Pastor Jared Baldwin is our guest host for a discussion with Roleigh Tuazon. They spoke about growing up at Harvest and being a Christian in the workplace.
Download the Roleigh Tuazon Harvest Time
Chris Harper: Welcome to Harvest Time. My name is Chris Harper, and our guest host on this program is Pastor Jared Baldwin, the executive pastor at 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 invite you to join us at Harvest Baptist Church this week. We have two services on Sunday, the first at 08:45AM, the second at 10:45AM.
We offer Spanish translation at the 08:45AM service and have Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45AM service. That’s also when we live stream at hbcguam.org. hbcguam.org. This week, Pastor Jake Schnoor will be preaching in our Sunday morning services, and we have community groups on Sunday evening. Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Jared Baldwin.
Hi, Pastor Jared.
Jared Baldwin: Hi, Chris. Thanks for hosting behind the host. We appreciate that.
Chris Harper: Yeah. No problem.
Jared Baldwin: And, today here on Harvest Time, we have one of our our own homegrown talented, young mister Roleigh Tuazon. Roleigh, how are you doing today?
Roleigh Tuazon: Hi. Good morning or good afternoon. I’m doing well today. Thanks for having me here on harvest time. Really appreciate it.
Jared Baldwin: Well, we’re glad to have you and, you know, you grew up around here. You were just a kid on this campus. You told me when was the last time you think you were up in this part of the the, building, like where the radio station is now?
Roleigh Tuazon: Oh, well, last time I was on this side, it was probably in high school around ’99, 2000, and, it was a lot different than it is now. And as we were talking about, there’s, I think the IT department’s next door? Yes. And that that used to be my fifth grade classroom. Oh, wow.
And, I remember my teacher, Mr. Lewis, was, Pastor Lewis’ son and it was his first year coming teaching. Oh, wow. And, yep, and that was my classroom.
Jared Baldwin: So Eric Lewis. Boy, that’s that’s vintage right there.
Roleigh Tuazon: It is.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. You were here before some of the current buildings were here.
Roleigh Tuazon: I think so. And, some of the older buildings which are now gone, such as the, the kindergarten building, the old chapel building used to be there where we had, like, Heart for Christ and Chapel and all that.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah, we used to have a locker room building even that was like a converted container that was on the other end of the cafeteria, right?
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeah, yeah, that was really, I mean, they tried their best to keep it cool, but it was always so hot in there whenever we we change for PE and all that. Yep. And, and, you know, you just got forty eighth graders right after basketball in there.
Jared Baldwin: Oh, boy.
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeah. You’re just trying to find space to change and
Jared Baldwin: Oh, boy.
Roleigh Tuazon: And and trying to get to class on time.
Jared Baldwin: Yep. Yeah. I remember when the Typhoon Pongsona destroyed that building. I I came out on campus, and even in the the little bit of daylight that was poking through, all I could see were basketball shoes everywhere because everyone had left their stuff in their lockers in there.
Roleigh Tuazon: Oh, yeah.
Jared Baldwin: The storm took that building out. And, of course, we’ve had a number of buildings go up, as well, the FLC.
Roleigh Tuazon: Yep.
Jared Baldwin: You never got to play inside a gym when you were in school here.
Roleigh Tuazon: Right? No. So they they promised a gym ever since I was like in kindergarten, first grade. What came up was the open air basketball court.
Jared Baldwin: Mhm
Roleigh Tuazon: So that’s what I had growing up.
Jared Baldwin: Sure. So you guys were part of the tough generation. I suppose. To play outside and, you know, didn’t care about sunburns and Yeah. Boonie dogs.
Yeah. So now everyone’s spoiled with a nice air conditioned gym. But Yep. Well, praise the lord. We’ve had a lot of development around here.
Yep. Buildings wise, Buildings aren’t the most important thing, but it is neat to see how God’s added to the facilities. But tell us a little bit about when did you start coming to school here and who are some of the the faculty members that maybe made a difference in your life growing up?
Roleigh Tuazon: Oh yeah, sure. So, at the time, Harvest was really small and my I don’t know how it came to be, but my dad was doing the electrical design for the cafeteria building.
Jared Baldwin: Oh.
Roleigh Tuazon: And so, you know, he come up here and saw the campus and saw what was going on up here. And I was like, hey, why don’t I try to send my son here? So I started here in K-3, kindergarten.
Jared Baldwin: Wow.
Roleigh Tuazon: All the way up to stayed all the way up till till I graduated 12th grade. Yeah. A couple faculty members, very memorable faculty members. My one my youth pastor here, pastor Andre Ruche.
Jared Baldwin: Mhmm.
Roleigh Tuazon: So he was very, instrumental in my life. Really learned a lot from him and his mentorship. And his, his brother-in-law, pastor Jeff Fane. Yeah.
Jared Baldwin: Who just here on on on island for a little bit.
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeah. I was off island. I was so sad. I couldn’t catch him, but I I heard that he’s coming Yeah. Coming through again.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. He’s the camp speaker, I believe, this summer.
Roleigh Tuazon: So That’s great. Yep. I am so happy to have him back. Yep. And, it’s weird because I was telling Pam Daniel that I’m older than when how old he was when he was teaching me.
Jared Baldwin: Oh, boy. Oh, boy.
Roleigh Tuazon: It’s a little bit coming full circle, you know?
Jared Baldwin: Yes. Yes. Yes. But you kept all your hair. Jeff didn’t.
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeh Yeh
Jared Baldwin: So you know, there you go. You have that.
Roleigh Tuazon: A little bit better looking than he was.
Jared Baldwin: There you go. That’s great. So, I mean, so what year did you graduate from HCA?
Roleigh Tuazon: So I graduated in 2002. Okay. It was a bit of a transitory time because Pastor Herron had just come on board. So he brought, you know, him him and his family came. And, Pastor Lewis had had just, left, for The States, I believe.
Yeah. Yep. At the time. So, you know, really getting to know astor Heron and his family, and it was it was great, meeting them because, his oldest, Megan, was in in my class, so I got to know Megan through school.
Jared Baldwin: Yep. Yeah. I I my first week on Guam was your graduation week. My first big event to go to at Harvest was your graduation. I actually, I came to the baccalaureate service Uh-huh.
And I sat in the balcony, and I slept through the whole thing, because I was so jet lagged. Yeah. And I just came up there. I think we had just been on island a day or two, and I was so jet lagged. Yeah.
But I wanted to participate, and then I was at graduation, and then we did a big I went to a couple graduation parties, including one at the Heron’s for for the Heron’s graduation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In that class graduation class, did, who else was in that class?
Was, Christian Bendo in that class?
Roleigh Tuazon: Christian Bendo, Matt Sharaki, a couple others. Peger was Pegaridos? He was two years younger than me.
Jared Baldwin: Okay. That’s right.
Roleigh Tuazon: Yes. So him and Corina were two years younger than me.
Jared Baldwin: Did he have an older brother that was in your class?
Roleigh Tuazon: Not in my class. His older brother Keith was, I think two years older than me. Okay. Alright.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. All my walking down memory lane makes for terrible radio. Sorry, Chris. But, okay. So what did you do after you graduated from Harvest Christian Academy?
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeah. So after I graduated from Harvest, I went to a Christian college called Cedarville University Mhmm. Out in Midwest Ohio. Yep. Very different from the beaches on Guam.
Mhmm. Because number one, it’s landlocked. Yep. Number two is very flat. They have four seasons.
Yep. So imagine a little island boy, first time in The States, experiencing snow. Oh, boy. Four seasons, all of that. I I’ll be honest.
I was having a hard time my first year, but keeping contact with my classmates, sometimes and and having the Faines and the Ruche nearby really, really helped me. Sure. So even after I graduated, they’d the Faines and the Ruche still provide support to us.
Jared Baldwin: That’s great.
Roleigh Tuazon: They’d have us over Thanksgiving, some of the weekends when we wanted to get off campus, that kind of thing.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah.
Roleigh Tuazon: So, yeah, I I really praise the lord for that how everything just worked out that way just being still near the Faines and the Ruches and having, my classmates nearby.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. What did you study at Cedarville?
Roleigh Tuazon: So I studied international studies and social science. So learning about the world out in the middle of the Midwest, right?
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. So you live out in the middle of the world and go to Ohio to learn about the rest of the world? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
So you did four years there, five years there?
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeah. So, well, I did I did my undergrad there, but I spent a year abroad in The Philippines. So I went to University of Philippines my junior year, then came back and graduated.
Jared Baldwin: Awesome. Awesome.
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeah. So it was great.
Jared Baldwin: What happened after graduation?
Roleigh Tuazon: So, graduation, I I joined the guard for a bit. Mhmm. And then after that, I went to grad school back in The Philippines. So so I stayed there. I worked a little bit there for a few years before I came back.
One of the reasons I came back was because my, you know, my parents are getting a little older, and just want to be back to make sure that they’re okay and Mhmm. Watch out for them while while they’re still while they’re still on Earth. Right?
Jared Baldwin: Sure.
Roleigh Tuazon: So, yeah, thankful for them, the journey, and and just being able to circle back, back to your Harvest. And and, you know, when I came back, it was great seeing some old faces, a lot of new new friendly faces also, and and meeting new people and seeing the the ministry grow, seeing the outreach that that Harvest and and impact is having on the island and in the region. Yeah. It’s it’s it’s great to see. Praise god.
Jared Baldwin: Awesome. Well, before we move on from HCA, I’d ask you to think of any funny stories or memorable things that happened while you’re at HCA and you had a particularly hilarious story. Can you share that with us briefly and then we’ll move on to your testimony?
Roleigh Tuazon: Yes. So one of my teachers, Mrs. Abels, she was in the computer lab in the Second Floor of the cafeteria Building and I was I was there working on something. And so at the time she was pregnant with her I I believe it was her oldest Jessie, Jessie Ables. And then I go to her, I asked her, so Ms.
Ables, when are you gonna have your mammogram? And then she paused and I knew something was wrong. I said, man, what was wrong? What was wrong? And then she she turns to me, she goes, you mean ultrasound?
And my face turned so red and I was so speechless. I had no clue what to say. I just, I was so speechless for a couple minutes.
Jared Baldwin: That’s great. That is great. Hey, you get points for trying and for trying to ask an intelligent medical question. Yeah,
Roleigh Tuazon: trying to seem smart, but they don’t come out the other way, Well,
Jared Baldwin: so, know, Roleigh, tell us a little bit about when did you come to know the Lord and tell us a little bit of your testimony.
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeah, sure. So I came to know the Lord. Well, I accepted Jesus Christ when I was 1st grade here, so through my teacher, Miss Terry. Yeah. So came to know the Lord at a young age.
I I didn’t have a very dramatic testimony. It wasn’t like, you know, I was into bad things, before I came to know Lord then had a big turnaround. But, one thing that I could say was different was that I had a different desire from my other friends who wanted to do other things. I wanted to know more about the Lord, more about the Bible, wanted to, you know, please the Lord as I was growing up through my teenage years while my, while my, my friends wanted to do other things. You know, I just saw I just saw life.
I saw events in a different way than they did. Mhmm. So I can say that it wasn’t dramatic, but it definitely led me in a different direction than the rest of my peers.
Jared Baldwin: Sure. Sure. So how is that, you know, transformation at a younger age, not the big, traumatic, unshackled testimony, but just a steady, you know, knowing the Lord and growing in the Lord. How has that affected your adult life and your work career and things like that?
Roleigh Tuazon: Well, I could say that, you know, when I look at people, I see that, you know, they need the Lord. People everyone’s just, you know, trying to get by, you know, have a job, have a family, trying to get through life. But, you know, they also need to have that spiritual guidance, that spiritual mentorship. And, you know, when I see people, was like, man, I I hope, I wish that they knew Jesus like I did and that they had these spiritual mentors and support system that I have because, man, if if if sometimes I struggle, how are how are they doing? How are they getting through life?
And, man, I wonder and and, I just, you know, I pray that that they’ll be able to come to know Jesus like like I do.
Jared Baldwin: That’s great. That’s great. So let’s let’s bring it up to the year 2024 now. What are you what does God have you doing right now?
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeah. So right now, I’m, I’m up at Camp Blas. My official title is real property accountable officer. So what I’m doing is that I’m helping keep the facility records correct all over the base. So we’re building a lot on base, building a lot of buildings, having a lot of contractors come.
So I make sure that, the money spent correctly is spent at the correct amounts and that we’re not wasting any of the taxpayer’s dollars.
Jared Baldwin: Sure. As a taxpayer, I appreciate that.
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeah. You’re welcome.
Jared Baldwin: You. Let’s let’s talk a little bit about this because when I was gone the last couple years, I got to teach at a college and we taught business and HR, organizational leadership, and got to have a lot of guest speakers like yourself that work out in the business world, work out in the secular world. And I would ask them this question. If you were bringing a young adult onto your team where you work, what qualities are you looking for as a leader in your organization?
Roleigh Tuazon: Right. So, I think one of the first qualities that they’re teachable. I mean, you don’t want someone who comes in, pretends they know everything, who’s trying to boss around everybody, trying to bully people. That just, I don’t think that makes for a good team. So teachable, as long as, you know, there’s some kind of intellect in there, most people will understand the process, right?
So teachable, number two is that they get along with everyone, they get along with the team, that they’re not, like I said, not trying to bully anybody, not trying to intimidate anybody, that, you know, they’re superior to anyone else, but, you know, gets along with everybody so that we can, you know, as, say, in the military, be able to accomplish the mission. Right? Mhmm. And and if they have those two qualities, you know, everything else, you know, we can teach them, we can support them, and we can always help each other out because Sure. I don’t know everything.
Sometimes I forgets I forget stuff. Sometimes my team members forget stuff, but we can always be there for each other, have each other’s back. And, you know, really someone who’s a team player and, and can be taught easily.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Yep. You know, what’s funny is that what you just said, those two, I think I interviewed at least a hundred different business people in the last four or five years for classes, and those two qualities are always in the top five with everyone. So it’s just universal
Roleigh Tuazon: Right. That
Jared Baldwin: those soft skills when I ask the the conspicuous thing, no one ever says that they know how to use a laser printer, you know, a 3d printer. Right. Or that they know how to, you know, use QuickBooks or that they know something technical. Now there are technical things that need to be learned, but if someone’s teachable and humble and they work well as a team, you can teach them Yep. Any software, any technology, things like that.
Roleigh Tuazon: And and how it is now is that you have different companies, different agencies who have the processes already in place and you just gotta teach it to someone who’s willing and, you know, smart enough to learn, those processes that they don’t make it so complicated. They’re trying to keep it basic so anyone can come in and understand. So if you have someone who can understand easily, you know, I’m I’m happy with them asking a lot of questions. That that’s fine. And, and and being able to learn and being able to, get along with the team that I think that makes that makes all of us happy.
Jared Baldwin: Sure. I think what you’re describing can all be tied together with humility because if you’re humble, then you recognize you don’t know everything and you’re willing to ask. If you’re humble, you can learn to work with others. You’re not gonna try and intimidate, bully Right. Run over them.
And so those are good qualities. Maybe that’ll transition to me to my last question for you is so and I I’m I’m not having you hold yourself up as the ultimate example of this, you know, but as you look at all the places, you’ve got to be in the military, you’ve you’ve lived and worked in other countries, you’ve been in The States, you’ve been here, you work in the government, and contracting, all these different things. As a when you see a Christian in the workplace, what distinguishes a Christian in the workplace in a way where they actually make a difference or have more credibility? What qualities can a Christian bring to the secular workplace where they’ll be able to have a stronger testimony?
Roleigh Tuazon: Right. I think that one that instantly distinguishes a Christian in the workplace is the way they treat other people. So you can see instantly a a dedicated Christian on how he treats other people. And I think also that translates to what I’ve said earlier and what you’re talking about earlier about humility and being able to work with a team. You know, you treat other people well.
If if if your worldview is that these people need Christ and I am I am the vessel to show Christ’s love to others, I think that’ll be a big impact, and that’ll also help in their, you know, work work environment. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be religious. It it’s just it’s just a a good quality to have, being able to to help other people and and be a part of a team.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Well, it sounds like that gives you the platform so when there is an opportunity to talk to someone you might not always get the opportunity, but if there was. They’re going through a hard time, you find yourself one on one in the break room and talking about something because you’ve already established this foundation that you’re a loving person and you have someone else’s best in mind. Have a better chance of being able to talk to them and open up.
Roleigh Tuazon: Right. Exactly. And and then, I’ve seen some people ask, well, man, you’re having a hard time. How are you still are you still cheerful? Are you still happy?
Well, you know, I’ve I’ve a great support system. I have my relationship with Jesus and and that that’s what gives me strength.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Well, it’s interesting because what you’re saying means that, really, God allows hard times so that we can demonstrate that we have Jesus in our lives so that people around us can see it. And so that’s God working all things together for good Mhmm. To them that love God and who are the called according to his purpose. So something not good puts you under pressure, gives you a hard time.
But because you know Jesus and you respond a certain way, it actually opens the door for people to see Jesus in a way that they wouldn’t see if everything was just going good for you all the time.
Roleigh Tuazon: Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s a great testimony to have.
I think that’s an, an opportunity to shine, you know, be salt and light in the workplace Yeah. For all Christians.
Jared Baldwin: Excellent. Excellent. Well, as we wrap up this interview, Roleigh, what would you say would be, as you we have this this has kinda gone into talking about Christians in the workplace. What would be a good challenge for Christians in the workplace that are listening to this to consider as they go back to work on Monday and they they’re they’re taking their faith with them to the workplace, what would be something you could challenge that, you know, you’re challenging yourself in maybe at the same time?
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeah. Sure. I think one challenge I will give is that when you’re salt and light, you shine. So you shine for Jesus, but everyone’s looking at you. So you need to be very careful.
You need to be, make sure that your relationship with God is, you know, the best you can have at that point because everyone’s looking at you and and you’re the light of the world, you’re the salt of the earth. And in order to do that, you need to shine and not be a salty person, but be but be the salt. Right? Absolutely.
Jared Baldwin: Excellent advice. Thanks, Roleigh. And, God bless you as you continue to, you know, protect my taxpayer dollars.
Roleigh Tuazon: Yeah. No problem.
Jared Baldwin: And, we might have to have you back one of these days, maybe in a more informal setting to talk about more stories as you think of them because Yeah. Sure. You you were here long enough that you probably have a whole catalog of them. But thank you very much for coming up today.
Roleigh Tuazon: Sure. Thanks for having me. Appreciate that, Jared. Thanks.
Jared Baldwin: Alright. And, that’s, Roleigh Tuazan. He’s, an alumni of Harvest Christian Academy, a member of Harvest Baptist Church, and had this awesome career as a as a young man, all these different things God’s allowed him to do. Just a great challenge for us today, wherever we’re working to take that humility and our relationship with Christ into the workplace and and be that salt and light as he challenged everyone. So really appreciate Roleigh coming up today.
Chris Harper: And thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, we use this moment in the program to invite you again to Harvest Baptist Church. There are two services, 08:45AM And 10:45 AM. We have Spanish translation at the 08:45 AM Service, and then Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45AM service, and we bring that service to you live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org. We sure hope to see you this Sunday.
Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.