Many adults do not know what their next step in life is, so it’s unusual to find someone who knew the next step to take when he was only 12 years old. That 12-year-old was John Costales.
His mom was a Christian and he grew up with the teachings and views from the Church of Christ. Christ was always honored in their home. While his father said he believed in God, that was it; he was not a factor in his spiritual growth. Even though John was never made to attend church, he just knew in his heart that he was called to be one of God’s children.
One day after talking to a counselor, he learned about being saved. From that single conversation he knew receiving Christ as his Savior was something he had to do and very much wanted to do. God had put his seal on him. He was baptized at age 12.
There has never been a time since he accepted Christ that John has not wanted to be a Christian, and he has never even imagined not being one.
When John was in junior high school, the school was rough and unfortunately he was beaten up from time to time. His mom sought other options for his education. Thankfully, he was able to transfer to a private school that was Christian-based. The change really helped to encourage and strengthen his faith. He learned to study the Bible and learn about the Lord. Being exposed to the word every day and seeing people actually live out Christ’s teachings really had an impact on his young life. John was able to recognize during this time in his life that the Holy Spirit always warned him when he was about to do something stupid. As you’ll see, he didn’t always listen.
His father’s strong influence and desire for John to learn a trade as he was growing up bore fruit. He started to learn auto mechanics and machine work when he was quite young. His father owned a machine shop and started paying John for helping in the shop when he turned 14. John said, “All of my machinist training was ‘on the job training’ at my father’s machine shop and while racing.” He also learned to be a mechanic from working on cars for his father. He built the motors, transmissions and rear ends and did all the requisite mechanical and machinist chores needed to get a car ready to race.
The fact that his father owned a shop gave John some great opportunities that most boys his age didn’t have. One of his passions at the time was drag racing, both on a drag strip and on the street. Because he had to work on his older brother Tommy’s race car while he was in the service, he ought to be able to drag race it too, right?
It was during a couple of those drag races that John became aware of just how great the God he believed in was.
Understandably, as a teenager in high school, his passion for racing was not limited to the drag strip. While heading home one evening after dark, he simply could not resist the challenge to race a Dodge Barracuda. Surely his ’68 Camaro could take the Dodge easily. There they were - going down the feeder road of the Gulf freeway at about 120 mph. And - wouldn’t you know it - shortly after they started, two cars exited the freeway and took up both feeder lanes ahead of them. The Barracuda went into the grassy area between the feeder road and the freeway. That driver was able to slow down and not have an accident.
John, on the other hand, had only the edge of the asphalt and a very deep ditch for an escape route. He decided that no matter what happened to him, he was not going to hit one of those
innocent drivers in front of him. He made a split-second decision to go around the car in front of him on the ditch side. Inexplicably (and to him miraculously) he was able to go around the car and get back onto the feeder road. Not understanding why he did not crash into the ditch as he had anticipated, he went back to the site the next day. He found
his tire tracks in a load of shell that had just been dumped along the asphalt and into the ditch built up to road level for about 15 to 20 feet. There was no other place along the feeder where this occurred. He had been saved by God’s grace and he knew that for certain.
Fast forward a few years to John at 21. He bought a Chevette and souped it up for drag racing.
One night at Green Valley Raceway in Dallas, the inexplicable happened.
While he was driving his modified pro-stock Chevette in a bracket race (it is the poor man’s way to race), his engine threw a rod while he was going 140 mph. He went down the track sideways – first the driver side and then he went into a spin and the passenger side took the sideways lead down the track. It happened several times. All the racers there knew that his car should have rolled over and over from going that fast in a small car. Even thought he was quite shaken up from the experience, he knew the Lord’s hand was on him as he walked away unscathed. John continued racing for years but never again had another experience like that on the track.
John met his wife Pam while at the private Christian school and they dated for four years after graduation. Finally his brother and his pastor interceded and told him he needed to make a decision about the relationship and make a commitment or end their relationship. He decided to marry her. Of course Pam knew it was going to happen eventually.
John found a job at Wholesale Electric as an inside salesman and he worked in their electrical modification shop after hours as well. He still went over to his father’s shop and helped out from time to time. It was during one of those times that he DID NOT listen to his inner voice (the Holy Spirit) and it almost cost him his leg.
He was in his father’s machine shop balancing a crank shaft one night after midnight. He was tired, ready to go home and in a hurry to finish. He ignored one of the golden rules. “As a machinist you are taught (by my father) from the beginning that a small mistake can cost you big so don’t make mistakes.” As he picked up the disc grinder he heard, very clearly, “don’t spin that grinder too high.” He did it anyway and boom. He had let the disc grinder he was using spin at too high an RPM and it exploded with no warning. A large chunk flew off and hit John, cutting all the muscles on top of his leg and just missing his femoral artery. The doctor at the ER told him that he was about ¼ of an inch from cutting that artery and bleeding to death. He had a new appreciation of just how fragile life is and how quickly it could end.
Always faithful, the Lord provided for John and his family. At the time of the accident his son was about 22 months and his daughter had just been born. He was off work for six weeks while in rehabilitation to regain the use of his leg. His main employer at that time was a Christian (he had two jobs) and gave him his full salary for the entire time he was off work. With Pam at home with two young children and only one income, this could have been devastating. John will tell you unequivocally that “the Lord, as always, was merciful to me, a sinner.”
John stayed with his trade and over the years he had gained impressive credentials as a machinist. He currently works for MD Anderson and runs the Radiation Physics machine shop. He builds radiation IMRT (intensity modulated radiation therapy) phantoms used in radiation research worldwide.
In the past he worked for a NASA contractor at the WETF/NBL (Weightless Environmental Training Facility/ Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory). At NASA he was involved in astronaut training as a safety diver/machinist fab technician. Before that, John worked at the University of Houston in the Chemical Engineering Dept. All of these positions were fabrication or machinist work.
John stated:
As a machinist it is very difficult for me to read and concentrate on anything that I can’t read from a blueprint, disassemble, or figure out how it works and come up with a way to make it better. God’s Word has always been a struggle for me to grasp, or “disassemble” in my case, and when I would dive into some type of intense Bible study, it left me frustrated and unsure of who I am as a Christian. It has been a slow and sometimes painful process to focus on the whole then wait to see the individual parts as God revealed them to me. But with some very sound teaching at Sagemont and other anointed ministers of God’s Word, I have come a long way in understanding how His word and work in my life all fit together. I will never be a perfected Christ follower this side of heaven but in some way that is why God’s Word has become so exciting to me. I will never enjoy the failures in my walk with the Lord but will always learn from them.
Upon reflection, John likens his trade to his faith; he uses blueprints at work for a living and uses God’s blueprints, the Bible, for his life. He’ll never be perfect in either and is always learning. He is never discouraged when he fails in either realm, and always looks for ways to learn and grow with each event.
Both John and his wife were and are strong Christians and their two children were raised in church. They joined Sagemont Church in 2000. They had always been at small churches for the family atmosphere and initially thought Sagemont was too big. Their children actually helped make the final decision for the change to a bigger church because of all of the activities and events that Sagemont provided for the youth. John and Pam fell in love with Stuart’s preaching. Since the first time they attended, they’ve never left.
He currently is the director of the Early Birds iCONNECT class. Every week he shares with the class how his week went for witnessing and missed opportunities to share the Good News with the people he meets.
John shared with me that in preparing for this story, the time spent remembering the events of his past has really blessed him. “God is so faithful; even though He does not need to prove it, looking back now just confirms what he tells me in His Word. ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’”
He knows that he is a little closer to becoming that perfected person he was created to someday be.