THE MAKING OF A MISSIONARY
Don Foster’s winding journey from salvation to life in the Congo
MARCH 24, 2017
BY STEFANI MCDADE
Don Foster’s motorcycle speeds down the bumpy gravel roads of the Congo. With a backpack full of In Touch Messengers, he heads toward a Mbuti Pygmy village full of people who have never heard the name of Jesus. As he rides, he can see smoke rising from nearby villages—a common sight in an area under siege. Foster’s choice to spread the gospel in a nation attacked by Islamic extremists may seem like a death wish, yet there was once a time when Foster was ready to give up his life for a cause far less noble.
He sold everything he owned, including his business.
Over the next seven years, he sold everything he owned, including his business. The last thing he gave up was his memory foam mattress. This final sacrifice of first-world comfort proved a stark contrast to the machine-gun fire he now falls asleep to—and the many times he’s been bedridden with typhoid and malaria.
Though Foster and his wife Jenya currently live only miles from a village where a massacre recently occurred, they still believe the safest place to be is at the center of God’s will. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else just because it’s safe,” Foster says. “I think that would be dying.”
In the meantime, Foster continues making regular motorcycle trips to bring the Word of Life to those on the brink of death. He keeps at it because there’s always one more village—one more person—with a desperate need to hear Christ’s message of salvation.
Photograph by Tommy Trenchard
Read the full article at:
https://www.intouch.org/read/magazine/in-focus/the-making-of-a-missionary
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https://www.intouch.org/read/content/love-in-the-heart-of-africa
https://www.intouch.org/read/magazine/in-focus/to-go-lower-still