This is Tom. He went to prison 9 months before I was born. I met him about 22 years later during one of my regular monthly visits at the Dick Conner Correctional Facility, a high-medium security Oklahoma prison, notorious for its frequent riots and well-earned name as being one of the roughest facilities in the entire state. Tom was the inmate who ran sound for me during the church services I get to assist in holding, up until his release last year. Thomas Bevan spent 23 years in incarceration.
"I felt almost claustrophobic, almost to a state of panic. So to fix that, I just stayed high and sold inside the walls to afford to stay high."
The year was 1991 when Tom was finally arrested for 20 counts of armed robbery. Later on during his stay, he was caught using and selling drugs inside the institution and was tried with 3 counts of unlawful possession, consequently adding to his sentence. Right before his arrest, after several infidelities and years of him choosing to drink instead of tending to their marriage, Tom's wife and high school sweetheart, Elizabeth, finally left.
On one of his first days, after being transferred from a county jail to a state prison, Tom was beat up by another offender. Afterward, the inmate then proceeded to help Tom to his feet and tell him in a friendly manner, "You're alright."
There were even times during Tom's incarceration that he lived in true, genuine fear for his life. "There was a guy who wanted to kill me," he said, as we sat at the dinner table in his new house sharing a meal together. "So I thought I was just going to have to kill him." Thomas then explained to me, "[In addition to that] anything can cause a riot-- it's so intense. When caged animals are poked, they're gonna bite back. You just have to wrap your mind around the fact that you can die at any moment."
As time for all of us on the outside progressed as it should--sometimes comfortably, sometimes even all too quickly--as we occupied ourselves in activities, decided when we would go to a place and when we would leave it, shook hands with people we were meeting for the first time, and drove our vehicles to where we pleased, time, as it existed for Tom, progressed in slow motion, each day feeling exactly like the one before. He expressed how deeply he had missed the taste of fruit and the smell of a walnut tree, how his heart had longed for the companionship and softness of a woman and to be able to watch the sunset with an unclouded view as his was by a razor wire fence. Tom elaborated on how vital it is as an offender to learn to shut off memories of the outside world, particularly the deep yearnings of being united with loved ones,in order to survive, because it will tear you apart to, otherwise, become too emotionally involved.
Further into his sentence, Thomas Bevan gained employment in the institution. He drove a forklift in the warehouse and worked at the print shop. When I met Tom, he was the sound man who helped everything run for me during our monthly worship services in the little church building there in the courtyard. But the first time he actually ever stepped foot in that building was to sell drugs. He said he noticed a sign-up sheet for Kairos, which is an engaging all-weekend conference in which inmates have an opportunity experience spiritual restoration and to worship God together. Tom signed himself up because he knew about the big home cooked meals the people served the inmates there. "I went and I was impacted, but I wasn't changed," he said.
"I knew there was a better way than the way I was living. I thought money was everything, that having things was everything. But everything is fruitless. And everything is temporary."
While serving time, Tom made the decision to follow Jesus instead of living for himself.
"I hit a place of surrender. When I gave it all to Him, He gave it all to me. He did things so intense and immediate-- He took away my cigarette and drug addiction and replaced my desire to use people with giving. You lose your life to gain it. When you finally grip that, it's amazing. Christ produces rivers of living water to affect others. When you walk into a room with a negative atmosphere, instead of being changed by it you can change the atmosphere by the power of Christ Who lives within us."
During Thomas' incarceration, his ex-wife, Elizabeth, remarried. The man she married was a Christian, and through knowing him and examining the beauty of His relationship with God, she then made the decision to follow Jesus as well. Elizabeth's new husband took care of her and loved her well until his death a few years ago.
During the summer of 2015, after 23 years of incarceration, Tom was released from prison. The value of the American dollar had changed significantly, 4 presidential elections had come and gone, New York City had been bombed by terrorists, and the majority of U.S. citizens now walked around with the internet in the palm of their hands. "I worried about whether or not I could make it, if I'd be living under a bridge, if I would ever get hired. Would my kids accept me? I felt conviction about communicating with my ex-wife and felt that I should ask her for her forgiveness. But I feared her response."
Tom, the man I knew to be dressed in only grey, now sat with me in his living room, an iced drink in his hand. He described to me what it was like to ride in the car away from the penitentiary, "I felt queasy like I was on a roller coaster. I was wearing a new pair of jeans and a silk pair of socks and underwear. I couldn't even speak when I went outside. You just can't take it in all at once. During the car ride, I pointed to a tall structure we passed and asked the driver what it was, to which he replied, 'That's a cell phone tower'."
Following his release, Tom had to re-take his driver's test to gain a license again, take a computer class to learn how to operate one, and of course grow comfortable with the touch screen feature of an iPhone. In addition to these things, Tom met with his ex-wife to ask her for her forgiveness. The first time I heard Tom tell me this story, he broke down in tears saying, "We just fell in love all over again."
Both grown and restored by the love of God now, Thomas and Elizabeth, high school sweethearts and once divorced couple, re-married in April of 2016.
"She is such a blessing to me and reminds me to be thankful," Tom said. He smiled when he told me that he truly believes God is capable of restoring anything. "God has redirected my steps and brought so many people into my life. He gave me opportunities."
I asked Tom if there was anything he would like to say to anyone out there who is struggling. Nearly losing composure in the sincerity of his words, Tom replied, "There is a better way. Because Jesus loves you. When you give your life to Him, He'll pour it ALL out on you."
Along with the organization Prison Discipleship, Tom will go on to help open a re-entry program, a center designed to provide ex-offenders with rehabilitation, counseling, spiritual guidance and growth, and assistance in getting plugged back into the community and obtaining employment.
