To fill the void, he found himself drinking in middle school, working
out three times a day in high school, and jumping from hobby to hobby,
searching for fulfillment. All the while, his rage continued to escalate
until a heated argument with his father ended with Thomas punching a
hole in his closet door and blood dripping from his knuckles.
The following day at school, Thomas told his buddy about the fight.
The friend, who had been taking Thomas with him to a men’s small group
at church, said he would ask the group to pray for Thomas and his dad
that night.
Later that evening, Thomas’ father came into his bedroom and looked Thomas in the eyes. “I’m sorry,” his dad told him.
“We just kind of had this moment,” Thomas recalled. “And so that really threw me for a loop.”
The next week, he went back to small group. He wanted to thank them
for praying. Sitting knee-to-knee in a small office with six burly guys,
Thomas looked up into their faces, but could barely utter a word of
thanks before bursting into tears.
“I felt like the Lord went and changed my whole heart of rock,” he
said. “That was my moment of coming to God. My life completely changed
and went the other direction."
The following year, when Thomas was a junior in high school, he began
to feel God calling him into pastoral ministry. No one in his family
was in the ministry, so there was some questioning at first on his part
and some skepticism from his parents. “I had been passionate about
things before, but my passion for the Lord was very different,” he said.
His parents’ perspective changed when he started working with a small
group of middle-schoolers at their house and the group grew from just a
handful to around 70 kids coming over for Bible study each week.
“I think [my parents] could realize the difference, and that I was serious,” he said.
When Thomas arrived at UMHB his freshman year, he spent a lot of time praying for God to show him how to use his time wisely.
“There are so many opportunities here,” he said. “I wanted to put my
time somewhere where it was fruitful. I didn’t want to spread myself too
thin.”
He joined a men’s ministry called UMHB33, which is focused on
developing authentic manhood. When asked to be the student leader,
Thomas prayed about that as well, and now, three years later, has helped
grow the group from just a handful of students to 14 student leaders
who run small groups with 50 to 60 guys showing up consistently each
week.
Even though no one else in his family is in the military, Thomas has
always felt pulled to serve. After asking for God once again to lead,
Thomas was recruited to the US Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Course and
last summer attended the physically demanding Officer Candidate School
in Quantico, Va. If he successfully completes the second officer
training session next summer in Quantico, he will go into the Marines as
a second lieutenant after he graduates from UMHB.
“I have always had a burning love for the country and a burning love
for the military in general,” he said. As a platoon leader in the
Marines, he wants to be a mentor and a “loving leader and servant
leader” to all of his Marines. When the day comes when the Lord calls
him out of service, Thomas says he plans to work in close proximity to a
military base to continue ministering to men—perhaps injured veterans.
In the meantime, Thomas will continue to help show young men on
campus the One who can truly fulfill their lives. He says donors
actually help him in this mission. Because of donors who give money for
scholarships, he says students have more time to spend on schoolwork and
connecting with the Lord.
“Because of the scholarships they receive, they don’t struggle trying
to balance two jobs to pay for school while getting an education,” he
said. “The hardest people to reach are the ones that are so busy. When
students have an opportunity to take a step back and not have to worry
about that aspect, that opens up avenues to spend time talking about the
Lord in the body of Christ.”
