February, 1942
THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE SS
48
R. G. LeTourneau (left) whose busi ness has mounted to $20,000,000 annually, Is, first and foremost, God’s servant and God’s steward.
had.” In his church was another man who had had experience in highway 'construction work, a Christian, whose equipment, added to Robert’s, would be equal to the handling of the-con- tract. He sought this man out and suggested to him that they bid for the work “as partners.” They did so and secured the contract. Shortly after the work was under taken, difficulties revealed them selves. Progress was slow, and it began to look as though they might lose some money on the contract. Robert’s associate was one of the worrying kind. He began to find fault with on“ thing after another and fi nally said to Robert, “The trouble with this job is that you have too many of your own relatives working for you.” The charge concerning his relatives was true to the extent that he did have a lot of them working for him. But he maintained that they were all “ doing their stuff” and he didp’t want to lay them off, as skilled labor was not always available when it was needed and he thought he would have work for all of them on future con tracts after the present one had been completed. As was his custom when in doubt about God’s will for him in a situa tion, he went to prayer. He asked God to show him what to do. It is one of Robert’s convictions that when a child of God is doing the best he can, he has a right to ask the Lord to help him; but he does not believe in telling the Lord to bring it on a silver platter.
Therefore, he prayed and things be gan to happen. He got an invitation to bid on an other contract from a private concern which never sent out public bids. The execution of this contract, like the State highway job he was handling with his fellow church member, would require machinery that he didn’t have. He went to his machinery, manufac turer and asked for credit. He got the credit and entered his bid. He and two other contractors were within a few cents of one another with their bids, and Robert, thinking he was un known and without prestige and therefore hardly in the running, was happily surprised to be awarded the contract. He went back to his State highway construction job and transferred every one of his relatives to the new con tract, appointing his brother-in-law as superintendent. They went through with it according to schedule and made a nice profit. Not long there-
i d striking book recently released from the press is entitled God Runs My Business: The Story of R. G. LeTour neau, by Albert IV. Lorimerl The vol ume describes the amazing growth of the firm of R. G. LeTourneau, Inc., large-scale manufacturers of earth-mov ing equipment and other heavy steel products, a growth achieved in the years since the president of the company defi nitely invited God to become the Senior Partner in his business. Two of the early tests of faith and obedience are described in Chapter V of the book, from which this present article is taken. The first portion treats Specifically of a matter which many of the Lord's people have had to face in their dealings with fellow ' believers. Throughout the book, the author speaks of M r. LeTourneau as “ Robert" and endeavors to present his personality in a very “ human" and intimate way. The book is published by Revell Co., New York, price $1.00. — E ditor .] O NE OF the severest testings in ner, he was laying the foundation of his business. He had been engaged in highway construction work for some time when, as he says, “I got my eyes on a piece of State highway construction which was a little too big for me to handle with the equipment and men I then
the life of ¡R. G. LeTourneau came to him during the period in which, with the Lord as his Part
S 0 U N D A D V I C E :
Made with FlippingBook HTML5