The Catholic Church has played a vital role in the development of the African continent over the past two centuries, bringing modern essentials such as schools and hospitals, as well as a unifying faith, to people already in possession of rich spiritual traditions of their own.Experience the growth of one nation through the eyes of one of the Church's standard-bearers, Father Tom Russell, a Dublin priest who devoted many of his years helping the Shona people of Zimbabwe know modern medicine, universal education and, most importantly, God.Father Russell brings us a portrait of time now past and the lives he touched and was in turn touched by. His stories show beyond question that despite differences of thousands of miles, and centuries of culture, people are people underneath. A willing hand can touch any heart.