Living on West Tulsa Time

Memoriam for Jane Foster.

The best testiment to how a man should love a woman.

Dear Church Family,

I received some news this morning I wanted to share with you. My mom passed away this morning. For those of you who don’t know, my parents are missionaries in Korea. At the end of this note I will attach an email I sent out to some pastor friends of mine.
I most likely will be headed to South Korea today or tomorrow if I can find a flight. Things are a little strange with the terrorist threats. If I do leave, we will have a guest speaker this Sunday. I want to extend a special invitation to all our visitors that have been coming. You are such a blessing to our church. I hope you can attend on Sunday. Please remember my dad, Ike Foster in prayer. We love you and I’ll see you when I get back. Here’s the email.

I received a call this morning letting me know that my mom had died. She was battling Alzheimer’s. My mom and dad (Ike and Jane Foster) had been married for 59 years. They have been on the mission field for 58 years.

Dad took care of Mom during these difficult years while still doing the missions work. He would get up at 3:30 in the morning and make her breakfast. Then he would get mom up and bath her and dress her. He would feed her breakfast which would sometimes take an hour while he lovingly talked to her. He would then get himself ready just in time to catch a bus or subway, on Sunday morning, to get to church on time, with mom right by his side. Sometimes they wouldn’t get home till 9:00 at night. I would lecture dad, “You need to get some help”. “You need to have someone come in and relieve you of some of your duties.” He would sternly say, while pointing at me, “Son this is the wife of my youth. When I married her I said for better or worse. I meant it so I’ll take care of her!”

I often wondered why the Lord would allow my mom to get Alzheimer’s. After all, they gave literally everything they had for the cause of Christ. Japan and Korea were wore torn desolate countries when they went there all by themselves. Missionaries were rare and there were no other independent Baptist missionaries there. They lived on pennies and soup while building with used lumber and nails from building they would dismantle. They missed their grandchildren growing up as well as many milestones in the lives of loved ones they were separated with. Surely God wouldn’t let this happen to my mom. I was settled in my heart with this, though. I prayed, whatever will give her the best resurrection. Now I see. What a testimony this is to all the pastors and Christians in Korea of how a husband should care for a wife in adverse situations; not only them, but us, too. He trained an army of Korean pastors, deacons, and Christians, that are flooding the orient with the gospel, but what better training can there be then teaching them, through example, how to take care of the “wife of their youth”.

I will be flying to Korea the minute I can get airline tickets. Pray for Ike Foster.

Serving Together for Him,



Paul Foster

I am loved like that. Not many women get that lucky. I never got to meet Jane but she raise an awesome son and Paul's an awesome preacher.

Paul told us a few weeks ago that his father and mother had a really weird courtship. Ike had been asking around trying to find a bride to follow him into the mission feild. Paul quotes his father saying "I'm going to be a missionary in Japan. If I marry you will you come with me?" Jane said yes. They were married a few weeks later and off they went. Can you imagine a marriage like that today? Then they tried for years to have a child but they never did. Being in Japan they decided to adopt a child from the area however something called them to move to Korea. They waited and once they were settled they adopted a baby girl from the local orphanage. Originally they walked through the "nursery" and didn't find a baby that "spoke" to their heart. When they asked about other babies, Paul's sister was pulled from a box kept under her crib to keep her safe and out of the leak above her crib. I don't remember her name but her husband is a minister in Broken Arrow. A few years later they wanted her to have a sibling and they found Paul. He was 6 months old then. Paul sets an awesome example for us all coming from that much love and devotion to the Lord and family.

Whenever some one sings "I want to be loved like that" I know they were seeing a couple like Ike and Jane Foster.

posted by Debbysewn @ 2:56 PM