Alan Foster

Raised by missionary parents in the western Bolivian Amazon, Alan saw first-hand the challenges involved in befriending a group of hostile, naked nomads, whose language was unknown and, as an adult, he and his wife Vickie became involved in the effort to make friends with a second band of the same tribe his parents had been instrumental in befriending. The work was not without danger, as six of his missionary co-workers were shot by the nomads during a five-year period. The privilege of seeing the Yuquí preserved from annihilation, ministering to their physical needs, and presenting the loving Creator God to them were well worth the challenges involved. Once the wandering Yuquí had been settled one visitor remarked, “Were it not for the efforts of (the missionaries), this tribe would have ceased to exist.” Three small bands of the jungle dwellers, numbering about 90 people were preserved, but at the cost of great physical and mental hardships to the missionary team. Through it all the missionaries understood that it was a unique privilege to have a part in what God was doing as He used them to show His love to the Yuquí people.