Josh Foster heard the call to ministry right after high school, while his wife Amy wasn’t sure what God wanted her to do. Today, he is the senior pastor and she is the associate pastor at the First Church of the Nazarene in Great Bend, where they have served for the past 14 years.

Josh grew up in southern Illinois and Amy was from Overland Park, but after she graduated from high school her parents moved to the Nashville, Tenn., area. They both ended up at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, where they met on a blind date.

With his calling in mind, Josh says he felt the Lord leading him to Trevecca to prepare for ministry. Amy chose Trevecca so she could be close to her family but her plans for the future were less concrete.

“I really had no idea but I thought probably teaching English would be best for me,” she said. “It wasn’t really what I wanted to do, although I remember saying in second grade that I wanted to be a teacher. At 14 I knew that (God) had called me; I just didn’t know to what. I didn’t have any female mentors. It was never part of my thinking that I could be a pastor.”

But, encouragement and affirmation from Josh and their senior pastors allowed her to see the potential in herself and gave her the confidence to pursue that dream.

They were married while they were in college and after graduation they came back to the Kansas City area so Josh could attend seminary. Their first pastoral assignment after seminary was in Clearwater, Kansas. They were there for nine and a half years.

Both are ordained elders in the Church of the Nazarene. As senior pastor, Josh has all of the traditional duties of a minister such as preaching, visiting the sick, and developing discipleship and teaching classes. Amy does a lot of counseling, perhaps filling the role of female mentor that wasn’t available to her years ago. She’s not the stereotypical minister’s wife who plays the piano on Sundays.

“She use to play the trombone,” Josh said. “Can you imagine?”

First impressions

When their district superintendent called and asked if the Fosters were interested in coming to Great Bend, they felt strongly that the Lord was leading them here, “so here we are,” Josh said.

Asked about their first impression of Great Bend, the Fosters laugh.

“You want to know the unfiltered truth?” Josh said. They had an interview with the church board of directors in the basement of the building. “And when we stepped out of the building, it was one of those nights where the smell from the feedlot was overpowering.”

“The air was damp, so it was just awful,” Amy recalled.

“Then Kevin Wondra said, ‘Oh, it’s hardly ever like that!’” Josh said.

“But you know,” he continued, “we have always tried to look at the best aspects of whatever community we’ve looked at. We’ve loved everywhere we’ve lived whether it be the big city or a small town or rural setting.”

It didn’t take long for the Fosters to feel totally at home here.

“We’re thankful for the people that we’ve gotten to know, in the church family and then the other church families and in the community,” Amy said.

“The reason that we have loved every place we’ve lived is because of the people and that’s true here,” Josh agreed. “We love our church family and very much consider them family.”

Family life

The Fosters have five children, three boys and two girls. The boys are adults and their daughters are in high school.

Their hobbies include traveling and seeing new places. They especially enjoy hiking, seeing nature and camping in the Colorado mountains.

Amy attends the Golden Belt Community Concert Association concerts with a friend who has season tickets.

They both enjoy going to all of the concerts and sporting events and other activities that children in the church are involved in. “The Vespers Concert on (Dec. 11) was fantastic,” Amy said.

Christmas traditions

Gathering with family is a Christmas tradition for the Fosters.

“Because our families are all at a distance, we always travel,” Amy said. “But now that our children are adults, we are looking forward to them coming – in just the way our parents have looked forward to us coming in.”

This Christmas is also on Sunday, and the children’s program at the church is another special tradition, they said.

Community Connections is a regular feature of the Great Bend Tribune, showcasing people who live in the Golden Belt. We welcome readers to submit names of individuals who are active in the community that they would like to see featured in a future story. Send suggestions to news@gbtribune.com and explain their “community connections.”