Today and Beyond

…I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation... – Romans 15:20

The HeartCraft story has been a big part of my personal adventure with God. It was my opportunity to sink roots into another culture and develop deep relationships with a circle of new friends. Although they live in a very different context and have a very different worldview, these people are dear to me. It was also a time when God became even more real and precious to me. HeartCraft was the laboratory in which I sought specific miracles from God and learned to trust Him as He performed a transformative and supernatural work in my life and the lives of others.

There was tremendous pain and hardship along the way. The victories didn’t come without a cost. Many times, I felt completely inadequate for the job in front of me, but as I studied Scripture, I saw that the Lord deliberately used people who felt that way. Moses, for example, didn’t feel he was the right man for the job. Ruth, David, Mary and Jesus’s disciples were all unlikely candidates for changing the world.

When God led Steve to his Orlando-based leadership role in Pioneers, I wondered once again what God had in store for me. The answer wasn’t long in coming. Friends all around the world began contacting me. Many of them had started projects similar to HeartCraft or were thinking of doing so. They asked for advice on product choice, insights on working through cultural challenges in developing countries and tips on how to market their products in the U.S. They had heard I was successfully selling HeartCraft quilts on the American market.

In time, I sensed the Lord opening a door to launch a ministry that would advise and assist small and medium-sized enterprises all around the world. The ministry connects Christians in the U.S. with church-planting projects in Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. Our team hosts craft sales and shares the amazing stories of what God is doing in the locations where the products are made. All sales revenue is channeled back into the projects and into expanding the network globally.

I do not claim to be a linguist, cultural anthropologist or business expert. I’ve simply been a devoted friend to the Kantoli. To this day, I’ve still never had the time to make a quilt myself! Yet, by God’s grace, I’ve seen thousands of quilts and other crafts produced and sold by people who had no prior skill or business experience. Some have asked if, looking back, I would have done anything differently. Not really. I have no major regrets. I let my life get more complicated than many may have thought wise, but I’m glad I did.

In November 2001, Steve and I visited China. Concluding our trip in Beijing, we boarded a flight bound for Tokyo, Minneapolis and eventually Orlando. An American woman struggled to get her three children into their seats across the aisle from us. As Steve helped lift her bags into the overhead compartment, he noticed that the youngest child was wrapped in a familiar-looking quilt. He asked the lady where she had found it.

“It’s a long story,” she answered with a smile. “My husband is an oil executive. Several years ago, a young Indonesian lady visited the oil camp, bringing dozens of beautiful quilts with her. She told us amazing stories about a ‘quilt lady’ who taught her people to sew. The quilts were so beautiful that I decorated my whole house with them!”

Steve smiled as the woman told her story. Nodding toward me he asked her, “Would you like to meet the Quilt Lady?”