Episode Details

When the Minister Needs Ministering

What happens to faith when you survive one tragedyonly to face another, and another?

In this deeply personal episode of Emunah (Hebrew for faith, belief), host Dr. Tamara Henry talks with Minister Alma Thomas of Amityville, New York, an ordained minister, former educator and author whose faith has been tested by extraordinary loss.

Minister Thomas lost her 18-year-old son to heart disease. She survived a debilitating stroke that left her bedbound. At one of the darkest points of her journey, she struggled with thoughts of suicide. She also experienced temporary homelessness after a fire destroyed the place where she was living.

But this conversation isn't simply another story about resilience.

It's about faith when life keeps taking.

What happens when the person accustomed to encouraging others needs encouragement herself? When the minister needs ministering? When you know Scripture, believe in God and have spent years helping othersand still find yourself asking how much more you can endure?

Minister Thomas speaks candidly about grief, suffering, purpose and the people God placed around her during some of the most difficult periods of her life. Her story reminds us that biblical faith does not require pretending that suffering doesn't hurt.

Scripture gives us examples of people who lamented, questioned, wept and cried out to God. Yet lament is not necessarily the absence of faith. Sometimes continuing to call on God from the middle of our pain is itself an act of faith.

This episode explores the difference between having faith that God will change our circumstances and continuing to trust God when our circumstances do not change the way we hoped.

Through loss, disability and profound personal struggle, Minister Thomas continues to declare the goodness of Godnot because life has been easy, but because suffering has not had the final word.

Key Topics

• What faith looks like when hardships keep coming
• Grieving the loss of a child while holding onto God
• Life after a debilitating stroke and the loss of independence
• When the minister becomes the one who needs ministering
• Faith, despair and surviving life's darkest moments
• Why lament and questioning do not necessarily mean a lack of faith
• The importance of community and a strong support system
• Finding purpose when life no longer looks the way you imagined
• God's grace, love and faithfulness in seasons of suffering
• Trusting God even when circumstances don't change

Sound Bites

God showed up for me during the worst time of my life.

Faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted.

God's love is unconditional and everlasting.