Author Archives: alanfoster

I knew that we would face challenges ever since I failed a test that God put before me. He knew I would fail, so I guess it was just a much needed unveiling of my black heart to prepare me for what lie ahead. This happened before I left, but it has taken a while for me to process. Here´s the gist with an ironic detail included:

3 days before Nick Gambrell and I were to leave for Panama, back in January, he came over to the house to help clean pecans that we would sell to support the mission. He brought his fiddle so we could make sure it fit the luggage requirements (it was 12” too long. Nick declared that Jesus loves fiddles and would make it invisible. Apparently Jesus does love fiddlin´ because it worked) and we played a little. Reminiscing over supper, we stumbled on yet another common piece of cherished heritage:  the Robin Hood cartoon, which, incidentally, we had a copy of in the basement where the pecan pickin´ was happening. Soon enough, we were watching it for the 113^th time, instruments in hand, and singing “oodalolly doodalolly golly what a day.”

The next day, Colleen and I walked into Bank of America, where I´ve had an account since long, long ago, to withdraw all of our savings and change the account type to something that would be conducive to our work in Panama. After much discussion and prayer, we had saved $7,000 that was intended to finish our house, buy a vehicle, and sustain us for an indefinite amount of time as our work and support base evolved.

I was glad to remove it from the bank´s hands, and I must confess a bitter sentiment towards certain players in the financial institution, particularly my own bank. Perhaps I don´t have enough formal education in economics to give my 2 cents on bailouts, but I worked briefly for a landscaping company in the months preceding our departure, and one of the contracts was $1 million on a ½ acre on the lake… a 3^rd home gifted to the current wife. The owner? a Bank of America executive that received a multi-million dollar bonus immediately following the bailout.

We spoke to a manager, explained that I was leaving the country in 2 days, changed our account, and received very positive encouragement for the endeavor we were undertaking. Colleen waited while I went to the teller and was given 2 large stacks of bundled cash, and then we headed home. On arriving, I noticed that one bundle was bound and marked ¨$2000¨ and the other ¨$10,000.¨ “Odd,” I thought. “They must have run out of the correct paper or maybe they took half out already.” Alone, I slowly counted the crisp bills, chuckling to myself about how that loveable Robin Hood had gotten the better of the contemptible Prince John, all the while conjuring an impenetrable wall of justification. Wow! Does the good Lord know how to answer a prayer or what?!

I was holding $12,000 in cash and my deceitful logic had killed my screaming heart… me ready to get on a plane the next day with financial peace of mind and a murdered conscience… and then the phone rang. “Hi, Mr. Foster… have you counted your withdrawal yet?” “No, I´ll do that now,” I lied, trying to stall, not from facing the bank, but from facing myself. A group of 3 bank employees came by the house that afternoon to get their missing cash.

And so it was that I began to acknowledge my deceit, my fear, and my lack of faith in God to provide for my family and I.

Last month, as work became so demanding that I haven´t made any progress on the house in weeks, and our finances ran totally dry, we were provided with an opportunity to address this lack of faith. And it has been a tremendous blessing. Neighbors came out of the woodwork with soup, avocados, eggs, mangos, bananas, beans, and more. We had to give food away so it wouldn´t rot. Two dear friends, became our first monthly supporters, each committing $50 of predictable income to our ministry. Daniel, Chris, and Nick with BarnabasX came down and eliminated our personal debt, took care of us for the week of their stay, and purchased $2000 of materials towards our community´s water system that we´ve begun to build (more on that soon). And I signed a contract today for a small job that will provide $1000 of income, designing the planting scheme for Mission Clinics International, a Christian organization that is building a hospital about 1 hour´s drive from our home.

We are growing in faith and know that this test has opened doors for others to share in our work and thus share in our joy. And since our work is just beginning, our financial needs are also just beginning. Considering ourselves public servants, we have chosen to publish our finances, wanting to be transparent so that folks who are interested in joining and supporting our mission know where their money is going. Here is the page where our monthly finances are posted with the months of May and June completed. Our expenditures will vary significantly depending on travel, ministry expenses,  and… well… availability of funds. Please don´t hesitate to get in touch.

In Growing Faith,

alan

Thanks Tio Todd and Aunty Janice for the new threads!

“You´ve got your first disciple!”

Obdulio´s comment caught me off guard. He is a businessman. His business is his ministry (buying and selling the artwork of his people), and he practices what he preaches. He is one of my mentors… aware that we all aren´t called to be preachers… and doing everything wholeheartedly.

Voracious chickens necesitate Erik´s invention of tarp, sticks, board, and bedsprings.

Obdulio was referring to my recently turned 15 year old neighbor, Erik, who had just planted a garden for his family, similar in size and form to my garden, with seeds that he got from me. He´s already appeared in several of our blogs. We´ve fixed the water system together, explored new water sources, planted trees, and we´re just starting a project to graft fruit trees. We also read scripture together. Erik teaches me the names of plants, animals, insects, and birds, when to plant, when to harvest, and he gives a fairly accurate weather report. He dug a well for us next to the creek when the water system was not working, and he contributes significantly to our diet with gifts of avocado, sugar cane, lychee, banana, plantain, coconut, and more.

Erik has also been subjected to my ranting on charcoal and its potential as an agricultural amendment, and being the typical 15 year old pyromaniac, he is glad to help with any and all experiments that involve burning stuff. We´ve done smothered charcoal pits, chimneyed charcoal pits, and in-between charcoal pits with varying degrees of success and pollution.

Shortly before leaving the U.S., I saw a program on the History Channel about whiskey which included the Jack Daniels how-to for making the charcoal they use to filter their famous bourbon. It goes like this: 1) Make a big pile of loosely stacked wood… like a sacrificial pyre. 2) Light a small fire on top. 3) Let it burn down. 4) Douse with water. Simple, right? By starting the fire on top all the gases are drawn up through the flames, effectively burning up all the smoke… a smokeless, “clean” fire!  The jury is still out with regard to what is best charcoal for agriculture applications, and this process does not allow for the capture of wood vinegar, nor is it a very efficient conversion, but the surprise for me was how clean it burned and how little work it involved. The International Biochar Initiative is a good place to start research if the topic interests you.

Kalea with Elena our neighbor... I see Bryce, too!

June 5^th, the Sunday after Kalea´s birthday, we had a baby dedication held at our house (the pastor that led the service is the same missionary that married Alan and I four years ago). There was singing in three languages; Spanish, English and Woumeo .  For me, this service was unique to witness, because there are some prejudices here between the latinos and the indigenous. At first, I felt like I had traveled back in time to middle school, you know the dances where all the boys stand on one side, and the girls on the other, and the two look at each other ackwardly….as it turned out, the latino´s were on one side, the indigenous on the other, and I chose the middle to play it safe.  At one point the pastor even muttered, “we´re at a party, not a funeral!”, but things warmed up and soon enough we were singing hymns together.

music and clapping brings down cultural barriers

The night before, we enjoyed the company of 10 others that stayed at our home, most of which are our partners with which we will start working on the MBMSI project.  The final turnout for the celebration was about 45. Kalea slept through most of her baby dedication,^, which was fine since the service stressed the importance of the parents role in their children´s lives, but also the importance in all children´s lives.

prayer with pastor Einer

After the service, we enjoyed the typical arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) which I am thankful my willing neighbors took on themselves to prepare. For dessert, I prepared Ma Foster´s recipe for carrot cake…for those of you that have never made it…don´t let the name fool you. Carrots are not the main sh-bang….there is pineapple and coconut too. For this special birthday, and because we live in the tropics, we substituted the canned pineapple and bagged coconut for the real deal….and not to toot toot the horn…but it was fabulous!!! Thank you Mama Kat and thinking of you Stephen as you missed out on this one…when you and Adri visit, I will prepare a fresh one for you. At this time I would also like to dedicate a shout out to Bryce Chapman. He was so helpful! Our go to guy…dishes, food prep…we name it, he cheerfully does it! Thanks Bryce!

And now….final thoughts…not to end on a sour note, but it needs to be addressed. Panamá needs help! It never fails, I am constantly reminded through mother´s actions how in dire need these folks are for lessons in health. Quick examples, mother wipes snotty nose with her hands and then proceeds to touch my child….mother stays at my house the day after her child breaks with chicken pox and does not tell me (once I noticed the red bumps on her son, I brought it up and addressed it)…so, when I feel like I don´t know why I´m here….this is why… and I will help create a curriculum that is geared towards health concerns in rural Panama….have any suggestions? I´d love to hear from you…prayers are always appreciated too!

Thank you all!

developing a taste for fine art with Nehemiah

(by Alan)

Life has been quite random recently. After three unsuccessful attempts to elect a new water committee in Catrigandi, the old president, Fredino, called a meeting, showed up early, renounced, and left promptly… definitely wise on his part given the prior difficulties he had in renouncing. By the time I arrived to the meeting to find out who were going to be the new committee members, about 40 community leaders had gathered, plotting in small groups. The meeting began rather informally but abruptly. I was nominated and voted in unanimously as president of the water committee and then given a chance to speak. I renounced the presidency, as gratefully as possible, and offered my support as a technician. The various offices of the committee were eventually accepted by several well-meaning, reluctant gentlemen, and we agreed to visit the Ministry of Health together to get our water project moving forward. The Ministry of Health claimed they could not see us, so I called their bluff and went unannounced with my trump card, Kalea. We are now BestFriendsForever with the secretaries, which is good, because all the higher positions will change the next time the government has elections.

Yesterday we found ourselves drinking overpriced coffee in a 5 star hotel lobby with a humble and world-renowned consultant in the international coffee industry, Andrew Hetzel, making conference calls to Hawaii. Because we´re now trying to help get an indigenous coffee cooperative off the ground, and we need a person with Andrew´s exact skill set and team of professionals whom we had no idea even existed, it would seem ridiculously coincidental that Andrew was one of six brave pupils in the community center Spanish classes I taught back in Hawaii. But we know there are no coincidences. Thank you Andrew for taking time to come see us and believing in what we´re doing… and for putting up with my inept, rambling attempts at teaching.

rubber ducky, you´re the one

And last but not least, today is a big milestone for baby Kalea as she turns the big 01. She has surprised us with her first steps and continues to speak to neighbors and strangers alike in a language no one understands but everyone enjoys. We thank God for her health and pray for wisdom in our responsibility as parents.

what mess?

I want you!

(by Colleen) Days in Panamá: 63

When the weather is at its hottest, it’s enough to make any sane person think of suicide. I just need to finish the dishes, then I´ll go cool off in the river, I thought to myself. I needed to fill my wash bucket half full for the dishes downstairs with the hose. To my surprise, no water. Great, I was about to give Kalea a bath too, and we don´t bath her with river water since she will surely swallow it. I´ll just wait a little bit. Usually when there is no water, it is for a short period of time. This means someone up the water line is using water (usually wasting it by leaving a faucet open!) or there is a leak. I´ll take the laundry off the line and put the laundry away while I wait. As I´m sorting clean clothes, I have an extreme itching sensation. Since I´m already covered in itchy chigger bumps this isn´t anything abnormal. I look down, great a tick! Poor Kalea needs a bath, I know she´s hot and is covered in food from her lunch. It must be 100 degrees. The irritability of the heat, the tick, and the itch set in. I hate the heat, I can´t live here! I begin to pray and ask, Why here? Why Panamá? How can I help anybody here?

Meanwhile, Alan drops Kalea off with the neighbor, and leaves to go check for leaks in the water line. He returns with no luck which means, there might be a problem higher up at the base of the system, a 2 hour hike away. We get ready to leave for the river to cool off. The sky opens up with a downpour of rain. The rivers too dirty now and at this point too dangerous. I begin to bath in the rain. I´m shivering now because its cold. I look over across the lawn at Alan who is also bathing. A good laugh breaks my solemnness of the previous events. God is good. It is the little things in life we take for granted. I guess I received volumes of water in a way I was not expecting. Now my wash bucket that was left out in the open is overflowing. Now I can go do my dishes.

We currently have running water! But it comes and goes. The system in this community is over 27 years old, and we are in the midst of raising funds to build a new one. Please pray for us, and if you would like more information on how you can help, please contact us!

it is a little known fact that hammocks actually function better when it´s raining

We had to scoop our jaws off the floor the other day when a lovely indigenous couple that is one of our main counterparts in the church informed us that he and his wife had decided to buy us land so we would have somewhere to plant. They wound up getting us about an acre very close to our house with a lot of creek frontage, a variety of fruit trees already planted, and a small waterfall. We´re hoping to install the pico-hydroelectric system, for which I have everything but the tubing, on that property and possibly make a charging station so that community members can charge a battery if they want.

An indebted thank you goes out to whoever was praying about our road. The answer came in two forms. 1) Our government officials visited us at our request, promised to send the same slackers back to do a decent job, and charged the community with keeping track of what they did. 2) Most community members either a) continued to do nothing or b) continued complaining and continued to do nothing; and the good Lord gave me the motivation and patience to do exactly what I did not want to do: babysit the road crew.

you can see the excavator bucket trying to keep the dump truck from flipping while the grader pulls it out... one of several "incidents"

Donning my most professional attire and armed with a camera and notebook, and pretending to know how to build a road, I proceeded to regurgitate everything that community members had told me needed to be done, often looking at my watch and utilizing a technique rarely encountered in Panamanian employment: encouragement.

people that only complain are also likely to do stupid things like get their truck stuck on top of a pile of material and then abandon it, blocking the road.

To my surprise, it worked! I coordinated with community members to keep the workers fed and happy and their attitude towards me shifted from annoyance and resentment to acceptance and maybe even appreciation, even though I fended off the majority of community members offering cash to do private work on public time. After a week and a half, I had learned a lot, got to ride in some snazzy machinery, and we now have a pretty decent road.

Our last and most daunting news is that a project proposal we wrote for MBMSI has been approved. It´s about $150k to build water systems and latrines and to conduct educational health workshops in 7 indigenous communities in the far reaches of Darién. The figure is actually outrageously cheap because our goal is to utilize existing infrastructure from recent, failed government projects in the majority of the communities. The timeline is an optimistic 2.5 years. Here is a copy of the proposals if you like to read dry business documents. Aquaducts , Latrines

We´d like to express our sincere gratitude to yall that support us in your thoughts and prayers. Let us know how we can return the favor.

cheeky... very cheeky

When Mother Theresa was asked what she thought caused the most suffering in the world, she replied ¨loneliness.¨ This may come as a surprise considering that she was consistently confronted with disease, hunger, and poverty, but when we reflect on the fact that we are here to enjoy each other´s company… fellowship that is… it is no surprise at all. What has surprised me is that I can feel lonely on a crowded bus, or surrounded by 80,000 people at a ballgame, or in a community where we receive neighborly visits on a daily basis. I suppose it´s because fellowship is not necessarily a physical presence but rather a form of communication… an intimate form intended to mold and deepen relationships and often one based on shared experiences. Having grown up with a strong foundation of blood family and church family, I regret having taken for granted many of these shared experiences and my subsequent failure to deepen many of these relationships. And I´ve come to realize that there is absolutely no substitute for the relationships that begin in childhood… relationships which are founded in common experience. Moreover, the relationships made working overseas, although no less genuine, can be difficult to deepen because of cultural and language barriers. If you haven´t guessed by now, we´re lonely! Be you friend or family, there is no substitute for you, and we miss you! Every time we go to the city, we anxiously check our email, hoping for some news, any news from ¨home.¨ Share your joys, prayer needs, the name of your new cat, anything.  I haven´t exactly dove into the era of techy communication, but we hoped this blog would serve as one side of a dialogue, helping us to maintain and deepen relationships with our loved ones far away. And to those that have helped us stave off the loneliness by dropping a line now and then: Thank you! with Love,!

 Our Easter Story (by Colleen and Alan)

We thought about hugging this saved tree until we realized it was crawling with giant biting ants

A tree is saved! Tremendous joy takes hold of me, a fabulous way to start Easter, I give thanks to the Lord, and am reminded of his awesomeness. It all started the afternoon before Easter… I was home alone in the house with Kalea as Alan went to harvest coconuts in a nearby farm over the hill from our house. It was said that a few trees were to be cut down on the property beside us. Let me interrupt the story here to describe this land. The adjacent property to me is a little piece of heaven…all trees, a sanctuary for birds, and at night, home to some small monkeys that almost peed on our heads as we peered over the

I can´t believe this pregnant sloth survived the felling of its home

 side of the balcony looking for them… I have only seen a couple trees cut down in my lifetime, and it was very strategic in the way that the trees were tied, and taken down limb by limb more or less. .. The man arrived a day earlier than expected to cut these trees….I thought  only a few, but he seemed to be cutting one down after the other. I was overwhelmed with deep sadness…while I have always considered myself to be a tree hugger, this moment gave it new meaning. The sadness came from the thought of what took at least the same number of years as my lifetime or more to grow, was cut down timber style in a moments time. I watched some of the same trees fall that only a day earlier I watched my favorite bird perch. As the neighboring children watched in excitement and thought of it as a game to run from the towering 80 foot something tree drop… I´m not embarrassed to say, I cried! Ironically, the man cutting these trees, is the same man that we bought our wood from to build the house…I thought about this as I watched the other trees fall. The next morning, Easter Sunday, the man arrived early to finish the job… to cut my favorite tree to use as posts to fence the property. The tree that I think as of the cornerstone to my house, as it sits at a diagonal directly behind the house, a tree that I admire and enjoy its beauty every day. I told Alan that I thought about tying a sign to the tree “por favor salvame.” (Please save me)  Alan responded with, “I´ll just talk with the man, it doesn´t hurt to ask.”

…The representative has begun to fulfill his promise about fixing our road and came to town yesterday with the legislator, the highest ranking government official in our province, to survey the task at hand and give us his promise. He visited our home and told us how to find him if we needed anything. I guess it doesn´t hurt to ask. When Nehemiah was trying to rebuild Jerusalem´s walls he asked,  [¨If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king´s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?¨ And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. Nehemiah 2:7-8] Couldn´t Nehemiah have just prayed to God for those things? Of course, but that would have relinquished the king of the joy of contributing; and it would have taken away the opportunity for Nehemiah and the king to strengthen their relationship through working together.

I suppose it is most difficult when someone is potentially harming me or doing something I don´t agree with, and I would never discourage prayer, but you won´t see me bowing me head and closing my eyes asking the Lord to deliver me from the physical suffering I´m enduring because you´re standing on my foot. I´ll let you know. So in the end, most of our neighbor´s beautiful little forest is still standing, and we were able to serve the laborer and his family Easter lunch and talk about the importance of this holy day.

hi

In two words: No Privacy! While adjusting to the heat of Panamá and lack of running water (fixed now!), nothing seems easy. Most of my days start out with “Why am I here?” While I´m sure the good Lord is testing my patience, he is also helping me to understand why I am here: to help ensure  that folks get good clean running water, always!

Back to privacy. Visiting is the thing to do here, and seeing as I have the only white baby in the country (ha! Ha! No but seriously, it does feel this way at times), she is pretty popular. Some days I have visitors what seems to be all day, and other days, I might only get one visit. Don´t forget it is more difficult for me to receive visitors, because I am still learning Spanish.

One day, I felt so frustrated and Alan came back with a really good analogy that hit home for me. He said, “Colleen, we might as well be from Mars. Some of these people have never left the countryside, if they do travel, it isn´t far from home. Some of the wives that visit you are lonely, their husbands are out working all day, the kids are in school…Picture a family moving next door to us from Mars…they build a funny house, and look and act a little differently from what we are accustomed. Of course we are going to be very curious to learn more about them.”

Sure enough, the next afternoon, while receiving a visit from Elena and her 2 young children, her little girl kept saying she wanted to go home. Elena responded with some words I didn´t understand, but I made sure to remember them and ask Alan later…She responded to her little girl with….I am lonely.

So while being from Mars helps me cope, little by little I have learned to appreciate my neighbors. They are all genuinely interested, friendly, helpful, and generous (and of course helping me learn Spanish faster). I really couldn´t have asked for nicer neighbors. I do realize as the language barrier lessens, I will be talking up a storm!