Thomas Strombeck

On March 27, 1927, Tom was born to two Swedish immigrants, John and Anna Strombeck in Emeryville, California. Tom, his brother and sisters were placed in an orphanage
when he was 6, because of his parent's problems with drinking, and for several years they lived in a "big house with very tall walls around it".
Going into high school, he and his siblings were split up and sent to foster homes. Tom got to live with his brother and one sister but, lost contact with his other two sisters.
One day they were walking up to their foster home after school and the police stopped them because their foster parents had had an argument and one had shot the other.
From then, until they graduated high school, the three kids drifted from one foster home to another.

World War II had broken out and following high school, his brother joined the Air Corps and Tom joined the Navy, he spent the duration of the war in California as a
Corpsman at a Naval hospital.
Following the war, because of the friendship he had with his brother-in-law, he was introduced to the Farnham family. They were related to the LeTourneau family in
Texas and they asked Tom along with another family friend to drive their daughter to Texas. When they arrived in Texas the LeTourneau's asked him to stay there and attend
the University. That is where Tom was first shown a Bible, he read it, and God got a person willing to follow him.
After graduating, Tom attended Bible school, where he met Jenta, his future wife. After their wedding, the LeTourneau's asked them to go to Peru with them to build roads.
They went, started a family and would have stayed but, one of their sons got sick and they had to return to the USA. They wanted to join the JARS mission, but God shut
the door. They then heard that the Central American Mission wanted to open clinics out "in the sticks" of Honduras. With Jenta being a nurse, they jumped at the opportunity and were accepted, and in 1959 they moved to Costa Rica to learn Spanish. For the next 33 years, Tom faithfully served the Savior, being used to bring thousands to the saving grace of Christ, and starting churches throughout Honduras and Costa Rica. It is unknown how many people were impacted because of Tom's service. There are several people who lived in villages, where no one had ever gone to tell them about the saving grace of Christ, who are now in the Christian service, some even serving as pastors.
After retiring, Tom and Jenta moved to Go Ye Village and we all know about Tom's serving attitude and will miss it. As Tom always said, "May you have a God blessed day,
I'm serious, I'm not joking". Tom would always give you the verses in Numbers 6:24-26.

Service

Cemetery