View source for Claude Evar Bulander

Claude Evar "C.E." Bulander was raised in Winamac, Indiana.  He was attending [[Moody Bible Institute]] in 1917.  After WWII, at least during 1945, he served with the Chicago Christian Serviceman's Center on 646 S. State Street, while living in Wheaton.   He writes the following report for the January 1945 Letters of Interest on that work: 

"I feel exercised to write these words for the magazine to help keep before our minds the work among the servicemen.  As we hear of the battles that are won and the advancement of our armed forces, we are inclined to think that the war will soon be over and the work among the servicemen will be ended.

Almost every day new recruits are coming into the Center on 646 S. State Street, Chicago, IL., and others are returning from the battlefronts.  These men need Christ and it is our job to see that the Gospel is brought to them.  Our leaders have ceased to predict when the war will be over in Europe.  The going is getting tougher and the casualties are increasing.  Men are wounded, bleeding, and dying on the bloody battlefields of Europe and on the islands of the Pacific.  Let us humble ourselves before God and seek His face in prayer for these men.  

Our task is a long one as it will take some time to demobilize eleven million men after the last battle is won.  Then, too, in all probability there will be a large army of occupation.  The trend is to require that all able bodied young men be called to take a year of training even after the war is over.  All these men are open to listed to the gospel message.  Only God knows and only eternity will reveal what the results will be.  It is now our opportunity to bring the Word of God to the servicemen.  Men and women in civilian life seem too indifferent to the Word of God.  They do not feel the danger that our boys are anticipating overseas.

A young man was brought into the Center the other day as a prisoner.  He was very bitter and disconcerted when he came back and saw the care-free life people were living over here.  He said it was not right that the boys should give their lives over there when people over here were not more concerned than they seemingly are.  He was surprised to find that every movie house and place of amusement was open and that men were striking on every hand for more money.  He was bitter and ready to go to prison rather than go back to fight for his country in the face of these conditions.  

We cannot expect anything else of the world than what is going on as we see what is in the heart of the natural man.  But fellow Christian and worker, let us be careful that we do not fall into the same pit.  These men need Christ, and it is the will of the Lord that we witness to them and pray for them.