This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports, and from business to history and everything in between, including your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com. Sue Thomas became the first deaf person to work as an undercover specialist doing lip reading of suspects for an elite surveillance team if the FBI. In nineteen ninety Thomas wrote her autobiography entitled Silent Night, which became the basis for the TV series Sue Thomas F B I e YE. The continuing story of her life is chronicled in Staying in the Race, where Thomas shares stories about living with multiple sclerosis. Here, Sue Thomas, some of you might have bememb burden that TV show called Sue toom FBI. And as I traveled around the country speaking, I find that I keep getting asked three most popular questions. Question number one, are you the real Sue Thomas? Question number two, how long did you work for the FBI? Only for three and a happy years? Just line up to get a TV show out of it? And question number three, did you really run down the street catching the bag? Guys, do I look like I ran down the street catch in the bag game? That's fun. It off a lot of fun. You know. If you look back on my life, it has all the elements for Hollywood, the drama, the action, the intensity, the last And yet when I came down to actually telling the real story of Sue Thomas, Hollywood wouldn't even touch him. I'm going to share the story that Hollywood wouldn't even touch. That journey started out very early in my life, at the age of eighteen months, when very suddenly in the evening, I went profoundly deaf. That was never caused known. I was the second. I just had my cue in one moment and the next moment I was walking the path of signs years was and what the speech therapist in front of a mirror with my hand on her throat, feeling the vibes and making those same vibes at the same time, I would be looking in the mirror watching her form her lips that made the word, and then for me to try to form my lips the same way. After years of speech therapy, came voice lesson No, not for a professional thing, but only to get my voice. The fluctuate to go up and down and up and down, and after years the voice came to dramatic reading only for the articulation and annunciation of word. So many many years has gone into this voice, and yet I know I still talk funny, and people will say, oh, no, you don't, but I do. Well. How do you know them? Well? I can be at the airport, a restaurant, a hotel, any place at any time, and somebody will always come up to me and say, where are you from. You really have an accent, It's just a little bit different, and I'm aware of them. I went to public school. Teacher put me in the first row so i'd be able to read the lips. A bet that I couldn't. I really didn't understand too much, but I tried to follow what the class was doing. And I remember that day as far as watching the students stand by their death, and I finally figured it out. They were introducing themselves to their classmates. It became my turn that day, and I remember getting up and standing beside my death and very probably looking out at my class. Maison sang something like and with that the entire class they erupted it and laughed him. Those kids were laughing so hard. That day I turned around the twilit figure why everybody was laughing, And when I couldn't figure it out, I just sat down. But I came to realize that every time I was to open my mouth to speak, the entire class would erupted and laughed him. And I got to the point, oh, I went opened my mouth. For twelve years, I sat in the silence and never once that I opened my mouth. And that's school. That the fine moment of having my teacher come up to me one day at my death, and she looked up start that day and she reached down and took my hands in hers and she let me out of the classroom. And that day it seemed block with an awful on one. And that was the day I entered another class. I entered what was known as the dummy class. And now all these kids had more ammunition to work with. I just didn't talk funny. I was now the dummy. There was three things in my life as a child that saved me from total dispouse. One, my parents went the church on Sundays and they tried to instill in me that there was a God that did not make any mistakes. And you're listening to the voice of Sue Thomas, and my goodness, what a childhood it must have been. I just didn't talk funny. I was the dummy. And I know we can all conjure up what that must have been like for her, as many of us may have been those kids laughing at her, or at least hurting for her, not standing up for her. And then she hears about this God that doesn't make mistakes. When we come back more of Sue Thomas's story a unique and beautiful voice here on our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we're asking you to become a part of the our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to our American Stories dot Com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories dot Com. And we continue with our American Stories. In the story of Sue Thomas, they tried to tell me about his sudden named Jesus. And then if I went hold onto his hand and allowed him to lead me and guide men, that there wouldn't be anything that I couldn't do or anything that I couldn't become. Secondly, I had a song. You get that I had a song. No, I have no recollection of music, but I had a mother the love music, and she wanted the past. I love unty daughter, whether she could hear or not. And as a little kid, she would place me on her lap as she sat in the rock and show rock came back and forth singing all of her favorite songs. With my head on her shoulders, she sang, I could feel the vibrations, and if I really liked the song particularly well, my hand was sort of creep up and lay gently on her throat. But I could get all the vibes that I possibly couldn't. It must have been around Christmas time, because one of the first songs that my mom every time was Silent Night, and I loved that fun Now, as a little kid, it wasn't the words the worrids had no meaning. Rather, it was the rhythm and the flow of the rock boyd tremendous piece. And I can remember after a long lazy day of school, going home on the school bus looking out the window, but my nose all puffed up against the glass, so nobody's seeing the tears flow down my chain, way down Dan. I wish those things fight at night, and I'd be okay. The only thing I ever wanted as a kid was a friend. Let's face them, who wants to be a friend to a dummy? Who wants to be offended? Somebody that talks from you? And I never knew with the word friendship man, at least not until I got to high school. And by the time I went to high school, I met up with those crown that was totally disrespectful, outright rebellion into alcohol in the drum, into everything. And it was my means of escape, at least trying to escape the world was silent. God's hand was upon me, for he brought in a teacher in my junior year that believed in me and began to work with me one on one. It was through her life I went to college, and even though I got to college, it took me eight years to leave the place. Eight years pass I thought the world couldn't wait to give me a job. But I found out the world could wait forever. There wasn't one person that was wanting to give me a job simply because I couldn't use the tunnel phone, or they thought that I would misunderstand what was being sudden. And I went back to the same hearing and speece centner that taught me to speak, pounded on their doors asking for a job. They felt sorry for me, why they hired me even when they didn't have a job. I became like a gopher, a Jacobald trade, doing whatever they wanted me to do. And I remember some days taking paper clips out of one box, sticking those paper clips in another box, and I'm putting them in the classic. I was only there for a few shortmans. You say it was defended the hearing and speece centner, who in turn had offend the lived in Washington, DC, who in turn had to defend the work for the Department of State, who in turn had defend the for the FBI. Are you following this to offend of offend of offend of offend from Washington, DC to Youngstown, Ohio? I get when that the FBI is looking for deaf people and if you don't think that I panicked that out to myself. What did we do? I'll talk him a long time to calm me down, that dame. Basically, they said, you didn't do anything. They just want to know if you want a job. So I want a job. Somebody was finally going to hire me for who I was grat that I'm going to Washington, DC. That's awesome. But the more I realized that, the more I knew I was to be with the FBI, it just doesn't get any better. So off I go to Washington, ding thing and the first week is like a dream come true. They took me around, they introduced me to all the special agent and after all the introductions was over, they took me downstairs to the firing range where all the agent practiced their targets shooting. That was the very first mistake. The second mistake is when they had me at Thompson forty five submichine Gun. I shot up their entire shooting that day without even trying. It's a long time before they let me go back downstairs. And then I started my training to become what was known as a fingerprint examiner for the FBI. But then the first five minutes, I realized they had made the greatest mistake of my life. Someday, when you don't have anything else to do, take a look at any one of your fingers really really close. All those lines are fingerprints. It was my job. They count every single one of those lines on their finger eight hours a day, five days to win. And I can honestly tell you, if you've seen one fingerprint, you've seen them all. One day, my supervisor comes running in. She's all upstun She tells me, I have to get to the front office right away. There's only two reasons the person goes to the funt office of the FBI, either to be terminated from their job or to be infuriated by the FBI agents. I get to the front office, I walk in and they tell me to sat down. And that day the question starting and they went something like this, miss Thomas, and we understand that you read lips to communicate and you do a very good job. But there's only one thing we want to know, just one thing. Do you watch TV? Do I watch TV? That's all you guys want to know. It's not a federal crime to watch TV. I can pass I watched TV. Well, is it difficult for miss Thomas? Do you get anything out of him? Yeah? I do? I mean no, I don't. I mean I don't know. Do you know what I mean? You're not the camera's on the person, and I can see the looks, I can read them, but so many times the camera's not on the person that I can't see anything. So I don't know when anything brings done. And you're listening to Sue Thomas, and what a voice she owns it now you can hear it. But as a young person, well every time she opened her mouth, kids laugh. So for twelve years, as she said, she sat on the sidelines. And my goodness. Then the FBI, well they're looking for deaf people. And what a sense of humor. What a life story. When we come back more with Sue Thomas, her story here on our American story, and we continue with our American stories and the story of Sue Thomas. Bye, Sue Thomas, let's continue. Well, how about movies, Miss Thomas. They go to movies? Is it any better, fear? Oh? Yes, I go to movies and it's a lot better, it really is. You know. It's the lips. They're a lot bigger on and arm went the question, and I came to realize that the FBI had a huge problem. They were working on a case in which they video filmed the suspect, but when the camera activated, the sound mechanism found they had all this film with the bad guys talking, they just couldn't hear it. They wanted to know if I were set and watched the film and write any worries down that I couldn't. I said, sure, no problem. From that day on, I never went back to reading fingerprints. From that day on, I read lips for the FBI, and they sam up my job. I followed the bad guys around and I read the lips. Then I went and told the good guys what the bad guys were saying, and they even paid me to do it too, And overnight, like the snap of a finger, I finally made it in the world of sound good job, Good salving somewhat of a novelty in Washington, where I began to be invited to congressional and stunneders parking, and for three and a half years I lived in the fast line of Washington, DC, celebrating my sister. I'm thirty five years of age. Well, I'm at the prime of the FBI. For thirty five years, I have hated every stop step that I took. When I was young, my parents tried to instill me that God never made a mistake, and in my youth I believed them and I held them. But supposedly, with each passing year of getting older and supposedly wiser, I began to doubt them. But by the time I'm with the FBI, I totally doubted God and I wanted to comfunt him once and flong. I wanted him to confess, say yes, indeed, he had made a mistake. So I resigned from the FBI. The God to Columbian International Seminarian CiU in South Carolina, not to go there to become a preacher, and not to go there to become a missioner. But with only one objective, the comfunt God based the faith to ask him why he made a mistake. The mistake was an owner. It was major. I mean, after on, anybody that would know of the mistake would have consideration of why I had to do this. He wasn't enough that he created in me a heart that loves people. I love people, and that came by God's creation that he put within me. But it's compounded by the issue that even though he created that love and I want to be with people, he allowed the sitnce to overtake me, that it was physically impossible to be with people. That, my friends, is a mistake. As a whopper. He don't give somebody something and then remove it in a tangible way where they can't have it. Helen killed her started best when she said blindness separates the person from things and the objects, deptness separates the person from people. She'd right it. Oh yeah, I'm a good lip breader in my prime. I can be in a high wise building in New York City with a pair of field glasses looking across the street and another high wise building and telling your word for word what was being sent. I'm good or I was I'm so good. I can even do two people. And that's like watching Cannas. Somebody what talk does stop? They'll talk, does stop, they'll talk the park. I can get it, but you add a third person and a fourth person. I don't deteriorating. I cannot function in a room at my homet wants. It's so desperately, so badly, I love the party. I love to be with people, but I can't. I can't. I got the seminary. God was waiting. You see him. He didn't just give me one or two friends and seminary that I could relate to. He had twenty five friends waiting for me him twenty five. I can't be with three people love along twenty five. And yet every day we got a class together, we were sharing mules together, we were study, we were praying, we were saying, we were always together. And these people saw their outward show of supers the party animal happy go luking the line because what they didn't know is that when I left their mist and I went back to my apartment, I totally destroyed everything that I can get my hands on. The bitterness and resentment started doing the first year of first grain that puts me a six years old them from the age six to the age of thirty five. That baggage was grown with each passing that I was a boken person, I was a resultle person. I despise that wasn't a shroud up happiness within. And now I'm with twenty five new funds and what a story, folks, and my goodness with each passing year, is I got older, I began to doubt that God doesn't make mistakes. At thirty five, I wanted to confront God once and for all and about one thing, that yes, he did make a mistake, and my goodness, to hear her talk about her bitterness. The bitterness and resentment had started in the first year of first grade at the age of six. Right to the age of thirty five, that baggage was growing with each moment. There wasn't a shred of happiness in me. When we come back more of this remarkable confession, this beautiful confession here on our American stories, and we continue here with our American stories and with Sue Thomas's story, And now here's the final part. So many times I cried out to God, please give me my hearing, please just let me, And it was always the same answer, the greatest. So I turned from God. I'm more or less gave up on him. I went to the one friend and seminary and I told her a lying I told her that I had a terminal disease, that I was dying. Because in my warped mind, I thought of she believed me. She would want to spend as much time with me one on one, and that's exactly what happened. But when I didn't realize the split second that I told that lie that I would last over seven months, and I had no idea that the first person I told that lie too, that when I fanned out that those twenty five people, and surely I had no idea that that lie would totally consume me, and they stray him seven long months paths and I was wasting away, And that came at home that I could not take it any longer. And I went to that same thing and I then play call my advisor at school, tell them that I needed to see him as soon as possible, tell him to have another fact remember with him as urgent. And I met with those two men, tears streaming down my face, I confessed my sin. I knew that I would have to go to those twenty five different people and to tell them the truth, and I was prepared to do that. I wanted to do it. But what I didn't know is that I would have to stand before the entire academic committee of that school. The night before I wish to meet that committee was the longest, darkest, quietest night of my life. The shame and the guilt was so unbearable that I got my suitcase out and I began to pack to run away. I couldn't face it. And while I'm packing, my Bible butt on the floor, and when I looked down, I sort of chuckling, and I shook my head because I could not believe the pages that were staring back to me. I put the Bible on the bed and I went down on the floor, based down, and I cried down for God, for mercy, for forgiveness, that I told him that. For thirty five years I went to church, I sat in the pure, I sang that him. I talked to talk and told people I was a Christian? How dare I? The next morning, I stood before the entire academic committed him, tears streaming down my face, and my speech was so garbled with the emotion. I knew that a hard time understand me. That one thing that I remember more than anything on that day of my confession, but that's all, was one lone man studding in a chair. His head was in his hands, and as he heard me spin, he shook his head back forth him and as I watched him, that tears blood that man was doctor Robinson mccorka, and the day before that meeting, the emotions ran so hard. What while I say to him? What can I say? And that day fund your hine? And on't you know it? They sat me right next to him at a dinner table. He looked at me, and the first word that he spoke was Sue, I'm so proud of you. I looked at him, and the tears began to flow, and I choked them, and I took my napkin and I placed them on the table, and I said, you have to excuse me, and I walked out and I went outside, and I kept thinking, God, he doesn't remember, he can't remember hit that he was pardon me. So I regained my composure and I went back and I was able to punish to me all at that primise then thought the mere quoking. I need to serious soon as possible, or you meet it man, he suggest tomorrow morning. I looked at him and I said, did you very kick anybody out? Did dread first as anybody? And he looked puzzled, and he looked at me. It's that I don't think so, but I'm not sure. And then there was the great silence, and he said, did we kick you out? No, sir, but you could have, and maybe you should have, but you didn't. Instead, you taught me of the love and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. And you just didn't stop with the love. You walk me through the killing process and then you sent me. I don't know where I would have been had you kicked me out, And yet pretty bad. It was like the snap of a finger. All I had to do was a TV shown calls the Thomas at here in the United States or before Mulliam people have watched it. Today. That show is being seen in sixty five nations around the world, in Germany, South Africa, Malaysia, Vihnam, Second Pott, sixty five nations. And the people write to me thinking they're writing the celebrity and I have the opportunity, the sheriff's celebrity now God's greatest sinner saved by grace. Yes, that is the real story of Sir Thomas at b I. That is the truth, the hold truth and nothing but the truth. Fuck my God. And does anyone doubt her? No? What a thing, what a story, what a lie? What a lie to tell? But she was just hurting, and that's why she told it. He was just looking for attention. And what a cry for help that was, lying about a terminal disease and then having to hold before your peers and then an academic committee and well face the pain. And she was going to run away, and that Bible fell out of the book and she threw herself on the threshing floor and she called out for forgiveness and grace and she got both. And we don't shy away from these things. And this show is open to believers, nonbelievers. Your stories, all of them, we want to hear. And my goodness is maybe one of the most profoundly told. Great job is always by Gregg Hangler. A great and beautiful God story. Sir Thomas's story here on our American Stories

This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports, and from business to history and everything in between, including your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com. Sue Thomas became the first deaf person to work as an undercover specialist doing lip reading of suspects for an elite surveillance team if the FBI. In nineteen ninety Thomas wrote her autobiography entitled Silent Night, which became the basis for the TV series Sue Thomas F B I e YE. The continuing story of her life is chronicled in Staying in the Race, where Thomas shares stories about living with multiple sclerosis. Here, Sue Thomas, some of you might have bememb burden that TV show called Sue toom FBI. And as I traveled around the country speaking, I find that I keep getting asked three most popular questions. Question number one, are you the real Sue Thomas? Question number two, how long did you work for the FBI? Only for three and a happy years? Just line up to get a TV show out of it? And question number three, did you really run down the street catching the bag? Guys, do I look like I ran down the street catch in the bag game? That's fun. It off a lot of fun. You know. If you look back on my life, it has all the elements for Hollywood, the drama, the action, the intensity, the last And yet when I came down to actually telling the real story of Sue Thomas, Hollywood wouldn't even touch him. I'm going to share the story that Hollywood wouldn't even touch. That journey started out very early in my life, at the age of eighteen months, when very suddenly in the evening, I went profoundly deaf. That was never caused known. I was the second. I just had my cue in one moment and the next moment I was walking the path of signs years was and what the speech therapist in front of a mirror with my hand on her throat, feeling the vibes and making those same vibes at the same time, I would be looking in the mirror watching her form her lips that made the word, and then for me to try to form my lips the same way. After years of speech therapy, came voice lesson No, not for a professional thing, but only to get my voice. The fluctuate to go up and down and up and down, and after years the voice came to dramatic reading only for the articulation and annunciation of word. So many many years has gone into this voice, and yet I know I still talk funny, and people will say, oh, no, you don't, but I do. Well. How do you know them? Well? I can be at the airport, a restaurant, a hotel, any place at any time, and somebody will always come up to me and say, where are you from. You really have an accent, It's just a little bit different, and I'm aware of them. I went to public school. Teacher put me in the first row so i'd be able to read the lips. A bet that I couldn't. I really didn't understand too much, but I tried to follow what the class was doing. And I remember that day as far as watching the students stand by their death, and I finally figured it out. They were introducing themselves to their classmates. It became my turn that day, and I remember getting up and standing beside my death and very probably looking out at my class. Maison sang something like and with that the entire class they erupted it and laughed him. Those kids were laughing so hard. That day I turned around the twilit figure why everybody was laughing, And when I couldn't figure it out, I just sat down. But I came to realize that every time I was to open my mouth to speak, the entire class would erupted and laughed him. And I got to the point, oh, I went opened my mouth. For twelve years, I sat in the silence and never once that I opened my mouth. And that's school. That the fine moment of having my teacher come up to me one day at my death, and she looked up start that day and she reached down and took my hands in hers and she let me out of the classroom. And that day it seemed block with an awful on one. And that was the day I entered another class. I entered what was known as the dummy class. And now all these kids had more ammunition to work with. I just didn't talk funny. I was now the dummy. There was three things in my life as a child that saved me from total dispouse. One, my parents went the church on Sundays and they tried to instill in me that there was a God that did not make any mistakes. And you're listening to the voice of Sue Thomas, and my goodness, what a childhood it must have been. I just didn't talk funny. I was the dummy. And I know we can all conjure up what that must have been like for her, as many of us may have been those kids laughing at her, or at least hurting for her, not standing up for her. And then she hears about this God that doesn't make mistakes. When we come back more of Sue Thomas's story a unique and beautiful voice here on our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we're asking you to become a part of the our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to our American Stories dot Com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories dot Com. And we continue with our American Stories. In the story of Sue Thomas, they tried to tell me about his sudden named Jesus. And then if I went hold onto his hand and allowed him to lead me and guide men, that there wouldn't be anything that I couldn't do or anything that I couldn't become. Secondly, I had a song. You get that I had a song. No, I have no recollection of music, but I had a mother the love music, and she wanted the past. I love unty daughter, whether she could hear or not. And as a little kid, she would place me on her lap as she sat in the rock and show rock came back and forth singing all of her favorite songs. With my head on her shoulders, she sang, I could feel the vibrations, and if I really liked the song particularly well, my hand was sort of creep up and lay gently on her throat. But I could get all the vibes that I possibly couldn't. It must have been around Christmas time, because one of the first songs that my mom every time was Silent Night, and I loved that fun Now, as a little kid, it wasn't the words the worrids had no meaning. Rather, it was the rhythm and the flow of the rock boyd tremendous piece. And I can remember after a long lazy day of school, going home on the school bus looking out the window, but my nose all puffed up against the glass, so nobody's seeing the tears flow down my chain, way down Dan. I wish those things fight at night, and I'd be okay. The only thing I ever wanted as a kid was a friend. Let's face them, who wants to be a friend to a dummy? Who wants to be offended? Somebody that talks from you? And I never knew with the word friendship man, at least not until I got to high school. And by the time I went to high school, I met up with those crown that was totally disrespectful, outright rebellion into alcohol in the drum, into everything. And it was my means of escape, at least trying to escape the world was silent. God's hand was upon me, for he brought in a teacher in my junior year that believed in me and began to work with me one on one. It was through her life I went to college, and even though I got to college, it took me eight years to leave the place. Eight years pass I thought the world couldn't wait to give me a job. But I found out the world could wait forever. There wasn't one person that was wanting to give me a job simply because I couldn't use the tunnel phone, or they thought that I would misunderstand what was being sudden. And I went back to the same hearing and speece centner that taught me to speak, pounded on their doors asking for a job. They felt sorry for me, why they hired me even when they didn't have a job. I became like a gopher, a Jacobald trade, doing whatever they wanted me to do. And I remember some days taking paper clips out of one box, sticking those paper clips in another box, and I'm putting them in the classic. I was only there for a few shortmans. You say it was defended the hearing and speece centner, who in turn had offend the lived in Washington, DC, who in turn had to defend the work for the Department of State, who in turn had defend the for the FBI. Are you following this to offend of offend of offend of offend from Washington, DC to Youngstown, Ohio? I get when that the FBI is looking for deaf people and if you don't think that I panicked that out to myself. What did we do? I'll talk him a long time to calm me down, that dame. Basically, they said, you didn't do anything. They just want to know if you want a job. So I want a job. Somebody was finally going to hire me for who I was grat that I'm going to Washington, DC. That's awesome. But the more I realized that, the more I knew I was to be with the FBI, it just doesn't get any better. So off I go to Washington, ding thing and the first week is like a dream come true. They took me around, they introduced me to all the special agent and after all the introductions was over, they took me downstairs to the firing range where all the agent practiced their targets shooting. That was the very first mistake. The second mistake is when they had me at Thompson forty five submichine Gun. I shot up their entire shooting that day without even trying. It's a long time before they let me go back downstairs. And then I started my training to become what was known as a fingerprint examiner for the FBI. But then the first five minutes, I realized they had made the greatest mistake of my life. Someday, when you don't have anything else to do, take a look at any one of your fingers really really close. All those lines are fingerprints. It was my job. They count every single one of those lines on their finger eight hours a day, five days to win. And I can honestly tell you, if you've seen one fingerprint, you've seen them all. One day, my supervisor comes running in. She's all upstun She tells me, I have to get to the front office right away. There's only two reasons the person goes to the funt office of the FBI, either to be terminated from their job or to be infuriated by the FBI agents. I get to the front office, I walk in and they tell me to sat down. And that day the question starting and they went something like this, miss Thomas, and we understand that you read lips to communicate and you do a very good job. But there's only one thing we want to know, just one thing. Do you watch TV? Do I watch TV? That's all you guys want to know. It's not a federal crime to watch TV. I can pass I watched TV. Well, is it difficult for miss Thomas? Do you get anything out of him? Yeah? I do? I mean no, I don't. I mean I don't know. Do you know what I mean? You're not the camera's on the person, and I can see the looks, I can read them, but so many times the camera's not on the person that I can't see anything. So I don't know when anything brings done. And you're listening to Sue Thomas, and what a voice she owns it now you can hear it. But as a young person, well every time she opened her mouth, kids laugh. So for twelve years, as she said, she sat on the sidelines. And my goodness. Then the FBI, well they're looking for deaf people. And what a sense of humor. What a life story. When we come back more with Sue Thomas, her story here on our American story, and we continue with our American stories and the story of Sue Thomas. Bye, Sue Thomas, let's continue. Well, how about movies, Miss Thomas. They go to movies? Is it any better, fear? Oh? Yes, I go to movies and it's a lot better, it really is. You know. It's the lips. They're a lot bigger on and arm went the question, and I came to realize that the FBI had a huge problem. They were working on a case in which they video filmed the suspect, but when the camera activated, the sound mechanism found they had all this film with the bad guys talking, they just couldn't hear it. They wanted to know if I were set and watched the film and write any worries down that I couldn't. I said, sure, no problem. From that day on, I never went back to reading fingerprints. From that day on, I read lips for the FBI, and they sam up my job. I followed the bad guys around and I read the lips. Then I went and told the good guys what the bad guys were saying, and they even paid me to do it too, And overnight, like the snap of a finger, I finally made it in the world of sound good job, Good salving somewhat of a novelty in Washington, where I began to be invited to congressional and stunneders parking, and for three and a half years I lived in the fast line of Washington, DC, celebrating my sister. I'm thirty five years of age. Well, I'm at the prime of the FBI. For thirty five years, I have hated every stop step that I took. When I was young, my parents tried to instill me that God never made a mistake, and in my youth I believed them and I held them. But supposedly, with each passing year of getting older and supposedly wiser, I began to doubt them. But by the time I'm with the FBI, I totally doubted God and I wanted to comfunt him once and flong. I wanted him to confess, say yes, indeed, he had made a mistake. So I resigned from the FBI. The God to Columbian International Seminarian CiU in South Carolina, not to go there to become a preacher, and not to go there to become a missioner. But with only one objective, the comfunt God based the faith to ask him why he made a mistake. The mistake was an owner. It was major. I mean, after on, anybody that would know of the mistake would have consideration of why I had to do this. He wasn't enough that he created in me a heart that loves people. I love people, and that came by God's creation that he put within me. But it's compounded by the issue that even though he created that love and I want to be with people, he allowed the sitnce to overtake me, that it was physically impossible to be with people. That, my friends, is a mistake. As a whopper. He don't give somebody something and then remove it in a tangible way where they can't have it. Helen killed her started best when she said blindness separates the person from things and the objects, deptness separates the person from people. She'd right it. Oh yeah, I'm a good lip breader in my prime. I can be in a high wise building in New York City with a pair of field glasses looking across the street and another high wise building and telling your word for word what was being sent. I'm good or I was I'm so good. I can even do two people. And that's like watching Cannas. Somebody what talk does stop? They'll talk, does stop, they'll talk the park. I can get it, but you add a third person and a fourth person. I don't deteriorating. I cannot function in a room at my homet wants. It's so desperately, so badly, I love the party. I love to be with people, but I can't. I can't. I got the seminary. God was waiting. You see him. He didn't just give me one or two friends and seminary that I could relate to. He had twenty five friends waiting for me him twenty five. I can't be with three people love along twenty five. And yet every day we got a class together, we were sharing mules together, we were study, we were praying, we were saying, we were always together. And these people saw their outward show of supers the party animal happy go luking the line because what they didn't know is that when I left their mist and I went back to my apartment, I totally destroyed everything that I can get my hands on. The bitterness and resentment started doing the first year of first grain that puts me a six years old them from the age six to the age of thirty five. That baggage was grown with each passing that I was a boken person, I was a resultle person. I despise that wasn't a shroud up happiness within. And now I'm with twenty five new funds and what a story, folks, and my goodness with each passing year, is I got older, I began to doubt that God doesn't make mistakes. At thirty five, I wanted to confront God once and for all and about one thing, that yes, he did make a mistake, and my goodness, to hear her talk about her bitterness. The bitterness and resentment had started in the first year of first grade at the age of six. Right to the age of thirty five, that baggage was growing with each moment. There wasn't a shred of happiness in me. When we come back more of this remarkable confession, this beautiful confession here on our American stories, and we continue here with our American stories and with Sue Thomas's story, And now here's the final part. So many times I cried out to God, please give me my hearing, please just let me, And it was always the same answer, the greatest. So I turned from God. I'm more or less gave up on him. I went to the one friend and seminary and I told her a lying I told her that I had a terminal disease, that I was dying. Because in my warped mind, I thought of she believed me. She would want to spend as much time with me one on one, and that's exactly what happened. But when I didn't realize the split second that I told that lie that I would last over seven months, and I had no idea that the first person I told that lie too, that when I fanned out that those twenty five people, and surely I had no idea that that lie would totally consume me, and they stray him seven long months paths and I was wasting away, And that came at home that I could not take it any longer. And I went to that same thing and I then play call my advisor at school, tell them that I needed to see him as soon as possible, tell him to have another fact remember with him as urgent. And I met with those two men, tears streaming down my face, I confessed my sin. I knew that I would have to go to those twenty five different people and to tell them the truth, and I was prepared to do that. I wanted to do it. But what I didn't know is that I would have to stand before the entire academic committee of that school. The night before I wish to meet that committee was the longest, darkest, quietest night of my life. The shame and the guilt was so unbearable that I got my suitcase out and I began to pack to run away. I couldn't face it. And while I'm packing, my Bible butt on the floor, and when I looked down, I sort of chuckling, and I shook my head because I could not believe the pages that were staring back to me. I put the Bible on the bed and I went down on the floor, based down, and I cried down for God, for mercy, for forgiveness, that I told him that. For thirty five years I went to church, I sat in the pure, I sang that him. I talked to talk and told people I was a Christian? How dare I? The next morning, I stood before the entire academic committed him, tears streaming down my face, and my speech was so garbled with the emotion. I knew that a hard time understand me. That one thing that I remember more than anything on that day of my confession, but that's all, was one lone man studding in a chair. His head was in his hands, and as he heard me spin, he shook his head back forth him and as I watched him, that tears blood that man was doctor Robinson mccorka, and the day before that meeting, the emotions ran so hard. What while I say to him? What can I say? And that day fund your hine? And on't you know it? They sat me right next to him at a dinner table. He looked at me, and the first word that he spoke was Sue, I'm so proud of you. I looked at him, and the tears began to flow, and I choked them, and I took my napkin and I placed them on the table, and I said, you have to excuse me, and I walked out and I went outside, and I kept thinking, God, he doesn't remember, he can't remember hit that he was pardon me. So I regained my composure and I went back and I was able to punish to me all at that primise then thought the mere quoking. I need to serious soon as possible, or you meet it man, he suggest tomorrow morning. I looked at him and I said, did you very kick anybody out? Did dread first as anybody? And he looked puzzled, and he looked at me. It's that I don't think so, but I'm not sure. And then there was the great silence, and he said, did we kick you out? No, sir, but you could have, and maybe you should have, but you didn't. Instead, you taught me of the love and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. And you just didn't stop with the love. You walk me through the killing process and then you sent me. I don't know where I would have been had you kicked me out, And yet pretty bad. It was like the snap of a finger. All I had to do was a TV shown calls the Thomas at here in the United States or before Mulliam people have watched it. Today. That show is being seen in sixty five nations around the world, in Germany, South Africa, Malaysia, Vihnam, Second Pott, sixty five nations. And the people write to me thinking they're writing the celebrity and I have the opportunity, the sheriff's celebrity now God's greatest sinner saved by grace. Yes, that is the real story of Sir Thomas at b I. That is the truth, the hold truth and nothing but the truth. Fuck my God. And does anyone doubt her? No? What a thing, what a story, what a lie? What a lie to tell? But she was just hurting, and that's why she told it. He was just looking for attention. And what a cry for help that was, lying about a terminal disease and then having to hold before your peers and then an academic committee and well face the pain. And she was going to run away, and that Bible fell out of the book and she threw herself on the threshing floor and she called out for forgiveness and grace and she got both. And we don't shy away from these things. And this show is open to believers, nonbelievers. Your stories, all of them, we want to hear. And my goodness is maybe one of the most profoundly told. Great job is always by Gregg Hangler. A great and beautiful God story. Sir Thomas's story here on our American Stories