Pastor Walton spoke with Mike and Shannon Anderson this week about their family, spiritual life, and the way God miraculously worked to heal their son.
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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, interviewing our members and other friends of the ministry. We’d like to invite you to join us at Harvest Baptist Church this week. Two services on Sunday, 08:45AM and 10:45AM.
We have Japanese and Korean translation available during that 10:45AM service. And that’s also when we live stream at hbcguam.org. Hbcguam.org. This week, we continue our series, 10 foolish things people do to mess up their lives. This time in Exodus twenty twelve, commandment five, neglecting to honor our parents.
Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hafa adai, Chris. This Sunday, you are right. We’re coming back to this series that we’ve been in Exodus 20. It really is just an exposition of that chapter, walking down through the 10 Commandments, defining what it means within its context, and then how it applies to us today. And it’s been a fantastic study for us together.
It’s been fun listening to our church continue to think through individually, conversations in our community groups about the meaning of that. So we’re going to come up to commandment number five this Sunday and talking about what honoring our parents means. Does it just apply to children under 18? Or how does it apply to adults? And the Bible, I think, is clear on this, so I think it’ll be helpful and encouraging, and we’ll just find out what God says.
So we’d invite you to come and join us this Sunday. I’m really glad to have Mike and Shannon Anderson with us on Harvest Time here today. First of all, welcome to you guys. I’m glad that you’re with me.
Shannon Anderson: Hi. Thank you for having us.
Gary Walton: Mike and Shannon have been here at Harvest for a little over two years, is that right? About two years now. Shannon was here before. We’ll talk about that in just a minute. But they serve together on our staff.
Shannon’s a teacher. Mike serves on our maintenance team. And then both faithful servants within the church. And we’re so thankful that God has directed you here. And looking forward to hearing a little bit about your story of God’s leading in your life.
Maybe I could ask you first, Mike, I’ll start with you on this. How did you get to Guam and get to Harvest? Tell us about that.
Mike Anderson: That’s an interesting story. So I guess, when we were living in Alaska, we kind of came up in conversation about us coming out here and we weren’t sure what God really had for us at the time. And so we did really the only decision that we can really ever think to do in that time is just bring it to the Lord. And in doing so, we started just praying about it, and when we felt like the Lord was leading us out here, started making a move to do so.
Gary Walton: Awesome. So you both were in Alaska. We’ll get to a little bit more of that story, but that’s a pretty big move from Alaska to Guam, Yeah. A little bit of a change. We’ll track that a little bit more here in a minute.
Shannon, your parents actually met on Guam and then you grew up here or partly here, partly in The States. But tell us a little bit about that background of your parents, who your parents are.
Shannon Anderson: Sure. My dad was in the Air Force and he was stationed on Guam. His dad was in the military out here in the 50s. And, my mom became interested in, Harvest, from a college friend. And so they came in the 80s and they met at the same, I think, ’85 or ’86 at Harvest.
They met each other through the military or singles group out here when they were doing some activities together. And a few months later they were they got married. And so
Gary Walton: And were you born here, is that right?
Shannon Anderson: Yes.
Gary Walton: Okay. So you were born here and then spent some time in The States, right? And then you actually had been here teaching after you graduated from college, taught for five years or so, is that right?
Shannon Anderson: Yes. After college I came back out here. My parents were back here again. And I taught third grade for about seven years. And then the Lord called us to Alaska after I met Mike and I felt the Lord was leading us in our relationship to pursue marriage.
So we ended up going to Alaska for three years and I kept begging him about coming back and the Lord opened doors for us to come back. So here we are.
Gary Walton: That’s fantastic. You guys were married in 2009?
Shannon Anderson: ’19.
Gary Walton: ’19. Yes. Okay. So, all right, great. Well, actually, don’t we go ahead and ask you about your story, your background?
We’re tracking with your parents, Shannon, but tell us about your spiritual story, your family and kind of life growing up.
Shannon Anderson: Well, was very blessed to have grown up in a Christian home. My parents are both from Christian backgrounds as well, so grew up in church, went to church every Sunday, was always used to hearing the story of the Gospel. So I was actually saved at a very young age. And I was very blessed to just be at a Christian school and be around a good church family growing up. When I was a teenager, I struggled a little bit with some questions about salvation.
Sometimes I doubted it, but the Lord just really put some people in my life to help me work through that and just help me understand having assurance of salvation and what that really means. So yes, I’m just very thankful to have grown up in that and thankful to be back at the place where I grew up and we can raise our family here as well.
Gary Walton: Yeah, it’s really cool to think about the spiritual roots that God allowed to develop in your life here and some other places as well. And then to have you back teaching, you teach in the academy, so what grades do you teach?
Shannon Anderson: Right now I teach K-5, kindergarten.
Gary Walton: Okay, yeah, fantastic. And God has given you guys a baby. Mikey, how is he is how old?
Shannon Anderson: He is about to turn one at the end of November.
Gary Walton: Okay. I want to ask you about that story in a minute. But let me ask talk to Mike here for a second. Mike, tell us about your spiritual story. You grew up in Michigan, right?
Mike Anderson: Yes, I grew up in Michigan, city of Detroit. And my family, my mother’s side was more they were Christians. And my father’s side had a religion in their family, but he didn’t follow it and so me, I ended up not really being raised in a Christian household. However, there was a gentleman that came to our door when I was only, I think I was about around eight years old, offering free bus rides to church. And so I went and that’s when I actually learned about Christ and that’s when I decided to believe in Jesus.
But it wasn’t until years later that I actually started following him as Scripture says to do so.
Gary Walton: It’s a pretty great story actually. I love that part. Somebody cared enough about kids in your neighborhood that they’d showed up your door and invite you to come to church, right? I love how you said a free bus ride, to go to church. Yeah.
How long did you go to church as a child, kind of riding that bus?
Mike Anderson: Not long enough for me to really remember. Went pretty solid for maybe a couple months. And then after that, I just kind of started following suit in the area I lived in.
Gary Walton: Okay. You might not have an answer to this, Mike, but I’m always curious about it. So those months that you went to church, you said you gave your life to Jesus. Do you remember anybody from that time that sort of not even necessarily the name, but was there anybody significant to you? And why was that important that you would remember these years later?
Mike Anderson: I remember being in the main auditorium when we first got there and I didn’t understand why. I mean, I understand now, but I I don’t understand why we since I was young Yeah. We had to leave, kinda like there’s children church, adult church, and so forth. But I understand at the time. So it was I think it was the pastor that kind of directed us in that direction.
It’s partially him. I don’t really remember his face. I just remember the event And probably the bus driver himself. Right. As little as I seen him when he was around, he made himself known, but also, I don’t know, he’s just very caring.
Mhmm. Yeah.
Gary Walton: I actually know several people whose stories, you know, were that they, you know, they didn’t grow up in a Christian home, A neighbor or somebody else, and sometimes a bus, invited them to come to church. And, actually, I remember, somebody very close that said, you know, that was the only place where I ever really felt that people cared for me. And, and I never forgot that. And so I I, you know, I faithfully went to church for, you know, a short amount of time when I was a child, and then I I didn’t, you know, throughout my teens. I actually made a lot of bad decisions, and some of those started to come through in my life in my early twenties.
And, and I knew that, and I knew that I could find people that cared about me at church, and that’s what brought me back into my twenties. So it’s a cool story. You struggled through some of your teen years, right? You want tell us a little bit about that?
Mike Anderson: Yeah. Well, part of my testimony is just it’s nothing honestly, there’s nothing to be proud of. To make a long story short, I just kind of live more of the party and gang related type lifestyle. Kind of just use your imagination on that one. But I was not living in the way I should at all.
Making a lot of bad choices obviously. And then later on, I had this job and this man came up to me with offered me a million dollars. It was one of those fake little dollar bills with the gospel in it. Threw me off though. And after him and I had talked several times and came over to the apartment I was staying in at the time, did some bible studies he offered for me to come to church.
And I don’t know, it’s just the more I went, the more I realized how wrong I was living and why things were going so negative in my life. And just tell me why the choices I was making was not working out because they were my choices, they weren’t the Lord’s choices. And
I thought for the longest time, am I doing that is so wrong? And why am I losing everything? And then I, the more I write, especially, it’s part of the reason why I love the book of Proverbs, more I learned. It just blew my mind and I would just instead of it wasn’t that I was losing things that I realized at the time, but it was that he was replacing the bad with the good.
Gary Walton: Mhmm. Wow. How old were you when you kind of either recommitted your life to Christ? How really became a follower of Jesus?
Mike Anderson: I believe I was about 24. Okay. Yeah.
Gary Walton: And then, you know, you said you placed the bad with good. What changed for you? I mean, what
Mike Anderson: Well, at the time, I had a car, broke down, had a job, lost that. Was dating a girl at the time, split up, pretty much everything you can think of. Just was losing everything. Reality, it was because the job I had, I was trying to spread the gospel and it was frowned upon and people were getting offended about it. And then as far as car, I just didn’t take care of it, it speaks for itself.
And of course, going along with the faith, I realized that the relationship I was in was not what God had for me. And so that ended and just kind of started out on my own path in the right eyes of the Lord. And it was kind of like a, for lack of better terms, a fresh start.
Gary Walton: Yeah. That’s a great term. I don’t know if there’s a better term. That’s a great term, a fresh start that God gave you and, you know, just a new lease on life. That’s really great.
Mike Anderson: Now, one thing too I’d like to add. Yeah. There’s an interesting thing about growing up, but also just with Scripture itself, is and that any one of my family members could actually vouch for me on this too. But when it comes to reading books, I’ve always had a comprehension problem and a reading problem. I see more photographic memory when it comes to reading.
I don’t always get what the context is saying offhand. I guess that’s part of just being dyslexic. But Scripture is the one book I have not had that issue with. Wow. And that’s one of the things that drew me in.
Gary Walton: Well, it’s an amazing testimony. The Bible talks about the Holy Spirit who would guide us into all truth. And so he’s the one who guides and directs and helps us to understand. And that’s an amazing thing. And the Bible is an amazing book, too, that God has written, you know, the best author with the clarity that it has.
Mike Anderson: Absolutely.
Gary Walton: So that’s cool. Thanks for sharing all that, Mike. That’s helpful, I think, for all of us.
Mike Anderson: Of course.
Gary Walton: So, just, about a year ago, Mike and Shannon, had a baby, and, your baby came early with a lot of a lot of challenges. Maybe, Shannon, would you be willing to share a little bit of that? It might cost you some questions about it too.
Shannon Anderson: Sure. We were, actually I think I was about thirty three weeks along and long story short, we had to go into the hospital for some just for some complications that they were seeing. I was feeling fine, but there were some things going on inside of me that they were concerned about. So they ended up having to deliver him through a C section. He was very small.
He was about 25 weeks of size, even though I was 33. He was born at about two pounds. However, praise the Lord, he came out healthy. He was screaming, and he was doing really well overall, just aside from being tiny. And so we were very thankful.
They, of course, took him to the NICU. And we knew that we had a journey ahead of us, that he would be there for quite some time, just until he got a little bigger and we could take him home. So,
Gary Walton: And the whole thing was a surprise. I mean, Mike, we talked about that, right? You guys kind of thought you were going in for a checkup, didn’t know a baby was coming soon, and that happened fast, right, Mike?
Mike Anderson: Yeah, it was just, there’s some words for it. It was just fast and Yeah.
Gary Walton: Yeah. You were at the doctor and then just all of a sudden to the hospital, baby’s coming and you’re trying to process all that together, how early he was coming. But by God’s grace, he was good, just small, just tiny, right, at that point? Okay. Tell us about what happened next.
Shannon Anderson: Sure. So he was doing really well. And then at about 10 days old, they called us in about 03:00 in the morning. It was on a Sunday morning and he was just you could just tell by the nature of the phone call that this could be it. And they said he wasn’t doing too well.
He was having a little trouble breathing. He had been intubated about a day or so before. And they called us in, so we rushed to the hospital. Pretty sure he might have gone through some lights or stop signs. I don’t know, it’s a blur, but, got there as fast as we could.
At first, just because of some of their COVID policies, they weren’t even going to let us into the room itself. We had to stand from the window and watch. And we could tell that this was probably going to be it. We just said, could we please go say goodbye to our son? And so we did.
And we just, we surrounded him and we just lifted our voice up to God. And we just asked, we prayed for healing and we knew that this could be it, but we just were ready to let him go home if that’s what God had. And we we we sang to him. We sang some songs. Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
10,000 reasons, that was one of the songs that came to our hearts, and we just sang out. We told him that we loved him and that we couldn’t wait to see him in heaven someday. And oh, sorry. But we were just thankful so much for the time that we did have. And a few minutes later, actually, I think you had come to visit us at the hospital, and I know you got to witness the miracle that did happen.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Shannon Anderson: And we prayed together, but we also just kind of knew what was coming. The doctors had prepared us and said, we’re gonna try one more thing, and if it doesn’t work, he will probably pass away. So a few minutes later, he coded, a lot of people rushed in, and just, I don’t know, probably about 15 people in the room just working on him, machines going off, and we just there and watched and we just prayed to God. We said, okay, Lord, we’re ready. We’re ready for you to take him home.
And I think about seven minutes later, they told us everything stopped. And they came out to us and they were writing things down on clipboards and they came out and we thought we knew what they were going to tell us. But they said, All right, his stats are back up. His color looks good. And we were shocked.
I said, he’s still with us? What? And, you know, of course they braced us and they told us, you know, he could, you know, they didn’t want us to get our hopes up, but of course we were very excited and we were just watching him and praying and we praised God that he saved our son. And we found out later that the doctor said, in all the situations that they’ve seen this case happen, usually the baby doesn’t make it, or if they do make it, they’re not doing so well after. And this was the first time they had ever seen the baby come back from it and do better than he was doing before.
And we knew that was God. And he just performed a miracle and he decided to sustain our little boy’s life. And I told Mike, I said, I’m never gonna stop praising the Lord for this. And just, we were so thankful that, and ever since then, took him a while, he slowly gained weight. He had a little trouble with eating and, keeping food down and things like that.
But, slowly and surely he gained weight and we were able to him home about two months later.
Gary Walton: Just an amazing, amazing miracle. Yeah. Mike, that’s a hard thing, you know. I don’t know if you can even talk about it and that’s okay, but, you know, to be a dad and trying to care for, you know, your wife, of course. Was really sweet, you two together, but can you tell us a little bit of, you know, what the thoughts were during that time?
Mike Anderson: I wasn’t really thinking about much. But when the doctor had come out and said that he’s still with us, I lost it. I didn’t know what else to do but I’ve been in a lot of negative situations. But
I didn’t know what else to do except give it to God. Mhmm. Hold my wife, comfort her, and give it to the Lord.
Gary Walton: Well, I had been there, you know, for a little bit of time, you know, when that doctor came back out. And I’ll never forget standing with you two. Mike, you and I, I don’t know if you remember this, you and I were able to go in and, see little, Mike. He had you’d already been in there together, but but we went in and then came back out. And and, the sense was that Mike wasn’t gonna make it.
And we just stood outside that little NICU room, looking through that window and, prayed. And I’ll never forget the prayers that you two prayed in that moment as you believed that God was gonna take Mike to be with him, and your prayers were just so genuine and so sweet as you released him to the father. And and we prayed for healing. We did pray for that, but, just an acceptance and a surrender to God’s will. And it was a just a very moving, powerful time.
And, I just affirm, you know, what you said, Shannon, what you said, Mike, was that a miracle took place in that room, because, you know, just and you you gotta see it happening in the room that things changed. And and before long, you know, the doctor comes out and says he’s he’s, you know, different, that vitals are back, and and he’s doing well. And it, it really was a powerful time of God’s work and God’s miracle. And I feel the same way you do, Shannon. I’ll never stop praising God for that.
And it’s so every time I get a chance to see that that little guy now, a little peanut guy, you know, just growing up and, praying that he would just have a voice for God and be a follower of Jesus. And it’s such a beautiful miracle for you guys, but for all of us to be able to see that together. Thank you personally. I’ve told you this before, but just for your faith that was evident in that waiting room as you watched your son. That was a blessing to me.
I’ll never forget it. Time goes fast here, you guys. Thank you for for being willing to come and share the story of what God’s done in your life. Thank you for following him to come to Guam and serve him here. We love the fact that God’s called you here and praying that God would just bless your family as you serve together.
And thank you for joining us here, here on Harvest Time today.
Mike Anderson: Yeah. Thank you for having us.
Chris Harper: And thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, at this point in the program, we wanna invite you again to services at Harvest Baptist Church. Two services on Sunday, 08:45AM and 10:45AM. There’s Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45AM service. We also livestream at that time on hbcguam.org.
Hbcguam.org. We hope to see you this Sunday. Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.