The Navy brought Wolf and Caitlyn Kueckelhan to Guam. Guest host Pastor Jared Baldwin discusses their lives before and after the move this week.
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Episode transcript:
Chris Harper: Welcome to Harvest Time. My name is Chris Harper, and our guest host on this program today is pastor Jared Baldwin, executive pastor at Harvest Baptist Church. Every week, we spend these 25 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 this week. There are 2 services every Sunday.
The first at 8:45 AM, the second at 10:45 AM. We have Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45 AM service, and that’s also when we live stream at hbcguam.org, hbcguam.org. This week, pastor Jake Schnoor will be preaching in both services. Let’s begin today’s harvest time by welcoming pastor Jared Baldwin. Hi, pastor Jared.
Jared Baldwin: Hafa adai, Chris. Thanks for, that great intro. I’m looking forward to hearing pastor Jake Schnorr preach on 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, continuing on that passage right after, pastor Gary Walton’s message from the last 2 weeks. It’s gonna be great. Yeah.
And, today, I have in studio a family that, I’ve got to know a little bit through foundation class and, actually a project that, this warrant officer has been working on. But without further ado, let me introduce the Kueckelhan First off, why don’t you guys introduce yourselves, who you are and what brought you to Guam?
Wolf Kueckelhan: Well, first, thanks for having us. I’m Wolf Kueckelhan and my wife, Cait. We are a military family, as you said, warrant officer. And we came to Guam from Florida. This is my, first commissioned tour.
And we’re very happy to be here.
Jared Baldwin: That’s great. What do you do in the military?
Wolf Kueckelhan: So right now, I’m an ordinance officer, specifically in charge of the Nav Mag area. And just pretty much anything that goes boom, I make sure it’s safely stored and we train on it.
Jared Baldwin: Alright. And, Cait, what do you do?
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: I’m a homeschool mom of 3, and we recently added some foster children to our home as well. So we’ve been, learning how to manage 3 year olds again. Wow. So that’s pretty exciting.
Jared Baldwin: That’s a lot like being a warrant officer. You know, things could go boom at any time, in a house like that.
Wolf Kueckelhan: At work, at home. Absolutely.
Jared Baldwin: There you go. Well, we wanted to get to know you guys a little bit in in this short time we have together and hear a little bit about how did you come to know the Lord. So, Kate, let’s start with you. When did you come to be a Christian? What’s the story behind that?
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: Honestly, I grew up in a secular household and, one of my great friends in high school, I call her Niese, she begged me and pleaded and bargained to get me to go to youth group with her. And so, finally, one day, she said, if you if you go and you don’t like it, then I’ll never pester you again. And, I said, you promise? And she said, I promise. And I said, okay.
So I went and ended up getting involved and, actually pulled out a Bible and just I got baptized when I was 17 at that church.
Jared Baldwin: Mhmm. Okay. Alright. Wolf, when did you come to know the Lord?
Wolf Kueckelhan: So raised, so I was in Okinawa and Massawa. My father was in the navy and my mother was very devout churchgoer.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: Mhmm.
Wolf Kueckelhan: I was definitely raised with a good Christian foundation. During my early military years, I I definitely had a secular inclination and fallen away. And then just recently within the past 4 or 5 years, God has just really had a profound effect on my life and helped me to do away with some vices and different things from that. So I would say, truly, my kinda rebirth in Christ has been over the last 5 years. And it’s something that where before I knew of Christ and I knew that definitely though I knew that and I believed, but I didn’t have that relationship.
And I would say over the last 5 years or so, that relationship’s really budded and really changed our marriage and our life for sure.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. So in what ways has Christ changed your marriage and your family?
Wolf Kueckelhan: So what I would what I would say first and foremost is putting others before yourself. You know, the the mindset a lot of times, at least when I was younger, you know, and then growing up in the military is this kind of mindset of, you know, take care of yourself first, you know, get money or whatever it is, you know, and chasing kind of prosperity. And I found in my life before I found Jesus that chasing, you know, prosperity and chasing these different things, I was stagnating as a person. And then finally kind of accepting that I didn’t have control and given that control over to God, I’ve had some pretty profound successes. And I thank the good Lord for it every day over the last 5 years.
So just kinda putting God first has truly put me in a position for success. And, and it’s really helped out with marriage and and everything. Absolutely.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Kate, how have you seen Christ changing your guys’ marriage and family?
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: Well, I always said that there were 2 wolves. There was sober wolf and drunk wolf. And, the one was the greatest husband in the whole world and greatest father. And the other, well, he could be gone and I’d be okay with that. And so when Christ took alcohol from him, that’s that’s when the Good Wolf was there all the time now.
Jared Baldwin: Sure.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: And, so watching him grow, I used to be a lot more of a lukewarm Christian and it it helped me to get centered and and to pull that dusty, at that point, Bible out and and start following as well. So really, the whole family has just grown so much since he started this journey with all of us 5 years ago.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you and I got together and had coffee, and you had some pretty serious questions. You had, like, a little checklist. You were you were thinking about, hey, if we’re gonna get plugged into a church, we we wanna make sure this is the right church for us.
What were some of the things you guys were hoping to find when you came to Guam and looking at church and it ended up being harvest?
Wolf Kueckelhan: So for me, step 1 always is gonna be that devotion to to the Bible. Devotion to what the Bible says, not what we think it says. You know, one of the things I’ll say, Jared, was with the one of the first things that just floored me and made me, you know, go home to Kate and be like, we are going a 100%. We’re gonna we’re gonna give this a try was you you you kinda said straight up, like, if if the Bible says it, that’s what we believe and then we’re moving forward. And I just think in society, especially last couple there’s been a few churches and I don’t wanna speak ill or anything and I hope everybody’s moving in the right direction.
But there’s just this mentality to kinda fit the culture in the church when it should be the culture fitting what Christ’s design is. And from the very beginning of being with harvest and then ultimately being able to become a member, which we’re really, really happy to be, we we have just noticed just a devotion to biblical principle and then that church discipline that comes through membership and through everybody kinda keeping each other accountable and just caring. Yeah. And it really has been it’s been awesome.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. I’ve noticed you guys get plugged in pretty quick.
Wolf Kueckelhan: We we yeah. We don’t mess around. We do not mess around. Military will teach you that. 3 years and you leave.
So
Jared Baldwin: Well, and I appreciate that, having been in the military myself. It and having known hundreds and hundreds of individuals and families that have been part of our church over the years. I think especially people who have been in the military for a while, sometimes there’s a tendency to kind of join slow and and hover kind of on the fringes a little bit, maybe take a breather, especially if they’re coming from maybe a super busy, maybe over, you know, they’ve been overdoing it in their last duty station for one reason or another. And so they’re gonna come take a break and then kind of ease into it slowly. But by about the time they ease into it, they’re already getting their orders for the next place.
And, what would you say is the value of, you know, figuring out first off what you think the Lord wants for your family when it comes to church relationship? But then once you find that getting plugged in, what what’s the value in that for from each perspective? Maybe, Kate, what what would be the value for you, in your side of things?
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: Well, especially as a stay at home mom and, we homeschool. So finding a community is is so important and you can too easily find the wrong community if you go the wrong places. So for us, it’s so important that it’s a church community because that’s where the kids get most of their socialization. They’ve got Wednesday night youth group. They’ve got Sunday.
I’m now plugged in with Harvest House, which is great for me because I’m I’m with other moms and and, you know, women that aren’t moms too, but that that are just we’re all on kinda the same journey. We all have the same mindsets. And because it’s the church, you know, we had we know that at least we at least sort of have the same beliefs, hopefully. Hopefully, all the same beliefs. But, you know, when you’re going to a new church, you never know how the the different people are.
But so that’s why it’s just so important for us because we wanna make sure that we have the good friends
Wolf Kueckelhan: Mhmm.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: That are going to hold us accountable when we need it and that we can hold accountable, but more importantly, just so that we can have fellowship in a safer place.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. That’s great. Wolf, anything to add to that? Because you definitely had a sense of urgency when we first met. You’re, like, I’m I’m kind of focused on we wanna know where God wants us to go so we can get plugged in.
What what’s behind that urgency?
Wolf Kueckelhan: So brutal honesty, the military is a tough place right now, pastor. It is. We have a lot of sailors suffering with depression, anxiety, suicidal ideations, domestic violence, broken homes. I see that. You know, I’ve been in the military for almost 20 years and I’ve had the humbling honor to lead sailors as a, senior enlisted and now as an officer.
And one of the things that I notice is I have to make sure immediately that I get, the fellowship amongst my fellow men in Christ to help me keep me keep me strong. So every day I can go to work and I can be that, representative as we’re supposed to. You know, I can be that person that gives maybe, you know, just try to be the most Christ like person that I can be, you know, and help. Maybe not always by words, but sometimes by actions. But specifically to answer your question, the last church that we are part of, we we kinda slow walked it for the same reasons.
And we very much regretted it because there was a lot there was a lot of stuff there that I now look back on it and I could see that God was kinda pushing us towards and I was actively pushing against it. Mhmm. And I prayed on it. And, you know, as the leader of my family, I said, no. We’re not gonna do that again.
We’re gonna move forward. We’re gonna get involved.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Well, that’s a I can appreciate that commitment. I think, some of our listeners can resonate with what you’re saying. They might be on either side of that. They might be where you were, or they might be like, you know what?
That’s that’s why we’re doing it too. So, well, Wolf, let me ask you a question about being in the role you’re in in the military. What does it take to be a good testimony in the United States Navy in 2024?
Wolf Kueckelhan: Oh, that’s a good question. You you need to be what you say you are. Right? As the Bible tells us. Right?
And as we learn about, we have got to be the salt and we have got to be the light. So when you tell somebody you’re gonna do something, you need to do it. When you care about somebody, you need to care. When you have an opportunity to help, you need to help. You know, what I found in what really keeps me in the military is the ability.
I I love to fix things and I love to see people grow. And I find God gives me opportunities, as, you know, the perfect time. It’s just that you know how God’s time is so perfect. And I’ll have a sailor come to my office and they’ll be like, hey, sir. You know, can we pray together?
Mhmm. You know, that’s what that’s what would keep me in the military for 50 years. Sure. You know? So it’s just a matter of you you may not there there’s openly they’re openly combative to religion in the military, in the government.
That’s true. I think we can be honest about that. They are. And, you know, there’s just this overall kind of policy driven and politicization that we’ve seen over the last, really, over the last 10 years pretty bad. But if you if you as a Christian, especially somebody in the military, if you just live that life, god’s gonna bring people in your path and you’ll be able to help them.
You just gotta live it. You gotta move forward. You gotta be honest, and you gotta work hard.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Yeah. Well, Kate, as a military wife and a mom of all these military dependents and, living in that world, a similar question for you. How does a military spouse be a good testimony in the United States Navy in 2024?
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: Again, I guess, it just comes down to being who you say you are and following through, shining light. You know, a great example would be just the other day, a neighbor had had somebody complain to her husband’s command about them and she was you could tell she was struggling because she she wanted to be she wanted to be, forgiving because they never came to talk to them. But at the same time, you know, she was feeling some of those those her words were petty, feelings. So, you know, just saying, I understand your feelings, but it really is good to let this go and just, you know, trying to say, hey, you know, maybe they were just scared and yeah, it kind of it’s not great, but, you know, we don’t know what’s going on in their life. So just trying to to be empathetic and at the same time, to try to stand strong in in the morals that we have laid out for us in the Bible.
And, it’s just really important to to be that, especially with how close we all live, because we all we all live so close together in the base housing. So, yeah. I think that that’s just kind of, you know, just being being the light where otherwise it’s not so bright.
Jared Baldwin: Sure. And I know you guys aren’t holding yourselves up as, like, the ultimate example of all these things. This is a work in progress.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: Oh, absolutely not. It’s definitely a struggle. Every day, it’s a struggle.
Jared Baldwin: Well, knowing that it’s a struggle and knowing that you’re not saying you’re perfect on this, you know, you have a a minivan full of, kids that you’re you’re trying to also bring through this journey of, you know, being intentional about your walk with the Lord and, trying to be that good testimony where they’re at. What are you doing with your kids to help them, continue to grow? Because, you know, they’re they’re right along with you in all this. So what are you doing with the kids?
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: Well, so they’ve seen us grow up a lot in the last few years. And so I think that especially since we now have the 3 year olds and they’re seeing some of our parenting techniques are completely different than they might have once been. You can see a little resentment in the kids because they’re like, well, that’s not what you would have done with me. And I’m like, well and I and I apologize for this, but I wanna apologize again because you’re right. I was a selfish, not great parent back then and you deserved better and that’s why we’re trying to give these girls better.
So, really, it’s just gently reminding them when they are dealing with some of those emotions that they’re feeling that, you know, you’re right. We weren’t great just fessing up and saying, you know, we’re trying to be better than we were and we’re sorry for our past, but it’s just it’s constant repentance. It’s constant change. It is hard and there’s not always there’s not always the grace and the mercy, but we we try to apologize when we don’t manage with that and just keep just keep swimming.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. Wolf, what about you? Is the dad, trying to bring your kids along, raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the lord?
You know, some of some of your intentionality seems like it was definitely because, you know, your kids are watching. How how do you look at it as a dad?
Wolf Kueckelhan: Strong foundation. You know, as you see, you know, you build a house on sand or you build a house on stone. And one of the things that I look back, I learned my mother taught me. We I I had a very good initial foundation in the thought process of, you know, I I read the Bible and I was told things, but there was a mentality at some points. And this is when I was struggling with my faith was it was just, you know, that’s the way it is.
Just believe it. And I’m just naturally one of those people that I wanna know. Right? I’m a scientific minded person. I’m pretty OCD in here and there.
So I wanna look at things and I wanna see it and I wanna, you know, what’s the historicity? What’s the what what are all these different things? So I kinda use a triangle approach with with my children. Right? Obviously, starts with top is gonna be the Bible.
Right? 100% everything that God says, we learn it. And then the other 2 is going to be, you know, like the CMI or the Ark Encounter. Right? Let’s look and see that not only does what God say true, but the world also reflects that.
So, you know, Christian ministries or excuse me, creation ministries or arc like Ken Ham, he’s awesome. We look at what he does and he shows that this is real. And that’s something I didn’t really get. And then 3rd and most importantly is getting into the mission field, fostering, seeing people where it’s at. It’s like you said a minute ago.
No, we are not perfect. Not even by any stretch. You know. We’re fighting every single day. But that’s the beauty of being a Christian in my opinion.
You know, it’s that fight. It’s that suffering. It’s that long that, you know, those long hard days, but at the end, you know you did something that mattered. So just trying to teach my kids about that because I got one part of that triangle, but I didn’t get the other 2. And I think that played a little part into, you know, when I was struggling.
Jared Baldwin: Mhmm. So you mentioned foster care in there, and that’s a good segue into a question I was gonna ask you. Why get into foster care? I mean, I know you had 2 empty seat belts in your car or whatever.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: That was it. We got root for 1
Wolf Kueckelhan: more day. Floyd. There was the 2 empty seat belts. So,
Jared Baldwin: I mean, it’s it’s I mean, you guys hit the ground running. You you already have, you know, very full lives and and you’re gonna be serving the Lord. You know, I’m I’m kind of, going through what some other people’s questions might be. But why did you want to jump into foster care so quickly? What what was the drive behind that?
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: So honestly, Seth and our youngest, he was, he was a bit of a rough pregnancy. This is kind of a long story, so I’ll try to shorten it as quick as I care as much as I can. But, it was a rough pregnancy. We finally got the boy that we always wanted. And so we closed up shop physically.
Mhmm. And since then, there have been regrets here and there. I’ve always even before I had kids, I was a preschool teacher. So I’ve always had a soft spot for children to begin with. And so we knew that at some at one point in the last 5 years, we kind of had this agreement that, yes, someday we’re going to adopt.
And that kinda led into, a somewhat misplaced idea that fostering to adopt was this great idea. And it is. It is great, but the the ultimate goal is the reunification to to the, biological parents of the children. But, that’s kind of the mindset that we had going in is maybe we’ll maybe we’ll get we’ll have more kids in Guam.
Wolf Kueckelhan: Mhmm.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: And so we knew that that’s a lengthy process and so we knew we had to get started on it right away. And now, we’re with these girls that very likely could go back to their biological parents. And at this point, it’s been a completely different mentality because now, I’m looking at these beautiful children and thinking, okay, what can we do to make their lives more solid in the long term? If we’re gonna get any interaction with their parents, I don’t know yet. And just living a Christ centered life for these girls to see, is just so important.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: And just loving them, you know, seeing their big emotions because they’ve got plenty. I mean, they’re 3 to begin with, but also they’ve been through a lot.
Jared Baldwin: Right.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: So just I’m sorry. I think I forgot what
Jared Baldwin: the question is. Well, you know, why you know, the the simple but not so simple question of why do it, why do it now.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: God kinda told us. I mean, without saying I specifically heard his voice, it’s just every single thing that he’s put in our lives leading up to this from my my 16 years ago experience with troubled youth in in Florida to just and then, you know, having children and then switching to homeschooling and then all the thing. It’s just one step at a time. God has been guiding us to where we are now. We just jumped head first as soon as we got here because of that.
It was really like, why are we dragging our feet?
Jared Baldwin: Well and it seems like it came together very quickly for you guys.
Wolf Kueckelhan: Yes.
Jared Baldwin: I think, you know, before you hung up the phone, there were already kids on their way, you know, from like
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: It’s pretty close.
Jared Baldwin: Pretty close. Yeah. We we would like to yep. They’re here. They move.
They do. Well, as we as we wrap up this interview, first off, guys, thanks for coming up and sharing a little bit of your story. I think it’s neat. This program gives us an opportunity for people to get to know one another in a way they might not have a chance. Our church isn’t huge, but it’s just big enough that you might not get around to hearing everyone’s story.
Right? So this gives us a platform for being able to share that story on the radio waves, but also on social media. And, and people will now know you better than you know them. I’m just like, oh, wow. You guys did this?
Oh, you were here. Okay. And you’ll be like, I don’t know who you are, but that’s fine. But no. Thank you guys very much.
Maybe one parting shot from each of you. What would you say to, maybe maybe there’s someone listening and they’re they’re just not on fire for the Lord. They’re maybe just not even going to church regularly. Maybe they’re they know they wanna maybe God wants them to get more involved and they’re just not doing it. What encouragement would you give them, to just take that next step of faith?
What would you say, Cait?
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: Well, listen to those feelings that you’re getting because you’re getting them for a reason. If you if you feel like, you know, you’re not quite there, just, you know, take take a step. It doesn’t have to be a big step. Like, read a couple passages of Bible. Hop on YouTube.
If you’re scared of going to a real church, like a brick and mortar church, you know, hop on YouTube because, you know, even, as much as I don’t love certain path like, don’t like certain pastors, you know, on there, that if there’s any of God’s word, it’s gonna it’s gonna help even a little.
Jared Baldwin: Yeah.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: And we actually started with a couple of big name big name televangelists that now we would never dream of listening to, but they started a path. And so that’s just so important. Just wherever you are, just take the first step.
Jared Baldwin: Mhmm.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: And, you know, one step at a time suddenly, you know, you’re doing radio and
Jared Baldwin: Yeah. Sure.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: Sure. Would never have expected
Jared Baldwin: this person to start. Lord’s prompting on that. And then what about you, Wolf?
Wolf Kueckelhan: What I would say is the same thing that I tell myself when I took this journey. Don’t look at it big. Don’t go in there and think, today, I’m gonna give my life to Christ.
Jared Baldwin: Mhmm.
Wolf Kueckelhan: Go in there and judge for yourself. Look at the people. Look at the pastor Jareds and the Chris Harpers of the world and see what kind of people they are. Right? That is what really changed me.
When I was dealing with the secular world, when I was dealing with, you know, the problems that I had, what I noticed was there there was this there was this loneliness. This was yearning. There was a god sized hole that I just kept trying to fill with things and stuff and success. And then when I gave my life to Christ, I, I just sit. What I would say is take it slow and just let God’s word work slowly.
It doesn’t mean you have to get up and all of a sudden you got to read 16 chapters of the Bible. One verse, one thing, one Sunday, just come in and give us a try. That’s what I would say. Just come in and give us a try and, and the holy spirit will do the rest.
Jared Baldwin: Wow. That’s a great challenge. Well, Wolf, Cait, thank you guys for taking the time today and, excited to serve alongside you for however long God has us in the same place.
Wolf Kueckelhan: Thank you.
Caitlyn Kueckelhan: Thank you so much for having us.
Chris Harper: And thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, at this point in the program, we always want to personally invite you again to services at Harvest Baptist Church. 2 services on Sunday, 8:45 AM and 10:45 AM. During that second service, we have Japanese and Korean translation, and that’s also when we bring you the service live on 88.1 FM and khmg.org. We hope to see you this Sunday.
Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.