A Prayer Request

Dear Family and Friends,

     On Wednesday, December 11th, the State of New Jersey - Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) took two of our foster children away with no explanation. While Mrs. Doster and I were in Family Court protecting our eldest foster child, DYFS staged a clandestine raid on our Christian Academy, lied to the teachers there, lied to the innocent children and spirited away our two precious children. All this just two weeks before Christmas! We have not received any paperwork regarding why DYFS felt the need to take our children. From sources within the huge State bureaucracy who know us and believe in us, we are told that the issue is a matter of "guilt by association."

     On September 22, 2002. 1 learned that a volunteer helper in our church had molested a teenager in the church and I immediately reported the incident to DYFS and the local police. On September 23, 2002, the child molester, who has fully confessed, was taken into police custody and remains incarcerated for his offences. My sources within DYFS. who are sympathetic to our cause, relay that the relay that the upper echelons of DYFS are holding me accountable stating that the foster children were exposed to this deviant by attending our church. We knew nothing about the man's pedophilia and he was only in an administrative position assisting my secretary and me.

     At any rate, my two children were taken away, just two weeks before Christmas. Their presents are still under the tree. Their stockings are still hung on the stair rail. Their rooms are still decorated for the holidays -- but they are not here.

     We are fighting with every ounce of strength we have to overturn the DYFS decision and force them to come "out in the open" where we can have a fair hearing, a public venue rather than the "back room" bureaucracy that has prevailed so far. By the way, my sources reveal that much of what was bantered about in secret chambers was regarding our "religious fanaticism." If we can get this battle out into the public view, DYFS will be forced to disclose what they are doing and to prove what they think. Their apparent 'anti-Christian', or at least, 'anti-fundamentalist' bias will not stand in the light of a public debate.

     Please pray for us and please write letters on our behalf. The addresses will get some serious focus put on our case and I will be ever so grateful for your help. Please pray and please help!

     With just five days remaining until the blessed Christmas Day, the Doster's foster children are still living with strangers, sleeping in strange beds and wondering what in the world they did that was so wrong as to be torn out of the only loving home they've ever known.

     The State of New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) has still not told Pastor Doster why the children were removed nor what must be done to get the children back. Countless phone calls to DYFS officials have yielded no results, only unanswered voice mail messages and total silence. Can this really be "America, land of the free?"

     On Thursday, December 19th, Pastor Doster met with the Chief of Staff of NJ Assemblyman Joseph Roberts to explain the situation and to solicit the Legislator's help in returning the children. Mr. Roberts is the Majority Leader in the NJ Legislature and his Chief of Staff was very attentive to Pastor Doster's unraveling of the horrible story.

     Dr. Manley Lane, Pastor of Open Bible Baptist Church in Bath, Maine has opened a "Doster Family Legal Defense Fund" to receive donations to provide the Dosters a quality attourney as they prepare for a February 26, 2003 court date to answer the DYFS charges of child abuse and neglect arising out of the self-confessed child molester serving as a volunteer at Lighthouse Baptist Church. Dr. Lane has been tireless in calling dozens of Preachers around the country to rally around the Dosters. Every Pastor contacted has promised to pray for the Dosters and several have stated that they will be taking up a special offering for the legal defense. The address for donations is:

     Pastor Doster is working with a godly Christian web master to build and host a web site post updates on the legal and family matters as they unfold.

     More information on the web site will be available after the first of the year. In the mean time, please keep praying and please keep writing letters to all the addresses.

     [An article from the January, 2003 issue of "Revival Fires!" a newspaper By Dr. Dennis Corle]