Rich Mullins-Unforgettable Memories

I first met Rich Mullins in 1979 when I was living near Cincinnati. At that time he was not well known and hadn't recorded any albums. He was a friend of someone in our small bible study, and one night Rich showed up at the house and told us, all 6 of us, that he had written some songs and wanted to play for us. He sat down at this rickety old piano in the living room and belted out 'Sing Your Praise to the Lord'. When he finished playing no one applauded. We just sort of looked at eachother and shook our heads. The music was so powerful.
Over the next 2 years, Rich came to our small bible study and played for us. None of us knew, in our small group, that in a short time he would be playing alongside Amy Grant and people like that.
Rich just brimmed with self confidence and after he finished playing he would talk to us about Jesus Christ. I spent many evenings talking to Rich about the Lord and then in 1981 he released his first album, a locally distributed record called, 'Behold the Man', which I still have.
Rich was just so down to earth. After one of his exhausting tours, he would simply crash on the living room floor at our friend's house.
His death, of course, just took our breath away. I just couldn't believe it. None of us could. We all still miss Rich. He left us with such a rich body of wonderful songs, and his death has left a real void with all of us. God bless.