(This account was shared a short while before Brother Musser’s passing.  He farmed in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and served for many years as a deacon in the Mount Rock Brethren in Christ Church Congregation near Shippensburg.)

    I feel very reluctant to give this experience, but by request I will share it.  In the fall of 1940, I felt I would like to give a year for the Lord.  Maybe it could be in the area of missions or most anything, just so we could feel it was a year given full time to some phase of the Lord’s work.  I thought we might engage in tent work during the summer, attend camp-meetings, revival meetings and some love-feasts in different parts of the Brotherhood.  Then in the winter go to Florida, attend revival meetings and enjoy the nice warm climate.  I spread it before the Lord and asked Him about it.  I became very anxious to know the Lord’s will.

    One day in November, 1940, the Lord spoke to me.  I was telling the Lord my plans and He said to me in a very sweet voice, “You are not qualified for that kind of work.  You don’t have the gift of singing or exhorting or praying, but you are a good farmer.  Would you farm for Me for one year?”  Immediately I said, “Yes, Lord.”  One December morning I took my tractor and pulled the little trees that were along the fences and cut the briars to be ready when spring came.

    I was afraid of the Devil.  He might spoil it for me.  He is too much for any man without the Lord.  I asked the Lord for protection.  The same voice spoke to me again, “You have a good crib of corn left over from last year.  Sell that and put the money in another bank separate from your (regular) account.  Keep it there as surety against the Devil.”  I did that and I felt secure.  (It seems the plan was, if there was no crop that year, he would then give the proceeds from the previous year’s crop.  Thus the Devil would still be the loser.)

    One March morning, 1941, I went to the farm, about a five-minute drive with the car.  I went to burn the brush, the little trees I pulled out and those I had cut.  Everything went well till about ten o’clock.  Then the wind rose and the fire started over the field.  I worked and worked to keep the fire from going over the field.  In spite of all I could do, it kept going.  I fell on my knees and asked the Lord to quench it.  But it still kept burning.  All I could do was keep it back on the one side that it would not go over the whole field.  It burned over about four acres.

    While this was going on the Devil came at me and said, “You are mistaken; if you were supposed to farm for the Lord, He would have heard your prayers and quenched the fire.”  I had quite a struggle with the Devil, but the good Lord so sweetly came to my help.  That same sweet voice referred me to that crib of corn, and so I told the Devil he was too late, that I had already made a deposit on this year’s crop.  He left me for a season.

    The spring birds came.  The tractor started going back and forth through the field turning the ground over.  It seemed Heaven was witnessing: more than a dozen robins were flying around all day, lighting on the high points of the ground singing a joyful song.

    Little did I think that old Satan was at work.  All at once the tractor stopped humming and a noise started.  Well, only a spark plug?  No, the main bearing going!  Then the old Devil came again and said, “You are mistaken.  This would not have happened if it was for the Lord.”  I thought for a moment and then I referred the Devil to the crib of corn that was for security and besides that, I will pay this expense out of my own pocket.

    After I had the corn and tomatoes planted, I walked over the field to the cherry tree, the place of prayer, and there I knelt in prayer and dedicated the crop to the Lord in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.  The Lord witnessed to my soul.  Oh, I felt so happy I thought I was flying.

    Harvest time came.  I cut the wheat one Thursday and on Friday I put it on shocks.  About two o’clock in the afternoon I became very tired; the sun was so hot.  Then the Devil came and said, “You are a fool by doing this; you would not need to work like this if you would save all these crops and buy an apartment house and rent it and make easy money and give that to the Lord’s work.”

    He showed me the house I might buy.  I had quite a struggle with old Satan.  I was almost exhausted but I looked to the good Lord for help and prayed very earnestly to Him, looking over to the cherry tree where I had made the dedication, and the Lord again witnessed to my soul by giving my strength back and my soul was refreshed.  Praise the Lord for victory!

    I was doing a little threshing for others; (he had a rig of his own) and when I came to thresh the Lord’s crop, it made four more bushels of wheat per load than other places where I threshed.  That was another witness to my soul.  I felt good in my soul.

    One more experience . . .
    When the tomatoes were ready for market, help was hard to get; but I started to pick.  I had some high school boys the first week; but then school opened and I was left alone.  I started to pick one Monday morning and picked all through the week till Friday noon.  I was getting very tired and I knew if I would not have help soon, tons of tomatoes would rot.

    Just a little before the one o’clock whistle blew I prayed to the Lord.  I told the Lord I had done my best and that if He didn’t send me some help these tomatoes would spoil.  I went to picking and before I had a basketful picked, I saw a young man coming over the hill.  He said he had come to help me and so we got to picking again.  Before I had another basket picked I saw another man coming.  He said the same thing.  By that time I was beginning to feel good; now there were three of us. We got to picking again and a few minutes later I looked up and saw four coming—a man and his wife and two of the children.  I could hardly keep the tears back, but I sobered up and when they came to me they said they wanted to help to pick tomatoes.  I showed them where they might pick.  Now there were seven of us.

    Oh, I felt so happy, my eyes would fill with tears so that I could hardly see.  A big four-ton truck came and took them to market.  We got them nearly all picked.  I finished the next morning.  Praise the Lord for answering prayer!

    I enjoyed it so much that I told the Lord I would like to repeat it and have a Jubilee.