
Mark Miller Testimony
I was born in
Newport News and raised in Richmond, Virginia by two wonderful parents that are
still married today. They set a great example for my sister and I and they
have always been a positive influence in my life. They really set the
foundation that I could build the rest of my life on. Their stability
allowed me to take some chances throughout my life and my career that I may not
have otherwise been able to do.
A
good example of that was in my junior year of high school when I was selected to
be an exchange student. I left my comfortable, middle class life in the
United States to live in Hamburg Germany for about 3 months, working
as a draftsman for a major manufacturing company. In those 3 months
I was transformed from a spoiled teenager to a responsible (okay, somewhat
responsible) young man. I must have matured 10 years in those 3 months.
Following that experience, I went on to VirginiaTech and graduated with my BS degree in
Mechanical Engineering.
After working for several major manufacturing companies throughout the
Southeast, including some time in Mexico
on the movie set of the “Titanic”, I achieved all of my career goals in my early
30’s as an Operation’s Manager for Piper Aircraft company managing more than 20
departments and 400 people. So here I was, in my early 30’s, I had great
parents, a great wife, a great son, good health, and I just accomplished my
career goals, it was a story book life….but something was missing. It
seemed like the more I accomplished in life, the less I enjoyed it. I
didn’t celebrate the accomplishments, I just immediately moved on to the next
goal. There just had to be more to life than that.
I read the book “Racing to Win” by Joe Gibbs and I saw a tremendously successful
man give all of the glory to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ. I also had the influence of my wife and several close
friends that had transformed their lives through a relationship with God so I
set out on a journey of my own. I read the Bible cover to cover, started
studying and reaching out to the Lord and as the Bible says, you draw nigh unto
Him and He will draw nigh unto you. I committed my life to Christ and have never looked back.
I have always had a passion for racing. I’m
not sure where it came from as neither of my
parents care too much about it, but something about the speed and precision of
driving just really appealed to me. I missed a couple of opportunities as
a teenager to get involved in racing but in college I worked one weekend as a
corner worker for a motorcycle road racing event at Summit Point and I was
hooked. I obtained my road racing license shortly thereafter and started
racing my old Yamaha FZ600. I quickly moved up and raced several GSXR
750’s before giving it up for my family in the mid 1990’s.
Another passion of mine is working with kids.
While my son was growing up, I was blessed with the opportunity to be a tribal
Chief in his YMCA Indian Guides program for a number of years and as he grew I
was able to coach his youth football and basketball teams. My wife and I
then took a giant leap and became foster parents. In the last 5 years, we
have taken care of nearly 30 children of all ages, races, and backgrounds.
What a tremendous blessing this has been to our family and to the children.
It is certainly not the easiest thing we have ever done, but it sure has been
one of the most rewarding.
My wife and I first met Stephen Zoeller at the 2003 Rolex 24 hour Sports Car
race in Daytona. With the cars whizzing by in the background, Stephen began to share his testimony and as he talked
I felt the Lord working inside of me. Having a passion for the Lord, a
passion for racing, and a passion for working with children, it was just a match
made in heaven. Over the next several months, my wife and I volunteered at
many local road racing events helping Stephen and Stephanie out wherever we could.
Stephen then took me under his wing,
the relationship evolved into a mentoring program, and then on to a partner in
the ministry. It is not a path that I ever thought would be
possible, but I have learned that when God opens a door, you need to be ready to
walk through it. All I can say is that God is a great God. When I
look back at all of the events that transpired in my life even before I knew
Him, He was preparing me for things to come. All of the glory
goes to God.
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