Chaplain Howell knows that not everybody that seeks his counsel has faith. He understands and preaches about having a relationship with God, more than having a relationship with a church.
“I hate religion, you can write that down,” Chaplain Howell said with a chuckle. “I hate religion and the trappings and the legalism, and the judgment. I am about the most un-religious person I know. I am going to contrast religion and having a relation with the God that created me, and there is a world of difference between the two. I am not religious. I have a vibrant, loving, intimate, father-son relationship with my Lord, which has nothing to do with religion, which is all about, a man trying to be pleasing to God and trying to reach God.”
Chaplain Howell, a native of Jacksonville, Florida, did not always know that he was going to be a chaplain. However, since a young age he has provided chaplain-like counseling to others in need of a helping hand.
“You do what you are,” said Chaplain Howell, as he begins to reminisce. “I can remember in the second grade, in 1971, encouraging others, as much as a second grader could. Just coming alongside people that were hurting. I preached my first sermon when I was about 12-years-old. I have always been a chaplain. I did not have the training or the wisdom or the title. I was born to do this though.”
Whether at his local ministry or overseas in a combat zone, Chaplain Howell’s ministry does not change. He still knows that his mission is to provide religious support and guidance to anyone that needs it.
“It doesn’t really change; it just puts it on steroids,” said Chaplain Howell. “It is still a people business and it probably intensifies out here. People are away from family and I get to shine a little more because I can get into people’s life because we live together, we eat together. So, it is the same kind of ministry, only it is more acute. I think there is something about family and being in a dangerous place that intensifies people's sense of security and passions and it gives me an opportunity to speak to that.”
Chaplain Howell’s experience as an Army chaplain is broad and far ranging. Hisdefining moment came near the end of his deployment, in September 2010, in southern Iraq, when the aviation unit he was assigned to came under mortar attack, the same day that he returned from rest and relaxation.
“I was walking to one of the buildings and went and dove under an old metal bed, that was just out there,” said Chaplain Howell with a dull expression. “A staff sergeant dove under with me and he said, ‘Chaplain I do not like this.’ I said, ‘Dude I don’t either. But we are not supposed to just lay here. It looks like the bombing has quit, let us get up, run, and go help people.’ I did not have a chaplain’s assistant at the time, he was on the other side of post, so this guy behaved as my assistant. We ran to the building, there were people bleeding everywhere, cuts, all the windows had been blown out, the walls were messed up, and everybody lived.”
Being a noncombatant in the Army is an oxymoron to some. The chaplain corps is the only corps in the Army that does not carry a weapon. The safety of the chaplain is left to the chaplain assistant.
Cpl. Rashida Morris, the 1st AD RSSB chaplain assistant, has only been Chaplain Howell’s assistant for a few months.
Morris expressed that being around Chaplain Howell is a humbling experience, but that does not deter her from being vigilant knowing that the safety of the chaplain falls onto her.
Chaplain Howell might just be a humble, Army chaplain; however, he knows that he will never have a large congregation with thousands of people, simply because he works for God’s glory.
“I am too silly,” said Chaplain Howell with a boastful smile. “But, what I have discovered is that I can have a church of 7,000, but if I have not disciple the people that come, if it is an inch deep and a mile wide, I have not accomplished very much. One time zero is zero, but if I take one person and I plant into that one person’s life, my life and disciple them, one times one is one, and that is 100 percent better than zero. So, if I only have a church of 350 but they are growing, and they are making an influence and impact in the lives of their circle of friends and acquaintances then I have been successful.
The most important thing to Chaplain Howell is impacting the lives of others.
“So, it is not how big your ministry is but whose life you are impacting,” said Chaplain Howell beaming with pride. “Are you making a difference? That is the only way I will outlive myself and hopefully leave a legacy. That is what I have tried to do with my three sons, and my wife, expecting nothing in return so that they can turn around and do the same thing with others.”
| Date Taken: | 06.06.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.11.2017 05:55 |
| Story ID: | 237240 |
| Location: | AF |
| Hometown: | JACKSONVILLE, FL, US |
| Hometown: | KEYSTONE HEIGHTS, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 33 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, A beacon of light in the dark, by SGM Shelia Fourman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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