June 2, 2008 issue
Hesston College pastoral graduate says God saved him
By Susan Miller Hesston CollegeHESSTON, Kan. — John Thomas admits he should have had health problems from years of doing drugs.
Jim Dunn, pastor of Burrton (Kan.) Mennonite Church, blesses Hesston College Pastoral Ministries graduate John Thomas as Thomas’ wife, Bridgette, looks on. Thomas took a preaching class Dunn taught at Ellsworth Correctional Facility. — Photo by Larry Bartel/Hesston College
Instead, he is healthy and completing studies in pastoral ministry.
“I just give God the glory,” Thomas said. “He restored my mind, healed my body, and saved my soul — just completely.”
He would also still be in prison, except for a technicality on the way he was sentenced.
“The only reason I am out today,” he said, “is because God intervened.”
Thomas graduated May 4 from the Hesston College Pastoral Ministries Program and is completing his supervised ministry experience at Whitestone Mennonite Church this summer.
Thomas grew up Catholic and was an altar boy, but later he and his family stopped going to church.
“God was not talked about in my family,” he said.
He worked on a ranch in Independence when, at 18, he was charged with possession of methamphetamine and served his first time in prison and drug treatment.
He met his wife, Bridgette, while working in Larned. She accepted Thomas’ marriage proposal on the condition that he go with her to church. They married in 1992 and lived in the Larned and Pawnee Rock area.
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