John Anderson is a husband, father, small business owner, and a member of Real Life Church. This is his story of trusting God, in his own words…

In my early years as a Christian, if someone asked me how I envisioned serving God, I would have never dreamed that I would be serving Him through the racing community. Ever since I was a young boy, I have been drawn to racing. Some of my earliest memories are watching racing on tv after church. Al Unser, Mario Andretti and many others competing still live on in my mind.

By the time I left high school, I had rejected God and lived a lifestyle I came to regret. I felt God had done nothing for me and I would do the same for Him. After 4 years in the marines, and still in a stage of rejecting God, I tried to fill the empty hole in my heart. I found road racing was able to temporarily fill that void. I took up racing from 1986-1990, but just ended up financially and emotionally broke. I did realize, however, that I definitely had a God given gift for building racing motorcycles and organizing teams. I made relationships with people that I still have today.

God still wouldn’t let me go and continued pursuing me. I tried hard to push Him away. I felt Him tugging at my heart. I ended up attending a church that I seemed to connect with. It was there that I learned about the importance of tithing. Since I began tithing, I have never wanted for anything and God has continued to meet every need in times of plenty and in times of few.

By 1993, I was tithing and going to church, but my actions were still not aligning with God’s ways. I sat on my porch and cried. I told God that even though I didn’t know what it would look like, my future would finally be all His

In January of 2001, I was baptized. My heart was now drawing even closer to God’s.

In 2004, I started the company WorldWide Machining and Welding. What started out in a garage, grew into a fairly successful company. I worked a lot of years for a lot of hours and a Christian mentor of mine suggested I put some energy into a hobby. I prayed for months to find out what I really wanted to do, and the answer was clear. I wanted to road race again.

I started racing again in 2010. Over the course of 7 years, my brother, myself, and a friend of ours, started a ministry that reached out to the racers. Our first open prayer after the rider’s meeting attracted only a few people. Our Saturday night church service was only a few people too. But, in a few short years, we had as many as 50 people attending! So many broken young men found God through our ministry at the racetrack.

In 2016, a divorce shattered my world. I lost my home I had worked so hard for and had to buy her out of the company. I basically had to start over and my company just couldn’t seem to recover from it all. Sales were at an all time low and so was I.

By the following year, I met and married my wife Moira. WorldWide continued to suffer and by March, 2018, the bank had cancelled our line of credit, restricted my wages, and the company debt was piling up.

During that time, I shared with Moira my worries. While we spoke, she heard a voice say “I’ve got this.” Moira felt 100% sure that she had heard God speak to her and has continued to remind me that God is in control.

That summer, I couldn’t sleep and had stumbled upon the 700 Club tv show. It was on tithing. I felt like I had given everything to God already, but had never tithed from my company, just from my personal account. I knew what I needed to do. After much disapproval from my accountant, my company began a tithing program. Things weren’t looking good financially, but I knew I needed to do this. In August 2018, WorldWide had 10 days left to stay in business. The company needed $500,000. To stay afloat. All we could do was pray and believe. The following day, I got a phone call. An order had been placed for $565,000. And the company wanted it in 10 days!!! Ironically, the guy who ordered the product said it didn’t even make sense since that company really didn’t need the product for a year, if at all!! It made perfect sense to me. God.

Because of our tithing program, we are able to reach the lost through our racing ministry. God is good, all the time.

-John Anderson #RLLA