Hospital employee takes mission trip in honor of late husband

Standing on the site of a new church in a tiny Ukrainian village in May, Suzanne Thomas felt a strong tie to her co-workers back at Western Baptist Hospital.

The church, funded in part by missionaries from Paducah, is a monument to Western Baptist staff’s devotion to her beloved late husband. “They contributed a memorial not only to my husband,” she said, “but also to God’s work. They were all a part of it.”

Two years ago, Suzanne, microbiology supervisor in the lab since 1976, and the entire Western Baptist family were shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Dick Thomas.

Dick had been executive director of Human Resources here for 32 years, when he died of a heart attack on May 27, 2007.

Married for 37 years, Dick and Suzanne were active members of First Baptist Church of Paducah. Through their church, Dick had developed a passion for mission work in the Ukraine.

Suzanne recalls that during a mission trip to Moscow in 1995, Dick and others built village churches, digging basements with only a shovel. While there, he met a Ukrainian named Peter working for a very small wage to support his family. Peter worked in Moscow a couple of months, saving his earnings, and then returned home to see his family. “Peter told Dick not to worry about them because he and his family had Christ,” Suzanne said. “Dick took that as a sign that we were meant to do God’s work in the Ukraine.”

The Thomases and fellow members at First Baptist began donating to support the building of churches in the Ukraine. “We were hoping to visit the Ukraine to see the mission work,” she said, “but things didn’t work out that way.”

Following Dick’s death, donations poured in from friends, family and co-workers for the Ukrainian mission work in honor of Dick.

Paying their own way, Suzanne traveled May 24-June 4 to the Ukraine with two members of her church, her former minister and Dick’s brother David. The group stayed in the large city of Rivne, while doing mission work in the rural village of Ozero.

“I knew we were meant to be there,” she said, “because the first night in the village was the anniversary of Dick’s passing.”

The group took just more than $25,000 to build a church. Construction plans are being finalized, with the anticipation of starting soon.

They were inspired to build where a woman named Paulina had been working four years to establish a church. She was so devoted to the cause she rode a bus 2.5 hours every Sunday to the village—an effort that resulted in the donation of a small home that will be expanded into the new church. “Paulina had helped a man find God, and he in turn donated the small house where the village could worship,” Suzanne said.

A Paducah group hopes to return to Ozero to work on the expansion or help in some other way. “I just want everybody here to know they played a part,” said Suzanne.