The first gift I ever received from Sue Thomas was this little figurine of two gals sitting on a bench. She described that we would never be able to walk down the road or wash dishes together or work side by side chatting like I did with my other friends. Communication always needed to be face-to-face where she could see and read my lips.
Her silent world was complicated even further by the multiple sclerosis which often made her feel physically sick and caused episodes of double blurry vision that affected her lip reading ability.
Over the years as she progressively worsened, Sue spent much time sitting in her chair or resting in bed. The MS symptoms were unpredictable and she never knew how she would feel from one day to the next. Her balance was terrible and her hands and feet had become numb. She reached a point where there was really nothing that she could do to help herself.
She was by nature a high energy, ‘let’s get it done’ person, but when her Lord set her down in the chair with various pains and afflictions, she received it as a gift from Him.
She had fought against her deafness and wasted much precious time. It was only when she embraced it and trusted that God knew what He was doing that her deafness went from being her worst enemy to being her friend.
She knew from experience that it is in the silence that God speaks.
Through the journey of MS and then cancer, Sue learned to trust that her Lord knew what was best for her, to polish her and prepare her for everlasting life with Him.
On the other hand I am a perfectionistic firstborn, a trained nurse, and was Sue’s primary caregiver and travel companion for almost two decades. Many times I could not get my head wrapped around the multitude of things that needed to be done in order to keep moving forward and I would be frustrated to tears.
And then I would hear Sue calling me…while patting the arm of her chair.
“Honey, life’s too short! Come sit with me. All I want for you in Life is to have the joy of the Lord!”
I confess, usually my first response was to react. I had way too much to do to sit down! But there was a cry reverberating deep in my weary heart and I knew she was right.
Ultimately I needed to throw down my pride, lay down my burden and sit down at Jesus’ feet with Sue.
Sue lived life with an expectant sense of adventure. Nothing seemed to inhibit her enthusiasm. Not even broken toes.
We were on a 20-hour flight sequence to Hyderabad, Andrha Pradesh, when it happened. Somewhere in the air between London and Turkey the foot rest in the cabin seat crashed down pinning Sue’s foot.
I remember hearing her groan in the middle of the night and fumbling my way across the darkened jet aisle to help get her more comfortably situated.
It wasn’t until we were attempting to deplane and she tried to get her feet back under her that we realized the extent of her injury. Two toes on her right foot were already turning black and her entire foot was rivaling the size of a football. You see, for years her hands and feet were mostly numb except for jolts of white fiery nerve pain from her MS. She could not feel the pain or the swelling happening during the night flight. And she certainly could not balance herself on the ballooning foot.
Thankfully, because of the multiple sclerosis, we had already pre-ordered a wheelchair to meet us.
I’m sure we were quite the sight proceeding through that International Airport. One porter was rolling Sue in the wheelchair, another one pushed the luggage cart loaded high with suitcases and topped with the folded rolling walker Sue normally used. I was toting both of our carry-on luggage with the leash for Rodney, her service dog, in one hand, and nervously clutching our passports, visas, and all of Rodney’s travel permits with the other.
Finally getting through customs we headed down the dimly lit corridor to the exit. There under the bright skies of a hot clear Indian morning was our welcoming party, with one familiar face beaming in the midst. Solomon. Even though we had only met him once, he felt like an old friend. And before the month was over he had become a close brother to me, and another son to Sue.
That emerging moment was very emotional for Sue. You see, her desire to go to India was planted when she was in Bible College after leaving the FBI. She dreamed of going to Calcutta and working with the deaf and hard of hearing, who lived as outcasts throughout much of their society. This was back in the ’80s, and Sue had been enthusiastically raising support through the mission society and had even gotten her visa and traveling papers in order when everything came to a screeching halt.
Devastated, it took a while before she accepted that all things, even difficulties and misunderstandings come through the hand of God and that He was the One rearranging her plans.
But the desire for India remained, lying dormant until fully awakened in spring of 2015 when we met Solomon. That summer was a whirlwind. By October, we were on a plane.
Now on the ground we still had another leg to the journey. Six more hours by car from the airport to the village of Nuzvid which would become our headquarters for the next few weeks of ministry.
I was exhausted from our travels, jet lag, the time change with a difference of 11 hours, and just wanted to close my eyes. Not Sue. She literally hit the ground running… with a broken toe and swollen foot.
With her MS fatigue, she desperately needed times of rest or she would physically crash.
Later I jokingly told her that I believed that God had given her that injury on the plane! There was no other way to slow her down!
We arrived in time for the Pastor’s Conference being held in Nuzvid. Hundreds of pastors and their wives from all over India had gathered together for encouragement and fellowship.
Those first few days, though, Sue had to stay in bed with her foot elevated. Our guest room developed a revolving door as dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus came through to meet her and to share their testimonies with her.
It went on all day and into the next and the next. There was Sue reposing on the big built-in bed in the corner with her feet elevated on three pillows, enveloped by the odor of a powerful smelling local salve mixed with fresh raw coconut oil. Seated next to her was either Solomon or Nehemiah interpreting the pastors Telugu into English and then Sue’s English into Telugu. Sue focused intently on their lips, but often she would dart a quick side look at me and I would quickly and quietly mouth the few words or even sentences that she had missed because she could not quite read the Indian accent on the lips.
Grown men wept unashamedly as they talked about the transformation that Jesus did in their lives. I remember one young mother coming in and sitting on the floor smiling and nodding at us as she nursed her baby.
But even more indelibly printed in my mind’s eye, is the vision of Sue shaking her head with incredulous amazement.
I could hear sadness resonating in her voice, “When was the last time an American came up to you and said, ‘I want to tell you what Jesus has done in my life!’”
Yes, Sue embraced life with a sense of expectancy and adventure. More times than she would ever admit, I’m sure the mountains felt insurmountable.
But there is a line in one of Sue’s favorite poems by Helen Steiner Rice that became a recurring theme in her life. I hope it encourages you, too, to keep moving forward and looking upward.
“Nothing in life that is worthy Is ever too hard to achieve If you have the courage to try it And you have the Faith to believe.
For Faith is a force that is greater Than knowledge or power or skill And many defeats turn to triumph If you trust in God’s wisdom and will.”
Finding the right English expression by using the Word of God. He was trying to explain something and found it was better to just tell her the Bible reference and she could look it up in English.Jayapaul and his wife are missionaries from India to Nepal. They continue to ask for prayer for their work there.Solomon and Sue. Solomon and his family are now serving the Lord in the country of Oman
I love songs about Heaven even more since people that I love have left Here to go There.
Some of you have shared that you’ve recently lost your mother, or your dad, or a sister or a very dear friend. It changes your perspective, doesn’t it? Your entire purpose and meaning of life gets rattled but in time you will find more clarity. So hang on. It will get better!
I lost my own Dad almost 18 years ago. He was a pastor, and a pillar in the family. He had an energy for living that was similar to Sue’s. He dreamed of big things, and yet found contentment and joy in little things. Even a terminal diagnosis did not rob him of that enthusiasm.
I vividly remember being at my sister’s with Daddy. He was sitting on the couch watching his little grandchildren playing. They were happily oblivious to the glistening moisture in his eyes. Tears were betraying the ache in his heart because deep inside he knew he would not be there for them as they grew up.
But even as leukemia was eating his energy those final weeks, he continued to write “to do lists” of people he wanted to call, and projects he wanted to complete.
For a long time whenever I found one of those scraps of paper with his daily goals and plans for the future, my own tears burned at the realization that his life had been cut short leaving unfulfilled business still hanging around.
But now when I look back I see in the bigger picture that the enthusiasm and longing for living that God had given him is being satisfied this very moment in Eternal Life!
I can see that same thing in the life of Sue. Her hopes and plans and dreams were just a foretaste of what was to come.
For those who love Jesus, this life is only meant to be the appetizer before the main meal. It is meant to wake up our senses and tickle our taste buds, and make us hungry for heaven.
And with that perspective, I can see Sue, who increasingly struggled with walking, confidently striding up, stepping on shore and finding it heaven…
Who was losing her sense of touch and feeling in her hands and feet, to reaching out and touching a hand. The thrill that must have gone through her to realize it was the hand of Jesus!
And, with her struggles to breathe, due to her MS, stage 4 lung cancer, and then COVID, and her reliance on a non-invasive ventilator for deep breathing, taking her final breath here, then with her next breath taking in new air and finding it celestial! Ah, how sweet must be the air of heaven!
Heaven.. our Eternal Home.
Oh! That will be glory for me! When by His grace I shall look on His face, That will be glory…be glory for me!
I was listening to a music video last evening where they sang that old hymn, I Come To The Garden Alone. Do you remember that one?
Whenever I’m working in the Garden of the Master at WaterBrooks, I find myself humming that hymn.
“And He walks with me, and He talks with me,And He tells me I am His own,And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known.”
As the song ended there was thoughtful pause before one of the singers pointed out that word “tarry.” And my thoughts have been tumbling ever since!
It’s an old fashioned word, not much in use these days. We no longer take time to tarry. Newer words like “express” and “drive-thru” have been added to our modern vocabulary. We rush about so much.
According to Webster’s dictionary the meaning of the word tarry means “to delay”, “to linger in expectation”, or “to wait”. It also means to abide or stay in or at a place.
I love that thought, to linger in expectation. But I’ll save that for another time!
God came down to walk in his creation in the beginning of time. According to Genesis 1, God says He came down to walk among the trees. It sounds like that was His initial purpose in coming, to walk in His creation with His people. Perhaps he even did it regularly! After all, He created everything for His own delight and intended to take pleasure in it. But this time, Adam and Eve were nowhere to be found. They were hiding because they had eaten the forbidden fruit and they were not eagerly waiting for His presence.
Today I was chatting with a friend who was just feeling overwhelmed. Her home has been revolving doors with friends and family for the past few weeks. This morning she sat down on the couch, finally alone with the Word of God and unexpectedly burst into tears. She was feeling the deep need to take some quiet time to be recharged. Serving others is good but you can only go so long on the same charge. Just like our cell phones, our spiritual batteries run low, and they need to be plugged in to the charger and left alone for a while.
Sometimes there’s such an unexplainable yearning in our hearts for something we can’t quite put our finger on. Too often we ignore it and try to keep going in our own energy. We need to listen to that longing cry of our aching heart. That yearning has been placed there by the Lord Himself because He wants to connect with us, just as He came down and reached out to Adam and Eve.
When He comes into the garden to walk and talk with me, am I hiding like Adam and Eve? Am I busy pulling myself up by my bootstraps? Or am I waiting for His presence and then spending time lingering with Him…enjoying Him?
We need that time to tarry, to be quiet, to listen for His voice, for that is what gives the strength to keep going on. It’s the spiritual recharging that gives us the joy and energy to face each day.
He gives strength for each day. Indeed, the joy of the Lord IS our strength!
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.
