The Tom Coleman Story (2017)

I have met many fascinating people while working around the world with various cultures and tribes - people who are amazing role models and have performed great feats without demanding compensation or special privileges. One of these impressive people is Dr. Tom Coleman from Cambridge, Minnesota. From 1956 to 2004 he and his wife, Elaine, spent many years working in Africa, giving up their own comforts, and sometimes risking their lives, to help others. In the beginning their clinic was a crude wooden shed with only primitive equipment. As a young surgeon Dr. Coleman was presented with injuries and diseases he had never before encountered. Why do people like Tom and Elaine sacrifice such a large portion of their lives to helping others? Of course, it is because they have a great amount of love for people, but for Tom and Elaine, it was also because of a deep faith in a God who loves everyone equally. Tom recently had a dream. In the dream three children came running from a nearby playground to greet him. Laughing and jumping they called, "We have been waiting for you Grandpa!" Tom recognized the children who had all died very young years ago in Ethiopia. "I think," he told me, "that there is going to be a lot of light and enormous joy in heaven." That is the hope that has given him the strength to bear the many difficulties involved in working with poor people in Africa.