 Jim Dunn blesses Pastoral Ministries graduate John Thomas, Hesston, Kan., after giving Thomas a prayer stole. Dunn, who has a long-standing friendship with Thomas, taught Bible classes at Ellsworth (Kan.) Correctional Facility for Hesston College during this past school year. Dunn pastors Burrton (Kan.) Mennonite Church. Thomas’ wife Bridgette looks on. |
May 21, 2008
John Thomas was busy completing requirements for graduation May 4 from the Hesston College Pastoral Ministries Program, as well as preparing to preach at Whitestone Mennonite Church (Hesston, Kan.) where he is doing supervised ministry with Pastor Mark Miller, when asked to share his story.
He agreed to allot time for an interview, “If that’s what the Lord wants me to do.”
“His sincere humility” is what Pastoral Ministries Director David Greiser said he appreciates most about John.
“I just give God the glory. He restored my mind, healed my body, and saved my soul--just completely,” John said.
He admits he should have had health defects from years of doing drugs. Except for a technicality on the way he was sentenced, he would still be doing time in prison.
“The only reason I am out today,” John said, “is because God intervened.”
John was released from Ellsworth (Kan.) Correctional Institution on June 9, 2006, and came to Hesston College in the fall semester.
John was an altar boy in the Roman Catholic church of his youth, but later he and his family stopped going to church at all. “God was not talked about in my family,” he said.
He worked on a ranch in Independence, Kan., breeding horses when, at 18, he was charged with possession of methamphetamine and served his first prison and drug treatment time.
He met Bridgette, his wife, while working in Larned, Kan. She said she knew he had a history of drug use, but didn’t know the extent of it. “Bridgette never approved of any of the drugs,” John emphasized.
 John Thomas (left) confers with Pastor Mark Miller of Whitestone Mennonite Church, Hesston, Kan., as part of Thomas’ Supervised Ministry Experience during both this past spring semester and this summer. |
“I’d gone through the motions of being a Christian,” John said, However, he did not accept Jesus into his life until he was in the Reno County jail on additional drug charges. He had been on meth and other drugs and was “in bad shape.
“I had a profound experience,” he said. “I got on my knees, confessed my sins and Jesus met me.”
John was spared the physical symptoms of withdrawal and slept peacefully for 15 hours. “When I awoke, I had a hunger for the Word of God,” he said. “From that moment on, I wasn’t tempted (to do drugs) until in 2000 I decided to do it again.”
He and Bridgette had bought a house in Pawnee Rock; John worked as a truck driver and plumbing journeyman and served on the city council. The couple worked in the community and church where they led youth groups They were trying to get custody of a young girl that Bridgette had known for four years, but were not accepted because of John’s past. The girl committed suicide when she was 16, and John blamed himself for her death. He felt spiritually drained and was once again tempted to use and manufacture meth after being off drugs and alcohol almost six years.
He was high on meth for six weeks, and then was arrested and later sentenced
to 13 ½ years. John and Bridgette were both 34 years old.
“Just when things were good, I made some stupid choices,” John said.
They lost their house and gave up the possibility of having children when John went to prison and Bridgette went to live with her parents in Pawnee Rock. But she stayed faithful to John and their marriage vows.
“Staying married was basically my commitment to God,” she said.
“God saved my marriage. God is worth loving, knowing and sacrificing for,” John said.
Not having children freed her to work and also begin a ministry to families of prisoners through Kairos Outside, an international ministry. She helped start Kairos Outside in Kansas.
“I didn’t like the victim mentality,” Bridgette said. “When you focus on other people’s needs and still give to others, God blesses you.”
Meanwhile, John was sentenced to the Ellsworth Correctional Facility, where he was permitted to take classes in Christian ministry offered by World Impact Ministries and the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a ministry of Prison Fellowship. “Ellsworth is set apart,” John said. “The prison staff—from the captains to wardens, all the way down—want to have a positive influence.”
Two hundred of the 850 medium security inmates were a part of InnerChange Freedom Initiative when former Hesston Pastoral Ministries Director, Palmer Becker, first went to Ellsworth Correctional Facility to teach his college Introduction to Theology class in the fall of 2005. John was one of Becker’s first nine students.
John continued with a class of 17 inmates in a preaching class taught by James Dunn, a Burrton (Kan.) Mennonite Church pastor working as an adjunct Hesston College teacher. Dunn’s class had the opportunity to interact with Becker’s preaching class on the college campus as they learned together. Hesston College offered college credits and considered accepting Ellsworth residents into the Pastoral Ministries program.
John had earned a total of 26 credit hours through World Impact Ministries and Hesston College when he was released. He planned to go to Texas for further study when the Lord intervened again to keep him in Kansas.
Upon the recommendation of a friend, John was accepted for the job of associate pastor at New Life Foursquare Gospel Church in McPherson.
 John Thomas preaches a sermon at Whitestone Mennonite Church as part of his Supervised Ministry Experience during both this past spring semester and this summer. |
“God just put everything in place to get him here,” Bridgette said.
The couple work together for Clutter Cutter, a professional organizing company, while studying and ministering to people inside and out of prison.
“I had a community in prison (with other Christian inmates) and God placed me in another community in Hesston,” John said.
Hesston College and the community have been hospitable; they’ve not criticized or condemned him, John said.
“I couldn’t say enough about the way I’ve been treated here. I’ve been held accountable, been encouraged, and supported in a variety of ways.
“I’ve been challenged on my beliefs. Many of my beliefs up to this point coincided with Mennonite beliefs on pacifism and peace,” John said.
“I grew up thinking the world’s in trouble because of its youth. Now I changed my perspective and see their potential.”
John not only learned and received from, but also given to his new community.
“He has made himself a part of our community,” said Greiser. “He also has a prophetic side. He’s observed where our challenges are. He spoke straightforward things to the community in a chapel talk. He is an encourager of other students in the program.”
“(John‘s) life experience is different than what we would normally hear about,” Mark Miller said. “He’s helping us understand and grow in relating to all people.”
John and Bridgette want to help people see the possibilities in former prisoners. They plan to work in prison and reintegration ministries; possibly operating a reintegration home and/or a hospitality house for families of inmates.
John has willingly gone back to prison since his 2006 release. He co-taught Introduction to Biblical Literature with Dunn to Ellsworth residents in the spring of 2007. “John provided a compassionate and thoroughly Biblical role in the class,” Dunn said.
John credits his growth as a Christian to his personal devotional time with God.
“We have to know Jesus intimately and personally, not just know about him,” he concluded.
Susan Miller Balzer is a free-lance writer in Hesston, Kan.
Hesston College Pastoral Ministries Program