NAIROBI, Kenya — “Life doesn’t end because of sorrow or because of tragedy or because of loss,” said International Mission Board (IMB) missionary Sue Foster, reflecting on her call to international missions after becoming a widow. “It doesn’t end because of age.”

When her husband died, Foster’s world was upended. For 35 years, her life had been bound up with Len’s. Now suddenly he was gone, and with him, all sense of proportion. A deep depression enveloped her.

As she fought to regain her balance, Foster drew strength from God’s Word. She treasured the story of Joshua, “I kept reading the words where God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous, and I began to put my trust in God.”

In the months following Len’s death, she sold their large home in Louisville, Ky., and moved to Bardstown, about 40 miles south. Visiting church after church, Foster prayed God would show her where she belonged. On her second visit to Wickland Baptist Church, something in the bulletin caught her eye — an upcoming mission trip to Kenya. For the first time in months, she felt a flicker of hope.

“The Lord spoke to me,” Foster recalled. “This is where you belong, and you need to do this.” When she returned from Kenya, Foster immediately started searching for opportunities to take another short-term mission trip.  

After her next trip, to a remote region of Panama working alongside IMB missionaries, Foster sensed God was calling her to long-term service in international missions. “By the time I got home from that trip, I knew what I wanted to do.”

As a child, Foster had a missionary pen pal in Thailand and imagined one day becoming a missionary. After her marriage to Len, missions came up in conversation often.

“Anytime there was something at church about missions he would always say to me, ‘You would have been so good on the mission field working with children,’” Foster remembered. “Maybe that sort of stayed with me and made me start thinking more about it after I lost him.”

She contacted the IMB to see what programs were available for people her age. Within six months she had accepted a role in Nairobi as a logistics coordinator, utilizing her professional background and experience. Though it hasn’t been without its challenges, Foster expressed there is a lot more joy than heartache on the mission field.

“It’s a scary decision to give up comfort and [being apart from] the love of family, especially if you have children and grandchildren, but I would say just search your heart,” Foster encouraged. “There is no greater reward than knowing you’re serving the Lord and impacting other people to join the Kingdom. Even if I never know that one person accepted Christ because of me, I know that I did all I could while I was here.”

Like her husband once predicted, Foster has embraced her life on the mission field with gusto. Along with using her background in business to help other missionaries manage daily life in a foreign country, she is also deeply involved in her local community.

Among other opportunities, Foster teaches Bible study to elementary children at two different schools, participates in the sewing ministry from her very first visit to Kenya and has found herself especially drawn to the challenging, and rewarding, work of prison ministry.

Together with teammates and national partners, she makes regular visits to both men’s and women’s prisons, where they hold worship services and share the gospel. The main prison houses almost 5,000 inmates and Foster said they have experienced days where as many as 20 men make professions of faith.

“As we get older, we sometimes tend to feel like our lives are behind us, or people don’t really care about us anymore, but when we have the opportunity to share our experiences and offer a little bit of wisdom or encouragement, we need to take it,” Foster said.

For those over age 55 and a desire to make an eternal impact, the IMB has a place to serve. Opportunities like the Masters (55+) Program provide a unique opportunity to leverage career, gifts and skills on the mission field for His Name and His glory.