Pastor Ken Keith is in studio this week to discuss our Missions Conference with Pastor Walton. This year’s theme is “For the Cause of Christ.”
Download the Missions Conference 2025 Harvest Time
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 on this very special week. There are two services at 08:45AM and 10:45AM on Sunday.
Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45AM service. That’s also when we live stream at hbcGuam.org. hbcguam.org. This week, it’s a special week because we’re beginning our missions conference with keynote speaker, Mark Kittrell. Gonna talk a lot more about that today.
Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey. Hafa adai, Chris. It’s actually good for me to be back. I was off island for a couple of weeks, with my wife, Faith, doing some ministry recruiting. I had a chance to speak in some chapels and, so, but it’s good to be home and, back in the middle of, you know, where our heart is and, thankful to be able to come back to launch into this special week at Harvest is our missions conference.
We’re gonna talk about that. I’m I’m here with Pastor Ken Keith. Pastor Ken oversees missions and a lot of other things at Harvest, and we’re, and he’s overseeing our missions conference coming up. So first of all, welcome, Pastor Ken.
Ken Keith: Great to be here. Great to have you back too.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’s good to be home. You know, Ken, we talk about this idea that this is the the most important week of our whole calendar, for sure for the church, but it really, you know, bleeds down to all of the the different ministries.
Ken Keith: Yeah. Yeah. We this is so important here at Harvest. And I think for a couple reasons, the one’s obvious reason. This is what the church has been called to do Yeah.
Is to go into all nations and, and share the gospel. But what’s unique about Harvest is the nations aren’t that far from us. We we say this often. The nations are literally on our doorstep. Mhmm.
And so this is something I believe as as we’ve talked about as a church, as you’ve talked about from the pulpit, Harvest has been uniquely blessed. And and I think our location is one of those blessings. And I think it’s if we look at the parables, it’s one of those talents that God’s given us that he wants us to maximize and not just hide or bury or or not, you know, take a full advantage. So it’s our desire that God’s put this church uniquely here in the Middle Of Pacific within reach of all these different nations. We have to, beyond just being called and commanded to do it, we have to take this seriously and take steps to to reach the lost around us.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’s interesting. I was just thinking about it coming back. You know, I’m very thankful that there are churches in The States that have a burden for missions. I’ve been a part of good churches with a mission heart, and they’ll talk about that.
Hey. I went to this church, really care about missions. But I’m just telling you, it is different than what we have here.
Ken Keith: Mhmm.
Gary Walton: No matter how much emphasis takes place, again, I’m very thankful for that, but there’s something about being in the middle of it. And as you’re saying, Ken, I think you’re right. God has given us a special stewardship, because of our location, because of the resources of people primarily. But we just have a special stewardship that we wanna, at some point, we’re gonna stand before God, and he’s gonna say, hey. I put you in that very strategic location, And I gave you some abilities.
What did you do with what I Mhmm. Gave you? And so the missions conference allows us just to put that on the forefront of our thoughts.
Ken Keith: Yes. Yeah. And and one of our burdens is that this is just like a pinnacle reminder, time for us to to see some of the missionaries coming back over, invest in them, not just one week out of the year. Right. And and I think that’s true about Harvest.
I mean, Harvest as you come through and and people see what’s going on, we’re constantly engaging the islands around us, the nations around us, and supporting in whatever way we can. We just had a missions trip, just come back from Yap. We’ve got a missions trip in a in two weeks going to The Philippines. We’re we’re constantly taking those steps. So, yeah, it’s missions conference is really just a a unique week where we get to kinda celebrate maybe and interact with those, kinda bring them back.
We’ve got a, a couple purposes for it. One is to, again, remind us it’s good for us to be reminded of the need, reminded of what God’s called us to do, but also a time of refreshment for those to to come over and and reengage with our church. So we’re really excited about it.
Gary Walton: I’ve said this before, but, you know, when when you particularly for me, when I get away a little bit, it gives my brain space to think a little differently. And, as I was coming back, this came back to me in a couple different ways and some initiatives that will come out of this. But, the calling that we have as believers to hospitality, really plays out here, on Guam. It’s one of our stewardships, and it it in it affects all kinds of different aspects of our ministry, but it impacts this week. Yeah.
We we have the opportunity for some choice servants of God to be with us, and we’re looking forward to how they’re gonna bless us. But there’s something about this being a place of refreshment and encouragement, true hospitality for them.
Ken Keith: Yes. Yeah. I I will tell you, I hear this often. I get to interact with these guests probably a little bit more than than most just because everything from schedules to to interaction we have, and this is the highlight. Mhmm.
It it really it really isn’t. And if Mark’s listening to this, sorry, Mark. It’s not always the preaching. It it really isn’t the preaching, though they do enjoy being under preaching as opposed to being the ones preaching. Right.
But what comes across the most is like minded. You’re on our team. Mhmm. You care about us. You care about the people, though you’ll probably never meet them, the people we’re ministering to.
And and you’re praying for us. You’re behind us. You’re lifting our arms. You’re providing, one of the things we do here is we ask them, what are some very specific, needs that that we can try to fulfill over this this week, and we’re able to meet those. It just it means something to them.
It really is a breath of fresh air. We’re not at this alone. We’ve got a team, again, a location not too far from us who’s behind us and for us.
Gary Walton: Our theme for the conference is for the cause of Christ.
Ken Keith: Mhmm.
Gary Walton: Pastor Ken, tell us a little bit about that and, then I will ask you another question connected with you.
Ken Keith: Yeah. I mean, if you were here, Sunday, this is what we we camped on a little bit. One of the, concise statements of Luke and really some argue that this is the main theme of Luke is that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. And and you see that that was one of Jesus’ purpose. That’s that was given to him by the father.
We looked at that back in John 20. It was given to him by the father. The father was the first one to go seek and to save, sends his son to seek and save the lost, and we read about that through the gospels through Luke, but it didn’t stop there. He handed it to us. He entrusted us with this.
And we looked at a little bit in in Luke 15 that this seeking is not a casual seeking, you know, kind of looking around. I used the illustration of a, you know, a child who goes into the room to find something. Hey. Do you have your socks? And they go and I don’t see them and walk right back out and mom goes in there and finds them in a second.
There was no diligence to that looking. But Jesus in in three parables about the the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son show us what seeking looked like in the diligence he had. In fact, it says diligently and there was rejoicing. We talked about that, this last Sunday. But the important part is is that it didn’t begin with Christ and it’s not ending with Christ.
Actually, he has handed it and entrusted it to us. He’s gone back up into heaven and on this earth, he’s entrusted this cause to the church, to us individually. And so that’s what the books of book of Acts actually introduces.
Gary Walton: Yep.
Ken Keith: So you kinda it’s kinda cool when you see this picture that he is handing this off for us to do what? And we looked at the the different great commission calling, but it’s to go out. It’s to go out to not only our small area, the areas around us, but to the uttermost with the message of salvation. We’re not saving anyone. We’re giving them the gospel that we’ll save, but we need to be diligent in in our seeking.
So as we talk about the cause of Christ this week and as we talk about this and keep it in our mind, this cause that we’re living for, this cause that we’re giving towards, this cause that is is, if you look up the the definition is is driving us to action is the seeking and saving of those who are lost. And so we wanna focus this week on mainly those who are outside of our immediate context, those who are in the uttermost. We talked a minute about the the lost coin. The coin didn’t know it was lost. There’s so many around us that don’t know they’re lost and they need someone who cares and has put worth on them to seek them out and that’s what Christ has given us.
So we wanna be challenged. We wanna be challenged by that and and as a church, we we talked about praying that this week we would be challenged how can we fulfill this, great commission and how how can God use us in some way, shape or form, this coming week to and beyond to to fulfill this cause.
Gary Walton: You know, some of the great movements of the world. I don’t I don’t know how else to describe that, but if we can go back to think historically of some of the more, ground oriented, you know, people groups, they’ve always been propelled by something and we could call it the cause. Mhmm. From, you know, great social movements to actually, you know, some huge, wars or protections of countries or to some, you know, you know, overwhelming changes that have happened in our world. They’ve happened because of the cause.
Yep. The the people begin to believe and take on, something where you’ll make unbelievable sacrifices. And why would you do that? Well, we do it for the cause.
Ken Keith: Correct. Yeah.
Gary Walton: So we’re having the privilege to talk about the ultimate cause in all of the world, the cause of Christ, that propels us to make amazing sacrifices to give of ourselves. And, we want that to come clear for people that this is this is the ultimate cause, Jesus. And I love that picture of, you know, this this message that’s come down and has been given to us to move forward into the world. Yep. God could have chose all kinds of other options.
He chose the church. Yes. He chose us. Yep. And so I’m I’m excited just talking about it here.
I’m excited to hear and be challenged for the cause Yep. For me personally and, for a church together. There’s a lot of reasons why we’d like to encourage people to be a part of the next, week. Really, the conference begins Sunday, goes through Wednesday, and, we got a number of different options or opportunities for people. But one of them is we want to introduce people to, some choice servants of God.
Mhmm. And, we have a number of, people that we’ve invited to come to minister to us. We hope to minister to them as well. And, just quick, Pastor Ken, I’d like you to just tell us maybe some key interesting facts about a few of the people that are coming, just so we get people introduced, to our lineup of speakers and guests. Keynote speaker is Mark Kittrell, who we know well here.
He’s been here a number of times.
Ken Keith: Yeah. So Mark, is, is not only, an acquaintance, but very close friend to the ministry. Yeah. And and for a variety of reasons, one, because of his love, for this side of the world, but also the use of education and and training. Mark’s been able to see, not only in The Philippines, but in India and other closed areas, training centers for for men who are desiring to to spiritually lead churches.
So Mark’s been doing a phenomenal job. God, he would he would say this, you know, God’s been opening doors and he’s just been obedient going through them. But, Mark’s a unique man and the fact that that, he’s been able to lead multiple training institutions across Asia in and out of war torn, countries, to to stable countries. So he’s dynamic speaker, challenging, loves the Lord, desires more than anything that God’s word is proclaimed, understood, and proclaimed, through the nation. So he’ll be here.
We’ve got a couple of family here that’s, in Southeast Asia. We’re We’re a little more careful with their names, so if you come, you’ll be able to see them and, and, interact with them a ton, and you’ll hear a lot more in live settings. It’s just things that are getting sent out to airwaves or or any kind of social media. We’re very, very careful because they are in a closed, country where they are there on God’s authority, not necessarily, the country’s authority, but they’re sharing the gospel. They’re sharing the gospel in in places that desperately need, the gospel.
And so they’ve just they’ve been out there a couple years. They’re they’ve been growing, and, being used in just unique ways. But them and, those two and their family, they’re gonna be here, this week with us.
Gary Walton: They have been part of our staff, so we know them well. And they’re coming with their six kids, which is awesome. Yes. And, they’ve had some challenges to try to get here. So Oh, buddy.
We’re thankful that they’re coming. It’ll be good to reconnect them, and they’re serving, you know, just sacrificially in a very needy part of the world. We can’t wait
Ken Keith: Yeah.
Gary Walton: To get reconnected. Yeah.
Ken Keith: We can use their first names, Nick and Julia. Right. We’re we’re trying to keep their last names off the airways and and whatnot, but, it just could be a blessing. We did. I picked them up at 03:30 this morning, and the weather was okay.
And halfway through the Guam parking lot, Marwar’s long lost cousin must have come through for a brief second because we were all drenched in a very short time. So, but, no, they’re they’re excited to be here. Kids are excited to be here and, they’re pumped. And then, again, friends of the ministry, though distant, friends, but we’ve interacted Harvest and the Ogelias have interacted with each other.
Gary Walton: Pastor Jun and Juvy Oguilla.
Ken Keith: Yep. Yep. And, so we’ve we’ve had a lot of interaction through the years mainly through PRMI. I forgot to mention this where Mark Kittrell is the the president of PRMI.
But we’ve we’ve spoke our pastors from pastor Harron to, I think you did the missions conference too. I think pastor Yoh has been out there. I’ve been out there, but it’s, just, awesome work, that they have there. And, in The Philippines, in The Philippines. Sorry.
Gary Walton: Bacolod city, Philippines. Yep. Right?
Ken Keith: And, their son, is here, a son and daughter-in-law, Josh and Leih. So they help out a ton with the music and help out in the academy. But, yeah, they they came in about four this morning also, but they’re here. And, this is the first time they’ve been to Harvest.
Gary Walton: And so pretty cool, actually. Yeah. Pastor Oguilla pastors a church and ministry that’s sort of a sister partner church to us in The Philippines. You know, different, but a lot of the same kind of ministries. They have a little bible college.
They have an academy. They have a church that’s, you know, trying to reach people. And so there’s some similarities together. And, so we really have enjoyed that. Interesting for them, they’ve struggled, for the last, I don’t know, thirty years to get a visa to come to The States.
So this is actually, just recently, because of our invitation, they’ve pushed through and got some help to actually get their first visa. They ended up going to The States for their first visit for a few weeks, and then they’ll be here. So first time at Harvest, yeah, really kinda first connection with the state. So we’re excited about that. Yeah.
Ken Keith: I know. We we really are. It’s it’s one of those, relationships that sometimes we, on the leadership team or those who’ve gone on the missions trips, get to make. Right. And you’re just like, man, if only our church people could meet this this couple Yeah.
This family. And like I said, we got a little bit of the benefit with Josh and Leih coming out, but it’s I’m excited that they’ll be able to meet, June and Juvy that they’re they’re gonna be awesome on on campus. And, he’s speaking Tuesday night, so be able to hear from them. All of our different missionaries will be able to hear updates from what’s going on in the different, places they’re at. And then we have Hye Ree Park who’s no stranger to to Guam.
Hye Ree came out a few years ago for our missions conference. She works with Bibles International, which you were from, before you came came over here. Huge work. She’s, been in Haiti. She’s coming from Myanmar.
She’s, man, where else is she? Ghana. I I she does
Gary Walton: a lot of work in in Thailand. Thailand. Yes. Yep. And I think in India as well.
Ken Keith: I I think there’s another I think she’s doing a Middle Eastern helping with the Middle East. So while she’s here, she’s like, hey. I need to get a couple moments to to communicate with the team. So just, God is using her in an awesome way to get his written word in the heart languages of people, that don’t have it. And and we’ve talked about this.
We could talk the rest of the time about this, but just the importance of having God’s word in their heart language. And she is not only champion, but given of her life to this work. And so we’re really excited to to have her. She comes in this afternoon, and we’re really excited to have her on campus. And then a little surprise visit.
Gary Walton: Just real quick. Hye Ree Park, you know, long term friends for Faith and I.
She’s a she’s from Korea originally, been trained in The States. She’s one of a very handful of people that has the ability to do the kind of translation work that she does. I mean, she’s uniquely gifted both intellectually and then in the training. I mean, intensive training to do bible translation.
And literally, there’s a handful of people in the world that have the skills that she does.
Ken Keith: Yeah.
Gary Walton: And and then at the same time, she’s so warmhearted. She loves people. We love her here. She connects, you know, great with our church and the Asian connection anyway. But, yeah, we can’t wait to have Hye Ree back.
Ken Keith: She’s one of those people I I, she’s the smartest person in the room probably all the time. All the time. But she would never say that, and no one would ever know from anything. But Right on. But she literally is.
And and but she’s taken that giftedness and saying, Lord, take it all and, which is so awesome. Yeah. But she’ll be here. And then a little surprise, not technically a guest, but wanted to let you all know who’ll be here on Sunday because you might see them as as, John and Jamie Zimmer. Just happened to be coming through, from the field they were on, heading back to Palau.
So we’re excited to have them. We’ll only have them for Sunday, but if you happen to see them around, they’re like, wait. I didn’t know they were part they’re technically not, but we’re like, please come. And so they’ll be here on Sunday. Those who will be here, you’ll be able to see them and catch them, but they’re just coming through back to Palau.
And so if you see them around, we’re just housing them while they they come back through. But we’re excited to have them here. And then a former HBBC student, you’ll also see floating around Michael Charlie and his wife will be here, on island. Also, part of our, missions conference. And then Freshwater, I don’t know if you wanna Yeah.
Gary Walton: Just mention because they’ll, James and Jeslyn Harry will be here for our missions conference, and they’re really focusing on Freshwater, which is our missions conference for our college students.
Ken Keith: Yes. So they’re they’re also guests, but they’re exactly. They’re here as our speaker for our Freshwater, which is really, for those who don’t know, our missions conference for the Bible College. So we actually, the and it’s it’s this will show some of the importance of the, of the focus we have here as we really stop the gears of Harvest Christian Academy, Harvest Ministries for two days so our Bible college students can be challenged, with the the, importance of the cause of missions. And, James and Jeslyn, who again have been, graduates, I think, in 2007, have been just faithful servants of God in Micronesia are coming, to speak and be a part of that.
So it’s it’s a it’s a jam packed group, but we’re so excited to have them all here.
Gary Walton: I don’t know if you mentioned this. James and Jeslyn are from Pohnpei Yes. Serving both in, one of the churches that we support, and also in, the school Mhmm. There. And so, yeah, they’ve been faithful.
They actually were part of our staff as well, our HBBI staff, you know, fifteen years ago, and so it’ll be good to connect with them. We try to bring back some of our alumni around this time of year, both for the refreshment for them, but we hope just some encouragement to our student body and, actually, our whole church to be able to connect with them. Yeah. So, man, I’m excited just thinking about it. These people are special to God.
We care for them, and it’s gonna be great connecting. Anything kinda to remind it to you, pastor Kenny? Yes.
Ken Keith: One more thing, actually, I just thought about. This is I I told the church, family as we were, reminding you of this. I I wish I had a very spiritual reason for this, but one of my favorite things is our international potluck.
Gary Walton: Yeah. I don’t know. Eating, that sounds very spiritual to me. So
Ken Keith: Is this, I tell people my spiritual gift is eating potluck food. But 05:00, if you could have your food, as we we asked if you could bring a dish from your culture, a main dish, and then a side whether it’s a salad or dessert. And honestly, there is a a great opportunity to interact with our missionaries and our guests and and be a part there. But it’s an awesome time as a family. Come dressed up in your culture.
I promise you everyone will. So if you’re kinda second guessing, I promise you, all of us will be, dressed up from different cultures. Please come. It’s an awesome time together of great fellowship, not only with the church body, but also with, the missionaries. And then we’ll have a little event right afterwards in the auditorium, a little fun, get to know the missionary event will happen right after that.
But, be a part of that at 05:00 on Sunday night.
Gary Walton: It really is a special time. We kinda redid the front of our our stage, our platform. It looks fantastic. It just tells people that this is a special part of our ministry and of our year and, the importance of this central focus on the the theme of missions, which is something that Jesus loves, and we wanna love it too. So we’d like to invite you to come and join us.
There’s a bunch of other pieces, ways that you can connect with our missions family. We’re gonna take a, special love offering. We got some gifts that we wanna ask our church family to help and be a part of in order to, you know, care for and gift to our missionaries. So just a lot of other little pieces that we’d invite you to come and be, and join in with. I know that you’re gonna be blessed and, maybe God will use this week in a way that changes the the course of your future.
That’s what we’re praying.
Chris Harper: Well, thank you for listening to today’s Harvest Time. We wanna invite you to the beginning of this missions conference and throughout the week for our missions conference as well. It begins at 08:45AM and 10:45AM, Sunday morning. During that second service at 10:45, we have Japanese and Korean translation. That’s also when we broadcast live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org.
Now, there are services Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening, 7PM. Those will also be broadcast live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org. We really hope you can join us. Thanks for listening to Harvest Time.