PBC LEADERSHIP

   >Pastor, Teacher, and Elder

Howie was born and raised in the small town of Nesbit, PA, which is on the outskirts of Williamsport. He became a Christian at a Word of Life basketball marathon during his senior year in high school. In January of 1980, he began to attend Lancaster Bible College (LBC) where he met his wife, Debbie. After they were married in January of 1984, Howie began working at a youth center in Marietta, PA. Upon graduation in May 1985, he took a job with Lancaster Bible College, leading their Forerunner camp team ministry in the northeastern United States. The years at LBC were also when the Lord ignited a passion for short-term mission work through a summer spent in Guam and Micronesia. 

In 1993 Debbie stopped teaching when their oldest daughter, Emily Kathryn, was born. During the 1990s, Howie and Debbie ministered at the Korean Presbyterian Church of Fredericksburg. In 1995 their second daughter, Abigail Rebecca, was born. After a ten year ministry at the Korean Presbyterian Church, the Lord moved their family to Stevensburg Baptist Church (SBC) in 1999, where Howie assumed the associate pastor position. Howie participated in mission trips to Romania, Hungary, Guatemala, and Haiti with SBC mission teams. He fell in love with the specific ministry of Double Harvest in Haiti and has since taken many student mission trips there. One of the most recent trips to Haiti included both of his daughters. Their family was completed in the summer of 2005 when (to their delight and surprise) their son, Nathaniel Griffith, was born. 

The Lord called Howie and Debbie to join the families at Providence Bible Church in February 2009. March 1st was the first Sunday Howie preached as the new pastor of this congregation. Howie is blessed and excited to be a part of this ministry, eagerly anticipating great things from the Lord in this latest step in his journey as Christ’s servant. He feels privileged to be a part of this vivacious group of believers who want to change the world for Christ, starting in Culpeper, VA, and reaching out into the world.