"Our Native Christians are a
quiet people, but if they are taught the power of prayer and power of the
Holy Spirit, they can go to their families, tribes and nations and speak
boldly the Word of God. Then, our evangelism strategies like the early
church, will be effective and powerful not only in the location where we
live, but in other Native villages, in every part of our reservations and
even to the remotest tribe and nation."
It is with this hope and expectation that the
vision of CHIEF has been forged.
CHIEF's motivation vision is to see an
effective Christian witness in every Native American tribe and all related
tribes in this generation.
Being a fourth generation Christian, Tom has
always praised God for his rich heritage. His great grandfather, Adam
Elliot Thomas, whose Mohawk name was "Split the Sky" was one of the first
Christians in his family. So, too, followed two additional
generations--Adam's son, Freeman Thomas--the Freeman's daughter, Theresa, and
her husband Huron Claus and two daughters, until Tom when at the age of 14
accepted Jesus Christ into his heart..
In January of 1945, Tom made a life changing
commitment to preach the Gospel of Christ to his own people when he saw the
great spiritual need of the Seminole Indians in the Florida Everglades. He
didn't know how he would answer God's call, because he stuttered and stammered
all his life, except when he sang. But, when Tom surrendered his life to
preach, God took away the stuttering. Six months later, at an Indian camp
on the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation in northern New York, Chuck Pamp, a
Potawatomi Indian evangelist asked Tom to preach in a Sunday afternoon service.
From that moment on, Tom has faithfully preached the Word.
Another of Tom's favorite verses is II Timothy
1:12;
"How thankful I am to Christ Jesus our Lord for
choosing me as on of His messengers, and giving me the strength to be faithful
to Him."
From a vantage point of almost 60 years since he
committed to God to preach the Word, Tom can look back and see how God led him
and his family to work with some of the greatest Bible teachers and evangelists
in a generation and time of tremendous spiritual harvest. Men like Dr.
Harry Ironside, Dr. Oswald J. Smith, Dr. John Rice, Dr. Andrew Telford, Dr. Bob
Pierce of World Vision, Dr. Cameron Townsend of Wycliffe Bible Translators, Dr.
Robert Evans of Greater Europe Mission, Dr. Bob Cook, Dr. Billy Graham, Cliff
Barrows, Walter Smyth, George Beverly Shea and other members of the Billy Graham Team,
Dr. John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, Coach
Bill McCartney of Promise Keepers, and Dr. Joseph Stowell of Moody Bible
Institute in Chicago. Additionally, there have been scores of other Godly
leaders and people who made a great impact on Tom's life, and ultimately on the
corporate life of CHIEF and the 1,200 tribes known as Native Americans.
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