Randy's Life Story
September 7, 2021
by Dan Smith
Randy was born on Feb 28, 1961to Roger and Judy Smith in Mayville, North Dakota. He was the first born of 3 boys to the Smith’s.The family lived in North Dakota most of Randy’s life with a few teenage years in Arizona (where his parents currently live).Roger and Judy were both entrepreneurs, working to provide for their family. To say Randy was a handful as a child and teenager would be an understatement! At 16, Randy welcomed his first son into the world, Jared – who now lives in the Seattle area with his wife and two children. Randy had a fire in him as a young manthat he didn’t know what do to with. Hedropped out of high school got mixed up with the wrong people, selling illegal substances. He was a tough child for Roger and Judy – something he always apologized for.
At 18, Randy was arrested. He always told us he was grateful for when he called his mom to bail him out and she told the authorities to keep him AS LONG as they could. Sitting in the cold jail cell, Randy knew he would die young if he didn’t make a change. As he was thinkingthrough what he could do to make a major shift in his life, he remembered an old boss who was ‘different.’ Even though this man was rough and worked as an electrician, Randy noticed a light-ness and joy about him. So,Randy calledhim and he came down to the jail, Bible in hand, and shared with Randy what made him different – it was a personal relationship with Jesus.
He explained that the Bible tells us that God has a design for every single area of our lives. He cares about every aspect of our lives! And the Bible says that if we'll operate our lives according to God's design, then we'll live in God's blessing.
When we do things our own way, he pointed at the jail cell,we depart from God’s design and experience "Brokenness." And the kind of change we need doesn't come from out there in the world somewhere – it comes from the Gospel, where God will help to change our mind, our heart, andour direction. And when we turn from our sins and believe the Gospel story – the story of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection – then the Bible says that Jesus comes into our lives: He forgives our sins and begins to heal the broken places in our lives. And because He does that, then we have the opportunity to recover and pursue God's design for our lives.
This man finally explained that when God comes into our life, He then sends us back out into a broken world as ambassadors for His Kingdom so others can find out about how Jesus can heal them, too.
That moment was significant for Randy – he made a lifelong decision to pursue God. His family will be the first to admit that he wasn’t perfect, but this man ran after God’s heart his whole life. This was the first and biggest ‘conversion’ or ‘running to god’ in Randy’s life – we’ll come back to the second one soon.
By the grace of God, when Randy was released from jail, he knew he needed to leave town and start fresh. So he packed everything he had into his car and jumped on the highway. As every exit came up, he flipped a coin to determinewhether or not he would stop in that town. Surprisingly, he made it pretty far before getting the ‘heads up’ to pull off the highway.
Eventually Randy made it down to Minneapolis and found a community called The Servants of the Word. It was a fraternity of young men who were dedicating their lives to the work of the Lord. Randy worked as an electrician and donated 100% of the income into the Servants of the Wordprograms and missionary work. From 1981-1985, Randy was a full-time missionary in Minneapolis & England with this group, as well as a member of the community for many years after he met and married Tina.
Randy met Tina in 1986 through mutual mentors. Randy knew he wanted to marry her and Tina knew she didn’twant to marry Randy. After a year of getting to know one another, they began a courtship. It was just 30 days later that Randy proposed, and they were married 3 months lateron Oct 3rd, 1987. (When you know you know, you know!)
Randy and Tina welcomed all 5 kids into their life in North Minneapolis before moving out to Monticello where they lived until 2010. During this time they instilled a deep love for Christ in their kids and set them up for success. The Smith family, under Randy’s leadership, has always been deeply committed and involved in the local church with Randy fulfilling a lifetime dream of being ordained as a Pastor in 2012.
In 2000, Randy started Randy’s Electric from their homewith the goal of creating a different type of Electrical Company in Minneapolis – they’ll answer the phone, show up when they say they will and, most importantly, he wanted to “Be A Blessing!” This was so important to him that he called it his life motto!In the early days, Tina answered the phones and pulled permits while Randy did all of the electrical work. Learning the business side of the industry was a struggle for Randy, so the first ten years were full of hard lessons.
Randy comes from a long line of Electrical Business Owners – as long as they come, anyway, because his grandpa was one of the first electricians and ran IhnkenElectric in Portland, ND. His dad, Roger, owned Smith Electric, also in ND.
In 2010, Randy’s Electric relaunched and has since becomea booming business with 24electricians, 15 apprentices, and 18 office staff.There have been so many lives impacted by RE – both staff and over 60,000 customers in the last 20 years. The growth and impact of the company is something randy felt so blessed to lead and be a part of. All 5 kids have worked for RE in one way or another but the big news came this summer when Randy & Tina sold the company to Dan and Jessica smith.
As a part of his retirement plan, Randy bought and has been renovating a 6,000 sq ft cabin in Luck, WI. He has been calling it our family’s legacy – a place for our family to gather for generations!
In recent years, Randy and Tina have welcomed 4 sweet granddaughters into this world with one more on the way. He loved being a papa even before he had his own grandchildren. He never smiled bigger than when the babies came into his house!
Randy loved being a dad. He didn’t hold back from hugging or saying ‘I love you.’ Randy learned to love each child in the way they needed it. He sought peace and unity at all costs.
Randy loved being Tina’s husband. He loved her as fiercely as any man has ever loved a woman. He honored and cherished her with his words and actions.
Most of all, Randy loved God. He loved to sing worship songs so loudly! He loved to play guitar and sing prayers. He loved to be at the ocean or in the woods praying. Randy loved God and God loved Randy.
Wesaid earlier that we would mention his 2nd biggest conversion:Well,Randy had been in a hospital for a couple weeks and was having a hard time processing the whole situation. On Monday, August 30th, Randy texted in our family chat and said, “God is good! All the time! And all the time! Good is good! I don’t have words right now, but last night was probably my greatest second conversion. I repent in dust and ashes – I trust Him totally. Sorry for doubting.” He trusted God even in the hardest times, with the last song he was listening to before he passeddemonstrating his sincerest love and trust in the Lord – How Great Thou Art.
At 18, Randy was arrested. He always told us he was grateful for when he called his mom to bail him out and she told the authorities to keep him AS LONG as they could. Sitting in the cold jail cell, Randy knew he would die young if he didn’t make a change. As he was thinkingthrough what he could do to make a major shift in his life, he remembered an old boss who was ‘different.’ Even though this man was rough and worked as an electrician, Randy noticed a light-ness and joy about him. So,Randy calledhim and he came down to the jail, Bible in hand, and shared with Randy what made him different – it was a personal relationship with Jesus.
He explained that the Bible tells us that God has a design for every single area of our lives. He cares about every aspect of our lives! And the Bible says that if we'll operate our lives according to God's design, then we'll live in God's blessing.
When we do things our own way, he pointed at the jail cell,we depart from God’s design and experience "Brokenness." And the kind of change we need doesn't come from out there in the world somewhere – it comes from the Gospel, where God will help to change our mind, our heart, andour direction. And when we turn from our sins and believe the Gospel story – the story of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection – then the Bible says that Jesus comes into our lives: He forgives our sins and begins to heal the broken places in our lives. And because He does that, then we have the opportunity to recover and pursue God's design for our lives.
This man finally explained that when God comes into our life, He then sends us back out into a broken world as ambassadors for His Kingdom so others can find out about how Jesus can heal them, too.
That moment was significant for Randy – he made a lifelong decision to pursue God. His family will be the first to admit that he wasn’t perfect, but this man ran after God’s heart his whole life. This was the first and biggest ‘conversion’ or ‘running to god’ in Randy’s life – we’ll come back to the second one soon.
By the grace of God, when Randy was released from jail, he knew he needed to leave town and start fresh. So he packed everything he had into his car and jumped on the highway. As every exit came up, he flipped a coin to determinewhether or not he would stop in that town. Surprisingly, he made it pretty far before getting the ‘heads up’ to pull off the highway.
Eventually Randy made it down to Minneapolis and found a community called The Servants of the Word. It was a fraternity of young men who were dedicating their lives to the work of the Lord. Randy worked as an electrician and donated 100% of the income into the Servants of the Wordprograms and missionary work. From 1981-1985, Randy was a full-time missionary in Minneapolis & England with this group, as well as a member of the community for many years after he met and married Tina.
Randy met Tina in 1986 through mutual mentors. Randy knew he wanted to marry her and Tina knew she didn’twant to marry Randy. After a year of getting to know one another, they began a courtship. It was just 30 days later that Randy proposed, and they were married 3 months lateron Oct 3rd, 1987. (When you know you know, you know!)
Randy and Tina welcomed all 5 kids into their life in North Minneapolis before moving out to Monticello where they lived until 2010. During this time they instilled a deep love for Christ in their kids and set them up for success. The Smith family, under Randy’s leadership, has always been deeply committed and involved in the local church with Randy fulfilling a lifetime dream of being ordained as a Pastor in 2012.
In 2000, Randy started Randy’s Electric from their homewith the goal of creating a different type of Electrical Company in Minneapolis – they’ll answer the phone, show up when they say they will and, most importantly, he wanted to “Be A Blessing!” This was so important to him that he called it his life motto!In the early days, Tina answered the phones and pulled permits while Randy did all of the electrical work. Learning the business side of the industry was a struggle for Randy, so the first ten years were full of hard lessons.
Randy comes from a long line of Electrical Business Owners – as long as they come, anyway, because his grandpa was one of the first electricians and ran IhnkenElectric in Portland, ND. His dad, Roger, owned Smith Electric, also in ND.
In 2010, Randy’s Electric relaunched and has since becomea booming business with 24electricians, 15 apprentices, and 18 office staff.There have been so many lives impacted by RE – both staff and over 60,000 customers in the last 20 years. The growth and impact of the company is something randy felt so blessed to lead and be a part of. All 5 kids have worked for RE in one way or another but the big news came this summer when Randy & Tina sold the company to Dan and Jessica smith.
As a part of his retirement plan, Randy bought and has been renovating a 6,000 sq ft cabin in Luck, WI. He has been calling it our family’s legacy – a place for our family to gather for generations!
In recent years, Randy and Tina have welcomed 4 sweet granddaughters into this world with one more on the way. He loved being a papa even before he had his own grandchildren. He never smiled bigger than when the babies came into his house!
Randy loved being a dad. He didn’t hold back from hugging or saying ‘I love you.’ Randy learned to love each child in the way they needed it. He sought peace and unity at all costs.
Randy loved being Tina’s husband. He loved her as fiercely as any man has ever loved a woman. He honored and cherished her with his words and actions.
Most of all, Randy loved God. He loved to sing worship songs so loudly! He loved to play guitar and sing prayers. He loved to be at the ocean or in the woods praying. Randy loved God and God loved Randy.
Wesaid earlier that we would mention his 2nd biggest conversion:Well,Randy had been in a hospital for a couple weeks and was having a hard time processing the whole situation. On Monday, August 30th, Randy texted in our family chat and said, “God is good! All the time! And all the time! Good is good! I don’t have words right now, but last night was probably my greatest second conversion. I repent in dust and ashes – I trust Him totally. Sorry for doubting.” He trusted God even in the hardest times, with the last song he was listening to before he passeddemonstrating his sincerest love and trust in the Lord – How Great Thou Art.