From Korea To The Pulpit

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

My beautiful wife had called a family friend, whose husband had just passed away from Covid-19 pneumonia! She was having a very, very hard time in her grief!

His name was James L. Cobb, Sr.  He was born in 1932, and passed away this February of 2021.  He lived almost ninety years! The Lord gave him a long and fruitful life!


He was born in Mississippi and grew up in Louisiana. His father was 6'8, and his mother was 4'11! He had a very odd couple as parents!  His parents had a total of ten children!

When the Korean war started James was drafted in the Army. The army made him a telephone pole, and telephone wire technician. He served as country in the Korean war with distinction!


He told me the story of how he was up in the pole in Korea. He heard things flying around his head. He told the guy down on the ground that Korea has really big mosquitoes. The guy on the ground yelled up, "you moron, that's the enemy trying to shoot you!". Those big mosquitoes heard were actually bullets flying past his head!

He also told me the story of him and his crew being in Korea. Some Marines were passing by and asked if they had any spare ammunition. James ask him why they need spirit ammunition. The Marines had sent a unit of their men to the front lines without any ammunition! All the Marines had were was empty guns. So James and the rest of the crew gave them the ammunition that they had on hand!


When James returned from Korea. He returned to his wife in two children. He got a job in installing telephone poles and Louisiana. He did get a lucrative offer to work in the oil fields of Texas. But they lived in the town called Bayou Blue, and his wife said she would never leave their town again. She said going to El Paso to live on army base was enough and she wanted to stay home!

So in order to make more money James went back to trade school and learned how to weld and fit pipe. He soon got a job in the offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

 


Well in the army and working construction trade, James picked up the bad habit of drinking alcohol. He soon became a lifelong working alcoholic. In 1982 he made a decision to quit drinking, He never touched alcohol again.

Not long after James was ordained in the Presbyterian church.  He soon became a Pulpit supply pastor for many churches in that area of Southern Louisiana. He earned a good reputation of being a good minister.


When one church had a church split. He was asked to pastor the congregation that was left. He preached over a year in that church, and every sermon was about or referred to restoration and forgiveness. James said the Lord would give him a sermon during the week, and it would change the sermon Sunday morning!

James live the long life of retirement after work. His first wife passed away in the '80s after forty-five years of marriage. Karen Cobb, his second wife, He was married to her for twenty-five years.  Karen Cobb was the lady that my wife was speaking to on the phone.


I only knew James about six months. He was very kind to me from beginning to end. He opened up his home to me and my wife Gretchen, for lunch with his family. He was a very nice and thoughtful man. I'm sorry that he has passed from this life, but I'm but I rejoice that he is in heaven!  I will surely miss him!

Brother Roop





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