January 2010

2010
Still odd to me to be typing "2010" for things. "Spring 2010," "Hope 2010 is a great year....," "God has great things planned for 2010," etc, etc. It still seems like the digits, 2,0,1,0 should always end with the words, "... A Space Odyssey." I mean, shouldn't we be planning a vacation to one of Jupiter's moons or something? Nope - I live in Europe and still spend about $7 a gallon on gas. But, I digress.

January in NJ, Cali, and back home to Hungary
We really did have a nice time visiting family and friends over the break. Much needed, to be certain, but equally certain: it was not quite long enough. Thanks so much to everyone that prayed for the Foster family (extended version) this past month. Gramma Wilma's memorial was really nice. She was such an amazing lady - I always loved talking about her, and... she was one of the people I loved to boast about. She is already missed but we are thrilled for her.

Back home in Vajta, I had about... one day off before things kicked in. Intern retreat/orientation, two conferences (back-to-back), and then student arrivals and orientation (the conference center/Bible College trifecta: conference comes, conferences goes, the next conference comes that day, it leaves, and new students arrive that same day). Basically, we've kept our laundry-service guy fairly busy the last couple of weeks.

Spring Semester 2010
For me, Apologetics and Church History are on my plate for classes to teach. Full load of information based studies which are requiring me to really hit the books. Teaching is always so humbling for me. I just don't know as much as I'd like to. My rows of books just seem to beckon to me, and heckle me all at the same time.

Christi is doing more of a "home school" format with teaching Leah and Kara and we're excited about that. She does a great job with them and they seem to really enjoy it. Thankfully we have an extra room in the house as well as a really big kitchen table that has been provided for us. Mikayla is doing great with her A-B-C's and 1-2-3's and she'll no doubt be ahead of the curve soon.

The Bible College semester officially gets underway tomorrow morning (February 1st... FEBRUARY - how did that happen?). Orientation was this past weekend and it was busier than usual. One of the pastors here, Paul Lange, suffered a collapsed lung on Thursday afternoon. If you know Paul, the following statement won't surprise you: he drove himself to the hospital. He actually had the same thing happen about 10 years ago but wasn't sure this time if that was what had happened. It was, and they rushed him into surgery after a test or two. Please continue to pray for him; he came out of surgery fine, but he'll most likely be in the hospital for another few days.

We've also "enjoyed" (insert sarcasm there at your own discretion) quite a bit of snow to get things started. (This is the part where I normally grumble something under my breath about annoying cold white stuff falling from the sky.) Ironically, I think I'm getting used to cold weather. It just plain doesn't bother me like it used to. I guess I'm getting old.

Speaking of Getting Old...
Ian is 10 years old today. 10. Ten. The big 1-0. Double digits. Three years from teenagehood and eight years removed from adulthood. He is already such an amazing young man and we love him so much. I could not imagine having a better son than our T-man.

And of course...
... for those of you who don't know, this semester in Vajta, Hungary will be our last one. We've enjoyed the ride but will be moving on to England to assist at Calvary Chapel Mansfield with Pastor Bryce Heard and his wife Bethany in late-June/early-July. There are a couple of churches just waiting to happen in the surrounding areas and so we are excited to see what else God has in mind in the region. Please pray for us! Really, please do pray for us. We have A LOT of decisions to make on a number of fronts and there are a lot of things to just generally sort through.

(If you'd like, you could read last month's post and get an extra detail or two. All previous posts are just below this one.)

Tons of blessings and lots of love,

Jeremy & Christi and the kids (one of which, as mentioned, is now 10 years old)

Way-Late, December 2009 Update

Our "Way-Late, December 2009 Update"
And I mean, way late. For all of you that have been chomping at the proverbial bit to find out how we're doing, my apologies. As you might have guessed, December (and the beginning of January as well), has been fairly non-stop. I'll try to recap and let you be on your way.

School's out!
As a student, that was always fun to say ("School's out!") - as a teacher at a school, it is appropriate to add a couple of extra exclamation points to that statement, and to add a little emphasis as well (i.e. "SCHOOL IS OUT!!!"). Having said that, we're truly blessed to have spent such a big chunk of our time with some amazing young people. I hope they learn as much from us as we learn from them. We finished up a wonderful semester at the Bible College in mid-December and said goodbye to some wonderful graduates.

Off to the States!
Always funny to say/write this, but... it is nice to visit the United States of America. We are having a wonderful time with Christi's family and are happy to have a bit more time with them before we head back home. Having said that... the East Coast (for those of you that live on the West Coast) is stinking freezing right now. We were greeted the day after we got in with two feet of snow. Two feet of snow, for those of you that have n'er picked up a snow shovel, isn't as much fun as you might think it would be.

As nice as it has been here however, two days before Christmas, my Gramma Wilma (my dad's mom) went home to be with Jesus. I flew out on the 3rd; the memorial was January 4th in California, and it really was a wonderful time of remembering a truly remarkable woman. To say that she had a hard life early on is an understatement, but she has an amazing family that loved her so much and she made such a huge impact on so many people. She truly will be missed. Thanks so much to all of that you were praying for us - please feel free to continue to do so!

While in New Jersey, we've also had a great time catching up with people and connecting with some of the wonderful saints that take care of us as missionaries. Thank you all so much for all that you do for us.

The Next Chapter for the Foster Family
As many of you have already heard, this next semester in Vajta, Hungary will be our last. As you might recall, around this time last year, we were pretty much saying the same thing. Well, as God was in the process of shutting that door last year in Ireland, He was preparing a new door for us to walk through this year.

We'll be moving to Mansfield, England to assist at Calvary Chapel Mansfield, and see what else the Lord has in store for us, and England, in the near future. Our belief is, simply put, that God wants to see more Bible-teaching churches established in that great land. We are honored, humbled, excited, and wide-eyed to this new adventure that our King has for us. It was a very difficult conclusion to reach - we love what we do at the Bible College - but we know it is the right one.

Prayer Requests?
Yes. We do have a few, thank you very much.
Health. Ian has been sick this past week (bummer of a Christmas vacation), but it seems like he is on the mend.
Next Semester. We really, really, really want to finish strong (the plan is to head to England in late-June/early-July), and we do not want to leave anything undone.
Provision. As you might imagine, living in England will be significantly more expensive than living on-campus in Eastern Europe. Please pray that God provides for our needs in one way or another. We believe that He will do so.
Bryce & Bethany Heard. Bryce is the pastor of CC Mansfield and is currently teaching the Bible to several other groups of believers in several other surrounding cities. Please pray for them and their four girls as they continue the work and wait for some help.
My Bride. Christi will continue to teach the kids this spring (Leah and Kara, specifically), but the schooling format will be much more of a home-school type of fashion. The demands on her time are obviously much greater, but she's very excited about it and absolutely loves teaching our amazing kids.


All in all, 2009 was a great year. God has done so much for us over the past almost 6 years that we have been blessed to serve Him in Europe. We look forward to 2010 and I know that for me, what God is placing on my heart is fairly simple: "Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine" (1Timothy 4:16). We want to be good stewards of what He has set before us, and we want to bring honor to His holy name.

Thanks again - truly - for all of your prayers and support. It is all so greatly appreciated.

Until the next time,

All our love,

The Foster's
Jeremy & Christi, Ian, Leah, Kara, and Mikayla Ann