Every Friday I'm doing "Featured Follower Friday". Now, if you aren't technically a follower ... no problem! Anyone is welcome. Share a part of your story, write about yourself, be creative, crazy, silly, poetic, whatever - and if you have a blog, be sure to link it too! Then other people can "meet" you, connect to your blog, or just find out something interesting! Wanna participate? I'd LOVE volunteers!! Don't be shy ... let me share my blog-space.
Today's featured follower is none other than ... my mom! :-) Thanks, Mom.
My name is Corey Koster and I am Lisa’s mom. We met when she was born. :-)
After you are a wife, mom, and nurse your whole life, serving becomes an art and passion. I have the gifts of hospitality, serving, and helping. But I have to be careful with the helping, sometimes I go a bit too far. It’s in love, of course, but it can be overpowering too. Both my husband, Jim, and my kids can tell you what that is like. Any gift can be a curse if not fueled with the right motives and God’s guidance.
My passion when I had children at home was raising them in such a way that they would love God, serve Him, and function in society as responsible adults. We sacrificed much of ourselves along the way to make that happen. Since no parents can do it perfectly and there are no guarantees. Still I loved them and did my best, which at times was not enough. But God said He would fill in the gaps! We read together, made cookies together, vacationed together, prayed together, ate together and did life together, and I loved every minute of it! (Okay, most minutes of it.) I miss that, but don’t have the energy for it now, anyway, so I watch from afar and marvel at the gifts and abilities of my children. I love them with an unending love, Ryan, Lisa, and Jenn.
My other passion now is my marriage and my husband Jim. God gave me a quiet one because He knew what He was doing. Only so much enthusiasm and talking can live in one house! We have been married 33 years this July. More sacrifice…we married at 20 and 21 and we thought we were so smart, little did we know! Literally! We have changed and been molded together and I wouldn’t trade him for the world. He has put up with a lot, BUT, then again, so have I. That is the way God fashioned the family, and I am grateful for the one He gave me. More grateful as the later years go by, and we only have each other. I appreciate him more every day.
My other passion is Haiti. We were missionaries for seven years to the country of Haiti. Nothing in my life before or since could have prepared me for what took place. We were so far out of our comfort zone that God could work miracles and that He did. One quick story, and I will close.
It was 2007. We had just finished a church in south Haiti. We had hired a truck driver to bring us out to the site over sharp lava-rock like stones and barely got down the hill. When we were ready to return, our driver must have decided that he had enough in the first trip and didn’t come back to pick us up.
And he didn’t bother to tell us.
So after hours of waiting, we climbed up the mountain to get cell phone reception and called back to our campus to let them know we weren’t going to make it back to the planned meeting point.
Finally someone came and picked us up after several hours. But, instead of one really big truck, we had to get our entire work team, the luggage, and all of the valuable tools into the back of two small pickup trucks. (Making do – “dega je” – at its best!)
We decided since it was so late we would have to stop about halfway back, in Bleck, at a pastor’s home. In the meantime, there was absolutely no way to get word to Franz, our driver, who had the big truck to take the team back home. He had been waiting for hours at our rendezvous point.
Or so we thought.
About 15 minutes after we arrived in Bleck, I saw Franz drive up!
I ran to the truck and asked him, “Who called you and told you to come here instead?”
In his calm and quiet manner, he replied. “I was waiting [at our meeting point] and then God told me to come here and here I am.”
I was in shock. Talk about getting your socks blown off! It was such a great miracle. We drove home later that night. One thing we learned in Haiti: God is never late but He definitely has His own timetable.
God, how I love you and Haiti!
This was a blessing to read. Thanks for sharing!
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