It started with the death of Sue’s Mom in 2004. Sue was grieving and she knew she could not be home for Christmas. Home without Mom in it had lost the holiday spirit.

Sue was frantic to be somewhere else…. And it was when we went to Cleveland, Ohio to see a play in which Troy Kotsur was acting (Troy is the first deaf man to win an Academy Award) that the direction from the Lord became clear.

On our way back to the motel we passed several people trying to keep warm in a bundle of blankets where the steam was rising from the grates on the street. Without a second thought, Sue gathered them up and took them with us to the hotel where she got them each a room.

That is how Operation Silent Night was born. A deaf woman with MS, her service dog, and me, her new personal nurse and assistant, headed for the dark snowy streets of Cleveland a few weeks later with a cooler full of several dozen donated hot Arby’s roast beef sandwiches and a stack of old blankets and coats out of my mom’s attic. That night of serving others brought the healing and the fulfillment needed.

For the next 18 years Sue and I went to the inner cities to speak a kind word to broken people who sleep on the streets.

For the first several years we went to Cleveland, then Pittsburgh and Youngstown. But as we grew, Sue remembered where she saw homeless by the hundreds. Her old FBI stomping grounds, Washington DC.

For 14 years Washington DC became our destination and the ministry grew exponentially to where we were taking a bus load of 20 volunteers that joined us from different states. We also loaded a lunch truck with food and hot chocolate and we would minister to several hundred homeless individuals on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Last year, 2022, was Sue’s last Operation Silent Night. Yes, she actually spearheaded the fundraising for OSN to benefit those left homeless when the war broke out in Ukraine! She was delighted with each dollar that rolled in and we rolled it right back out to our missionary friends in Poland who were providing for basic needs of those fleeing across the Ukrainian border into Poland.

I’ve pondered and prayed what to do about Sue Thomas Ministries annual outreach to the homeless. Without our fearless leader, Sue Thomas, was it even possible?

This weekend Sue Thomas Ministries is receiving 54 new Amish made single size quilts that will help keep people warm this winter. Socks and coats have also come in.

This year, Operation Silent Night will return to Cleveland, Ohio, where it all began one cold snowy night when two single women and a Hearing Dog headed for the cold dark streets.

Your support and prayers are appreciated!