time where the next step will be more clear for you. So we’re praying alongside that. Matt and Jess, why don’t you help our listeners get to know you guys?
How did you meet? Tell me what brought you to Guam. Jess, maybe you can start with this part of the story.
Jessica Tipton: Matthew likes to joke that he picked me up at the nursing home, because he did, literally. We were both working there when we met. And I actually knew Matthew through his family, but had never really spoke to him. And so, we got connected. And I can honestly say after the first time we hung out, we’ve kind of been stuck together ever since.
So it was nice.
Gary Walton: That’s great. And then, coming to Guam, you’d served in a couple places, Jess. Why don’t you fill us up on that?
Jessica Tipton: As far as work service? Yeah. So my background has been with senior living. And so my most recent, before coming to Guam, I got to serve as a divisional director of Life Enrichment and Memory Care. So definitely something that’s special to me, working with seniors and working with those with dementia.
And so I miss that a little bit here. But working, here for Navy Marine Corps Relief Society has given me a way to give back to the community again. It’s good.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah, that’s awesome. And, Matthew, you’re serving on ship, right?
Matt Tipton: Yeah, that’s correct. I’m their medical equipment repair technician, kind of jack of all trades, handyman, facilities, any kind of repairs. I’ve pretty well fallen into that outfit.
Gary Walton: Matthew, you said it’s really been a privilege to be here on Guam. What’s been great for you guys?
Matt Tipton: So I got in the military to kind of get out of dead end jobs, limited availabilities, limited education. Thought I was not going to go to college, get in the military, get out of town, and I ended up basically going back to college and having to study a lot more. Out to Guam, get to travel around a lot. We were kind of lacking in some of our spiritual necessities. Back during stateside, kind of during COVID, after COVID started calming down, we started getting back into church.
And coming out here really helped us develop tenfold spiritually. Got out here, had been lacking on, you know, baptized, got out here and it helped me see the picture a lot more clear, kind of what I needed to do, get baptized, get closer with God. And, it’s been, been an experience in the positive for sure.
Gary Walton: Ah, man, that’s great. I want to hear some more about that. Jessica, tell us about, you know, why don’t you back us up to your spiritual story, like from the beginning, and then, Matt, I’ll ask you the same.
Jessica Tipton: I grew up, my grandparents were a huge, huge influence in my life. My grandfather served as deacon, and my grandma served in every single thing she could at the church. I remember Sunday morning, we always left with food and clothes, and she was part of the ladies to make sure there were towels at baptism. And just… That’s just her role.
And so I grew up seeing that and being a part of that and was very active, within our church probably up until my freshman year of high school, maybe sophomore year, somewhere around in there. Went on all the mission trips, actually went to Buffalo, New York and helped rebuild a church that had been set fire to. Oh, wow. Someone had come in, broke into the church, burned it to the ground. And that was our mission trip that year.
So, a great opportunity spiritually and was very close, but got into high school, started hanging out with the wrong people, doing the wrong things and just let my, my spiritual life really lapse. I know that broke my grandma’s heart for a long time. So when when I decided to get back into church, it was actually right before I met Matthew. I started going to church. One of our local pastors played bingo with our residents on Monday nights once a month and he kept saying, come check out our church.
We’re a new church. Come check us out. I think they had 40 members at the time. It was very small. And so my son and I started going to church there, and just really loved the people, really, really loved them.
And so my faith, I was back into my faith and really growing, when I met Matthew. And then once we got married, life just when you move, it’s really hard to connect with a church family. And actually, it’s kind of funny now that we know when we lived in Virginia, we attended First Baptist of Norfolk. And that’s actually where the Lawsons were attending. Not together.
They hadn’t even met each other yet or had just briefly met.
Gary Walton: I don’t think I’ve heard that.
Jessica Tipton: But we actually overlapped around the same time, maybe when they had just first started dating. The church was so large, you never saw the same people. And so it was really hard to get plugged in. Even though we went every Sunday, we just never really plugged in. And so COVID happened and we actually went, did church online with our church in Tennessee, our home church.
So it was lovely to feel like we were there, and started going to Skokie Valley Baptist Church. Once church opened again. We really loved the pastor there, Pastor Tim. He was wonderful. But we were probably some of the younger people there.
So that also was a hard connection. So I think coming here to Guam was really eye opening and it’s, it was divine intervention that we made it to Harvest because a friend was like, Oh, check out Bayview, go check out Harvest and check out… There was one other, close to us. It And
Chris Harper: the first Sunday we came to, Harvest, we met Pastor Clint. And he was just..
Matt Tipton: It was Easter.
Jessica Tipton: Yeah. He just loved on us so much. Like, we both left saying, Wow. That’s it. Like we don’t need to visit anywhere else.
Like this is where we’re supposed to be.
Gary Walton: Paco was saying,
Jessica Tipton: She agrees.
Gary Walton: Yes. I agree.
Jessica Tipton: And it was just every Sunday, I think for the first couple months, we met Scott and Laura and they were like, sit with us. You now sit here. And I remember the first time we sat on the other side and Laura snuck us out and was like, what are you doing? You don’t sit over here. It’s just been not only to see myself grow and to push myself, but also our marriage grow and to pray for your husband and his spirituality and get to see it.
It’s wonderful.
Gary Walton: Amen. It’s been amazing just watching God work. Matthew, why don’t you back us up for you, you growing up and then kind of to the present?
Matt Tipton: Growing up, not super active in the church. Mom and dad would go to church with grandma and grandpa. Everybody in my family lives roughly an hour drive from each other, so they kinda go to different different churches, whatever’s more closer. We would go with my dad’s mother and, stepdad. And most of the time, we go with them or with his aunt and uncles, go a little bit closer to where we live.
So it kind of bounced between, was active being real small, kind of coming up into teen years. Dad started working, you know, midnight shift, factory. Mom was working late in the evenings. So usually ended up me going with aunts and uncles to church a lot closer. And kind of getting up into high school, myself following dad’s shoes, kind of working late hours, getting out of school, going to work, working up until the evening, weekends, working as much as I could.
Didn’t necessarily do what I needed to do spiritually to stay connected and kind of fell out. Yeah. Ended up getting in the nursing home, getting into the military. And, you know, military life, you’re working sun up to sundown, studying, working, whatever, and moving around a lot when you first come in, not having a real good, you know, root foundation. Didn’t necessarily get plugged in anywhere at that point in time.
Didn’t really feel drawn in anywhere. And after we got married, moved to Norfolk, kind of started getting back into church a little bit more regular, moved to Texas there after the Norfolk stint. And it was a short study time for a year, studying morning to evening, same thing. Didn’t necessarily feel any churches out. We ended up moving there shortly after again.
That’s when we ended up in Chicago. And wasn’t necessarily finding any church that we liked. And she had a resident that she was taking care of during COVID and had, church on TV one Sunday. She was like, hey, come down, you know, sit down here with me and, watch your church. And ended up getting invited to Skokie, and that’s where we ended up going for a year and a half.
But I’m real… I’d kind of say cautious in a way. I gotta kind of feel at home to, you know, get real plugged into a church. And there wasn’t necessarily any home feeling there. Kind of made the impression on me that in order to be a member of the church, you have to get, have to get baptized.
And they weren’t necessarily given any kind of background on it. So I was kind of reserved on that aspect of like, I’m not going to do this just because the church wants me to be a member. Like, I need to have some background and kind of further information. Not saying, you know, I’m not going to get baptized. But, you know, kind of give me some more information to help me on my journey.
Yeah, absolutely. And after that, you know, we we went there for a while and ended up moving to Guam. Got plugged in here the first Easter and just felt that home connection. I’m like, Alright, this is where I’m meant to be. Just took off from there.
Gary Walton: Yeah, you know, it really is. Talk with a lot of people about this. I don’t know if I have with you guys. But, you know, Guam has such a way of fostering sort of a spiritual reset for you. And it’s a lot of different things, maybe different for everybody, but all of a sudden you’re just away from everything that you know.
You know, there’s no other place to go. Life slows down a little bit, even though I know your jobs are busy and and life can be busy on Guam too, but they’re just is a different pace that God uses over and over again. I’m thankful for how God’s used Harvest, but, you know, even just listening to you again, Matthew, it’s God setting it up. So you walked in here this first Easter, and, you know, and I’m glad God used this church, but really God was preparing you to Guam, all of that together, so that your ears and hearts and all of that was open. And it’s really, really sweet thinking back on that.
The military can be challenging, right?
Matt Tipton: It’s like any job. Know, it is what you make out of it, but it’s definitely got its stressful years.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah. Jessica, maybe I can ask you though. What do you wish people understood about the life of a military wife?
Jessica Tipton: Oh, there’s so many things now. You know, Matthew and I have been together. We just celebrated fifteen years, eleven married, and all this time in the military has just been very interesting. But I think as a military spouse, just going with the flow. And I…
Over the past couple of months where we’ve been praying about so many different things, I actually, just a couple weeks ago, was like, you know what? I can’t control this.
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Jessica Tipton: Like, I’ve got to just let it go. Yeah. And going based off messages messages and, and, like, like, listening listening and looking at my notes that I take on Sunday, I’m like, I am not in control. Like, how many times do I have to write that down the more I realize it? But I think it’s a little bit harder for military spouses because, you know, the common phrase we hear is, well, you chose this.
Well, actually, I chose a person that chose this. You know, and so it’s just… I think that just going with the flow, slowing down, relaxing, is huge as a military spouse because there’s just so many things all at once. And we’re right in the thick of that right now, just not with the uncertainty. Yep.
But actually, Matthew said this the other night, making the decision to to keep her. He said, You know, now that we made that decision, everything is just falling where it should have fell. And he was like, We just weren’t patient enough. We weren’t giving it to God quick enough. And so we, actually just talked about this the other night.
So it’s nice to see that things that we are praying about are coming to fruition, because I felt like it was a period of silence. And I think it was meant to be so that we would give that control over.
Gary Walton: Wow, that’s powerful. Yeah, that lesson of waiting on the Lord. He’s not unnecessarily stalling. He’s teaching. He’s guiding even through that time.
Jessica, for you, you both have said God brought you to Guam, you know, just for the spiritual. What’s that mean for you?
Jessica Tipton: I think we had longed myself let me back up. You long for your marriage to be led by God. Like that’s what you want. And as a very type A personality, I wanna take over and lead that and do those things. But I know that’s not the way it’s supposed to be.
And so being here in Guam and leading us to Guam, I think that was our eye opener of slow down. I’m here. Together, you guys can do this. And you’ve been so busy and so many other things. And now you have this time to invest in me and invest in yourselves.
Gary Walton: You’re holding a little baby. So, a number of months ago… How many months ago?
Jessica Tipton: Almost four. Right after four.
Gary Walton: Felt God… Well, you tell me the story. So respite, tell me what happened with that.
Jessica Tipton: Well, it wasn’t even supposed to be respite with her. We had some friends here on island, actually, that attended church and they had a foster. We knew of some untimely medical things that were happening with them and that they may have to leave island very quickly. And what would happen to this little baby that they have in their family? And when I first asked Matthew, he’s like, No.
Gary Walton: This is not the season.
Jessica Tipton: I don’t even think he thought about it, honestly. And so I kind of let it go. But it was just pressing on my heart. And I blame Bethany Taylor for that 100%.
Gary Walton: Yeah. She’s got a lot of blame around the island.
Jessica Tipton: We prayed about it for a weekend, just together, individually. And that Sunday night, we made a decision to reach out to this family and say, hey, if this happens, we’re we’re up. We got her. Like, we will take her in. We had had our respite license, and had done a…
Like a respite stay for a seven year old, which we had a ton of fun with. We still… We actually are getting her tomorrow for a weekend.
Gary Walton: I remember that. Yeah.
Jessica Tipton: And so, we had that happen, but we had made that decision. That was that Sunday night. And then Monday morning, I got… This phone number just kept calling my phone over and over and over. And I’m at work.
I’m like, what is this? And I answer, and it is Department of Social Services. And there is this little baby that needs to be picked up at the hospital today at 04:00. And I I was stunned.
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Jessica Tipton: But I answered immediately, yes. Didn’t call Matthew. I didn’t say anything. And actually, actually, my first call was to Bethany. And I said, okay, now what?
And she goes, we’ll figure it out. It’s fine. We got this, you know? And we we now say God prepared us the night before. He knew what was gonna happen the next day.
And we picked her up, not that day, the following day from the hospital and have had her ever since.
Gary Walton: You okay, sharing you know, just sort of some decisions about future or?
Jessica Tipton: Yeah. We had decided a couple weeks ago, we were very firm in our respite choice only. I actually spoke to Faith about it. And she’s like, So what happened? And I’m like, I don’t know, Faith.
I don’t want to really think about it. But every Sunday, just keep praying about it. My bible study group has been praying about it. Other friends back home are praying about it. And last week, around 11:00 at night, we were just talking and we’re like, but what if?
And Matthew looked at me and he’s like, I guess we decided. Like, she’s ours. And this is after knowing that 95% sure, reunification, unfortunately, is not going to happen. Mhmm. Which is sad, also a blessing that a we get to be a part of.
Gary Walton: Be her family. Yeah. Hey, Matthew, can I ask you about that from, you know, the first conversation, which is, Nope, this is not for us, to each step along the way to, you know, now permanent? I mean, this baby is just beautiful, and I know she’s captured your heart, but tell us about that.
Matt Tipton: Yeah, the first time she brought it up of looking for adoption, respite, I’m like, you know, probably not the right season. Work has been rather demanding and pressing, kind of asking a lot recently. And I’m like, probably not the exact right season for us right now. We’re getting ready to move. We don’t know where we’re moving to yet.
And the deciding factor was like, all right, we can do temporary respite, but if you’re good for it, because I may be here, I may not be here. And the next day I’m at work, having to stay there all night and got a call that said, Hey, we got a newborn now. And I’m like, Okay, here we go. Game on. Yeah.
Short term, cool. We can do short term. What was it?
Jessica Tipton: Two to three weeks? Yeah. Two to three weeks.
Matt Tipton: Stand on your head for that long, right? No big deal. And I was like, well, you you already know my schedule. So if you’re good for it, you know, we got it because I may not be here. And the longer it went, the longer it’s like, well, there may not be reunification.
There’s delays in this. The closer we get to moving window. And it kinda went back and forth about, you know, you may not be able to get this in a timely manner completed and all the court stuff finalized before we move. And I’m like, alright. Well, we’ve made it four months already.
And if they’re willing to expedite all the paperwork and everything, you know, You’re willing to take the brunt of this because I may not be here. Yeah, let’s do it, you know. Well,
Gary Walton: I know that when we met just before this a little bit ago, I think Jessica was saying, You actually took the day off in order to watch the baby today and telling you baby was just watching you.
Matt Tipton: Oh, yeah. She’s definitely been more alert and locked on me. I can come in the door for five minutes after she’s been hanging out with mom all day and she’s hawkeyeing me, wide awake after she hears me.
Gary Walton: That’s awesome.
Jessica Tipton: It’s not fair.
Gary Walton: I got a bunch more questions, but we’re out of time. Maybe last one, either of you. For someone that’s listening who feels, maybe spiritually worn down or maybe even wonders why God brought them to Guam, what would you want them to hear?
Jessica Tipton: Don’t give up on yourself and don’t give up on him. Because I think for us, this has been a deciding change for our marriage. Knowing that you wanna spend the rest of your life with somebody is a big deal. Mhmm. But then also know…
Not knowing where that spur… That where that person is going to spend eternity makes a big difference. And so to know that we’ve grown so much here and know that there’s potential to continue to grow, let Guam be that spot. Like, let it be your sweet spot. Let it be your time to reconnect and do the things you need to do, because you may not get it again.
And that’s kinda how we’ve looked at it as this was our time. This is our time to do those things, because who knows where we end up next.
Gary Walton: Mhmm. Amen, you guys. Thanks for being willing to share. You know, we’re praying that we’ve got kind of an extended stay here, so we’ll we’ll see what God and the Navy’s doing. I mean, God’s first.
He’s gonna… Yeah. But, we want God’s will for your lives for sure. But it’s it’s… I already said this.
It’s been really amazing, cool to watch God grow you guys, individually, grow you together, grow your family. And, we know this just… It really is just the foundation, you know, the start for whatever God’s gonna do in your future and thankful to be able to have a little part of it. So thank you for joining us, here, on Harvest Time, and looking forward to how God’s gonna keep leading your family.
Jessica Tipton: Thank you.
Matt Tipton: Thanks.
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. You can join us 08:45AM, 10:45AM on Sunday morning. We have Japanese and Korean translation during the 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.