When you think of a professional hockey ref, what comes to mind? A guy with a black eye and missing teeth? What about someone whose spent significant time in Russia? Do you think of a large, bearded man with a rough exterior? 

 

The man who fits that description is one of the Church of Living Water’s members, Randy Cox. Randy not only played hockey at the upper levels, he has also been a pro hockey ref and a video replay official for the National Hockey League. He used his hockey experience, along with his ministry training at Dallas Theological Seminary, to launch an outreach in Russia. And Randy’s wife Kim and son Willis are just as eclectic as he is.

 

“We served as a missionary family for 10 years in Moscow, Russia with East West Ministries. I used my hockey experience as a drawing card to pull people in and started Church at the Rink in Moscow. Kim helped establish several crisis pregnancy centers in strategic locations in Russia,” said Randy. “When the Russian government denied me a visa after 10 years, we came to Prattville to help Kim’s parents, John and Donnie Mitchell, care for her grandmother who had Alzheimer’s. We wanted to return to Russia the next year but that door closed due to stricter regulations.”

 

Since Russia is on the back burner for now, the Cox family does several things to get by including servicing dentists and at least for a while, working for the U.S. Census.

 

“Right now we’re working with Kim’s parents and some other church members, Mike and Charlotte Young, in a family business, ‘The Dentist’s Choice,’” said Randy. “It services handpieces for dentists in a territory spanning Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, which is the state we cover. We also do other odd jobs to pay the bills because we’re really out-of-work missionaries.”

 

And yes, Randy is, from time to time, a hockey and football referee (seasonally), as well as being a certified scuba diver, as are Kim and Willis. Randy and Kim’s heart remains on the mission field though and someday soon, they hope to get back there.

 

“Our current ministry is a lot of follow-up care, accountability, and counseling to the graduates, families and friends of ‘Rivers of Hope,’ the non-profit addictions rehabilitation facility we helped open and operate in Prattville during the last four years, which is now closed due to lack of funding,” lamented Randy. “We also lead short term mission teams and our heart’s desire now that Willis is going off to college is to return to the foreign mission field because the gospel is only good news if it gets there in time.”

 

Even though the Cox family chose to attend Church of Living Water because the congregation supported them as missionaries and because they were asked by the previous pastor to serve as volunteer staff, they have stayed and continued to lend their skills, talents, and spiritual gifts to COLW.

 

If you don’t already know Randy, Kim, and Willis Cox, give them a call and introduce yourself. You’ll be glad you met them.