Duplantis Update, Feb 1, 2012

Dear Friends,

Where to begin?!  First, a HUGE thank you to all of you for your prayers and love and sympathy expressed in these last few weeks over the passing of my dad, Dr Bob Foster.  We have really felt sustained by you all!  The funeral went really well - the church folk in Lubango wonderfully took care of all the details - basically we as family just had to attend.  It was/is all a bit of a blur still, but was also very God honoring and as lovely as a funeral can be.  You can read tributes, if you are interested, at www.drbobfoster.blogspot.com or you can send tributes to be posted there to sjffive@gmail.com. Keep Mom in your prayers, too.  She is grieving.  

The next big thing for us - is FURLOUGH!! Wow - as we think back it has actually been four years since we were really in the US to visit our "team".   We fly out of Windhoek, Namibia to Frankfurt on March 5th and then from Frankfurt directly to Charlotte, NC arriving at 3pm on Tues, March 6th.  We plan to be in the US until early July.  Apart from all the "boring" routine medical appointments, our plans are to VISIT as many of you as physically possible!!  We will be in touch more personally as we know better what our schedule will look like.  We also want to pursue as much physical, spiritual and mental healing/health as we can and toward that end are also booking in time with a  Christian psychiatrist/counsellor couple and we will follow where that leads us - particularly hoping it is out of the depression doldrums and on to full recovery for Peter.   We thank you for your prayers to that end. 

One really big need we have is a vehicle for furlough.  Our original plans have recently fallen through, sooooo if you or someone you know would be willing to loan us a vehicle we do need one!  We need something to get around the Triad/Triangle area of NC initially and then we need something that could go up and down the east coast in order to visit our out-of-NC supporters and family.  Please let us know if you can help us out!  We are a bit "late" for the missionary service organizations that do this for ministry - but we know God has a plan! 

We are currently at Cavango and it is great to be "home".  As of today we have 8 young men working on plastering the outside walls of Livingstone House(that's the name of our house) - so hopefully it will be completed before we leave for furlough!  That is the goal anyway!  We will probably need to make a trip to town next week for more cement and a medical team comes the following weekend(18-20th) so we will be busy to the end!  

Once again this year, Jesus Calling, is hitting me where I need it!  Today's reading started out with "Follow Me one step at a time.  That is all I require of you." and it ends with this admonishment  - "Keep your mind on the present journey, enjoying My Presence.  Walk by faith, not by sight, trusting me to open up the way before you."(pg 34)  So we go forth each day, knowing that God in His sovereignty has all our ways in His perfect plan.  May you also rest in knowing His Plan is perfect for you too!

Running the Race Together,

Peter and Shelley Duplantis
Advancing the Gospel in Angola, Inc.

 

Field Address:
C.P. 33 Lubango, Angola via Portugal

 

Home Office Address and Donations:
25 Maple St.,  Addison, NY 14801 USA
Acct:  01002

 

Blog: www.duplantisdialog.blogspot.com

Website: www.hopeforangola.org

 

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Dec 2011 and Jan 2012 - a mixture of celebrations and farewells both physical and spiritual

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Robert Livingstone Foster, 1924-2012

Robert Livingstone Foster, 1924-2012

 Our father, known to so many as Dr. Bob, went home to Glory on January 8,  in Lubango, Angola, Africa at the age of 87. He had increasing loss of control of his muscles over several years, but was aware to the end. In his last days, the family members in Angola (including 4 children and 5 grandchildren) took turns sitting by his bed.

He leaves his wife of 63 years, Belva Foster, who is in poor health, their 7 children, 17 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren, his sister, Rhoda Lane, 4 hospitals in rural Africa, countless churches, many missionaries called into service by God through his counsel, and many, many others who knew him as a preacher or as a doctor.

The funeral will be in Lubango this week. 

Dad was born in what is now Zambia, grew up in Canada and, after medical school, served as a missionary in Zambia and Angola and as a mission leader based in the US and in England.

God gave him amazing energy—at 83 he spent six weeks camping in the Angolan bush to help build a clinic!

God gave him amazing courage and initiative—he and Mom went in their mid-40's to an Angola at war to learn a new language and start a new outreach, when they could have stayed where they were fruitful and secure.

God made him an amazing Dad—an example, a challenge, a comfort, a great teller of stories and giver of gifts and hugs.

Many will want to share words of memory and appreciation and will not be able to get to the funeral. 

Please send to: sjffive@gmail.com

drbobfoster.blogspot.com

Memorial gifts can be sent to: 

 

Advancing the Gospel in Angola (AGA)

25 Maple St. Addison, NY, USA 14801

• Angola Medical Outreach (AMO)
• 18 Wynford Drive, Suite 710 , Toronto, ON, M3C 3S2, Canada
• 
  

We are deeply grateful to God for Dad's life. Pray for us and with us as we praise his Lord.

Stephen, Sharon, Sheila, Stacey, Stuart, Stirling and Shelley (his children)

stephen@fosterangola.ca

Dupantis Update, Jan 8, 2012

Dear Faithful Friends,

We had  wonderful Christmas and New Year's celebrations with many friends and family around us.  Dad and Mom participated to the extent of their abilities through the holidays themselves, but during the night of the 31st Dad started slipping downhill physically and was very weak on the 1st and by the morning of the 2nd could no longer get out of bed.  During the night of the 2nd I was called to his bedside because his breathing was very rapid and labored.  I assisted him to a better position but he found no relief.  I then awoke Steve, and had him come to see Dad as well.  We felt the end was imminent and thus called Sheila to come from across town and Stirling who had come in to town from the farm due to Dad's rapid decline and we spent the rest of the night at his side - praying and reading scripture fairly certain that he would be called Home any minute.  Somehow, he is still here physically though he is less and less responsive as the days have gone by, has taken nothing to eat since Monday and not even ice chips since yesterday morning.  We(Steve & Peg, Stir & Donna, Sheila and Peter and I), have all spent the week here in Lubango never far from his side - turning him hourly and trying ice chips, putting in eye drops and massaging with lotion, reading and praying and sometimes just sitting at his side.  Everyday we are "sure" he can't physically make another day, but so far he is still here, giving me a more real understanding of the "cords of death" and "the anguish of the grave" from Psalm 116:3 - Dad's favorite Psalm.  Later in the same Psalm the writer says, "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" and we know this to be true, we just keep praying that the Lord will take him soon to His Rest where Dad will be "freed from his chains" Psalm 116:15-16.

It has been a week of lots of tears and hugs and precious time together as siblings as we have continued mourning the slow loss of our beloved Dad.  We know so many of you love him too and are praying for us all at this time and we cannot thank you enough.  We will send out another update as soon as we can when Dad goes Home.  Pray for Mom too,especially.  She can't express her grief per se, but seems to understand that things are not "right" as she has been more frustrated and frustrating in the last couple of days.  Pray too, for all the details of the funeral when it does actually happen, the safe travel of many who will come to the funeral, the rest of our plans and lives that are currently "on hold" and that God's Glory would SHINE in everything!

Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

Peter and Shelley Duplantis

Advancing the Gospel in Angola, Inc

 

Field Address:
C.P. 33 Lubango, Angola via Portugal

 

Home Office Address and Donations:
25 Maple St.,  Addison, NY 14801 USA
Acct:  01002

Duplantis Update, Dec 13, 2011

Dear Friends!

Another month has flown by - another month in which we have seen the Lord's gracious and loving hands upon us. 

First of all, thank you for your prayers on behalf of Peter's medical check-up in Windhoek last month.  The doctor was encouraged and encouraging and Peter has continued to improve since then also.  These last few days he has felt almost back to "normal"!  We are so grateful!   Peter has also just started taking some one-on-one Portuguese classes and is enjoying them.  He even has homework to do! 

We are in the throes of renewing our visas - yes, it seems we can't get through a year without talking about visas!  We had everything ready that they had told us was necessary, but then yesterday we found out that three more things had been added to the list!  So we have been scurrying about trying to get these three things because it is all supposed to be turned in by tomorrow!  Pray that once all is turned in that the renewal process would not be too long as we would like to have our passports in hand by March as we are due to come on furlough in March. 

Yes, our furlough is just around the corner!  By March, it will have been two years since we were in the US, so it is time to come visit and be refreshed.  We have booked tickets to arrive in the US on March the 6th and we plan to stay until early July.  Obviously, these are just plans and the Lord will direct our steps as He sees fit!  Please let us know when it would be best to visit you, if you are outside the Greensboro, NC area, and we will try to outline a plan.  We plan to stay at 1824 New Bedford Dr in Greensboro when we are not traveling so hopefully we can connect with most of you Greensboro folk while we are there!

Mom and Dad are stable in their rather fragile state.  Dad recovered from his pneumonia of end of October, but has a more and more difficult time talking.  Please write to him via Peggy Foster at peggy@fosterangola.ca and she will print emails for him as he really cannot use his computer anymore or talk.  He and Mom still love to get notes and letters, however, so please write!

We are in Lubango for the next couple of weeks to help care for Mom and Dad over Christmas originally in the planned absence of Steve and Peggy, but they have not received their residency cards yet so unless a miracle occurs they will not be able to travel as planned.  It has been very disappointing for them, but they are trusting that the Lord has the perfect plan for them in all this.  If Peter is still doing well over the next couple of weeks we hope to be able to go to Cavango in the New Year. 

The end of the year also brings to mind finances as we all want to end the year in the "black" as they say!  We are currently about $6000 in the red in our ministry account.  We basically have about a $500/month need for ministry funds that has never been pledged and we have just worked on in faith that it will come in.  Each year it has and we are thankful to the many of you who respond to God's nudging.  Please consider whether you could join the regular donors to help meet this need up front, or whether you could help us with a year-end donation to cover the deficit.  Thank you to all of you who support us so faithfully!  

As you all anticipate the New Year - with all of it's unknowns and possible anxieties this is a verse that has held us as we have waited...."Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait (emphasis added)for him." Isaiah 64:4 

May you all be full of His Joy and Peace!

Peter and Shelley Duplantis
Advancing the Gospel in Angola, Inc

 

Field Address:
C.P. 33 Lubango, Angola via Portugal

 

Home Office Address and Donations:
25 Maple St.,  Addison, NY 14801 USA
Acct:  01002

 

Website: www.hopeforangola.org  (can donate online at the "just give" icon)

Blog: www.duplantisdialog.blogspot.com

 

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These are a couple of photos taken when Stuart and Sharon came to visit!

Duplantis Update, Nov 16, 2011

Dear Friends,

How on earth did it get to be the middle of November already!??

We have been busy since our last update - two trips to Cavango, another week or so at Tchincombe helping out while Donna was away, time visiting family and now a trip to Namibia!

We went to Cavango for Oct 13-17 taking Dr Annelise Olsen to do medical consults and again on November 9-14 to host another medical team - Dr Steve Foster, and Dr Eduardo Ferreira.  Both trips went very well and the time there was precious.  This most recent trip we actually had quite a gathering - as Stirling, Donna and kids as well at the Ferreiras family, Gary Goertzen(the MAF pilot and friend!) and an Angolan anesthetist

came as well so we were 13 in total!  We celebrated Thanksgiving dinner a bit early, because we had promised the Ferreiras a Thanksgiving dinner at Cavango last year and then it didn't work out - so it was now or never as they return to Brazil in a few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago, my dad took quite a turn for the worse with an aspiration pneumonia and we thought he would be taken to Glory in the very near future.  As a result, my brother, Stuart and sister, Sharon, both came to visit.  It was great to have them around and Mom and Dad both really appreciated their visits!  Dad has improved alot with antibiotic treatment, but is still very frail.  We had a dinner on the 8th of November with 6 of us 7 siblings around the table!  Quite amazing!

We arrived back from Cavango at 5pm on Monday the 14th and left at 4am on the 15th for Namibia coming out in convoy with Sheila and Daniel who have come to pick up Brent and Helena.  We spent last night at a lodge just 3-4 hours from Windhoek so today our drive was much shorter!  All has gone well, though on Monday we did discover a rear axle leak on the Ford so that caused a bit of worry, but Steve had the suspected necessary spares and the car is already at the shop to be worked on tomorrow.  We trust it will not be a complicated repair and that it will continue to serve us well.

We have come to Windhoek for Peter's medical checkup and we have that appointment tomorrow morning at 9am.  We ask for wisdom and guidance for the doctor and all of us to know the best treatment to help Peter continue out of his depression.  Thank you for your prayers!

We are truly Thankful in this Thanksgiving season!  We have been so blessed in so many ways as we look over this past year despite it's apparent difficulties as we have seen His faithful provision of peace, direction, and strength.  God is GOOD!  Have a very blessed Thanksgiving too!!

Much love,

Peter and Shelley Duplantis
Advancing the Gospel in Angola, Inc.,

 

Field Address:
C.P. 33 Lubango, Angola via Portugal

 

Home Office Address and Donations:
25 Maple St.,  Addison, NY 14801 USA
Acct:  01002

 

Blog: www.duplantisdialog.blogspot.com

Website: www.hopeforangola.org