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Memorial for John Barnes Coleman
Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009 David Schneider, Interim Pastor
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“The Children in the Kingdom”
Luke 18:14-16: “”But Jesus called them to him, saying, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such as these belongs the kingdom of God.’” John and Cheryl met at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. On their first date, John took her to a movie. He has always loved movies, especially the old classics. But Cheryl does not remember what picture they went to see. Theirs was a short romance. John asked Cheryl to marry him on their first date. But Cheryl did not accept until 4 months later. They stayed in La Crosse until he finished school. At school he did social work and also worked at a brewery – kind of like Laverne and Shirley. John and Cheryl, very early in their marriage, took those words of Jesus in the 18th Chapter of Luke quite literally. They became foster parents less than a year into their marriage. “We bought a house; Cheryl was there 4 days a week.” The two Colemans welcomed into their Christian home a 17 year-old teenage girl. She had been in 16 different placements in a year! She was used to running away all the time, every weekend. “Her social worker quit setting her clock for Sunday morning because she knew we would be calling.” Each time the police picked up the wayward youth and brought her back to the Colemans. John and Cheryl were the first couple who never gave up on this girl. She is 56 now. She left the Colemans’ home to get married, is still married and has 4 children. “She is a stay-at-home mom.” John was hooked. “He has an uncanny ability to relate to kids that no one else could.” All the kids John has worked with, and Cheryl to some extent, are involved in the correctional system. “They are homeless, or their parents are into drugs, unwilling or unable to be parents.” These are the children I think Luke is talking about, the ones the disciples had no use for, wanted to send away, not the cute and lovable photo favorites you and I always see. “’Let THESE come to me, and do NOTHING to hinder them, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God.’” From foster parents, John and Cheryl moved to become group home parents over the next 12 years. Cheryl tells me they had over 1,000 kids come through their doors in La Crosse, and then in the group home in Sparta, Wisconsin. In 1986, they moved to Minnesota to run a half-way house for chemically-dependant teens. John found a new calling as a counselor to the chemically-dependant. But now Cheryl and John had a third person in their family, their son Sean, who had to live in this group home until he was 15. “At this point, Sean insisted, “Get a real house and a real job!” So Sean’s father got “a real job” with OMNIA. What was he doing? Working with foster children in a day treatment facility! That lasted 4 years until he and a co-worker started their own business: a family in-home counseling with kids in the correctional system along with the children’s families. Seven years later, John sold the business; he and Cheryl came to Arkansas to be near Sean, who by now was teaching at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville. What a single-minded devotion to his Lord’s calling and to God’s forgotten, unloved children-forgotten by all except Jesus and John Coleman and a few others! John was at Community Services here in Russellville for a year, then moved over to Counseling Associates which offered a number of different programs. John took on the very difficult job of therapeutic foster care. The children he worked with, those to whom he showed his Christian love were all failures in 3 previous home placements, very often mentally-ill youngsters. Cheryl says, “He kind of fell into it.” For all these kids, “John was their favorite!” I met John Coleman in the Fellowship Sunday School class. He was the guy with the red beard who always had his red Venti cup of Starbucks—a mixture of herbal tea and lemonade. (Cheryl’s preference is for a cold Frappicino.) “Audrey Olson invited us to join their Fellowship Sunday School Class. He found his niche. This class is very outspoken. No one makes fun of others’ ideas. Everyone shares. It fit him perfectly. We both loved the idea of going to adult Sunday School.” I soon learned that this man, one of our first-year elders was a person I could count on. I grew to really enjoy talking with John, visiting in his home “mano a mano” the two of us. We discussed the old movies, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, John Wayne. He said he loved many of my sermons where I would draw in a character study from a movie. But one time, just out of the hospital, John was babysitting his granddaughters Gwen 7 and Maddie 3. Gwen looked at me and said (I was later corrected; it was Maddie!) “Why are you Sitting in Grandma’s chair? That’s her chair; you can’t sit there.” (“But Grandma is not here; so that is why I am sitting here.”) “You have to get out of her chair.” So I moved to the sofa, and their grandfather and I continued our conversation of movies. John was blessed not only with a love of God’s very special and needy children, but he also was given a unique sense of humor. “This was a gift,” says Cheryl, “that got him through places other counselors could not get.” One Sunday morning I was taking my turn doing a Children’s sermon, and neither of the Colemans were at worship that morning. We were talking about secrets. So I told the kids, “I visited John Coleman in the hospital yesterday. And I found out he has a secret, a big secret.” The kids thought it might be OK if I told them that secret -- because no one of them would ever let it get back to Mr. Coleman. But I said we might not be able to trust the adults. So I could not tell them John’s secret. …Will I tell you today? No. That secret has gone to his grave with him. I will tell you, the other loves of his life were fishing, canoeing and of course his Grandchildren. I saw a photo of John yesterday where he had lost 100 pounds and he was in the forest attired in nothing but a towel around his waste! John’s faith was a big part of his life, nurturing his love of difficult children and teenagers. His life has always been a life lived in the Presbyterian Church where he was raised. One of the first things John did when he moved here, before Cheryl arrived, was to visit around and find just the right church home. Central Presbyterian was the very first church he tried. He loved it; this was a big friendly, loving church family. When his wife arrived in town, John said, “Cheryl, you gotta’ come with me to this church! They never looked for another church. About his work and his counseling, “God just led us to so many different opportunities.” John challenged us in the congregation to take Jesus’ special love of the little ones to Heart. He introduced our Deacons’ Service Committee, and the rest of us, to take on the Street Kids, teenagers who are homeless and live in various places, many of whom do not go to School. We provide food and other items for these youth through the probation department. John has been one of those from our church in the lay pastor training class. The first time we commissioned members to take Communion into the home two by two, he accompanied me to Wildflower, and we served the Lord’s Supper to Bill and Jane Boudra. He and Cheryl Served on a project to draft a response plan to prevent and recognize child and spouse abuse. One particular Sunday, I think it was back in August, I was preaching on Communion Sunday. I told a particular story about chocolate chip cookies, which made John laugh so hard he nearly fell off his pew seat! A terminally-ill man was dying in his bed at home. His doctor had given him only hours to live; the family had been summoned. His wife was downstairs in the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies. The dying man could smell the hot cookies cooling off on the kitchen counter. He said to himself: I have to have one of those chocolate chip cookies if it is the last thing I do! So he rolled himself out of bed onto the floor. When he had recovered his breath, he dragged himself over to the stairs and tumbled down the stairs. Very slowly he crawled into the kitchen and with his last ounce of strength, he reached up to the counter where the cookies were. His wife slapped his hand and said, “Those are for the funeral dinner!” I believe that when you and I get to heaven, we will find John Coleman in the midst of the Children of the Kingdom, counseling, exchanging stories, sharing love with the same kids he worked with in life. Many of these will be grown-ups who came through John and Cheryl’s foster programs and group homes. “’Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.’”
Amen and Amen!
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