May 14 – God’s Businessman
There are quite a few people that I know about because Dad used their stories as illustrations in his sermons time and time again. My dad was pretty smart. He kept a file of his illustrations and recycled them whenever we would move into a new congregation. Heck, sometimes I’m pretty sure he recycled entire sermons. I haven’t heard Dad preach for years, but every once in awhile I come across a name that leaps off the page and I am once again reminded of a story.
R. G. LeTourneau’s story was one that Dad loved to tell. He is known as the greatest inventor of giant earth-moving machines. In the 20s and 30s, his contracting company with its great machines did the work for the Hoover Dam, the Orange County Dam, the Boulder Highway (around Las Vegas). He left contracting to open plants around the country – and then around the world to build earth-moving machinery. His factories supplied 70 percent of the earth moving equipment used by the Allies during World War II.
In 1953, he sold his company to Westinghouse Air Brake Company and began developing other concepts, returning to the earth-moving industry with better equipment based on his designs.
While all of this was a large part of who LeTourneau was, even more important was his faith. As a leader in the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church, Christian Business Men’s Committee and Gideon’s International, he could also be found traveling around the world telling of his faith.
Though he never finished college, he believed in education and in 1946 purchased a military hospital complex in Longview, Texas and established the LeTourneau Technical Institute with the purpose of combining work, education and Christian testimony. In 1961 it became a college and was awarded University status.
LeTourneau considered God to be the Chairman of his board and established a foundation that would channel 90% of his personal salary to Christian endeavors. He established two agricultural missions in Liberia and trained missionaries in practical skills such as building homes so that they would be useful in the mission field.
There are quite a few people that I know about because Dad used their stories as illustrations in his sermons time and time again. My dad was pretty smart. He kept a file of his illustrations and recycled them whenever we would move into a new congregation. Heck, sometimes I’m pretty sure he recycled entire sermons. I haven’t heard Dad preach for years, but every once in awhile I come across a name that leaps off the page and I am once again reminded of a story.
R. G. LeTourneau’s story was one that Dad loved to tell. He is known as the greatest inventor of giant earth-moving machines. In the 20s and 30s, his contracting company with its great machines did the work for the Hoover Dam, the Orange County Dam, the Boulder Highway (around Las Vegas). He left contracting to open plants around the country – and then around the world to build earth-moving machinery. His factories supplied 70 percent of the earth moving equipment used by the Allies during World War II.
In 1953, he sold his company to Westinghouse Air Brake Company and began developing other concepts, returning to the earth-moving industry with better equipment based on his designs.
While all of this was a large part of who LeTourneau was, even more important was his faith. As a leader in the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church, Christian Business Men’s Committee and Gideon’s International, he could also be found traveling around the world telling of his faith.
Though he never finished college, he believed in education and in 1946 purchased a military hospital complex in Longview, Texas and established the LeTourneau Technical Institute with the purpose of combining work, education and Christian testimony. In 1961 it became a college and was awarded University status.
LeTourneau considered God to be the Chairman of his board and established a foundation that would channel 90% of his personal salary to Christian endeavors. He established two agricultural missions in Liberia and trained missionaries in practical skills such as building homes so that they would be useful in the mission field.
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