Tom's Story

I had been in-and-out of many jails from age 15 to age 30 - so many I lost count. While in all these jails, it wasn't uncommon to see inmates reading the Bible. They'd say they were changed, that they wouldn't be back, that things would be different. Then they'd get out and go right to the bar. Sooner or later, they'd be locked up again. I reasoned that I didn’t need Jesus to be a drunk - I already was one.

At the age of 30, I found myself back in jail for the "umpteenth" time. I was also miserable! My life was spiraling downhill. I had earned an Associate Degree in Nuclear Engineering, started a promising career in nuclear power, and had gotten fired for my drugging and drinking. I had ruined a marriage, alienated my family, and my future was pretty bleak. I had tried many, many ways to change my life, all with no success. I was sick and tired of going back to jail. Looking back, I can see how God used my misery to finally get through my "thick skull."

My cellmate was reading a Bible, so I asked him "Why are you reading that book?" He told me his wife was a Christian and his wife and her Christian friends were "really neat people" and he wanted to be one too. The next time his wife's Pastor came to visit him, at my request, he visited me. He told me I needed a personal, meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. I was skeptical.

It was Christmastime, and a group of men calling themselves Gideons visited the jail. They gave me an apple, an orange and a pocket-sized New Testament. I began to read it, especially the section that told me where to find help if I was anxious, or afraid, or bitter, or critical, or a host of other emotional problems. It seemed they all applied and I looked them all up. I was spending most of my days and nights in the Bible and God was "opening my eyes." On December 28, 1979, about 10:30 at night, I literally told Jesus to "please take my life and do with me whatever You want." There weren’t any bells or whistles or anything, but when I woke in the morning, I knew I was different...in fact, "I've never been the same since!"

Tom got out of jail in March, 1980, and got involved in church. He became a volunteer with the Jail Ministry and then a student at Grace College of the Bible in Omaha. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Bible in 1987, a year after he became a full-time Staff Chaplain in the same jail in which he came to faith in Christ. There, for the next 5 ½ years, he ministered among inmates with whom he'd done time with and correctional officials he'd known as an inmate. Then God called him into Rescue Ministry...where he spent the next 15 years working in a combination of Jail and Rescue Ministry. Tom and his wife Laurie founded three Rescue Missions in Nebraska and established on-going ministries in over a dozen jails.

All this has prepared Tom for his work at Wayside Cross Ministries, where in June of 2007, Tom joined the staff of Wayside Cross Ministries as Director of New Life Corrections.