It was spring, nineteen forty-one, World War II had just begun with ominous foreboding clouds on the horizon for the United States. Rev. Gilbert L. Howe sensed the impending war and that our young men would be committed to the conflict before long. God burdened his heart as he watched a train, loaded up with new recruits, pull out. He could not get over that scene in his mind. It was a vision of thousands of men going over the precipice of time into eternity without God! A scene that repeated itself in his mind, over and over, until he realized that God was calling him to the ministry of servicemen.

Rev. Howe pastored a church in Grove City, PA. He left his pastorate and went to Ft. Indiantown Gap, PA, to begin his work with the military. With no money or contacts, he began by interesting a small group of Christians who were also burdened for the men. Mr. Shuey, a godly farmer near the base, gave Gilbert a place to stay and helped him acquire some property where he began preaching.

The crowds gathered in a makeshift tent and soon began to build a building. It was exciting, but no servicemen! As time went on, the crowds dwindled off because of the lack of attendance by the soldiers. Pearl Harbor was attacked and America was in the war-- yet there were no men coming in from the base.

These were desperate hours for God's faithful servant who preached to an empty house over loud speakers every night. People thought he was crazy! He wasn't crazy--just hopeless as his burden only increased. On a cold winter day, he took his last $2 and bought some O Henry candy bars, took them to his room, and wrapped some tracts around them with rubber bands to give to the boys. He gathered up the candy bars and laid them on the front seat of his car and headed for the base.

Have you ever been so desperate that you don't care what happens to you? He was that day as he drove toward the main gate. The closer he got to the gate the faster he went! Increasing his speed to 80 mph he went right through the gate, past the sentries and the pillbox, right into the base! Sirens went off and shots were fired into the air (war security was in effect). Realizing what he had done, he woke up to reality and made an effort to get back out of the base. He quickly turned off the main entrance road onto a side road and was confronted with a whole row of bayonets!

He stopped the car. MPs ran to the car. Four jumped into the back seat and one slid in on his right and another slid in from the left, pushing him out of the driver's seat. The soldiers came from everywhere to see what was going on. They pressed around the car to see this "saboteur". The MP on the right was holding the O Henry bars on his lap and asked the preacher what they were. Gilbert said, "They are candy bars that I was going to give to the men." He noticed in the rear view mirror one of the MPs in the back seat motioning with his finger around his ear that this man is crazy. He said, "No, it is true. This is why I came. Pick one out and I will eat it." The MP selected one, Gilbert ate it, and the window filled with arms of men and the candy bars disappeared.

One man, having read the tract about the meetings at the ministry, stuck his head back in the window and asked if there are services that night. Gilbert said that there would be and encouraged him to go out that night. The MP interrupted the conversation saying, "This man has preached his last sermon for a long time!" Rev. Howe again called out to the boy, "Someone will be there tonight, just go on out," and the car pulled away.

They transported him to the Provost Marshal's office for interrogation. Gilbert sat in the outer office, surrounded by MPs, while the Provost Marshal proceeded to "clarify" the situation that he was in. Basically, he chewed him out! "Don't you know there's a war on? What's the matter with you?" And so it went for some time. The Provost Marshal then dismissed the guards and took Gilbert into his inner office and set him down by his desk.

"You look like an intelligent man, Reverend, why did you do it?" Rev. Howe, realizing he would probably never minister again, told him the whole story. He related his burden, progress, them disappointment, and finally, his despair. When his finished, the tears ran down the face of the Provost Marshal, who said, "I Can hear my Methodist mother down in Alabama shouting `Amen'."

The marshal proceeded, "You'll never do this again, will you?" Gilbert, of course, assured him he wouldn't. "Then, you get out to your pulpit tonight and I'll see to it that you have someone to preach to." Awed, Gilbert pinched himself. He thought he was hearing things. But, it was true! Out he went, back to the tabernacle he had built, just outside the gate.

Just as service arrived as Army truck pulled up with a load of soldiers, then another truck, and another, until the whole place was packed! Rev. Howe never knew just how them trucks got there and never asked! Several men found the Lord that night and the work was on! The ministry continued throughout the war where countless men found Christ before shipped overseas to the battlefronts in the European Theater.

I think back on those desperate days of my father's burden that drove him all his life until the Lord took him home in 1969. God has honored his faith and the ministry has continued all these years. His burden on many others, including his own son, to carry on the ministry far beyond his own lifetime. What a joy it is to serve the Lord in a ministry like this one.