Pastor Walton had a conversation with Tom and Sarah Davis this week about their salvation, becoming a new creature, and growing in their faith at Harvest.
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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 25 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. We have 2 services on Sunday, the first at 8:45 AM, the second at 10:45 AM.
We have Spanish translation during our 8:45 AM service, Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45 AM service. That’s also when we live stream at hbcguam.org, hbcguam.org. This week, it’s part 2 of our just keep walking series, how to live a refreshing Christian life, from Ephesians 4 17 through 24. Let’s begin today’s harvest time by welcoming pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey. Hafa adai, Chris. I mentioned last week to our church family that this series, about 4 or 5 weeks, it includes some of my favorite texts in the new testament about spiritual growth and change. And how do we how do we overcome, life habits and discouragements in life in order to change to be more like Jesus and more like the life that we desire and that he desires for us. And some of my favorite texts are in the books of, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.
And in this series, we’re taking one section out of each of those books that connect, specifically with this idea of growth and change. In fact, one of the most, in fact, it’s the analogy that is most used in the New Testament about the Christian life. It’s the analogy of walking, walking with the spirit or walking with the Lord, and it’s used many times throughout the epistles. We’re finding that theme in each of these sections and talking about, so what does that tell us about how we’re going to live this life? So, Chris, you just mentioned this, how to live a refreshing Christian life.
The Christian life was meant to be a life that would be filled with purpose and direction, not without challenges and not without struggles, but the kinds of struggles that we really could experience, the things that God calls us fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long suffering. And so we’d like to invite you to come and join us. It’s been really helpful last week. This week, we’re going to plug into Ephesians chapter 4. Again, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible.
The first part of, the chapter is something we come back to a lot around here about, you know, how does a church function? What’s our purpose together? But the last part has some important teaching for us about the concepts of the renewing of our mind and the put off, put on analogy of growing in our Christian life. So if you wanna know anything more about that, come and join us this Sunday, and, we’re gonna talk about that in both of our services. Well, I’m really glad to be able to have, Tom and Sarah Davis with us, to talk about, their walk with God and introduce them to you.
Tom and Sarah have been a part of Harvest for a while now, since 2013. Right?
Tom Davis: Yes. That’s correct.
Gary Walton: Correct. And, they have been, we’re gonna tell their story or hear their story here in a minute, but they’ve been a a core part of what God’s done here and faithful, active servants and ministers together. And so I was surprised. Actually, Chris and I were just talking before. I was surprised that we haven’t done this before with you guys.
So, somehow, you got off the hook. Sarah said she’s been a little bit nervous, but, Tom’s telling her she can do it. So we’re really glad. Thank you guys for being willing to do this. Tom is director of golf maintenance at Leo’s Palace.
Tom Davis: Yes. That’s correct.
Gary Walton: And you’ve been there for quite a while, Tom. Right?
Tom Davis: Yeah. I’ve been there going on 23 years this October.
Gary Walton: Okay. That is a while doing that. Did you come to Guam for that job?
Tom Davis: I did. I came out here on a year contract and love Guam so much. I just never left.
Gary Walton: Wow. Wow. That’s great. I’ll ask you in a minute about where you’re from, you know, kind of what brought you here and kind of your spiritual story. Sarah has been actually one of our main cooks in the cafeteria, one of the lead, the team leads in our cafeteria for 10 years, I think.
Sarah Davis: Yes. Correct.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’s really great and, she’s just a big part of our campus and part of our staff. When did you come to Guam?
Sarah Davis: We arrived at August 11 August 11, 2011. Is that correct?
Gary Walton: Okay.
Sarah Davis: Yeah.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Wow. That’s great. Well, we’re excited, about that. Thankful for for both of you.
Let’s back up and just tell a little bit of your story. Tom, once you begin, you know, where did you grow up? Tell us about your family and then we’ll lead that to your spiritual journey.
Tom Davis: Okay. So I grew up basically all throughout the Southeast US. My father used to set up trust divisions for different banks so every 3 years we were kind of moving. So I actually called North Carolina home. Okay.
That’s where I graduated high school and so that’s basically home for me. So I went to school for a turf program, got a degree, stayed in the Carolinas for a while, and then, moved down to Memphis, Tennessee for a couple of years before I came out here. Couldn’t didn’t really like the, landlockedness of Memphis. So Right. Saw this job and, applied.
Gary Walton: That’s pretty amazing, you know, from Memphis, Tennessee to, to to Guam. Yeah. And you said you came on a 1 year contract?
Tom Davis: Came on a 1 year contract.
Gary Walton: Wow. And 23 years later
Tom Davis: Here I am. That’s not
Gary Walton: an unusual story. I mean, you guys know this as much as anybody, but, there’s there’s sometimes people that come to Guam and and it’s it seems, you know, far away for them and difficult, but a lot of people come and there’s just something about the island here that draws us and love it and we connect.
Tom Davis: Yeah. That’s very true. And I think the one that really locked me in was the local people just. Yeah. The local Chamorro people are just so friendly and so inviting that it felt like family all the time with everybody I’d met.
Gary Walton: Yeah. That’s amazing, isn’t it? They really have welcomed you, us, many people, when we’re here just, hey, you’re part of our family. It’s really great. Yeah.
Sarah, what about you? Where’d you grow up? Tell us about your family and story.
Sarah Davis: I grew up in the Philippines, in the province. They call it the city. My mom were always like we go to the different churches, like Catholic and then Christian, and then we we flew to Guam. I met Tom at August August 2009.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Sarah Davis: Yeah. I’m so glad I still remember.
Gary Walton: Well, tell us about that. Every you know, everybody wants to hear the romance story. So how did you guys meet? And
Sarah Davis: I work in the hospital. I work there I don’t remember it was a long time ago
Gary Walton: in the Philippines.
Sarah Davis: Yeah in the Philippines I work at the Metropolitan Medical Center I work in HR and he’s one of our patient.
Gary Walton: Okay
Sarah Davis: and then back then that time I still I’m a heartbroken. And he keeps staring at me and I didn’t know that, you know, he’s single guy too. And then starting to ask my name and my sister is there too and the rest is history.
Gary Walton: The rest is history. Yeah. That’s that’s fantastic.
Sarah Davis: Yeah and he never leave me alone after after we’ve been dating for a while he proposed me before I go back to Guam. Yeah, he proposed to me go back to Guam and then. And that’s it for now.
Gary Walton: That’s fine.
Sarah Davis: I’m shy.
Gary Walton: Was it hard for you and your family to pick up and move to Guam, or were you excited about that?
Sarah Davis: It’s very hard. Yeah. Especially, I’m really close to my family, especially to my mom. It’s really hard. But my husband proved me that he will take good care of me and my family.
They all started crying.
Gary Walton: That’s good. Yeah. Those tears are expression of your of your heart. Yeah. That’s awesome.
Sarah Davis: Yeah.
Gary Walton: Sarah, you you 2, you have a daughter. Right? Savannah? Yes. Yeah.
Sarah Davis: Yes, pastor.
Gary Walton: What, how old is Savannah?
Sarah Davis: Now she’s 13 by God’s grace.
Gary Walton: Yeah. God’s blessed your family. How did you guys connect at Harvest, Tom? Let me ask you about that.
Tom Davis: Well, I’ve got several friends that were in the golf business that actually were members here at the time and, so I think there was a men’s thing, a fresh water conference thing, and they invited me to come for a dinner they had one night, so I came. And then, a couple of the wives asked Sarah to, come and join in on the activities. So, basically, that was our introduction to harvest. And,
Gary Walton: Tell me about your background, like spiritually. Did you grow up in church or what was? I did.
Tom Davis: I grew up in the Methodist church. Okay. So I had gone to church my entire life, youth groups and everything. And, I guess I was in the Boy Scouts, so it was right around the right after I’d gotten my Eagle badge that I really love the scouts, so I wanted to stay in, but I needed something to work on. So they had a, God in country no.
God in church, badge that you could work on. So I worked on that and that’s about a year long badge. So I sat down with the chaplain and went through what the process was for that and so he got me started on it. And basically what that is, is you read through the Bible and you meet with the chaplain weekly at the meetings and just discuss everything that you’ve done. So in that year period I read cover to cover the Bible.
Mhmm. Wow.
Gary Walton: That’s fantastic. How old were you?
Tom Davis: I would have been 17 at the time. Wow.
Gary Walton: That’s great.
Tom Davis: So cover to cover, got my badge. And then that summer, the youth group of the church was going to, week long church camp up in the Appalachian Mountains. And at that church camp there was a lot of different denominations, it just wasn’t the Methodist Church. But sitting in a few of the sessions and after reading the Bible that year and, kind of understanding So one of the nights, there was a session and they were seeing if anybody was willing to come to Christ and give their life to the Lord. And it was that night that I decided that it was time to Wow.
Give my life to Christ and, go from there.
Gary Walton: I had heard that before. That’s fantastic. I I really love that, you know, spend a whole year in the word, Read it from cover to cover. Come you know, you have a foundation. Sounds like you had a foundation of belief in god, but maybe a confirmation that took place and that this is what I believe.
This is truth that ultimately led to what am I gonna do about that.
Tom Davis: That’s right.
Gary Walton: Wow. Yep. That’s really powerful. Would you say that, you know tell me about your spiritual life after that. Was it all uphill from there?
What was
Tom Davis: it was uphill probably the first 3 or 4 years. Yeah. And then got off in college, you know, probably met some of the wrong people, and kinda took a downward turn for a little bit. But then realized that that’s not what I wanted. That’s not what I needed.
So got back into doing some things with different churches where I was living, really looking around, searching for somebody to guide me, right? Yeah. Because I just didn’t have that leadership, that mentor to kind of help guide me with what needed to be done. And so I kind of found that with some other people, like minded, had all kind of gone down the wrong path together. Right.
And kind of turned my life around at that point. I was still committed, but had not committed fully to being baptized and everything. So it took a little bit of time, had my ups and downs, but now I realize if I had kept going on the upward path, my life would have been a lot better.
Gary Walton: Mhmm. Yeah. It’s amazing looking back on our journey though of how God’s always there. He’s leading you, guiding you.
Tom Davis: Right.
Gary Walton: We look back on some parts of our life with some regrets. Most people do. I wish I’d made some different decisions there, but God didn’t leave me there, didn’t abandon me. And, you know, in in in his time, drew me to him again and the commitment again of my life.
Tom Davis: Right.
Gary Walton: I wanna ask you about that in a minute because you said your baptism, was here together. So, Sarah, what about you? Tell me about your spiritual story.
Sarah Davis: I grow up that my mom always bring me to different churches every Sunday. Sometimes we go to Catholic. Sometimes we go to Christian. There’s one day that I was so shocked that I just got baptized in Christian church.
Gary Walton: Really?
Sarah Davis: And then there’s a people like, you know, like, healing healing and stuff, and and then I realized right now that there’s no such thing as like that. Only God can do that. And then I real I’ve been to go ups and downs doing a wrong path, and that’s the life choices that I choose before that I thought it’s right. Mhmm. But and I realized that that God already planned my life before I knew it.
Mhmm. And whatever I going through that time, that it’s crazy. When I look back before, like, I said, Lord, thank you for always holding me tight. Because without your guidance, even though I don’t see you before, I didn’t know that you’re always there for me every seconds of my life. And then now that I get baptized, my my life changed big time because of him, because of the the right path that is showing it to me all the time.
Gary Walton: Now you and Tom were baptized together here at harvest. Right? Yeah. Sarah, when when would you say that you put your heart, your life you gave your life to Jesus and had your sins forgiven? Is there a time that you’d look back to identify that?
Sarah Davis: Back, when I was a ladies, I think that one ladies,
Tom Davis: Yeah. It was a ladies fellowship or ladies retreat with
Sarah Davis: Ladies retreat in Hilton.
Gary Walton: Okay. Here here at Harvest.
Sarah Davis: Wow. It’s it was it was crazy. I feel different. I feel a new person that time. Yeah.
It’s like I said, I didn’t know this is how you feel that if you’re new like a new people. Yeah. New clothe that God put in you. And I said I said to my husband, I feel different today. God’s changing me.
Yeah. It’s like the gospel changed my life. Wow. Yeah. It’s amazing how it feels that God changed my life back then.
Because before, I don’t care. I do some stuff that I don’t care anymore because all I think about is myself. But right now that I know God, I always think about Him before before I do something that I know that is not gonna be good for me.
Gary Walton: 2nd Corinthians 5 17 says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And I love how you just said that, Sarah, because you know that when your life becomes new. You feel that there is a difference that took place.
We’ve been talking about it around here. You know, the Bible says that when we become a believer, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our lives. Yep. How could you not feel different? Right?
He’s taken the sin and the guilt that was covering our our life and our heart. He removed that, and in its place, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. And we don’t always understand all of that that’s taken place.
Sarah Davis: That is true. That’s right. Yeah.
Gary Walton: We look back and read the scriptures and we see, oh, that’s what happened. No wonder I felt, you know, such a difference that took place. That’s great. And so after that, then you guys were baptized together.
Tom Davis: Yeah. So I guess that would have been in 2012 when we started coming. And then it just became a every Sunday thing. We were here in the morning, every Sunday sitting with friends of ours, and we just felt the love of harvest, the openness. So talked to pastor Henson and, his wife.
And at that point, we decided we wanted to join and so we did the, class in the beginning and Yeah. Met with pastor Henson, and then we were baptized in February.
Gary Walton: Wow. That’s great. I love to hear pastor Henson’s name. Right. You know, he’s such a godly, gracious man, and his influence continues today, in the lives of of Yeah.
You know, our church family.
Tom Davis: Yeah. There’s not a day I don’t think about it.
Gary Walton: Wow. That’s fantastic. Yeah. We’ll have to tell him that again. He’d be encouraged by it.
I I just had a little email interchange with him, and I know he’ll be encouraged by them. Tom, you and I were talking about this a little bit more and you might be able to share some, but maybe, Sarah, I’ll ask you this. You know, spiritual growth can sometimes be challenging. Anything in particular that you found to be helpful as you started to grow in your Christian like life?
Sarah Davis: Since I’ve been a pure Christian. Before, I’m always worried. I always have a lot of panic attack. Like, what what if what if happened this month? What I’m gonna do?
What I’m gonna do? But now instead of worried, you know, my husband know that I’m always worried about every small things in my life. Like, I’m worried just like when we process the paper. I’m always worried why we do last minute. But when you ask God and when you pray, he will give you right away.
Yeah. I proved that when we process our my paper, not even 1 month, not even 1 week, It’s already there. And that time, I realized that he’s telling me, my child, why you worry about me? Why you worry about that? I already take good care of that.
Now I’m not worried at all. I everything that what’s going through to me, I just pray. I just pray. I always give him everything. Just like when you work in the kitchen, it’s so many stuff going on.
Gary Walton: There’s a lot of stuff going on in that kitchen. I know.
Sarah Davis: It’s like I said, lord, I just give everything to you. I’m not gonna worry because I know that everything is in your hand. It’s not my control. I just give everything to you.
Gary Walton: Well, sir, you have such a joyful heart that’s evidenced in many ways, and, it spreads. Right? And I know you have a lot of, college students that work for you and work with you and your spirit really is a significant part of the joy of our cafeteria that and that spreads, you know, to those 1,000 kids and college kids and staff, you know, that come through there every day. Yeah. So we’re really, really thankful for that.
Tom, I asked you this before, but is there any way you could identify, like, what kinds of things God has used to help you grow? You said you became a believer, some growth, then maybe a stall and maybe a back.
Tom Davis: Right.
Gary Walton: But then but even now, you know, how how did God begin to grow you?
Tom Davis: I think it was with the people that God put in my life.
Gary Walton: Okay. Love that answer.
Tom Davis: You know, when I realized that some of the people I was hanging around with weren’t the good influence, weren’t godly people, And that I found that by removing them out of my life, I haven’t removed them completely out of my life, but removing them out of my life of being influences and everything has really helped. And then just making it a point to speak with people about the gospel on on a daily basis. Mhmm. I’ve got a guy in my office, Clint Huntington, believer, Christian guy for a long time. And he and I have some just amazing conversations on a daily basis.
And that just really keeps me going, especially when I get down sometimes and looking for something. Just words of encouragement and he’ll give me some scripture and So just having godly people in your life, I think, really moves you
Sarah Davis: forward.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah. Right on. It does. And you’ve mentioned several people as kinda you used the word guides, mentors.
Tom Davis: Yes.
Gary Walton: So I agree with you. The word of God and spiritual mentors in our life are part of a big part of how God uses to help us to grow. Sarah, what about you? Anything else you could add to that? How how has God helped you, to grow spiritually?
Sarah Davis: Well, I meet a lot of ladies that we always pray.
Tom Davis: Mhmm.
Sarah Davis: And then every afternoon, I always make sure that now be at the morning before I start my day, I always pray first. And then every morning at cafeteria, we do our devotion. In afternoon, we pray. And the people that around me that always guide me and the people in harvest, it’s a big part of my life Mhmm. Encourage me.
Like, it’s always nice feeling that you have a people around you that, you know, you can talk anytime. Yeah. And then I’m so thankful that I have my husband. Mhmm. He is my he’s always my armor, that he always there to guide me and pray for me.
Yeah. And the only person that sometimes I call if I need it and we both gonna pray, that anytime I will tell him, can you please pray for me?
And all the people here and the pastor and our church family that always guide me whenever I need whenever I need them.
Gary Walton: Well, it’s a great testimony of the importance of being a part of a family, a spiritual family. God did not design us to to live our Christian life alone. He designed us to be with others and to be growing together, and you guys are good. You’re a good testimony of that. And we’re thankful for, you both.
Thank you for your faithfulness to God, to his church, to his word. And, you know, we’re just praying that God would help us to continue to grow together. So thanks for joining us.
Tom Davis: Oh, thanks for having us, Pastor.
Sarah Davis: Thank you for having us.
Chris Harper: Well, thank you for listening to Harvest Time this week. We wanna invite you again to services at Harvest Baptist Church. We have 2 services every Sunday, 8:45 AM, 10:45 AM, Spanish translation at that 8:45 AM service, and also Korean and Japanese translation during the 10:45 AM service. We also broadcast that service, the 10:45 AM service, live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org. Thank you again for listening to harvest time.
We hope to see you this Sunday.