Cori signs up to take a mission trip to Indonesia during the summer after her senior year of high school. Inspired by happy visions of building churches and seeing beautiful beaches, she gladly escapes her complicated love life back home. Five weeks after their arrival, a sectarian and religious conflict that has been simmering for years flames to life with deadly results on the nearby island of Ambon. Within days, the church building the team had constructed is in ashes, its pastor and fifty villagers are dead, and the six terrified teenagers are stranded in the mountainous jungle with only the pastor's teenage son to guide them to safety. Ultimately, Cori's emotional quest to rediscover hope proves as arduous as the physical journey home.
Lisa still stumbles when people ask her about home. Raised in Australia, Bangladesh, the States, and Zimbabwe, she has also lived in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Croatia. She is currently living in Laos.
(How she got to Laos is a long story that began with writing letters to someone in Papua New Guinea named Mike and ended in marriage about a year later.)
In Australia, Lisa worked as a forensic psychologist with the police, in a maximum security men's prison, and on a child death review team. In Croatia, Lisa worked with a development organization as a stress management trainer. In Indiana, Lisa earned a masters degree in International Peace Studies at Notre Dame University. In Los Angeles, Lisa directed the Headington Institute's training and education programs, providing psychological and spiritual support services to humanitarian workers around the world. In Laos, while Mike is hard at work for a humanitarian organization, Lisa lies in a hammock by the Mekong River and drinks mango smoothies.
Well, sometimes, anyway. The rest of the time she is writing or working as a consultant. Lisa's first book, my hands came away red, was nominated for a Christy Award. Her essays and articles have appeared in a number of different magazines. She is currently working on her second book.
