Dr. Joseph Thomas
India
Dr. Joseph Thomas, MD is a retired specialist in allergy and immunology. He grew up in Kerala, India and currently resides with his wife, Celine, in Ellicott City, MD. They have four children and 9 grandchildren.
The Holy Spirit awakened his faith to a new level during a retreat in the early 90s. Following this, he started volunteering as a lector, EMC, and, alongside with his wife, served as a Pre Cana facilitator couple. After taking short courses in theology and spirituality, he served on the parish RCIA team for 13 years. The Lord used him to form a prayer group called Servants for Jesus, which became a small faith community, organizing yearly retreats for the Indian community in the greater Washington/ Baltimore area. These renewal retreats brought growth for his faith life, but he was keenly aware of many deficiencies and shortcomings.
The Lord worked mightily during a Freedom in Christ conference held in 2010. The new found freedom brought new energy and vigor, even though he was contemplating retirement. His deep dive into getting trained in Unbound Ministry opened up new avenues, even in his practice. The results he found in his patients encouraged him to join the Unbound team of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He went on to get Unbound translated by a professional into Malayalam, a language used by 34 million people. Malayalam speaking diaspora is spread over all continents with 300,000 residing in the US. The Lord used him along with his wife Celine to minister to many at the first presentation of Unbound by Neal Lozano in Muringoor, Kerala in February 2019. This presentation was attended by approximately 15 Catholic Bishops, 300 priests, over a hundred religious and 200 lay Catholics. Following this the couple were instrumental in doing many Freedom in Christ Conferences on multiple trips to Kerala and Karnataka, both in southern India. At present, the Lord is using them to build up teams in these states.