The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Reverend Ross Thomson

Bammel Church of Christ
Houston, TX

Sponsor: Rep. Hon. Ted Poe, (R-TX)
Date of Prayer: 05/10/2006

One Minute Speech Given in Recognition of the Guest Chaplain:

(Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, Ross Thomson was born in Scotland in 1956. At the age of 4, his family moved to Toowoomba, Australia, where he was raised. While there, he became a Christian. In 1975, faith took his family to Salisbury, Rhodesia for mission work among the Shona tribe. He worked with his father, and would devote the rest of his life to saving souls.

Having lived the ministry for years, Ross moved to the United States to study. He obtained his bachelor and master's degree in theology from Harding University. He did further post–graduate work at Rice University.

In 1989 he married Christine, who is with us today, and moved his family to southeast Texas, Alice, Texas, where he preached for the Morningside Drive congregation.

He has preached for the Brooks Avenue Church of Christ in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Northlake Church of Christ in Atlanta, Georgia. Currently he is the pulpit minister for the 1,200 member Bammel Church of Christ in Houston.

Christine and Ross are blessed with three children, Joshua, Savannah and Justin.

It is clear Ross , with his proper Scottish background, was not born in Texas, but he got there as fast as he could. He became a U.S. citizen in 2002.

One of my favorite stories about Ross was his first trip to an American grocery story. The first place he went was a southern grocery store called Piggly Wiggly. Puzzled, he didn't quite understand that concept.

He has done much to preach the gospel of Jesus in Texas, and spends time in the people business. So today we welcome Ross here to the United States Congress, and appreciate his determination to practice and live the freedom of religion under the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Opening Prayer Given by the Guest Chaplain:

Lord,

As we gather in this city named for him, we remember George Washington's most precious possession: the keys always on his nightstand, the keys given to him by General Lafayette, the keys to the Bastille.

Lord, we thank you that, two centuries later, we still hold the keys of freedom. We are mindful that then and now, our greatest power is our ability to win hearts and minds; our greatest gift to mankind the inspiration of our ideas; our greatest influence that of moral persuasion.

Lord, you have allowed this nation the honor of being Freedom's first line of defense, and her last bastion of hope. Grant that we might live worthy of our calling and worthy of the hope of those who have gone before; that we in this place, might conduct ourselves with honor, courage, and integrity...worthy of this great Republic, worthy of the sacrifices of its citizens.

Amen.

To learn more about Members who have sponsored a Guest Chaplain, please visit the Congressional Biographical Directory