Meet one of our Piecemakers Village vendors...

Buried deep within the heart of man is a talent planted there by God Himself. Seeing as how our life unfolds like chapters in a book, the talent sometimes lies dormant through many chapters before coming into fruition. And sad to say, in our modern civilization we are sometimes too educated to ever find that talent. Our talent, when discovered and used, provides a livelihood and brings satisfaction to the user. The talent may be as significant as Edison, who at a young age found his calling, or it may be a bellhop carrying out his calling doing the same thing day after day, but the job is new and fresh every day for it is what he is called to do. Striving and searching ceases when we are carrying out God's will for our life.

So it is with Jim Matthews. I got acquainted with Jim's birdhouses quite some time before I met the artist. The birdhouses were so unique, so perfectly constructed, so quaint. Then one day busily displaying his artistry was the artist himself. As it turns out, his life is just as unique as his birdhouses.

Born in Pasadena, California, of a simple family, his heritage comes from his forefathers who forged the fabric of our country with hard work, hard times, calloused hands and a big heart. His father taught him the skills of blacksmithing and putting pieces of wood together to form a piece of furniture. Working with his hands brought satisfaction and fulfillment.

His boyhood was spent in the beautiful foothills of the San Gabriel mountains in the city of Arcadia. Although he attended college he soon found working with one's head brought not the same fulfillment as working with one's hands.

The chapter of his youth was closing when at twenty-one he met and married Betty Skinner. Betty and her daughter Lorna not only opened up his heart but gave him a sense of responsibility; of loving and caring for a ready-made family. Lorna was cared for as if his own. The year was 1961. It was the decade of the sixties and the world was being shaken. Things that seemed to fit together and work were now outdated. The winds of change were blowing upon everyone's life. Although the retail business took care of Jim and his family which now included two sons, Craig and Brian, this chapter was one that had fulfilled its purpose and was closing.

Divorce, even when compatible, is a time of rolling with the punches and growing out of a stale shell, or it is a time of stagnation and bitterness. Being a husband and dad had created a new Jim from the Jim of his youth but that chapter was over, and the shell seemed restricting. Change is always scary. How much easier it would be to go on with the "same old, same old". So Jim took the brave step of walking out of his marriage of twenty-five years.

In reflecting on one's life we see where security can be a comfortable trap. The corporation where Jim worked was family - a family who watched out for one another and took care of one another. The security was too comfortable to think of tapping the talent God had hidden in his heart. A member of the corporation family was a lovely young woman by the name of Linda. Fresh, wholesome and friendly, Jim's relationship from the beginning was a secretary boss relation which blossomed into a rich love. They had mutual likes. Life took on a new meaning. The pain of closing the last chapter was over and life seemed such that he hoped it would never end.

The long, comfortable chapter of being taken care of by a corporation came to an abrupt end when on December 21, 1991, Jim's world came to an end with the news that the president and vice president, Donald Kaufman and Suzy Satow, were killed in a plane crash.

God has a way of kicking his people out of the nest of comfort forcing them to tap resources still unknown. With the company closing, Jim and Linda married and began a journey into the world of creativity.

Becoming an entrepreneur was the farthest from Jim's mind. But remembering what his father taught him and recalling the satisfaction gotten from creating with his hands, he and Linda launched out on a journey as exciting and as adventuresome as Shackleton conquering the perils of Antarctica. No corporation to pick them up if they fell. No guaranteed salary, no insurance - they ventured into an unknown world.

Jim started by building a birdhouse here and a birdhouse there - mostly for friends. You can usually tell when an article's time has come by the demand of the people who see your product. Little by little people were wanting the birdhouses Jim built. Jim would build and Linda would paint, and the new adventure was exhilarating and monetarily satisfying.

The old saying goes, "All good things must come to an end". And so his life with Linda was all too short and too final. She died in 1998. With broken heart Jim continued to build his birdhouses - now alone.

People from all over the country are beginning to send in orders for Jim's birdhouses.

With the loss of Linda a door closed to his life that will be forever etched upon his heart. The building of his birdhouses sustained through the sorrowful months that followed her death. Jim found that God is not only God of the good times but a comfort in the times of sorrow.

Each day brings new ideas, new friends and new hopes for the talent planted in Jim's heart, fostered by his dad and brought to fruition by Jim himself. He looks to the future with a grateful heart. The sorrows and obstacles have indeed made him a man who does not fear tomorrow - who rests in that quiet faith that is the fruit of overcoming tragedy, of raising a family, of falling in and out of love, and of venturing out and tapping and bringing forth the talent God has given him that will forge the fabric of a new America.

Meet another one of our Piecemakers Village vendors...

My name is Lorna Drake. I was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England. I went to grade school with Ian, an American who later became my husband. In 1968 we moved to South Africa. It was here that Ian began making his way back to America.

We landed in Irvine, California. I fell in love with California-the mountains, the ocean, the desert, the climate, everything I had ever hoped for and more. Then, I had no idea that California was also to be the place where my heart would be broken, my old life come to an end and a new life begin.

My marriage to Ian ended in 1986. A chapter in my life was ended. As with most divorces, it was a time of bittersweet growth - like the fall, winter and then comes the spring. I met Ron Drake in the spring of 1987. He was to become my husband, my pillar and my arm of strength. Looking back I can see where God had somewhat prepared me for the deep sorrow I was yet to experience. Little did I know that the valley of tears was in fact a door of hope, a broadening of my understanding, my life.

My daughter was diagnosed with cancer and died. It was that final, as final as death always is. Her death opened a door of suffering I was afraid would never end.

One day as I was shopping with my other daughter, Natasha, I noticed the most beautiful dolls on the back of a magazine. It was an advertisement advertising a doll class in Utah taught by a doll teacher by the name of Elinor Peace Bailey.

My heart, which had felt so dead for so long, seemed to feel a spark of joy as I wrote and got information about the seminar in Utah. They were running a special - buy one ticket and get another for one dollar. Was this the door of hope my daughter and I needed so desperately to heal our broken hearts??

So mother and daughter headed for Utah. As we were grieving we hoped this time together making dolls would help heal us. I was enchanted with dolls and the possibilities.

Someone at the seminar told me about a place, a community, a store called Piecemakers. Funny that I lived in Irvine, a short distance from Piecemakers and had to go to Utah to hear about yet a new chapter opening in my life. Piecemakers took me in as a friend, a colleague, a teacher. I have been with them eight years. My heart will never be the same. It is healed, but never quite. I am a bit wiser. God used dolls and friends to open a new life, find peace and joy in creating - doing something I had never dreamed of doing. Making dolls is a part of me - I take pleasure in making them, sharing them and selling them, if possible.

Creating with my hands has involved my heart, my mind, my essence for life. New original ideas come to me from God as I continue to create. And, oh yes, I can once more laugh and cry and feel and ponder - perhaps with more meaning than before I came to California.