Sue Thomas
January 21, 2007 - W0703

On a recent Connecting Point television show that I hosted, I interviewed a very inspirational, courageous lady who, at the very young age of only 18 months, was determined to be profoundly deaf.  Even with the best hearing aids, she can only hear at about the 3% level which means that she may only occasionally be able to hear a siren at it whizzes.  After interviewing her on the show, I was so touched by her overcoming spirit that I invited her to be the guest speaker here at church today so she can share her story and life message with us.  You may be wondering how someone who is profoundly deaf can be a guest speaker.  Well, with great relentless courage, God-given strength, and years and years of speech therapy, our speaker, Sue Thomas, found her voice.

At an early age, Sue (and her parents) decided that she was not going to let her handicap handicap her life.  In addition to learning to speak beautifully, Sue also learned how to read lips.  In fact, she is such a proficient lip reader that she was sought out and hired by the FBI to help them read the lips of criminals.  Her lip reading skills and ability to aid authorities in solving cases were so unique that they became the basis for Sue’s own television series called “Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye.” She later turned her fantastic life over to Christ so we are very blessed today to have her with us to share her extraordinarily wonderful story. Please welcome Sue Thomas!

SUE THOMAS TESTIMONIAL:

It is a joy and privilege to be here with you.  I originally came to Hawaii about 7 years ago and on my very first trip, I was arrested! At that time, I had flown over with my hearing aid dog who is my constant companion and I need to have with me for safety reasons.  For example, I need to have her when I’m at home because if someone knocks on my door, they can knock and knock and knock and I’ll never answer it because I can’t hear it.  Well, needless to say, I needed my dog but when we stepped off of the plane in Hawaii, my dog was confined and eventually I was arrested for violating the local quarantine law. During the length of my stay, my dog and I were confined to the hotel room and when I returned to the mainland, they had a warrant out for my arrest so I was a fugitive from Hawaii!  I thought this was not fair because people with disabilities have the same right to enjoy the beauty of Hawaii as anyone else. Well, I worked 6 long years to change the Hawaii quarantine law and I’m happy to report that it paid off.  You have me to thank for the positive change in the quarantine law!

Some of you may know me from my television series “Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye” which is based on my real life work at the FBI reading lips of criminals they had under surveillance. The three most popular questions I am asked are…

1. “Are you really Sue Thomas?” I was when I woke up this morning!
2. “How long did you work for the FBI?” It was 3 1/2 years. Just long enough to get a TV show out of it!
3. “Did you really run down the streets catching bad guys?” If you look at me, do I look like I run down streets chasing bad guys?  Or run anywhere for that matter!

The show was a lot of fun and I would not change my life for anything but I am not here to speak to you as a celebrity.  I am here as one of God’s greatest sinners. I am not a preacher and I am not a teacher, rather, what I am is…a witness of the great and mighty things God has done in my life.

One day, when I was about 18 months old, I walked over to the family television and turned the volume up really high.  After a few seconds, my parents realized that I couldn’t hear the television so they rushed me to the hospital.  After doing some assessment, the doctors told my parents that I was profoundly deaf.  Yet, despite the situation, my parents strived to give me as normal a life as possible.

Looking back on my life, there were 3 specific things that my parents did for me that kept me from total despair. The first thing my parents did was they taught me that there is a supreme being who loves me and that I was made in His image. Because of that, I believed that as long as I kept my hand in His, I could do anything. The second thing my parents did for me was to help me to love music. My mother would put me on her lap and sing to me all the time and I could feel the vibrations of her voice with my head on her chest. My favorite song was “Silent Night.” I didn’t know the meaning of the words but the rhythm and vibrations gave me such a peace and comfort.  What people didn’t know is that I sang that song to myself in the darkest and loneliest times of my life. The third wonderful, soul-saving thing in my life was skating. It was a great day in my young life when my parents signed me up for skating lessons.  My coach said that I had a talent that could take me far and suggested that I should enter into competitions. If you haven’t put two-and-two together yet, skaters in competitions always skate to music.  Where that would have been the end of skating for most deaf people, my coach took the time to skate the routine with me over and over again until the timing of my moves matched the music perfectly.  As a result, I became the youngest Ohio State skating champion!

Of all the memories, what I remember most about when I was growing up is when I went to school. Up until that time I had felt like a normal child. When I started school I was put in the front row so that I could see and read lips better but when it was my turn to introduce myself, I yelled out a bunch of unintelligible sounds because I did not know what words sounded like.  The whole class erupted into laughter. Each time I spoke the class laughed and I finally realized painfully that they were laughing at me. I soon stopped trying to speak.  I didn’t speak for the next 12 years of school.

When the teacher would ask questions of the class and I wanted to answer I would always wonder why she went on to the next question without an answer until I realized that someone behind me had answered and I just could not hear it.

One of the saddest and most humiliating days of my life was when the teacher took my hand and led me out of that class. I was bewildered.  I did not understand but she led me down the hall to the “dummy” class – the class for “slow” children, children with learning disabilities. I was now a dummy. I hated my deafness but no matter what I did to forget my deafness – whether it was alcohol, drugs or immorality – I could not escape my deafness. I cried out so many times to God to give me my hearing but all I heard was silence.

Helen Keller once said that being blind separates you from things but deafness separates you from people. I agonizingly wondered if God had made a mistake because He had made me with a heart that loved people so much but I could not be with them.

It took me about 8 years to finish college but even with a degree, it was tough to find a job.  Who would hire an employee who can’t answer a phone because she couldn’t hear it?  I finally got a job at my old speech therapy center but God had other plans. Through a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend, I got a job at the FBI in Washington D.C. They tried to teach me how to shoot.  That was a big mistake.  Then they tried to teach me how to use a machine gun.  That was an even bigger mistake! Then I thought it  was going to be great when they taught me how to examine fingerprints.  Let me tell you once and for all, if you’ve seen one fingerprint – you’ve seen them all!  I hated my job!

Fortunately, God intervened. One day my supervisor directed me to go to the front office. I was worried because if you know anything about the FBI, you know that the only reasons people ever get sent to the front office are to be fired or interrogated. To my surprise they asked me if watched TV.  When I said yes, they asked me if I enjoyed it and if I could follow it.  Then they asked me if I went to the movies and if I liked that better, was it easier to understand. I told them I guess the movies were easier because the lips are bigger! It turned out that they had a surveillance tape for a case and the sound mechanism had failed so they wanted me to read the lips of the criminals in the surveillance tape. From then on I read lips for the FBI and got paid for it! It was a good job with good pay and I was in the fast lane of the hearing world of Washington, D.C.!

However after 3½ years, I realized that there had to be more to life. I prayed for God to take me to wherever He wanted me to be. I ended up in seminary. I had about 25 friends that I met with, read the bible with, sang songs with, and had meals with but since I can only read lips one at a time, I was frustrated and alone in groups. Each day when I went home alone to my apartment, I was so destructive because of the hate I had for my deafness. So I came up with a grand stupid plan. I lied to my friends about having a terminal illness so that I could get one-on-one time with my friends. I was a sinning liar for 7 months.  I finally resolved that I needed to tell my friends the truth, that I had lied.  When I finally admitted it, I was sent to the academic committee for discipline. The night before that meeting was the longest night of my life as I faced another more humiliation  Then my Bible fell to the floor, and opened to a specific passage.  It told me to come back to Christ. Through Hosea chapter 14, the Lord was telling me that my sins had caused my downfall and that His anger would be gone and that I would blossom like a lily if I surrendered to Him. I felt empowered and the next day, I confessed that I had lied to the entire school but they stayed with me and supported me through my healing.

God knew all the sinning I had done and where I had been but He still loved me enough to want me back. In years past I had sat in church and thought that I was a good Christian but now I realize that it was just “showtime” for me because really becoming a Christian is a very painful experience. While becoming a Christian is a free gift for the asking, we still must die to ourselves so that Christ can live within us. At the age of 36, although I had thought I was a Christian my whole life, I finally came to truly know Christ.

My heartfelt desire is to ask everyone to tell me when they died to himself or herself so that Christ could live through them.  If you cannot tell me when that was then I do not think you ever did. There are 3 important life changing days: the day you are born, the day you die and the day you stand at the foot of the cross. Confessing your life to Christ is the most painful and shameful thing you can do but you must do it. This is the true story of “Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye”, one of the greatest sinners that finally came to Christ.

PASTOR WAYNE’S COMMENTS:

Each time I see or think about Sue Thomas’ life and all that she has overcome I realize that my so-called problems are really nothing! She accepted the grace of God and took life by the throat and would not let go! It is not what you do but the spirit in which you do it. It is not your physical ability but your attitudinal ability that determines your success! She chose to live life with an overcoming spirit. The Bible says that a man’s sickness, he can bear but a broken spirit you cannot bear. Sue Thomas said that even though I have a handicap, my spirit is not handicapped. My spirit is set free by the power of God.  What a wonderful testament she is to the grace of God.

Discussion Suggestions

1. Everyone has handicaps.  What is yours and how have you handled it?
2. How has your handicap been a good thing?
3. Can you see handicaps in other people that they may not see themselves?  Why do you think that is?
4. Why do you think God allowed handicaps in people?
5. How does Sue Thomas’ story make you feel?
6. Coming to Christ was very painful for Sue Thomas.  Was it painful for you?  Explain.
7. What can you do to develop an overcoming spirit?

"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong with our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.”       (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NLT)

 Sermon Notes Ministry: Debbie Chang, Doreen Rabaino, Leighton Loo,

                                                Jay Tsukayama & Rhonda Pang