A "Happy" Church Builder and His Volunteers

By Pat Thomas

Howard “Happy” Gwartney, former church builder for North American Ministries, joined our Savior in Heaven June 4, 2018, after a brief illness. He was 86 years old. Happy is survived by Nelda, his wife of 66 years, and three sons. Howard pastors in San Tan Valley, Arizona; Larry lives in Africa; and Curt pastors in Park Hills, Missouri. Happy also leaves nine grandchildren and
22 great grandchildren.

Happy was a veteran who served with the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Through the years he was a farmer but also owned several businesses in the Locust Grove, Oklahoma, area. He was an excellent carpenter who became a building contractor. Happy was a dedicated Christian and a member of Locust Grove Free Will Baptist Church, where he served as a deacon for nearly 60 years. He taught various Sunday School classes, served as a trustee, sang in the choir, and served faithfully with the gifts God gave him.

Happy believed in working hard, whether in the hayfields, as a businessman, or in the building of houses and churches. Happy also believed in good education. He served on the Locust Grove school board, as well as the board of Randall University.

In the 1970s, Happy became burdened about the difficulties church planters were having with obtaining building permits and constructing church buildings. After sharing his burden with Roy Thomas, who at that time was general director of Home Missions, a plan was adopted for retired volunteers to work with local congregations to expedite the securing of building permits and constructing church buildings.

Happy jumped at the opportunity to head up a team of volunteers—retired laymen and their wives— who became the Helping Hands Team. This crew, which included retired carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and other skilled workers, traveled in their motor homes at their own expense to go wherever there was a need. These volunteers helped build over 100 churches and facilities from coast to coast in the United States, as well as in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

The wives of the Helping Hands crew not only assisted in constructing church buildings, they also cooked delicious meals for the volunteers. When home missionaries Darrell and Sandy Smith at the Oregon Trail Free Will Baptist Church near Portland needed assistance in the construction of their church, the property was fenced by rows of blackberry bushes. The ladies gathered the fruit each evening and made blackberry cobblers for the entire volunteer crew. A beautiful church stands on that site today.

Home missionaries Jim and Pat Nason in New Durham, New Hampshire, asked the Helping Hands team to help construct a new church in their town. Jim and Pat graciously took the volunteers on a tour visiting Benjamin Randall’s gravesite and the Free Will Baptist Church on the Ridge. That original building is listed on the National Register of Historical Places.

In 1989, when Hurricane Hugo heavily damaged the mission church and school and blew away the gymnasium in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, the volunteers immediately made plans to help rebuild. Roy asked the board to purchase four generators, and then flew Happy and Nelda Gwartney and the Helping Hands volunteers to St. Croix where they repaired the church and school and built a new gymnasium. While restoring the buildings, with no roof overhead, the men slept in sleeping bags on the concrete floor in one room while the ladies slept on the floor of another. Happy Gwartney often recalled that, in the moonlight, those trying to sleep on the hard floors could watch the geckos and other lizards climbing the walls.

During the construction of the new National Office Building, six couples of the Helping Hands Team stayed in our home. Some days, when we arrived home, Happy would meet us at the door and say, “Well, hello. You folks come right on in and make yourselves at home!”

Happy was a natural encourager, and always had a song in his heart and on his lips. While working on the National Office Building, every evening we gathered around the piano and sang old hymns and southern gospel songs. Then Happy and others on the team would praise the Lord, telling how they were saved, and how they loved serving the Lord through the Helping Hands team. Some of the best worship services I ever attended were in that living room in Nashville.

My husband Roy has been in heaven for over 15 years now, but I know he and Happy are having a wonderful time with the Lord and fellow laborers who have gone on before. Happy is no longer working with lumber, trusses, dry wall, and paint. The building material used in Heaven is beautifully described in Revelation 21:18: “And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.” Wow! What a wonderful, eternal, completed construction project!

About the Writer: Pat Thomas is the wife of former North American Ministries Director Roy Thomas. She served as publications editor for the department during her husband’s time as director. Learn more about the work of North American Ministries.