Finding hope with 'Ate Annette'

It’s 5:30 in the morning and Annette Fosgate is boiling hundreds of eggs in her small kitchen. 

She heaves the oversized pot of breakfast onto a motor scooter, and cradles it between her knees as she rides toward the squatter’s village along the beach. As makeshift shacks come into view – homes made from woven grass, palm fronds, bamboo and pieces of tin – dozens of grubby, barefoot children race toward her.

“Ate Annette! Ate Annette!” they cry, savoring the smiles and hugs she generously doles out.

The children’s normal diet rarely diverges from rice and, occasionally, fish. The daily treats that Fosgate provides – boiled eggs, bananas, sweet potatoes and soup – are beyond their means, though it costs the Libby native only $10 to feed the nearly 100 children.

Before they head off to school, Fosgate introduces a Bible lesson. She helps them memorize scriptures through song and learn basic stories of the Bible.

Fosgate has found her calling at the squatter’s village in Panglao, Philippines on an island less than 10 miles long and five miles wide. She spent a year developing Simple Faith Ministries – a one-woman undertaking that served children breakfast, Bible studies, arts and crafts and other lessons. The work was exhausting, and the missionary grew beyond what one person could handle.

She will return to Panglao next month after spending the summer in Libby, but this time, two other local residents – Dave and Beth Iliff – will follow, tripling the missionary’s staff.

“I saw these other possibilities for reaching people, and I just couldn’t fulfill it all – I’m just one person,” Fosgate said. “So when they (the Iliffs) came and said, ‘We’d like to fill it,’ it was an answer to a prayer.”

Fosgate first spotted the natural beauty of Panglao Island over four years ago while she was on vacation visiting friends. In her month-long stay she became acquainted with the children through people who lived in the squatter’s village and through a small church that performed limited outreach.

“I saw the poverty, I met the kids in the squatters area and I just fell in love with them,” Fosgate said. “I couldn’t get them out of my mind.”

Fosgate eventually took the plunge and moved to Panglao. With a motor scooter, a one-bedroom apartment that she shared with a translator, and donations from Libby and Troy residents, she formed her ministry.

More and more children attended the breakfast feedings and after-school program as trust built between Fosgate and the children.

“Just being there every day and being faithful to show up, they started realizing that ‘Ate Annette’ wasn’t going away,” Fosgate said, explaining that “Ate” is a term of endearment for a respected older person.

Fosgate worked alongside the residents, helping with chores like sweeping floors and cleaning roofs.

“They saw that I wasn’t afraid of hard work,” Fosgate said, “that I wasn’t above them to do what they do. They found out I wash clothes like they do – by hand. That helped a lot in gaining respect.”

Dave and Beth Iliff moved to Korea for the year to teach, and were tuned in to Fosgate’s missionary work through her monthly letters. They arranged to help Fosgate over their three-week Christmas vacation.

“We just jumped in and stayed busy with her,” Beth said. “You could tell the relationship she built with those kids was real. Every place she’d go on the island, these kids would be following her around like the pied piper.”

Up to 100 kids of various ages mill about the open hut like ants in an anthill. The borrowed structure resembles a grass picnic shelter about 8 feet by 16 feet in size. Children hang from the sides, lay on the floor, sit on each others’ laps, and run in and out.

They adore Fosgate, tugging at her skirts, demanding her attention while she directs traffic during the after-school program. Dave and Beth play with the kids and help the older ones with homework. The others play games or color. None of the kids have crayons, games or toys at home.  

Fosgate hopes that someday the ministry will raise enough money to buy land and build a structure big enough to accommodate the children. Currently, all the materials for meals and activities must be packed in and packed out on her scooter.

Fosgate recalled how rewarding it felt to listen to a 4-year-old girl, who doesn’t speak English, recite a Bible verse. Fosgate admits, though, that the work can also be discouraging. The children live in poverty and don’t get attention at home.

“They just want to be recognized. They just want to be looked at. They want a hug. They want a tussle on the head,” Fosgate said.

“That gets overwhelming sometimes when you see that need, that pressing need for love and they’re not getting it anywhere. But that’s the reason I’m down there – to show them that love, and to show them God’s love, too.

After spending nearly three weeks sharing Fosgate’s apartment and her missionary work, the Iliffs thought they may want to come back.  

“On the porch of Annette’s bungalow one afternoon,” Dave recalled, “I just said (to Beth), ‘You know, honey, I could live here.’”

The two made a pact not to tell Fosgate their idea or to discuss it further for a month. They wanted to be sure that their decision was not based solely on emotion.

When they return to Panglao in September, they will both fill a much-needed niche.

Beth, who was a preschool teacher at Kootenai Valley Christian School for four years, plans to start a preschool program, focusing on building relationships with small children and their mothers.

Dave aspires to open up a small shop and teach teenage boys and young men a valuable trade.

“There’s a million motor scooters down there and all the fishing boats have a little Honda engine in them,” Dave said. “Just while we were there, our motor scooters broke down and you couldn’t find a reliable mechanic. There’s a need there.”

The island’s young men have little to do for work, Fosgate said, except fish, but that only yields about $2-$3 per day.

Fosgate attributes God and the people of Libby and Troy for helping the mission get through the year financially. She didn’t have enough promised support to guarantee that she would make it each month, but she kept the mindset that she would feed and teach lessons to the children until the money ran out – and it never did.  

“People just kept coming through and I never had to miss a Saturday feeding because of lack of money. I never had to miss an after-school program because I didn’t have enough money for copies,” Fosgate said. “I would say 95 percent of my support last year came from Libby and Troy people.”

Raising money for the mission

• A rummage sale at Kootenai Valley Church, Aug. 7-8, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Donations can be dropped off at Kootenai Valley Church in Libby or at 512 E. Spokane St. in Troy.

• A car wash will be held Aug. 8 at the Pizza Hut parking lot in Libby.

• Tickets for a quilt raffle can be purchased at the Venture Inn.

• The Venture Inn is accepting donations of children’s games, books, art and school supplies and travel hygiene products.

• Cash donations can be made to Simple Faith Ministries at P.O. Box 811, Libby, MT 59923. Donations are made through the Kootenai Valley Church and are tax-deductible. 

For questions, call Beth Iliff at 291-7868 or e-mail SimpleFaithMinistries@hotmail.com