Cindy Thomas got a call recently from someone who said she was going to be inducted into the Alabama Sports and Adventure Hall of Fame on April 4 for her “extraordinary life” — and she told the caller she had the wrong number.
“And she was like, ‘No, this is Cindy Thomas, right?’ And I said, ‘Yes, but I haven’t done anything extraordinary,’” Cindy Thomas said. “And she said, ‘Haven’t you been on six continents and done missions work?’ And I said, ‘Yes ma’am, I’ve done that, but really it’s our call as Christians — missions is what we’re all called to do.’”
She was inducted into the ASA Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Dothan on April 4 along with eight other people. The ASA Hall of Fame was created in 2022 by Mike Schmitz, an avid adventurer, and was designed to honor everyday people who made an impact through their active life.
This is the hall of fame’s third class to induct.
‘I just decided to say yes’
Her husband John Thomas, mission strategist for Southeast Alabama Baptist Association, said he was “proud of her — it’s a great honor.”
Cindy Thomas took her first missions trip more than 30 years ago as she and her husband were starting their ministry together.
“As I was on staff at several churches, there would be opportunities, and I just decided to say yes if it was a God thing,” she said. “I think my first trip was to the Dominican Republic.”
From there, her church partnered with International Mission Board missionaries in Guatemala. After those missionaries retired, her church started going to Nicaragua.
“Most of my early missions work was in central America,” Cindy Thomas said. “Later as we got to know missionaries, I got to go to Southeast Asia, and then we got to go to Africa.”
After that came Europe.
‘Always ready to go’
“Different churches that we have served in have had partnerships with different areas, so that’s brought different opportunities,” she said. “I was always ready to go share the gospel and do what I could to help the cause of Christ.”
She said she doesn’t know how many trips she’s taken over the years — for her it’s never been about the numbers. But she thinks she might have been to Nicaragua around 14 times, somewhere in the teens to Guatemala and then multiple trips to the other places too.
“It wasn’t ever that I had to talk myself into going somewhere, it was like, ‘Oh, I have this opportunity — yes, I’ll go,’” she said.
Her most recent trip was in late March to Honduras.
Exhibiting the love of Christ
Scotty Goldman, director of the office of global missions at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said the Thomases went with him and his wife to eastern Europe a few years ago, and he saw firsthand the impact Cindy Thomas made.
“Cindy was the ultimate team member. From cooking lessons and teaching English to maneuvering the subway, she was always ready for the next adventure,” Goldman said. “The students with whom we worked were drawn to her warmth and compassion. She truly exhibited the love of Christ in every activity.”
Cindy Thomas said stories and faces have stuck with her over the years, as has the memory of God’s hand at work in people’s lives. She remembers one experience in Uganda especially when she was walking down the street and two women called out to her.
Seeing fruit
Leading up to that trip, people from her church had been sponsoring Ugandan families to help them with immediate food needs, provide budgeting classes and help them learn how to start a microbusiness that could support them.
“That day, these ladies told me their story,” Cindy Thomas said. “They thanked me and said because we gave, they had bought a wheelbarrow and something to cook corn in and were able to sell corn on the side of the road.”
The income had enabled them to support their families and get their children in school.
“It was so amazing to me that we were able to see the fruit of what we gave, and here was the result — and they were Christians now too,” Cindy Thomas said.
But in moments like that, she said she just feels like part of the much bigger whole of what God is doing through His people around the world.
‘Really humbled’
“I just feel really humbled because to me it’s not very extraordinary,” she said. “I can’t imagine that this would be worth being inducted into a hall of fame.”
But she is touched also that her son, Adam, is the one who nominated her.
“His opening sentences in the nomination were ‘some people say I can’t do that, I can’t go … her attitude was not I can’t go but I’m called to go.’ So I thought it was really sweet for him to see the heart in it,” she said.
For more information, visit alabamasportsandadventure.com.
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