Thomas Akers Biography
I was raised in Duarte, California, a suburb east of Los Angeles. One of my earliest memories (at age 3 or 4) was my mom’s boyfriend making me eat spinach. My mom worked as a Bar-maid/Go-Go Dancer and she had many boyfriends. About year after that, she reconciled with my father and she started living a Christian life. My father was an atheist. He would tell me, “It would be better to believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, than God.” He would read the Bible and show us how there were (in his mind) errors in the scripture. Many of the things he said impacted me greatly in my later teenage years.
I was the middle child of five children. Two older sisters, a younger brother and a younger sister. My mom took us to an Assembly of God church every Sunday morning (including Sunday school), Sunday night and Thursday night. I think my dad was ok with this, because it got us kids out of the house. I liked going to church and especially liked the song service (praise and worship). I was “Born Again” at age 7, water baptized and baptized in the Holy Spirit at about age 8 or 9. I immediately went out (by myself) and started handing out “Bible Tracts” door-to-door (Yea, I was one of those annoying door-to-door people). I wanted to help people to get to know Jesus the way I knew Him.
By the time I was in 6th grade we moved to Kansas. I spent my 6th through 9th grades in a few small towns in Northwest Kansas, Goodland and Brewster. It was a culture shock for a city boy to move to farmland America. I was most certainly a fish out of water. As all children, I adapted quickly, and I started to “fit in” by my 7th or 8th grade year. All during my time in Kansas, my love for God remained, but I was not as close to Him as I was during my younger days. I was spending most of my efforts trying to “fit in” and not trying to please God.
Before my 10th grade year, we moved back to San Gabriel Valley in Southern California, to Valinda, about 17 miles from Duarte. Once again, culture shock, now in the reverse. Now I was considered the country bumpkin in the midst of the city kids. Here I was exposed to many of the temptations of the average High Schooler (sex, drugs and Rock-n-Roll). During my 11th grade year, I put God on the back-burner and started to indulge. Of course, my grades suffered, because I started cutting class, partying and doing all the things of a rebellious High Schooler. I also was very interested in music, so I joined a Rock band as the singer. This led me to Hollywood, and to all the clubs and temptations of the bright lights. Also, during this time, my dad left my mom and started divorce proceedings. I didn’t realize at the time how much this impacted me emotionally and spiritually. While I always thought I would go to college, I now was so in love with Hard Rock/Heavy Metal music and the idea of playing music, I no longer made education a priority. My focus was completely on music, not education, not God.
Right after High School I had many jobs. It was hard to hold a job when you have long hair and no skills, especially at that time. My mom went to live with my grandmother who had, at times, up to 12 family members living in a very small 700 sq. ft. 2-bedroom, 1-bath house. I was kicked out and had to live in some very shady places, sometimes in my car or on the street, homeless. In between jobs, I would go buy a fast-food hamburger for 50 cents and drink from the water fountain. It was at this time in my life that I considered suicide. I thought no one cared about me and that nothing really mattered. I went to a bridge overpass, but something inside told me, “If no one cares, then why do you care?” finally realizing that I was acting completely on emotion and not reality. I now think back and see all the wonderful opportunity I had back then, but I could only see the negative, not the possibilities. At this point, I was an atheist or maybe a deist. I could possibly believe that there was a God, but it was most certainly not the God of the Bible.
I finally got a decent job as a machinist and continued playing in Rock bands at night. If I had a nickel for every time, someone would say I was going to get my long hair caught in a machine at work, I would be a millionaire. When I was 20, I met a woman, got married, bought a house and had a daughter. That marriage lasted 20 years until it ultimately ended in divorce. During this time in my life, I never really had any thoughts about God. It was as if I had completely forgotten all the things God had done for me when I was younger. All my time was spent making money, playing in bands and just living the average American life.
After my divorce, my sisters talked me into moving to Texas, the Houston area. They had both been living there for some time and encouraged me to move there, so I could have a better life. The divorce had left me financially and emotionally drained, so I thought, “why not?” Little did I know at the time that this may prove to be the providence of God at work.
Once I moved to Texas, my sister asked me to go to church. It was one of those mega-churches with about 20,000 people. I went just so I could spend time with my sister, who I hadn’t spent much time with since our youth. I would listen to “Highway to Hell” on the way to church, so I only half-heartily believed in God. No way was I going to give up my music, drinking or any other thing I valued for God. In the Sunday School class, I would put up a facade and pretend I was a Christian. I knew many of the “Churchy” terms from my youth and thought I could make them think I was one of them. In hindsight, they probably could see through the facade. Either way, the Holy Spirit was dealing with me. Even though I wasn’t full in, I was at least exploring and considering God in ways I hadn’t for years. My sister led a small group and we read, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be An Atheist.” This profoundly impacted me, insomuch that I then realized that being a Christian could be intelligent. I always thought Christians were all emotion and had blind faith. I remember in my youth, many times when I asked my mom a question about God, she would quote, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” But she would never quote the verse a little farther in Proverbs that says, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5, 13)
It was at that mega-church in Texas that I met my wife, Nichoel. We met 30 years prior in Brewster, Kansas, but were both unaware of it at this point. When we were talking, one of us mentioned Brewster, Kansas, and then we realized that both of us had roots in that small town of about 300 people. By the time we got together again, we realized that our families went to the same church and that my family rented a farm house from her family. Her uncle was my church youth group leader. So obviously, our families all knew each other. Nichoel is the love of my life and I’m so fortunate God put us together 12 years ago. We still live in the Houston area.
My Christian faith was still pretty shaky 12 years ago. While I was well on my way to becoming a Christian, I still had many things I would not fully give up for God. Some will say, “Why should you have to give anything up for God?” and now my answer is, “Because I love Jesus and I want to reflect His character.” I had started reading the Bible more, but was still living a sinful life and justifying the things I did that were wrong. About 8 years ago I started really seeking God. Through this search, I had a special encounter with God similar to the early days of my youth. I also (through study) had an illumination of Grace that I never experienced before. I never truly knew what the Apostle Paul meant when he said,“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” [Ephesians 2:8-9] The idea that, “You need to be a good boy to be right with God” was drilled into me my entire life. I now know about the gift of God (Grace) and have a gratitude for what Jesus did by dying for my sins, that far outweighs anything. My desire to know Jesus more and more grows each day. Due to my encounter 8 years ago, I also have the yearning to help and teach others the truth about Jesus that has been skewed by many false teachers.
I’m now happier than ever, and love serving God. I occasionally teach at Sunday School, Youth Group, Men’s group and home churches. I have led and been involved with many Nursing Home ministries and Prayer ministries. “Scars for Thomas” is all God’s doing. He gave me the courage to create these videos. My hope is that these “Scars for Thomas” will inspire others to love the Lord and become part of the Kingdom of God by becoming disciples.
