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(27th October 1946 — 8th June 2024)

“The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance,” Psalm 112:6.

On the 8th June, one year ago, Ann, my beloved wife of 56 years and 3 months, went to be with the Lord after some 8 days in the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in Enniskillen. All told, I had known her from September 1964 until her passing to glory, a blessed period of nearly 60 years.

For a number of those days in hospital, at the beginning of her stay and then the final two days, she was in a semi-conscious state but there was a precious spell when she was very alert and was able to converse with her family.

The SWAH is a modern hospital with each patient occupying a private room. This suited our family visitation very well and we appreciated the courtesy and kindness of the nursing staff.

It was at 4.08 am on Saturday 8th June that Ann went to heaven and into the presence of the Lord she loved and served since a child of just under 5 years of age. It was the Lord’s honour and glory she lived to uphold and advance.

As a wonderful providence, my son-in-law, Rev Brian McClung, Lois’s husband, came upon this small report in the May/June 1951 edition of ‘Watching & Waiting’, the magazine of the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony a few days ago.

In this video Ann tells of her conversion, some four months before her fifth birthday. This would have been about the month of June 1951. That which particularly troubled her were thoughts of the Lord coming again and her being lost and separated for all eternity from the members of the family who were saved.

Special Meetings

The above report tells of special meetings in the Gospel Tabernacle, Ballymena, where the Beattie family attended. The meetings were all about the second coming of Christ. They were held on 14th – 23rd April, just a few weeks before  Ann was saved. The preacher was Pastor W J Rowlands, author of a wonderfully helpful book, ‘Our Lord Cometh’.

As I read the report I realised why it was Ann was awakened and concerned about her soul by thoughts of her being unready when the Lord returned! She would undoubtedly have been brought to at least some of these meetings and, bright child that she was, she would have understood the messages and was troubled about her soul’s salvation. This gave rise to her seeking the Lord for salvation under the guidance of her father.

Memorial

As a memorial of her passing, the family wish to share a video of her speaking to the family on the occasion of her 70th birthday, at a family gathering on 22nd October 2016, a few days before her actual birthday on 27th October. She spoke on the subject of her godly father, Mr Charles Beattie. He died when she was only 16 years old so none of her family ever knew him. My oldest daughter, Lois, had requested that her mother speak of him.

That is what the video is all about, and it gives an insight into the influence that her father had upon her.

Ann knew and loved her Bible. She read it constantly, intelligently, submissively and prayerfully. There is a wonderful example of her knowledge of the Scriptures given without any pretension, when she uses the fourth commandment with its reference to the six days of creation and the one day of observing the Sabbath, to show that the ‘days’ of creation could not have been ‘long periods of time’ otherwise our Sabbath would have to be considered in like manner, which of course, it never was. It was from sunset to sunset, a 24 hour period.

As I write these few words of introduction to Ann’s video testimony, my heart is moved and stirred with a strange mixture of emotions — a sense of loss and loneliness for the dear one who shared so much of my life, with a sense of thankfulness for the mercy the Lord showed to me in giving this wonderful person to me as my wife and life partner, to a sweet sense of happiness that, in the province of God, I will one day be reunited with her in the blessed presence of the Saviour we both loved and sought to serve together.

Our family circulates this video to set forth the grace of God in the life of a daughter, a wife, a mother and a school teacher who walked with God. We do so to honour Him alone.

Please feel free to share it with others.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster and the wider family
8th June 2025

Here is a letter I submitted to the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ today.

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Dear Editor,

In response to the letter by Peter McEvoy,

‘Remember after the Gerry Adams verdict, the Irish did not start this fight’,

it has to be said that Mr McEvoy writes as one who has imbibed and believes the false notions of Irish history taught in Roman Catholic schools.

While there is much that is mere fancy amongst the historical documents of Ireland, there are two that Protestant and Roman Catholic historians accept.

They are the ‘Confession of Patrick’ and his ‘Letter’.

From Patrick’s ‘Confession’ we learn that Patrick was not in Ireland to carry out the will of the Pope. Were he sent there by Pope Celestine, as Rome would claim, then that is one matter that Patrick would mention when giving an account of how he came to Ireland.

Patrick makes no mention whatever of the Pope or of Rome or of being sent by Celestine. His call to Ireland was a simple call sent of God. His language is as straightforward on this matter as that which you would hear today in a fundamentalist gospel meeting.

The message of Patrick is as far removed from the message of Roman Catholicism as heaven is from hell!

The granting of Ireland to the English king, Henry II, by Pope Adrian IV in 1155 is a great embarrassment to Roman Catholic historians. They have even attempted to claim that the Bull was a forgery and the Pope never issued such a degree.

The purpose of the invasion was to crush the remnant that clung to Patrick’s teaching and that defied Rome’s attempts to include Ireland under its ecclesiastical control.

Pope Adrian’s Bull was issued in 1155 but it did not suit Henry to invade Ireland until 1171. He landed at Waterford and met with little or no resistance and so Ireland passed into the hands of England.

Today, the Irish Republic would consider itself free from the invader of 1171. It is not so. The invader of Patrick’s Ireland is still entrenched in the land. That invader is Roman Catholicism. At its feet alone we may lay the blame for the ongoing controversy and the sorrows stemming from it.

How ironic that those who consider themselves, ‘Irish Patriots’, are in fact the upholders of the real ‘invader and depriver’ of the ancient gospel freedoms of the people of this island!

What little there remains of true gospel religion in Ireland is the remnant of the faith that Patrick, under God, introduced some fifteen centuries ago.

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)

Kilskeery, Co. Tyrone.

2nd June 2025