Rob Elliot
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First Person is produced in cooperation with the Far East Broadcasting Company, who rejoice in the stories of changed lives through the power of Jesus Christ. Learn more at febc.org. I make my money so that I can send it out to the Lord's servants. I've been asked to be on boards, and I tell them, I said, I'd rather work than be on a board because I can make some money that I can give to you that you're needing. And the Lord has blessed us greatly. ♪

And the Lord has greatly blessed others through his long life. Welcome to First Person, where today it's my joy to introduce you to a friend who at 93 years of age is still actively sharing Christ as a businessman. My guest will be Rob Elliott. I'm glad you could join us for this week's interview. It's so inspiring and a challenge to our own faithfulness to meet people we talk with each week. And today will be especially true.

When you look us up online at FirstPersonInterview.com, you'll find nearly 15 years of weekly interviews with people from all walks of life whose faith in Christ has led them to a fulfilling life. Feel free to download any of our past programs and take them with you on the go for listening anytime. Again, go to FirstPersonInterview.com.

Well, you're about to meet a personal friend of mine. His name is Rob Elliott, who started his business over 75 years ago. His company has always been a means for him to share the gospel and support others in doing the same. And I invited Rob to join me in the studio for a conversation about his life. Well, Wayne, it's been a pleasure. And to get to know you back in the Don Cole days was a joy. And we've kept that

going, and I just want to keep it going forever because you're a great guy. Rob, when I think of you, I think of, in this order of priority, I think of faith, and I think of family, and I think of friendship. Ooh, yes. Three Fs. You're doing all right. Those things that have marked your life, and I want to learn about those things today. First of all, how did a guy like you, who spent all these years as an American, how did you end up being born in England? I want to know that story. Yeah.

Okay, well, my dad was from Canada, actually Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and he decided he was on a farm and in the lumber business with his brother.

And he decided to go over to England and find himself a wealthy wife. So he went over there, and those were the days when you'd dress up. So he rented a tuxedo and went to a church and met my mother, among other people, and eventually persuaded her to marry him. So she came back, and they had their first son. They were living in Oak Park. They had their first son,

John, who was 18 months older than I am. He was born in Oak Park. So she persuaded my dad to let her take her son John over to England to meet her parents. And it was during the days of the Depression, so things were rather tight. So my dad couldn't go, but they went over on the ocean liner and she knew that she was pregnant with somebody. So she got over there and

Lo and behold, I was born in Brighouse, Yorkshire, England, up near the border of Scotland. And then she sent some kind of a correspondence back to my dad that, hey, Earl, we have a son named... Surprise. Yeah, surprise. And they wouldn't let you fly. Well, they didn't even fly then. It was all ocean liners. They wouldn't let them on that until you were old enough. So...

At six months old, my dad finally met me. And we moved to Glen Ellyn, Illinois. And so she got her wish of having her son born in the old company. Did you grow up in a Christian family? Fortunately and thankfully to the Lord, I did. A strong Christian family. My dad and a lot of his brothers were strong believers.

And my mother was a believer in the Brethren Assemblies over in London. You know, there's good things about that and there's bad things. Sometimes growing up in a Christian family makes you think through osmosis or something that you become a Christian. And I didn't have that feeling, but I knew I needed a Savior. And when I was about 12 years old, I was at home.

My parents were at prayer meeting on a Wednesday night, and I remember looking out the window to find them because they seemed to be late.

And I got real worried about maybe the Lord has come and taken them away, and here I am. So when they got back, I questioned them, and I gave my life to the Lord then. I see. However, that's not the whole story. I was even – we were going to the Lombard Gospel Chapel in Lombard. A church you've attended your entire life, right? I'm still there. Yeah, I'm still there. And –

I was baptized a couple months later. And then, unfortunately, I played baseball at Glenbard and was involved in a lot of things. But unfortunately, I was involved in a peer group that were not believers. And I hung out with them a lot. My dad had paid for my brother's education to Wheaton College, and he was paying for mine. So I went to Wheaton College.

By the way, my father's second oldest brother was the first Gimme Jimmy guy for Wheaton College. By that I mean the one that goes out and gets donations. He's the one that brought the... I've never heard that term before. He's the one that brought the oil wells and the coal mines and all that to the college. Yeah, you got to do some fundraising. He did a lot of fundraising. Traveled all over. Okay. And his oldest brother...

Fred was a traveling missionary. Well, I should say traveling evangelist with three other brethren guys. They'd go around the country evangelizing in different churches. And his son was Jim Elliott, one of the missionaries martyred in Ecuador. But anyway...

I went to Wheaton College, and I was bored stiff. I'm the type of person that if I can't see something happening in a couple weeks, I'm out of there. And I was wasting my time. I remember I was in Dr. Carl Armading's class where you went through the whole Bible in one semester, and you had to read every verse in the Bible.

And I probably cheated a little bit there. But anyway, the problem was I didn't live at the college. I lived at home, and I still kept contact with my old buddies from high school. Well, after the first year of Wheaton College, I told my dad, I said, just give me one year off to find myself, and then I'll go back. I'm wasting my time. Well, reluctantly, he did.

And that summer at our church, there was a concrete contractor named Howard Concrete. So he said, do you want a job? I said, well, I was a skinny little runt. And I said, yeah, I'd love to have a job in concrete. And boy, did I work. That was before ready-mix trucks and spent mixers and all that. Sounds like a lot of hard work to me. Oh, the worst start was on the rock pile. You had to feed people.

15 shovelfuls of rock into the mixer and then you graduated from that to the sand pile and you already had 12 of those that you shoveled in the mixer a lot better but at the same time you'd use cement and put it in there too. So that was my job and I just loved it. I loved every minute of it. It brings back a lot of memories because I

I remember coming home some days in a hot summer, and I'd jump right in the shower and turn it on as cold as I could because I was just, oh, terrible. I convinced my dad that, you know, I need another year. Don't let me off yet. I went back to...

the next year in July of that year, June or June, I think it was of that year. That would be 1951. Three of my high school friends and I went to the Sky High Drive-In on Roosevelt Road and Highway 83 in Elmhurst. That's many years ago. It was a big outdoor movie. And there was some drinking involved. Fortunately, I never did like the taste of beer, so I did not get involved in drinking.

But on the way home, the driver, it was a two-door car, a two-door Ford car. I was in the back seat right behind the driver. And on the way home, the driver felt he was being chased by the police or something. He's zooming down Roosevelt Road right where Baker's Hill is, which is just before you get to Highway 53. And just at the bottom of that hill, he...

ran head-on into another car and a tremendous collision, and I ended up underneath the car. Somehow I got out of the back seat, no seat belts in, out of the back seat between the driver's seat and the door and out underneath the car, broke my shoulder, my leg, and all kinds of things and skinned up my whole body.

was unconscious, and the worst part is that the fellow sitting next to me flew over the front seat, hitting the passenger and broke his neck, and eventually, a couple days later, he died. The driver, all he did was hurt his knee, and I've been told this by the guy that used to be the fire chief of Glen Ellyn, that his dad, who was then the fire chief...

They're looking for all the people that were in the car, and he said he heard something under the car, and he looked, and that was me under there, and he pulled me out of there. Goodness. Sent me to Elmhurst Hospital, and I was in a coma for two or three days. When I woke up, my mother and father were at the end of my bed, and I said, I finally learned my lesson. Mm-hmm.

and that turned me around. I gave my life to the Lord. So this was a spiritual answer for you, a crisis of sorts. Yeah, but a wonderful thing that happened to me because it turned my life completely around. I gave my life to the Lord. I repented of my sins and the way I lived and

and started living for him. You never did go back to college, though, did you? No, I didn't go back to college. And one other thing about this accident, I received a check from the insurance company for $5,600, and that was when Jim Elliott and Ed McCulley and Pete Fleming and Roger Udarian and one other guy were...

down in Ecuador and going to go before they went to see the Alca Indians. And I sent the money to them. I said, this is for you. I've learned my lesson. Jim was your cousin. Jim was my cousin, yeah. On December 7th, 1951, I had my physical for the Army, which would have put me into Korea. And thankfully, I failed because I was still suffering on my broken body.

And they said, we can't use you. You're 4F. I thank the Lord every day for that accident, keeping me out of the Army or Navy or whatever, because I know I was not strong enough in my Christian faith to stay that way. There's more to come as we continue the life story of Rob Elliott on this edition of First Person.

Hi, I'm Ed Cannon. And as you know, situations around the world are changing quickly. Stay current with FEBC's ministry and get a deeper understanding of people who need to find hope. Hear how you can feel the pulse of God's Spirit moving through the hearts of believers dedicated to reaching the lost. Be sure you join me for the podcast until all have heard. Discover how the gospel is making a difference around the world.

Search for Until All Have Heard on your favorite podcast platform or hear it online at febc.org. My guest is Rob Elliott, and we're hearing his testimony today. Rob has been a longtime friend and has just a wonderful life story that I really, I wish we had two hours to talk about it, Rob, instead of just a few minutes. Pick up the story. You finally went back to work in 1952, about 20,

I think it was, Mr. Howard, let me come back. And I had built myself back up. And he pulled this together one day and he says, you know, Rob, I'd like to start another business with you and Bill. And I guess I was cocky enough. I said to him, well, Mr. Howard, if you think I can go in business with your son, I could probably do it myself. And he said, yes, yes, you can. And he gave me. Now think of this. Here's a Christian man who,

in the concrete business

And he gave me five of his builders to take care of their concrete needs area. So he set you up. He set me up. He sure did. And that was the birth of Elliott Construction? Yeah, that was the birth. Because I went home and told my dad we're in the concrete business. He says, I don't know anything about concrete. And I said, well, I know less. But my dad was a good businessman. Well, just to jump way ahead, Elliott Construction is still in business today, 70 years later. 70 years later. And you're still there every day working. Well, yeah.

I come in a little later than I used to, and I still have the corner office, and my son-in-law, who I work for,

is a wonderful man and allows me to have the privilege of doing what I want to do. So I want to still have, I have concrete in my blood. People say, why don't you retire? I said, I got concrete in my blood. If I retire, it'll get hard and I'll die. So I can't do that. But we've been greatly blessed. Started out, I ran crews myself. I did the bidding. I did the

I did everything. Well, and I have to mention, you have to have one of the largest concrete companies around these days, right, in this area. Yeah. I think we're number two or three. We have about 120 employees. We're a union contractor. All we do is concrete construction, commercial, industrial construction.

Well, I have so many questions I want to ask you, Rob, but let me just jump to this question. What has it meant to you to be involved in a business like this instead of, quote, unquote, a ministry? And I know that I'm in error in even saying that because your business is your ministry. My business is my – fortunately, Elliott Construction has a great reputation for

In fact, when we have meetings with all our employees, I always tell them, my name is on that door. And I said, don't you ruin my name because I've worked hard to have that. And it's a real testimony. And because of that, we can go to different places and be respected. And actually, people listen to you. And the older I am, the more they listen to me because I've been through all these things.

And I have the opportunity. I've been an officer of the Concrete Contractors Association. I refuse the position of president because they always take a picture of the president and the vice president and the head guy standing up with a drink in their hand. And I said, I will not do that. So now I get to pray at all the events that the concrete contractors have for their big meetings, for the golf outing.

And I always end up with some type of a testimony that, in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, or something of that nature. Which is typical for you because you have had such influence in that whole community of people that most of us couldn't rub elbows with. Yeah, that's true. But the Lord has opened that door for you. He certainly has. And again, because I still have pain in my back from that accident, I...

Whenever I start doing something that is not according to what the Lord would want, I get that pain. It's kind of like, hey, Rob, just get back on track. But it is a blessing. I've been able to use that witness for the Lord in many different ways. I'll take many contractors or superintendents or people on a project and say, hey, let's go have breakfast.

And when we get to breakfast, I always say, do you mind if I pray? And the conversation before that has been blankety-blank this or blankety-blank that. And once I pray, then, oh, my brother-in-law, he's a minister, or my uncle, you know. But it's a good opportunity to...

Sure. You don't have to preach the gospel all the time. Your walk come first. Right. And if you're an example of what the Lord wants you to be for the way you walk and live your life, people will listen to you.

And fortunately, and thank the Lord, I've been able to have that most of the time. People say, what do you do? Why are you doing this? I said, well, you know, I'm not making money to buy a big house or a big yacht or an airplane or anything. I make my money so that I can send it out to the Lord's servants. That's, I feel the Lord...

I've been asked to be on boards and I tell them, I said, I'd rather work than be on a board because I can make some money that I can give to you. It's your needing. And the Lord has blessed us greatly. So we talked about faith and we talked about friendship. Let's talk about family for a moment. So the marriage with Marian has led to how many children and how many grandchildren? And of course, how many great grandchildren? Can you count that high? Uh,

We had five children. All five got married, so that's 10. 10 of them had 17 children, so that's 17 grandchildren. All 17 grandchildren are married, so that's 34 grandchildren. We count them. And now we have great-grandchildren. I think the last one was about...

Two months ago, and that's number 32. Amazing. There'll be more coming along. It's been wonderful. Rob, the Lord's given you a long life. Oh, yeah. For a purpose. And I know you're grateful. It's for a purpose. Yeah, for a purpose. Talk about the Lord and what Jesus means. Okay, well, you know, so many people say, why did you make it to 93? Yeah.

And I said, well, the Lord has got something for me to do. And he hasn't stopped me from doing it yet. But going back to my early days at 12 years old, even though I knew all about the Bible and Sunday school and how to get saved and put on that salvation, it was not real until I had that terrible accident which opened my eyes and turned me around and

And really, as bad as that was, Dwayne, and the death of a friend, I am thankful every day for that. It changed my life completely and kept me away from so many things that I could have been involved with. In the construction business, there's not a lot of Christians, and the people you work with many times are not God-fearing people.

But it caused me to get back into the scriptures, knowing what I know. I was able to teach Sunday school at the church. I've had many opportunities to actually preach sermons at the church.

partly because I've been there so long. They want to know, oh, 25 years ago, what'd you do? Or 50 years ago, what'd you do? Or 75 years ago, what happened? And so I could give them the gospel message there. But it's a personal relationship with Christ that you... Oh, definitely. It's...

You know, you have to believe, Romans 10 and 9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you are saved. And that's exactly what I did. I believe he's my Lord, he's my Savior, and he's certainly alive and hears me today. And that's the message that I have. I play golf with some guys. I went down to River Bend in Lyle and

20 years ago and I said hey they have a senior league down there I said I'd like to play some golf and so they put me with three guys that I never knew before and we went out and played and there was some language to begin with and finally after the second time I played with them I said hey let's go to breakfast I'll buy breakfast so we went to breakfast I said you know

do you mind if I pray for our food? Oh, that's fine. So I prayed for my food. From then on, their language was much, much cleaner, nicer, and rarely would they use the Lord's name in vain. And unfortunately, three people that we've been golfing with, the same group that I've been with for 20 years,

have died. And every time one of them dies, I get an opportunity to share with these guys, you know, if that was you in the box there, where would you go?

And they listen, but they don't pay much attention. I actually, one of them picked up a golf ball that was lost and on it said, Jesus saves. I said, oh, that's the Lord talking to me to tell you guys something. So we had a good conversation over there. And I'm still working on a couple of them to see that I want to share the gospel with them. But that's my life. It's a wonderful life.

I'm still here. I want to be here. I want to do what the Lord wants me to do. And what an example of a life well lived for God's glory. Our guest has been Rob Elliott, the founder of a Chicago concrete construction company that still bears his name after 75 years of business. And as he said, he's not finished yet. I'd love to hear how Rob continues to share his faith in Jesus with everyone he encounters.

Telling others about Jesus is also the mission of the Far East Broadcasting Company. Rob and I share a love for what God is doing through FEBC and talk about it often. Much of the support behind these weekly interviews is supplied by FEBC and I hope that you will open your eyes to God's work through people around the world. If you'd like to learn more and listen to our podcast until all have heard, just visit the website febc.org.

Now, with thanks to my friend and producer, Joe Carlson, I'm Wayne Shepherd. Thanks for listening to First Person.