ABOUT BRITTANY

Happy New Year, friends! I hope you are staying warm and well this winter season. 2025 is sure to be a wonderful year full of hope and changing lives with LCW. Thank you so much for your investment in making 2024 so successful to get us started out strong this year. None of our work is possible without you!

While I am not new to LCW, I am certainly new to the role of President, so please allow me to re-introduce myself in this new light.

My name is Brittany Foster, and I have formally worked with LCW since 2017. I have undergraduate degrees from Truett McConnell University and Gordon State College in biology and a master’s degree in organizational management from Middle Georgia State University. As a member of the founding family of LCW, it is an honor to carry the torch to bring LCW to the world and into the future.

Before my educational pursuits and work with LCW, I often volunteered, completing odd jobs in LCW’s office to serve the ministry I grew to love from a very young age. Some of my earliest memories were spent attempting to pack myself in Glenna’s suitcase to go to the Philippines, although, I only knew Glenna as “granny” at that time. While I was unsuccessful at becoming a stowaway to somewhere I had no concept of how far or how different it might be, I knew deep down it’d be important in my life, and I was going to get there somehow.

In 2008, I joined a trip to finally see the work and the people LCW was responsible for. I met real people with real stories of the impact of poverty in their lives and how my and others’ sacrifices could really help. I began to understand the calling Christ places on each of us to serve everyone in need, but I was broken by the fact that I had so much while so many had so little. Certainly, if I had been this blessed, I was doubly responsible for being a blessing to others.

At that time, I recognized God instilled a love for international service work that would become a permanent and insatiable presence in my heart, guiding me throughout my college years and into my life’s work. From that point on, every opportunity I had to “go,” I went. No vacation appealed to me more than getting my hands dirty in an attempt to make a broken world even just a smidgen better through showing Christ’s love. How much any of us are able to accomplish in a week or two or even a couple months is debatable but encouraging local ministry partners who are doing full time work and helping them build sustainable outreaches is a noble effort I am happy to have been a part of.

After my undergraduate work, I was at an impasse in my career. Should I pursue my plans of medical school and becoming a physician? Or something else? I had only ever conceived of one career path, and I was utterly convinced LCW would be something I could be passionate about on the periphery of my career. Even so, I chose to take a break from school and spend a year volunteering all around the world. Certainly, I’d return with my head on straight ready to pursue a career in medicine. How privileged was I to be able to make the decision to take that break, but how providential it was for the path to be paved for me to end up on a new path.

My year volunteering was a 2-week training program followed by 11 months of service in 11 countries. Every month was completely different, each with a book of stories all their own. Some months we preached, some we taught children, and some months we served in any way needed. Every month, though, was an opportunity to partner with a new church or ministry that was doing full-time work in their community. It was an opportunity to learn, grow, and gain new perspective. I still hold dear the people I met, many of whom I am still in contact with. This opportunity broke me away from my shell of shyness and grew me spiritually in ways I am still discovering to this day.

As you may have anticipated, I returned to the US ready to continue the work I’d been doing for the year, and LCW presented me with an offer I couldn’t refuse: I could be a part of a ministry bigger than myself that is changing thousands of lives every day. It was an opportunity that in my own way I could leave my mark and be a part of LCW’s growth. Somewhere along the way across the world, God changed my heart and was preparing me for a different plan than I had, but I am grateful to be called. An accident of birth brought me into LCW’s proximity, but it is only through God’s plan that I am firmly sitting at the table by my own volition ready to bring LCW to the next generation and “to the world”.

During my early years with LCW as International Liaison and later as Vice President of International Relations, I lived and worked in Dumaguete City for 4 years to understand the tactical side of the organization. My time living at LCP in Dumaguete City were some of the most memorable years making some of my life’s dearest friends. I learned a language that helped me connect more with the people we serve each day, and that same language made me even closer after moving back the US, helping the organization navigate an unprecedented pandemic, and growing as a leader under Carmenia’s dynamic instruction.

After moving back to the US, I’ve spent the last 4 years cultivating relationships with supporters on this side, helping LCW to maneuver an ever-changing landscape of fundraising and outreach. Today, I am excited to be the next President of LCW, and I am blessed to still have the insatiable urge to lend a helping hand. I invite you to join us on a journey “to the world” where more lives will continue to be changed in Jesus’ name. My prayer is you will continue to invest in our programs as we grow for the furtherment of our mission and in obedience to our calling to share love, give help, and bring hope. Your support certainly brings me hope as I am honored to step into this new role.

With gratitude,

Brittany Foster
LCW President & CEO Elect