~Disclaimer: this is really long...like really really long. Make sure you have some time to read it before you sit down.~
"It is not about God making my dreams come true, but about God changing my dreams into His dreams for my life."*
Katie Davis is 22 years old. She moved to Uganda when she was 18 years old, and fell in love with the country and it's people.
"I thought of how, after a long, hard day in my preivous life, I would have crashed on the couch with a pint of ice cream, a good sappy movie and my closest girl friends. Here, at the end of a long, hard day, there was nothing to do but cry out to Jesus for the strength to go on."*
At that point she was 18 years old, teaching kindergarten to over one hundred student daily- not knowing their language.
"I can enter into someone's pain and sit with them and know. This is Jesus. Not that He apologizes for the hard and the hurt, but that He enters in, He comes with us to the hard places. And so I continue to enter."*
Yet, in the middle of these circumstances she praises God for His example to us of how to care for the least of these.
"I am common and simple, with nothing special about me. Nothing special except I choose to say "yes" to the things God asks of me and "yes" to the people He places in front of me. You can too. I am just an ordinary person. And ordinary person serving and extraordinary God."*
Even on bad, hard days, she continues to say "yes". "Yes" to the man across the street who hasn't eaten in days, "yes" to the baby boy whose stepmother won't care for him. "Yes" to the ones no one will care for, everyone knows "Aunty Katie" will say, "yes."
"I can say "yes" to Him, or I can say no. I can go to the hard places or I can remain comfortable. And if I remain comfortable, God who loved us unconditionally will continue to love me anyway. I may still see His glory revealed in my life and recognize His blessings, but not like I could have. I can miss the will of God."*
"I wrapped him in a towel and, as my friend held him tightly, I began to cut away the dead skin that hung from his heels and the insides of his feet...He didn't scream or cry; he simply sat there in what must have been excruciating pain as tears rolled down his expressionless face. I, on the other hand, ran out of the room and threw up."*
She cares for the least of these, she has adopted fourteen girls, she runs a make-do medical clinic, she helps helpless ladies make a living. And you know what started it all? "Yes", she simply said, "Yes". "Yes" to God, "yes" to wherever He was going to take her, "yes" to the plan He had for her.
She is 22. 22 years old, 14 daughters, a medical clinic, homeschooling her children, managing a sponsorship program for hundreds of children- not to mention caring for those who just look like they could need some love.
"My heart was being broken. The situations with Michael and Patricia and so many other children were breaking it every day. While i never lost my love of compassion for the children, I did sometimes lose my patience with the circumstances they were living."*
All it took was, "Yes God. Yes, I will do what you are asking." Isn't that what so many of us, including me, aren't doing?
As I read Katie's book, it opened my eyes to the situations out there. And at many times I said to myself, "Okay God, maybe this isn't as easy as I wanted it to be. Maybe I'm not called to Uganda." It's not easy. Caring for people with third degree burns, gashes in their feet, and people who are so hungry they can't move- it's not easy. But every day Katie keeps moving- she keeps saying, "yes" to what God puts in front of her.
She doesn't do it for herself- but for God. For God's glory...so that in heaven every people from every tribe and nation will bow praising God.
I hope, that through God's strength, wherever He plans to take me- that I can say "yes" for God's glory.
"We know you are here. Let us bring all our wounds and brokenness to You expectantly, without a doubt. Remind that all the children we touch, and all the children we don't, are Yours. Your in this broken life, and Yours in eternity. Come, Lord Jesus. We wait in hope."*
Thank you, God, for those who are saying "yes". Thank you for Katie. Thank you for giving us hope. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for what you have done and will continue to do in Katie's ministry. We wait in hope to see what you will do- one child- one person at a time.
Yes, Lord. We wait in hope.
*All quotes are from Katie's book, Kisses from Katie, you can read more of Katie's story at kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com. Thank you.
