So Far, Yet So Close: Faith’s Connection to Guam Flourishes

March 28, 2022

By Jared Ball
Student Writer

A warm and salty breeze has blown through Ankeny this year as we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming two new students to Faith from the island of Guam. Marcus DelRosario and Meibo David are two freshmen who are now part of the exciting story of Faith and Guam’s developing relationship—specifically, the relationship between FBBC and Harvest Baptist Church (HBC).

Before we go any further, let me introduce myself. My name is Jared Ball, and I am a senior in the Organizational Leadership program at Faith. I lived on the island of Guam last semester.

In case you are as geographically challenged as I was regarding islands in the Pacific, let me explain that Guam is a U.S. territory sitting north of Papua New Guinea, east of the Philippines, south of Japan, and west of Hawaii. It’s a beautiful rock with a rich history and lovely people.

While I was on-island, I worked as a radio assistant for HBC’s radio ministry, Harvest Family Radio, and as a leadership intern for the church. This was during the fall semester of my senior year, when I only had one online class to take. That class was for Mr. Jared Baldwin, current chair of the Organizational Leadership program at Faith who has his own ties to Guam as a former fifteen-year employee of HBC. That is just one of the many connections between Faith and Guam.

Mr. Baldwin worked at HBC under the pastoral shepherding of Dr. Marty Herron, current Executive Vice President of Faith, which is another connection. When Dr. Herron answered the call to come to Faith from Guam in October 2018, Pastor Gary Walton took up the shepherding baton at HBC. Pastor Walton’s daughter, Kara, is a faithful employee and recent graduate of Faith. That’s three connections God has established between the ministries of HBC on Guam with Faith in Ankeny.

I haven’t even mentioned that one of Faith’s newest hires, Tim Pratt, is returning to the United States after many faithful years at HBC to work on the facilities team at Faith. That would be four connections between Faith and Guam, and I also haven’t mentioned Joe Baldwin, who spent many faithful years at HBC and has been assisting Curt Fincham with facilities projects this year.

All this to say, there’s a wonderful and exciting relationship developing between Faith and our brothers and sisters on the island of Guam. Faith has the globe covered with faithful men and women taking the “Word to the World,” and I couldn’t be more excited to present to you an example of how God is blessing FBBC&TS in return, sending talent from all over the world back to Faith.