Meet the Fosters - learn of our personal interests, favorite things and read our testimonies...
Jim
Birthday: November 2
Anniversary: April 20, 1996
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Book: Lectures to my Students by Charles Spurgeon
Favorite Food: Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana
Favorite Quote: “There is no trouble too great, no suffering too deep, no expense too large, no labor too hard but that it is worth it if it is spent in the efforts to win a soul.” (unknown)
Testimony: “Where are you from?” is a question I find rather difficult to answer sometimes. My father was in the Navy so I was born in Pensacola, Florida but grew up there, as well as in San Diego, California, Fairfield, CA and the Philippines (for just 2 years when I was 4 and 5 years old). When I was 13, I attended Ironwood Christian camp with my youth group and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I soon realized the importance of witnessing to others and began to get involved in witnessing through door-to-door evangelism as well as bus ministry. By the time I was 16, I had the privilege of helping to teach a Sunday School class for children and become even more involved in church ministry.When I graduated from Midway Baptist High school in San Diego - a wonderful Christian school that played a major role in encouraging me to serve the Lord - I already had a desire to serve the Lord in whatever profession I ended up. However, I chose Accounting as my major as I never saw myself as somebody qualified or talented enough for missionary work or even full time Christian service.
During my junior year in college, God used a message from Colonel Jack McGuckin at our missions conference at Marcus Pointe Baptist Church to convince me that God wasn’t looking for ability but availability. I surrendered myself on that night in 1994 to serve the Lord as a missionary. It is hard to believe that 10 years later I would be in Africa. But, the Lord is good and directed us to a school in Manaus, Brazil in 1997-98 where we saw the need for teachers on the mission field and spent a year teaching in Brazil doing short-term missions work.
After that, we surrendered to go to South Africa as career missionaries and spend the following years (2000-03) visiting over 230 churches to raise support to move to South Africa. I must say that South Africa was the last place on the globe that I would rather be as the Lord has given us so much joy and happiness in our lives, family, and ministry. I am a firm believer in the “law of sewing and reaping” and have found the Lord to be faithful in giving us more than we could have ever ask or think. The only requirement is faithfulness to Him and commitment in serving Him.
Anniversary: April 20, 1996
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Book: Lectures to my Students by Charles Spurgeon
Favorite Food: Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana
Favorite Quote: “There is no trouble too great, no suffering too deep, no expense too large, no labor too hard but that it is worth it if it is spent in the efforts to win a soul.” (unknown)
Testimony: “Where are you from?” is a question I find rather difficult to answer sometimes. My father was in the Navy so I was born in Pensacola, Florida but grew up there, as well as in San Diego, California, Fairfield, CA and the Philippines (for just 2 years when I was 4 and 5 years old). When I was 13, I attended Ironwood Christian camp with my youth group and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I soon realized the importance of witnessing to others and began to get involved in witnessing through door-to-door evangelism as well as bus ministry. By the time I was 16, I had the privilege of helping to teach a Sunday School class for children and become even more involved in church ministry.When I graduated from Midway Baptist High school in San Diego - a wonderful Christian school that played a major role in encouraging me to serve the Lord - I already had a desire to serve the Lord in whatever profession I ended up. However, I chose Accounting as my major as I never saw myself as somebody qualified or talented enough for missionary work or even full time Christian service.
During my junior year in college, God used a message from Colonel Jack McGuckin at our missions conference at Marcus Pointe Baptist Church to convince me that God wasn’t looking for ability but availability. I surrendered myself on that night in 1994 to serve the Lord as a missionary. It is hard to believe that 10 years later I would be in Africa. But, the Lord is good and directed us to a school in Manaus, Brazil in 1997-98 where we saw the need for teachers on the mission field and spent a year teaching in Brazil doing short-term missions work.
After that, we surrendered to go to South Africa as career missionaries and spend the following years (2000-03) visiting over 230 churches to raise support to move to South Africa. I must say that South Africa was the last place on the globe that I would rather be as the Lord has given us so much joy and happiness in our lives, family, and ministry. I am a firm believer in the “law of sewing and reaping” and have found the Lord to be faithful in giving us more than we could have ever ask or think. The only requirement is faithfulness to Him and commitment in serving Him.
Kristina
Birthday: June 5
Anniversary: April 20, 1996
Favorite Color: teal
Favorite Food: Lobster/seafood
Talents: photograper, interior designer, health coach
Testimony: In her first trimester, my mother contracted a rare flue virus that caused me to be born with several medical conditions. I was born prematurely on June 5, 1971…however, being born proved the easy part.
They had put me in an oxygen tank with a tube into my head so that my brain would not be deprived of air with my lung being collapsed. The doctors told my parents that they had never performed this type of operation before on such a young person…and that IF I survived, they said I would most likely be deaf, dumb, and retarded….and told them that they may want to institutionalize me.
My parents are born-again Christians (my father being a Pastor almost all my life) and refused to believe the worst. Instead, they told the doctors that they would pray that God would give them wisdom and that God would fully heal their little girl. Eighteen months later would show another diaphragmatic hernia on the left side of my lung.
Seventeen operations and over 50 years later I am writing this in testament to God’s wonderful grace and healing on my life! I believe it was this Godly influence in my life that lead me to receive Christ as my personal Savior at the young age of four in half-day Kindergarten. Even as I was in and out of hospitals growing up, taking medication for my heart condition and battling with a weak immune system…I was constantly reminded of His loving mercy and reassured that He had a special plan for my life!
Through college, I was told by numerous doctors that I would never be able to have children because of the many operations that had been performed on my young body. As a result, every young man I dated was informed up-front before the relationship took us into serious territory that I may never be able to conceive. Clearly this seemed a problem to most of these men, except one.
Memorial Day 1991, is a mile marker in my life. This was the day I would meet my future husband. Standing in front of the admissions booths of Miracle Strip Amusement Park with my girlfriend, I noticed a tall, handsome, dark-haired, college student behind us. He was standing next to a guy that turned out to be a mutual friend of my girlfriend. Introductions were made, and we spent the day together getting sick on all the rides….but forming what would be a long-lasting relationship! We wrote all summer long and started officially dating when college started again in the Fall of ’92.
Five years later on April 20, 1996 we were married and started our lives together in Pensacola, Florida. That first year was a stepping stone into our lives as we got the call from a missionary school in Manaus, Brazil to teach the 3rd and 4th grades and the High School. After much thought and prayer, we started the process of getting our visas and leaving for the Amazon in August of 1997. It was then I started feeling very ill and found out that I was pregnant! This was in unexpected surprise as I had been told that this was impossible! “Nothing is impossible with God!” Three months pregnant, and bringing with us whatever we could fit in a suitcase, plus a dog and cat, we boarded the plane for Brazil. The Lord was ever faithful to us and provided for our every need! That year proved to be the first step in years of career missions that would eventually lead us to the southern tip of Africa
Anniversary: April 20, 1996
Favorite Color: teal
Favorite Food: Lobster/seafood
Talents: photograper, interior designer, health coach
Testimony: In her first trimester, my mother contracted a rare flue virus that caused me to be born with several medical conditions. I was born prematurely on June 5, 1971…however, being born proved the easy part.
They had put me in an oxygen tank with a tube into my head so that my brain would not be deprived of air with my lung being collapsed. The doctors told my parents that they had never performed this type of operation before on such a young person…and that IF I survived, they said I would most likely be deaf, dumb, and retarded….and told them that they may want to institutionalize me.
My parents are born-again Christians (my father being a Pastor almost all my life) and refused to believe the worst. Instead, they told the doctors that they would pray that God would give them wisdom and that God would fully heal their little girl. Eighteen months later would show another diaphragmatic hernia on the left side of my lung.
Seventeen operations and over 50 years later I am writing this in testament to God’s wonderful grace and healing on my life! I believe it was this Godly influence in my life that lead me to receive Christ as my personal Savior at the young age of four in half-day Kindergarten. Even as I was in and out of hospitals growing up, taking medication for my heart condition and battling with a weak immune system…I was constantly reminded of His loving mercy and reassured that He had a special plan for my life!
Through college, I was told by numerous doctors that I would never be able to have children because of the many operations that had been performed on my young body. As a result, every young man I dated was informed up-front before the relationship took us into serious territory that I may never be able to conceive. Clearly this seemed a problem to most of these men, except one.
Memorial Day 1991, is a mile marker in my life. This was the day I would meet my future husband. Standing in front of the admissions booths of Miracle Strip Amusement Park with my girlfriend, I noticed a tall, handsome, dark-haired, college student behind us. He was standing next to a guy that turned out to be a mutual friend of my girlfriend. Introductions were made, and we spent the day together getting sick on all the rides….but forming what would be a long-lasting relationship! We wrote all summer long and started officially dating when college started again in the Fall of ’92.
Five years later on April 20, 1996 we were married and started our lives together in Pensacola, Florida. That first year was a stepping stone into our lives as we got the call from a missionary school in Manaus, Brazil to teach the 3rd and 4th grades and the High School. After much thought and prayer, we started the process of getting our visas and leaving for the Amazon in August of 1997. It was then I started feeling very ill and found out that I was pregnant! This was in unexpected surprise as I had been told that this was impossible! “Nothing is impossible with God!” Three months pregnant, and bringing with us whatever we could fit in a suitcase, plus a dog and cat, we boarded the plane for Brazil. The Lord was ever faithful to us and provided for our every need! That year proved to be the first step in years of career missions that would eventually lead us to the southern tip of Africa
