Today I experienced a sudden shock.  Back during the last two years of the
seventies, I was still traveling and preaching in churches as a guest
speaker when I was asked to preach in a church camp.  That would have been
the summer of 1977 I believe.  There were several pastors there and Sandy
and I had our first son and he was about 8 months old.  He hadn't quite
learned to walk yet but putting him in a walker, he could push himself
around.  This was a junior high camp in western Colorado.  A very nice
pastor by the name of Rayburn Cox befriended us and we spent many hours with
him.  The old Assemblies of God camp was nice and had nice cabins and we
greatly enjoyed our time that week.

During the time spent with Pastor Cox, I told him that Sandy and I had been
discussing, and praying, about moving to a smaller town than Denver.
Perhaps, I suggested, something close enough we could still use the Denver
airport.  For example, Idaho spring is about 25 miles from Denver up higher
on the way into the mountains.  I had preached in a little Baptist church
there and we really liked the people.  Rayburn turned the conversation
around and said, "Why don't you consider moving to the western slope.  My
church is in a town of 800 people and we have about 60 members.  The nearest
airports are in Montrose, 40 miles away with 5 trips a day to Denver, and
Grand Junction is only 60 miles away and they have connections just about to
anywhere."

One day, Rayburn invited me to ride with him back to his home.  The little
town of Hotchkiss wasn't far away, maybe 40 minutes, and he wanted to check
on mail and to see if anything was needed at the church.  I went.  We had a
wonderful visit.

On the way back, Rayburn flat out asked me to start praying about moving to
the western slopes of Colorado.  He booked me for a week of special revival
meetings in his church for that next April of 1978.
Sandy and I had several meetings scheduled during that period of time in
California but the last one in the group was in Rayburns church.  Flying out
of San Francisco, we transferred planes in Salt Lake City, and landed in
Montrose Colorado.  Rayburn picked us up.

We had one of the most wonderful times that week with Rayburn and his
family.  Our son became very ill in the middle of the night and was so hot,
you could hardly touch him.  As Baptist, we weren't too sure what we
believed about healing but we believed enough to lay hands on our son and
pray and ask for the fever to go down.  In moments, his fever went down and
he was able to rest that night.

During the week, Rayburn began talking to me about if I had been praying
about moving to the western slope.  I had, of course, but not seriously.
Rayburn asked me to consider becoming his assistant pastor.  He said the
church could not pay me a lot but I could continue traveling, if I wished,
and I likely would find other support from other western slope meetings.  I
had a lot of money from all the weeks of meetings we had been in and so I
could easily put 500 dollars down as security or a good faith promise.  A
man in the church was a builder and he had a vacant six month old house he
had to let go and he was willing to sell it at cost.  We needed a little
over 3,000 for a down payment, which we didn't have, but when the meeting
was over, we flew home and within days, the money came in.  Thirty days
later, we moved to Hotchkiss, Colorado.

Rayburn was a man who taught me just about every thing one needed to know
about church ministry.  He let me participate in everything.  I soon became
their youth pastor and discovered just how much fun working with teenagers
really was.

Many other good things happened in that little town and church to Sandy and
I but unfortunately, some bad things happened as well.

Rayburn was a church builder.  He could win people to Christ faster than
anybody because he honestly loved people and they could feel it.  Resigning
his church where we lived, he moved two another small town, built a church
to about 150 members, and personally led nearly every single person in that
church to the Lord in the process.  I personally learned more about the
ministry from Rayburn than any other pastor.  By the way, he was about 8
years older than me.

A number of years ago, Rayburn became involved with a multi level networking
program that nearly ruined his life.  It took him out of the ministry for a
few years but he eventually gave it all up and moved to Michigan and started
a church there which he pastored for 8 years.  In 2002, he and his family
moved back to Meeker, Colorado where the 150 member church was he had
pastored back in the late
eighties and early nineties.

I have a letter on my website which I wrote to Rayburn when he became
involved with the multi level outfit.  He and his wife did not receive my
letter well.  My letter has been on the internet since about 1991 or 92 I
believe.  I get at least one email a year from people who have read it and
believe it helped them make the right decision concerning MLN involvement.
It is also on a Finland website and I gave my permission for it to be
translated into Finish four or five years ago.  It is still on that website
and many others, including the first one I learned about in Australia.

Since I have not heard from Rayburn for close to 15 years, I often hunt for
him on the internet.  I also have prayed for him hundreds of times.  Nearly
every time I think of him, which is nearly weekly, I ask the Lord, Do you
want me to call him?  The Lord never answered and I never felt the feeling
that I should make contact with him for some reason.  The truth is, I was
closer to this man than any man I have ever known.  I knew he loved me but
I'm not too sure how much he loved me after getting my letter begging him to
reconsider giving up his church and ministry.

Today, I logged on to google and typed in his name.  A western slope
newspaper was the first hit and it was Rayburns obituary.  He was out in the
mountains hunting not far from his home and had a massive heart attack and
died.  He was 57 years old.  He had 5 or 6 children, all grown, and 18
grandchildren.  Over the last 15 years, he had blood pressure problems but I
sure didn't want him to die that young.  At least I'll get to see him again.
Fortunately, when I see him again, he won't be mad any more.

Phil.