Harvest Time is a weekly podcast from KHMG. Pastor Gary Walton interviews Harvest Baptist Church members, friends, and special guests.
Welcome to harvest time. My name is Chris Harper, and our host on this program is Pastor Gary Walton, the lead 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 like to invite you to join us at Harvest Baptist Church this week. There are two services on Sunday, 08:45AM and 10:45AM.
Chris Harper:We have Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45AM service, and that's also when we livestream at hbcGuam.org, hbcguam.org. This week, part four of the love is series from first Corinthians 13:4-8. Let's begin today's Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton:Hey. Hafa adai, Chris. I've really enjoyed this, series that we've been in, beginning we began right at the beginning of, January. Just talking about the characteristics that Paul gives us of what genuine love looks like out of first Corinthians 13. Last week, we finished part three, as you mentioned, part four.
Gary Walton:We're gonna talk this week about two things that are related, but distinct love does not brag and love is not arrogant. It might seem a little bit funny, you know, how does, arrogance and, bragging, what's that have to do with love or lack of love? One of the things that we're going to say that I think will be helpful for us that in the chapter, first Corinthians 13, the opposite of love is not hate, it's pride. And so, these two items actually do affect us significantly in our relationships with others in the church, in our families, in our work relationships, and in our marriages and relationships. So, we'd like to invite you to come.
Gary Walton:We've really enjoyed it. I think it's been challenging and encouraging for people as we're walking through what does love really look like. Well, I'm really glad to have, Joe and Christina Coles, with us today in harvest time. First of all, welcome you guys. Thanks for being with us.
Joseph Coles:Yeah. Thank you for having us.
Christina Coles:Hi. Thanks for having us.
Gary Walton:Yeah, of course. We've, enjoyed having your family back. You guys were here for a while and then overseas, we'll talk about all that, in, Belgium, I think, and then and now back. It's so great to have you guys back on island. I'm interested in hearing a little bit of that of that background.
Gary Walton:But, Joe, you're in education. You work for the DOD. Right? Tell us a little bit about your your job, bro.
Joseph Coles:Yeah. That's correct. So, I work for, for the Department of Defense, Education Activity. So in short, we call it DoDEA, and we really service the military kids. And that's what took me out to Belgium.
Joseph Coles:It also brought me back here. So I'm back on Anderson, Air Force Base working at the middle school up there.
Gary Walton:Okay. And you've got kind of an interesting role, at the middle school. What is that?
Joseph Coles:Yeah. That's correct. So, I'm an educational technologist, and so I'm considered a, a teaching coach. And, so I usually work with teachers and we co-teach or I'll help them plan a lesson to integrate technology into their classes and into their content areas. But that's pretty much my role there.
Gary Walton:Okay.
Gary Walton:Awesome. And then, Christina, you're a, speech pathologist, right, up at GRMC? Tell us about that. How did how'd you get into speech pathology?
Christina Coles:So it's interesting. When I started having, my own children, my mindset kinda just switched and everything was about kids. And I kinda wanted to delve into working with children. And I did a complete career change from a business, a retail business owner to getting my master's degree in speech pathology.
Gary Walton:Wow.
Christina Coles:Yeah. So, I'm the outpatient pediatric, speech pathologist at GRMC. And, yeah, it's been great. I love working with kids and helping them with their communication needs.
Gary Walton:Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic.
Christina Coles:Yeah.
Gary Walton:Actually, I know a number of people that their their families have needed that and have really benefited, with, you know, their kids in development in a lot of areas as somebody's helped them, you know, through some some speech challenges. So
Christina Coles:Yeah. It's it's actually quite common, and I'm only there part time and I actually have a long wait list. So
Gary Walton:Yeah.
Christina Coles:It is a great need if anyone's interested in getting into the field.
Gary Walton:I don't even know. Are there others on island or you can
Christina Coles:There are, but, I mean, it's still limited. I'm Yeah. I think, the Guam Public Schools, I think there might be nine of them, and I know there's a few in at DoDEA. And then I'm the only outpatient pediatric at GRMC, and then there's, three that handle the adult, case loads.
Gary Walton:Okay. Yeah. You're right. It's, sparse. There's a there's a good, more of need as almost everything medical on island where it really is a burden, you know, for us.
Gary Walton:But thank you for filling that need. That's awesome. And you and, I mean, you're working part time. You also you guys also have children. So tell us about your family, Christina.
Christina Coles:Yeah. So we have three children. We have, Alora. She's 10. Michael is 12, and then Juliana is 15.
Christina Coles:And they all attend school here at Harvest.
Gary Walton:Okay. Awesome. Great kids. Love your family and thankful that you guys are back. Joe, let's let's back us up.
Gary Walton:I mean, let's hear the story. Right? Yeah. Did you you didn't grow up here. Tell us tell us about your background and, you know, how God's kinda moved you moved you around.
Joseph Coles:Yeah. So, I actually initially came out here as a as an airman. Right? So that's an air force guy. Fell in love with the island.
Joseph Coles:I extended my enlistment here and, stayed out here for the majority of my enlistment. I got offered a position at the special ops base in Florida, and I didn't wanna pass that up. So I took that and I had to extend my enlistment a little bit. So I went to Florida. Prior to going to Florida, I was dating Christina.
Joseph Coles:And, you know, we knew that I was leaving. We weren't trying to take our relationship seriously at all or anything like that, just because I knew. But we loved hanging out and just being together. So, we kept in contact while I was in Florida for that year. We visited each other during that that time.
Joseph Coles:And when I separated from the air force, she and I stuck it out. We stayed together. She was supposed to fly out to Florida, actually. I, you know, had a plan down there, but her mom ended up getting sick and said, you know, why don't you come out here? And we knew we wanted to be together, so flew back out here, asked her dad if I could, you know, have her hand in marriage and, that's a side story.
Joseph Coles:Another we don't want to get really long into that, but anyways
Gary Walton:I don't know. Maybe later. We might have Sounds like we do want to get into that.
Joseph Coles:To make it short, I'll just say, you know, when I asked him, for her hand in marriage, he said he couldn't just say yes to me because he needed to make sure that I was a Christian. Because according to the Bible, he couldn't grant her or just give her to anybody. He had to give her to somebody who was a Christian. So he asked me some questions and I was a Catholic at the time. I believed I was a Christian.
Joseph Coles:But according to the answers that I was giving him, he was just kind of like, I can't really tell whether or not you're a Christian or not, so I can't give you my permission right now. I said, okay. Interesting. Right?
Gary Walton:Shocking. Exactly. Did you, make you upset? Tell me tell me.
Joseph Coles:I wouldn't say ups more more shocking. Yeah. I wouldn't I wouldn't say I was upset. I was just like, ah, that was kind of an interesting phone call. No one expects that.
Joseph Coles:It's more like, oh, this guy's got the manners to, you know, ask for him.
Joseph Coles:You know, he knew we were dating and stuff. Sure. Anyway, so we started dialogue, email back and forth, and I started meeting with him, here. And, and after a while, you know, as we spoke, he kind of led me to Christ.
Joseph Coles:He kind of saw the, or he made me see the path that I wasn't seeing before. Right? So, like, all the stuff that the Catholic church kind of adds on to you, into that belief, he kind of made me see that. And he he grew up Catholic too. He was like an altar boy and all this other stuff.
Joseph Coles:But anyways, so that's that side story of how I got back to Guam. And, after a while he ended up saying, Okay, you know, you can have my daughter's hand in marriage. And so, you know, I married her and, we stayed here and here we are. Then, you know, we ended up moving to Belgium for a little while and we came back and that's how I ended up out here, for this long period.
Gary Walton:I want to put a little pin in that. Okay. Because I want to I have a couple of questions I want to ask you about sort of that conversation you had with your, you know, at some point, it's gonna be your father-in-law. Right. Really interested in that.
Gary Walton:Yeah. But let me back up a little bit, Christina. Let's pull you into it. You did grow up here. Right?
Christina Coles:Yes. I did grow up here.
Gary Walton:Grew up in Guam. Tell us about your family, your story. Where where did you grow up?
Christina Coles:So mainly, we were from the village of Barragada.
Gary Walton:Okay.
Christina Coles:But, my parents weren't, saved. They didn't get saved till I was around five years old. And then when I was five, I saw this, like, complete change in them and, you know, they became very active in the church. We at that time, we were going to Bayview, Baptist Church with, pastor Tom Larmore. Mhmm.
Christina Coles:And my dad was very active in the church. We went, you know, Wednesday, Friday, the two Sunday services. And, so and then my parents put us in Harvest, so I grew up coming to here, coming here to school.
Gary Walton:Do you go to the academy all the way through?
Christina Coles:From K-4
Gary Walton:Yep.
Christina Coles:And just my freshman year. I they put me in Simon Sanchez, and then they brought me back here, tenth grade to twelfth grade.
Gary Walton:But you graduated from Harvest. You uh,
Christina Coles:Yes. I did.
Gary Walton:Proud alumnus? Alright. Yes. Yeah. Okay.
Christina Coles:So I grew up with a Christian background. And so I I feel like my story is a little bit different. I think growing up, you know, as a kid, you're like, oh, no. I'm doing something bad and I shouldn't be doing that. So then I would say, Lord, please forgive me and come into my heart.
Christina Coles:So I remember saying that continuously. Like, whenever I did something wrong, I'd be like, oh, no. I need to pray and ask God to forgive me and come into my heart. Right? So I I don't think I really understood what it meant to be saved.
Gary Walton:Right.
Christina Coles:And then I I honestly, I don't remember the time, but I remember I was eight or nine. And I was in chapel, and there was a special speaker. And he just went into in-depth about how Christ died on the cross and, like, all the suffering he went through and how much he loved us. And I I it just, like, touched me.
Gary Walton:Mhmm.
Christina Coles:And I remember going home, and I knelt down on the side of my bed, and I was crying. And I asked God to come into my life. Wow. And after that, like, I knew that I was saved.
Gary Walton:Wow, Christina.
Christina Coles:Yeah.
Gary Walton:That's fantastic. Ninth grade, you said?
Christina Coles:Oh, no. I was, like, nine.
Gary Walton:Oh, when you're nine?
Christina Coles:Nine years old. Yeah.
Gary Walton:Yeah. Okay.
Christina Coles:Yeah.
Gary Walton:Cool.
Gary Walton:You said your parents, you know, became Christians when they're when you were five?
Christina Coles:Yes.
Gary Walton:And what what do you mean by it's so much change? Was it mainly
Christina Coles:I don't like, before my dad would, I would see that he would smoke or, drink sometimes. And after that, it was just, like, completely stopped Mhmm. Doing that. And then, I could see over time, you know, the maturity of my dad growing in Christ. You know?
Gary Walton:I love that. Wow.
Christina Coles:Like, just walking in a room and he'd be laying there, you know, with his Bible open. And we actually have that Bible. Like, it's all marked up. And you could tell, like, he was always, like, the first one at church and the last one to leave. He was, you know, he just he also helped pastor Tom, you know, build up Christ Bible Fellowship, and it was just a big passion Mhmm.
Christina Coles:For him to, to, you know, do the work of God. Yeah. So yeah.
Gary Walton:That's cool. Do you have, siblings?
Christina Coles:Yes. I do.
Gary Walton:Okay.
Christina Coles:I have a younger sister and a older brother.
Gary Walton:Okay. So tell us about I mean, we heard, Joe's side of this story. Did you know he's gonna ask, you know, your dad for marriage?
Christina Coles:Yes. So I, I don't think he went into all the details, but it was the last time I went to go visit him in Florida, he had actually planned a whole shebang out to ask me. He even got a ring and, he had planned everything out, and then he came back from work and he looked so bummed. Mhmm. And I was like, what happened?
Christina Coles:And he goes he goes, I asked your dad if I could have permission to marry you. And and he said, not right now.
Gary Walton:Oh.
Christina Coles:So I was like, oh, okay. So, yeah. But I I he was so one thing you need to know about Joseph is he's very stubborn. So I thought I mean, we I prayed. Right?
Christina Coles:And I knew that he wasn't, saved. And I said, there's no the only purse or only one who can change him is the Holy Spirit. Right. And so I was praying and, my dad, you know, had bible studies back and forth with Joseph for about six months. And then he came to know the Lord.
Christina Coles:And so then my dad was like, okay. You can marry my daughter. So, yeah. It was kind of a thing and.
Gary Walton:Yeah. You know, it's an interesting thing. No. Actually, I'm really fascinated by that, and I love it. I appreciate your dad, you know.
Gary Walton:And even for you guys, you know, your dad cared enough. I think, Joe, when you and I were talking about this before, you said that it it that said something to you that he cared enough even though it didn't feel great at the time.
Joseph Coles:Yeah. No. I appreciate it. Yeah. And I, you know, I've talked with Christine about this.
Joseph Coles:So when, you know, some guy comes around asking for one of my daughter's hands in marriage Yeah. I'm gonna give him the same drill.
Gary Walton:Right. Well, you know, it's interesting because I actually I've just had several conversations this week about this. Even just on a practical basis, and the Bible is very clear about this. One of the biggest, indicators of whether this marriage is gonna be, not even just successful, but, sweet unity, is whether the two are walking together in the foundational areas, particularly spiritually. I give this illustration quite a bit.
Gary Walton:I I kind of radio can't see this, but I'll put my hands together and I'll say, if you can imagine there's a rubber band around my hands when when we're dating, this rubber band, you know, even if we're kind of, you know, going in a little bit different directions, the rubber band doesn't it feels fine. We're trying to be together. We're trying to walk together. But, when a when a couple gets married and and you add time into the equation, if we're not walking in a similar path spiritually, over time that gap gets bigger and bigger. And what happens is that band stretches and stretches and stretches.
Gary Walton:And in fact, it's not only whether we're tracking the same like theology or perspective, but sometimes even whether we're we're growing spiritually at the same pace. So if one person is, you know, really pursuing hard after God and the other is just really sort of apathetic, it that band stretches and it creates tension in there. And there's it's inevitable that that'll create tension. There's no other way around it. And so, you know, a lot of times I'm talking with couples later on and they're wondering like, hey, everything was so great when we got married and now we've got this tension and you start backing up.
Gary Walton:And one of the key spots is that either just not aligned spiritually or sometimes even just not tracking at the same paces. I don't mean to say that in a marriage or in a couple, both have to be exactly at the same step. You know, we we, of course, we can be more mature, less mature. We can be believers for a much longer period of time. That's not the point.
Gary Walton:The point is whether we're moving together. And if that's the case, then there's a unity that happens. So I actually appreciate you guys talking about that, you know, in a very practical level because it's a struggle for a lot. And if we don't talk about it in that time when the tension isn't there early in the marriage, you're gonna feel it later on anyway. So, yeah, I appreciate that.
Gary Walton:Okay. So eventually, this marriage happens. And do you guys moved here?
Joseph Coles:Yep. So we were here, already. And I thought it was funny because I remember when her dad finally did give me permission to marry her, he goes, you know, from what I can tell now, and we've had these discussions, and it looks like your beliefs are aligned with the Bible now. He's like, I wanna go ahead and give you permission to marry my daughter. So I said, oh, alright.
Joseph Coles:Thanks. And the next day we'd visit her parents quite often. And I remember the next day, her her mom goes, did you ask her yet? And I was like, no. Not yet.
Joseph Coles:So it was almost like they were expecting for it to happen, like, right away.
Gary Walton:Sounds like they liked you, Joe. Yeah.
Joseph Coles:I I think I I eventually won them over. But Yeah. Yeah. So we, we ended up getting married, had our children, and really built our life here.
Gary Walton:Built your life here and then Belgium.
Joseph Coles:Well, yeah. I mean, we saw this opportunity, to go there and it was kind of a struggle, I think, to also make that decision because I had two days to decide.
Gary Walton:Oh wow.
Joseph Coles:So I got a job offer and they said, we need a decision in two days, forty eight hours. And if we don't hear from you, we're gonna assume that you're gonna decline the offer. So the first, Christina had just got picked up as a speech pathologist, with the same organization, DoDEA and so she was running, getting trying to get her feet off the ground with that position. And she was in that position for three months, prior to me getting this offer. And I said, but it's Europe, you know, let's go.
Joseph Coles:And I said, we've gotta, we've gotta decide in two days. And, it was almost like she didn't want to talk about it, so it made me not want to push it as well. She we had just finished, you know, congratulations. You got this position. That's, you know, it's great.
Joseph Coles:So one day goes by. I've got, I think, probably a few hours. It was the second day that we made this decision. She goes to work and she's talking to her coworkers and her coworkers are saying, Europe is amazing. You only live once.
Joseph Coles:You should go check it out. It's an opportunity that not too many people get. So why not? Right? So she calls me up at work or texts me, get a text, and she goes, do you wanna just go?
Joseph Coles:And so as soon as I got that text, I sent the email, I'll accept I'll accept the job. And, we went out there and, you know, I say I say it was a long vacation, because it was our home for a while, but now we look at it as a vacation Sure. Because we weren't there. We were only there for a little over two and a half years. And then her mom was sick, which is, if you remember, that's why she didn't move to Florida.
Joseph Coles:So, still she's sick, not getting any better. And, in fact, getting much worse. So Christina was kind of struggling being away from her while we were in Belgium. And so for me to get a job offer back was kind of like, you know, you could say a miracle, but I really think it was God opening up a door for us.
Gary Walton:Absolutely.
Joseph Coles:Yeah. And so I said, it's, you know, it's back on Guam. Home's there. She's near her mom. It's a job.
Joseph Coles:It's not like we're gonna be struggling. It's this, you know, and it's the same, position, teaching position that I had in Belgium. So it all worked out in the end, and so we we came back.
Gary Walton:Christina, what about that two days you got to decide? Was that hard on you?
Christina Coles:It was hard on me.
Gary Walton:Yeah.
Christina Coles:Yeah. I I struggled with it. Yeah. Actually, he he was correct. I didn't wanna talk about it.
Christina Coles:The first day he told me, I was like, no. I'm not gonna talk about it.
Joseph Coles:She didn't even say congratulations.
Christina Coles:And then, like he said, my coworker, because a lot of DoDEA teachers travel around. And so she had come from Europe and she said, oh, no. You have to go. And I was like, I just started this position. Like, doesn't that look really bad?
Christina Coles:And she's like, it's okay. DoDE is used to it. DoDE is used to teachers coming in and out. So I was like, okay. Alright.
Christina Coles:So then my yeah. Told him. Let's just do it, I guess. So but it was like a vacation because we we traveled a lot over there. Yeah.
Christina Coles:So but it was it was a good experience.
Gary Walton:Joe, tell us about, you know, Harvest, finding Harvest, what's that meant for your family.
Joseph Coles:Quite a bit. So like Christina said, we started off at CBF. Her dad kinda founded that church. So we were going there from, gosh, about 2008, I guess, which is when we got married.
Christina Coles:2006.
Joseph Coles:2006.
Joseph Coles:Yeah. To about 2015, 'fourteen maybe. Somewhere around there. And the pastor there, who's passed away now, he kind of always emphasized, if you guys ever feel like you're not growing here anymore, I suggest you guys go to another church because we want you guys to grow, right? And he'd say that I heard that for the entire time that I was there.
Joseph Coles:But around twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, Christina and I, I think, started to feel like we just weren't growing anymore. We'd been going there for so long and, we'd heard pretty much everything I felt that we we could get from that pastor. So we decided to try a couple of churches. In fact, we went to Bayview First, and then our kids came to Harvest. So, of course, we tried Harvest and, we we just fell in love with Harvest.
Joseph Coles:So, we loved the message. We loved the the preaching that went on. It aligned with with, the Bible. So that's what brought us here and we've been members of Harvest since then.
Gary Walton:Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're thankful for your your guys' faithfulness. It's cool to see your family growing together and, glad that you're back home, and looking forward to what God's, what God's gonna do. Christina, let me just ask this.
Gary Walton:You're Joe was talking about this, but what what does it mean for you to have your faith grow? So what's that mean?
Christina Coles:I feel like my faith grows the most when when I'm struggling with things. I feel like when I'm being tested, because I feel like I tend to take things into my own hands. That's just, like, my go to, and so I have to constantly remember just to relinquish that control and give it to God. And so, like, every morning when we're driving, because we we live in Inarajan, so it's a long drive.
Gary Walton:It's a ways up here. Yeah.
Christina Coles:Yeah. So my kids and I always have a little devotional in the car. And so we we usually listen to, like, Keys for Kids, and then we talk about it. And so, the message today was, growing your faith and and having trust in God. And I was telling the kids, like, you have to do that every day.
Christina Coles:Mhmm. You know, whenever you're worrying about something or stressing about something, just leave it in God's hands.
Gary Walton:I love that.
Christina Coles:Yeah. Especially with the speech pathology thing and, I, you know, I went through a lot of things afterwards, like trying to finish my clinical fellowship and just seeing where God was gonna lead me in that direction. I just really had to put my, you know because I couldn't do anything anymore. It was out of my control, and I just had to put my faith that he was gonna provide in that in that area, and he did. So
Gary Walton:One of the illustrations that that the Bible uses of growth is, and and maybe much more shaping, but but God uses idea of a like a potter shapes the clay into a vessel that's usable. That's what God's doing with us. And he is exactly what you said. He's putting pressure Yeah. Moving the clay a little bit.
Gary Walton:Sometimes having to remove some impurities in order that God is shaping us in in unique ways, all different ways. So the the his hands, the potter's hands are shaping us differently, but each movement of God is trying to help us to become exactly the vessel that he wants us to be so that we can be the most used. So Yeah. That's a great illustration of it. Well, you guys, thank you for being willing to take some time here, today to talk about it.
Gary Walton:We love what God's doing in your family, praying that God would continue to guide you and bless you. So
Joseph Coles:No. Thank you for having us here.
Christina Coles:Yeah. Thank you.
Chris Harper:And thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, this is the point in the program where we wanna invite you again to services at Harvest Baptist Church. There are two every Sunday. The first at 08:45AM, the second at 10:45AM. We offer Japanese and Korean translation during during the second service at 10:45.
Chris Harper:That's also the service that we broadcast live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org. We hope to see you this Sunday. Thanks again for listening to harvest time.