John Raymond

John Raymond is a contestant from.

Profile
Born and raised in New Orleans, John Raymond attended high school in Springfield, Louisiana. Moving to Illinois, he received a Bachelor of Theology from Oregon Bible College (majoring in Counseling and Pastoral Ministry). He simultaneously received an Associate degree of Liberal Arts from Rock Valley Junior College, where he was on the college speech team.

John is currently a pastor. He leads the pastoral counseling department, runs the adult education program and has developed a network of 50 small relationship groups. He previously worked as a financial planner for 12 years (regional vice president with his company and a top salesman), working his way through college as a carpenter and shipbuilder.

John enjoys scuba diving, spear fishing, deer hunting (gun and bow and arrow), playing guitar and writing country songs. He's been to 39 of the United States, Jamaica, Mexico, Canada and mission trips to the jungles of the Mosquito Coast in Honduras and Nicaragua. He is most proud of completing the Los Angeles Marathon after only three months of training. He is also proud of recently transforming his body in only twelve weeks through the Body-For-Life challenge. In his spare time, he coaches his children in little league basketball.

John currently lives in Slidell, Louisiana, with his wife, Elizabeth, whom he considers to be his hero. They have three children, John Jr., Monica and Benjamin, along with two cats, Panda and Fluffy. He is the founder and President of the Adult Chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in his county and a member of Promise Keepers and the Nashville Songwriters Association International. His birth date is February 21, 1962.

Survivor: Thailand
John Raymond was confused when Jeff asked Jake Billingsley and Jan Gentry to chose the tribe names and location. John mentally prepared himself, thinking the tribes was about divided into gender. This was proven wrong when Jake and Jan was asked to select the tribes themselves. John hoped to be on Jake's Sook Jai as he viewed him as strong and Jan as an elderly lady. John was picked on Jan to be on Chuay Gahn. John took up the leadership role, which rubbed people the wrong way. The Chuay Ghan beach had a natural cave formation, eliminating the need to build shelter. Everyone was helping out to find food. When Tanya Vance became sick due to dehydration, the tribe decided to find the water source. John and Helen Glover found the water and decided to prank the tribe. Ghandia Johnson was not amused because of the seriousness of the situation. At the first challenge of the season, Chuay Ghan was leading. This ended when Ghandia got stuck on the puzzle, eventually making Chuay Ghan lose. At tribal council, the tribe was annoyed with John for various reasons and voted him out in a 6-1-1 vote.

Trivia

 * John's luxury item was a Christian flag.
 * John had the first confessional of the season
 * John was a Pastor
 * John and Clay Jordan were the first contestants from Louisiana.
 * John is the first male contestant and second overall (the first being Kelly Goldsmith) to share their name with a past contestant.
 * John became ninth contestant of Survivor to never have won a challenge, following Sonja Christopher, Debb Eaton, Diane Ogden, Jessie Camacho, Peter Harkey, Patricia Jackson, Hunter Ellis, and Sarah Jones.