War Cry - July, 2015 Page 42

The War Cry | JULY 2015

Marching

forward...

One Army, One Mission,

One Message

150

YEARS

"Let me tell you what I want," Commissioner

Gaither told the audience at a camp meeting in
New Jersey 10 years ago. "There is only one
thing I want. I want to be God's man."

"In that moment," Gariepy writes in his

book, "I realized, That's it. That's his secret--to
be God's man. That's what makes Israel
Gaither tick!'"

Almost everyone who knows

Gaither, through working with
him or experiencing his preach-
ing ministry, realizes that the
same secret is shared by one and
all who seek an authentic life of
holiness.

Born to a Baptist preacher in

New Castle, Pennsylvania, he
was the only son among
five children raised by Lillian
Gaither and Reverend Israel L.
Gaither, Sr. Today, Gaither describes his child-
hood as "rooted in God's Word."

"I early learned basic values that were more

a starting point for my Christian faith than for
a specific religious system," he says.

His childhood and early teens were marked by

involvement in the Union Baptist Church, where
his dad was the ordained minister. His mother
had a profound influence on his life as well.

"I was impressed by the strength of my mother

as a woman of conviction and strong belief," Com-
missioner Gaither explains. "The Bible became
instilled as, early in the morning, I would see

Mother with her Bible open. Her powerful
influence came through her Christian living as
well as being an exceptional mother."

For young Israel Gaither, a defining moment

came at age 12, when he asked for God's for-
giveness for the first time. Soon after, a family
of Salvationists moved into his neighborhood
and Israel forged a friendship with one of the

boys. He started participating in
corps activities at The Salvation
Army as well as in his dad's

church. By his mid-teens, how-
ever, most of his free time was

spent at the corps. He eventually
became a soldier.

For two summers, Gaither

worked at the Army's divi-

sional camp, where he grew
more aware of God's call for
him to become a Salvation

Army officer: "This was not just a call to the
ministry but a definite call to leave the church
of my heritage to become an officer."

Years later, he described God's presence

pulling him toward officership as "nearly over-
whelming." He asked God for a sign, and that
sign came within a few weeks.

"While sitting on the porch one morning in

late August, prior to the reopening of high
school, I received a letter from a friend I had
served with just weeks earlier on the camp
staff. On the back of the envelope she had
printed the Great Commission passage:

There-

ubbed "a man with a mission" in a 2006 biography by Henry
Gariepy, Commissioner Israel L. Gaither is commited to being
God's man despite the many barriers he has faced. The trajec-

tory of Gaither's life indicates that God's plan for him has been to
break through those very barriers.

MAJOR FRANK DURACHER

The next

barrier was

infi nitely

higher than

the fi rst--the

color barrier.

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