Featured Follower Fridays - 4/15/11 edition

 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 to feature you!

Today's featured follower is Brendan Blowers, former missionary kid to Haiti amongst other things. We were both Naz MKs, graduated from the same class, and helped each other through a tough year and a half. I'm so glad to be featuring a like-minded-with-history friend! 

Brendan and I on one of the infamous hikes in Haiti. (2002)

Like most any aspect of life these days, I have been realizing how missionary life follows the pattern of becoming quickly reduced into a few oversimplifed concepts and easy phrases that we repeat to ourselves and others to ease the discomfort of actually having to keep our understanding of “missions” in a process that has to be constantly redefined and thought through. In a sense, our concept of missions itself is part of what God wants to redeem. It must go through a transformative process just like all other aspects of our life, so it doesn’t remain stagnant and rooted in our previous ways of thinking, before God showed us the light. Think, for example, of the initial impact a short-term missions trip has on people. That concentrated period of a few weeks introduces us to ideas, feelings, and realizations about what it means to share Jesus’ love in places and cultures we are unfamiliar with. Yet, that initial experience has to move beyond our initial intrigue and into something deeper that God wants for his worldwide church. It has to move back with us and become applicable where we live and work. Or, it has to continue to flame inside of us and push us into future cross-cultural service. There are no shortcuts in this process of redeeming our ideas of what missionary service entails, and our experiences with missions will have a direct impact on how our understanding is formed.

My idea of missions has been formed by my experiences as well. My Grampa lived and worked as a Bible translator in Papua New Guinea for 38 years, a history I know of mainly only through stories and an amazing visit to the places where he worked after I graduated college. (If you attend a Nazarene church there should be a missions book coming out about now that I wrote along with my grampa and dad about the trip back). I know about missions as a kid growing up in Haiti where our family moved as missionaries when I was eight. And now I’ve got my own taste of missionary experience in Costa Rica for the past couple years, where I presently serve with Mission Aviation Fellowship as a specialist in Learning Technologies.

One of the highlights of my mission experience here has been weekly involvement in a computer class in an immigrant shantytown on the outskirts of the capital city where I live. Over the past two years I’ve worked slowly and regularly with a few young guys from the slum to maintain the computers at two different learning labs located there, and their aptitude for learning and serving has been exciting to watch. People in their own community are now paying them to help fix their computers and load programs for them, and we’ve had a lot of fun experiences at summer camps. My training in computers, web design, and multimedia has helped give me an “excuse” to get into people’s homes to fix their computers while at the same time supporting seminaries and other Latin American training facilities on a professional level with the Christian training they provide. I’ve also been privy to participate in a couple of mission trips led by Costa Ricans to remote parts of their own country and other parts of the world (including back to Haiti!). That has been a great experience as well, and helped in the process I described above of shaping and redeeming my understanding of missions. For example, I am still humbled by the sacrifices I’ve seen people make to be a part of missions trips. I also am inspired by the dedication and urgency in their service. I see that I still have a lot to learn.

If you want to find out more about Mission Aviation Fellowship, they're a great missions organization that does relief flights in some of the most isolated parts of the world, set up communications links, and use recent technologies to help deliver biblical training (the distance training is the part I serve in). There are more adventures and stories on my blog, along with photo albums, videos, and  an interactive map if you want to check them out.

Mama said...

... "there'll be days like this."

"There'll be days like this," my Mama said.

Happy Monday! a.k.a. the randomest post ever.

I'm watching the Price is Right while my husband and little girl sleep upstairs.


My life is quite exciting, I know.

Actually, I really like game shows. I'm a nerd like that. But maybe I live vicariously through the people that win. Because, I never win anything. (Well, almost. Because last week, I actually won a blog giveaway from KCMamas! A gift certificate to Thirty-One! Waa-what?! I won? Yes, quite excited. I've even already placed my order. I'd not heard of Thirty-One before, but it's one of those home party business ventures. They have some pretty great items!)

I'm good with it! :-)

I'm still unemployed, but my husband is interested in a full-time position at the seminary he works at and will apply. Please pray that if it's the right move for us, it will happen!


A guy just spun the $1.00 on the wheel! And another guy just spun a $1.00. Now for the spin-off. 


For my 28th birthday, can I go to the Price is Right and win the Showcase Showdown?

Guy #1 going to the showdown. Guy #2 just won another $10,000.

Actually for my 28th birthday, I'd really like to do THIS. Random acts of kindness. but I can't really afford to do all of those myself. Maybe 27 other people would join me in celebrating my birthday and do one random act of kindness in my honor? Then we could all put together a list of creatively RAKs. What do you think?

She's not going to Bali.

(A video coming soon. Her newest trick!)

Hope your Monday is great and maybe a little less random than mine. :-)

Love,
Lisa

vintage stragglers

I have a few items I forgot to share. The camera is something I've always wanted and am composing a shelf display for our living room using it. However, I need a shelf! That is the problem. My mom walked into our house a few days after I got it and spotted it right away. You know when you see something very familiar that you haven't seen in decades? Yep, that's it! Ends up that her parents had one of those when she was little. She even showed me how to look through it from the top. In all of my high-tech glory, I couldn't figure that one out. So great.

And the baby boy romper. Isn't it cute? Makes me want a little boy! (Not really. Nope. 100% kidding. It is still cute though.)

Mint and white baby boy romper.

Little carousel detail.

backside.

Vintage display camera!

so great! LOVE it.

More fun vintage finds!

A friend and I visited an antique store going out of business. Everything was 50% off! I found a few really fun things...

my favorite find! a tiny metal play oven.

the oven opens! what should we make today??

missing its oven knobs... too bad.

cook top - a little used

crocheted diaper cover

crocheted booties

sweetest little nautical dress

they even had waterproof bloomers in tact

boys jumper

love it!

tiny elephant onesie

the elephant

fun apron!

doesn't it look great with my others?

baby booties (2nd pair)

nursery curtains - a semi-tutorial

 I finally found some material that I liked for curtains for the nursery! Plus, we were ready for Ladybug to sleep a little longer in the morning (if possible) because with the sheers, the sunshine is so bright in the morning! She wakes up when it's so light. Plus, if we want her to nap, light blocking curtains work well for the afternoons.

I went to Jo-Anns and found some quilting material (the print is so fun! it has blue, dark pink, light pink, orange, green, brown ... just perfect for our color scheme), light blocking material (in the upholstery section) and used some blue broadcloth scraps for the tabs.

I made a very basic curtain. I cut the light blocking material in half to fit both sides of the window and ironed and hemmed the print fabric right around it. Then I made the tabs.

Now, I need your help. How should I finish them?? (See last picture.)

the finished product

I sewed a straight seam down each tab.

Turned them inside out, and ironed the seam in the middle.

I folded each in half, ironed it, then folded each unfinished end up and ironed them.

d

Then I sewed the tabs onto the curtain tops, stitching a box and an "X" to make them sturdy.

The ends remain unfinished. Should I just hem them? Ruffles? What's your vision?

Fun vintage finds!

a suitcase in great condition (save the mirror, which will be covered up anyway!)

this is what I'm making!

humpty dumpty!

Vintage baby dress 1

delicate detailing on dress 1

Vintage baby dress 2

Vintage baby dress 3

Vintage baby dress 4

Featured Follower Friday - 2/18/11 edition

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!

Introducing ... my new husband!!!!!!!!

doesn't he look AMAZING?!!?!

So I'm on the phone to my best friend in South Korea and this strange man comes down the stairs ... and I realize the beard is GONE!!

It's GONE, my friends! Can I tell you how happy this makes me? At least as long as it lasts, I'm a happy wife.

Love you husband!!!

P.S. You can have as many kisses as you want!

Featured Follower Fridays - 2/11/11 edition

 So, every Friday, until I run out of people to feature, 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. Send me a picture, email, whatever. 

This week, let me introduce my friend Sharla. If I am jealous of the location of any of my friends, it's Sharla's. I *heart* Switzerland! Read on to find out about her story.

Hi! My name is Sharla Günthardt. I live in Schaffhausen, Switzerland with my Swiss husband and two little boys. Adrian is 5 and Ryan is 2. They keep me busy.

I first met Lisa when she was an exchange student at the European Nazarene College and then really got to know her when she came back to Büsingen to be a volunteer. Between the time Lisa came as a student to the time that she came back again to be a volunteer, I had my first son. Adrian was born on May 30, 2005. It was a great day. He looked perfect. He came into this world with a short little cry and then promptly fell asleep. The doctor assured us all was well and he was handed to my waiting arms. The first two days were filled with normal first time baby things. His first real cry came with his first diaper change and I cried right along with him. The third day of Adrian’s life was the day that changed everything.

On the third day Adrian had a routine check by the pediatrician. He did all the normal checks on him. When the doctor listened to his heart I noticed a slight hesitation on his face. But what ever it was that caused him to pause, disappeared from his face and he moved on to finish the exam. I had a feeling something wasn’t right. He looked at us and said, “I hear a slight heart murmur.” He went on to say a lot of babies are born with murmurs and they usually fix themselves, but he would take an x-ray to put our minds at ease. Off he went with Adrian.

When he came back into the room with Adrian and the x-ray, he didn’t come alone. He came with a second doctor. His next words were, “Adrian’s heart concerns us.” We were then directed to a pediatric cardiologist. He listened and did an ultra sound and then told us Adrian had a hole between the heart chambers that was 7mm wide. The hole would not close on its own and would require open heart surgery around his 6 month birthday. Adrian was born with a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. He seemed stable after a couple of days of monitoring and so we took him home.

With this condition they told us all kinds of things that would and could go wrong with him. He might be developmentally behind, have trouble with weight gain, and he might turn blue (that one made me freak out a little bit). We had to be very careful about him getting sick and so on. But despite all of these predictions, Adrian remained extremely healthy. He was a happy, chubby little baby. Never, ever had a symptom that indicated he had a heart defect.

On November 22, 2005, Adrian had his surgery at the Children’s Hospital in Zurich. I prayed all the way to the hospital for the Lord to heal him. I knew God would heal him one way or the other, but I prayed for divine healing all the way up to the surgery date. God chose to heal him through a surgeon’s hand and He gave us one of the best pediatric heart surgeons in the world. Adrian had a successful surgery. It wasn’t without its complications, but he is a happy and healthy 5 year old. You would never know by looking at him all that he’s been through. We still see the cardiologist each year and can expect a valve replacement some time in his future.

There are a lot of details to this story that I have left out. But the biggest details to the story are the ones where I can look back and see God’s hand. His hand was in every single detail. I will never understand why He allowed Adrian’s heart to develop like it did. But He took care of us and supplied all of our needs.

Thanks, Sharla! 

Come by next week for another FFF!

In the name of Love.

Jeremy and I aren't really big Valentine's day celebrators. We like to celebrate love, but on more days than just one. But, with that said, I still remember the 1st grade Valentine's day parties - decorating a valentine's bag, picking out or making valentines for everyone and ... well... getting some fun candy! (My mom also would make heart-shaped cookies with all of my classmates names sometimes ... I wrote about it in this post.) So in lieu of things past, sometimes I like to celebrate. Just a little.

This year, I made just a few things in the name of Love.

Still fun.

Cherry pie for my Dad. Not too shabby huh?

Valentines.

a heart garland - to fill some empty post-Christmas space

Do you celebrate Valentine's day? If so, how?