Real Stories
Statement from our Co-Founders
Dr. Howard and Mrs. Ann Thomas had a never-ending dream for Hardin County and the surrounding area. Their dream was a faith-based facility that would assist men and women in their pursuit of spiritual healing from drug abuse. The Open Door is that dream on steroids. God has so richly blessed the Open Door with excellent teachers and counselors who provide their services free of charge. All funding the Open Door receives goes completely to helping our clients, with no charge to them, to escape the horrible effects of drug addiction. To achieve this goal, financial assistance is needed. We pray that the Holy Spirit will kindle in your hearts the same desire. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love.
With our 50 years of experience in primary care medicine and 40 years in Clinical Psychology and Counseling Education, we have been blessed to help bring the Open Door to life as a living testimony to God's provision and the power of faith in recovery. Your partnership will ensure that this vision not only endures but expands, reaching even more lives with hope, healing, and the transforming love of Christ through the Open Door.
Dr. James H. Thomas, MD
Dr. Suzanne Thomas, BS, MS, EDD, CPRS
Statement from Dr. Thomas
I am Dr. James H. Thomas, better known to everyone as Dr. Jim. My parents Dr Howard and Mrs. Ann Thomas exhibited a lifelong quest to glorify God and provide an open door that all might enter and receive God's neverending grace and blessings. My wife Suzanne and I, along with Mrs. Diane McGee and Riverview Baptist Church, began The Open Door Ministry in August 2022. We donated the former Thomas Clinic building on Guinn Street to Riverview Baptist Church, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, Pastor Allen Guyer, and the parishioners of the church, God's plan began working immediately.
Since August 2022, literally thousands of souls have been touched, whether it was rehabbing from drugs, relocating battered mothers and children, helping young Christians reassimilate into society and helping people find God for the first time, or reuniting parents with their children or husbands with their wives. The Open Door responds to the needs of women, children, and families through various programs These include, but are not limited to, a Christian men's support group, men discipling other men, and developing Kingdom Women, which is a sisterhood support group to acclimate women back into the community.
We are so blessed to have spirit filled administrators, teachers, singers, cooks, and leaders. God touches every aspect of the Open Door, for without the direction of the Holy Spirit we could do nothing.
God is so good! He provides everything we need to help serve the community including food, shelter and financing. We have surely been blessed by God's Spirit in our midst, and we must strive to continue praising him for his steadfast love, forgiveness, and guidance.
The Open Door is accessible to all! It is a light set upon a hill. Surely, we have been blessed, not because we deserve it. It is a gift given by God if we will accept it.
Dr. Jim
Zechariah 4:6 - "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts"