Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis–Book Review

Why would a middle class teenager who “had it all” choose to move to Uganda, thousands of miles away from her parents, her brother and the love of her life?

Why would she choose to become the adoptive single mother of thirteen girls?

Why would she open her home to ill, dying and needy people?

It’s actually simple.  Katie Davis loves Jesus and her greatest desire is to be in the center of His will for her.  Kisses from Katie is her story.  It humbles me and brings me face to face with the fact that I often say “no” to God’s will for my life, or worse yet, don’t even make an attempt to discern what His will is.  I need to repent of my headstrong desire to have my own way.  I also need to repent of my callousness toward others who have so much less than I do.

After reading Katie’s second book, which I reviewed last week, I was hungry to learn where and how her story started.  I highly recommend both.  These books are a wake-up call to American Christians (and I am one of them) who live their comfortable lives obliviously forgetting the Bible’s command to feed the hungry and help those who are without  basics like clean water, shelter, education and medical care.

Katie makes the point that we don’t all have to go to Uganda.  We can love those around us who need our care, one person at a time.  It’s not that hard, and it’s the only fitting response to those who have been saved by His grace.  Read this book.  It may change your life.

 

 

Book Review — Daring to Hope by Katie Davis Majors

A friend gave me this book for my birthday.  It’s an easy read and difficult to put down. I read it in a day. Katie lives in Uganda where she founded Amazima Ministries and became the adoptive mother of thirteen girls.  She has the gift of hospitality and relates her many experiences opening her home and life to those who are ill, dying or needy.  Her life isn’t typical, but many of her thoughts about faith and hope resonate deeply with me, and are easily applied to anyone’s daily life.  For example, in her musings about the story of Abraham and Isaac she says:

“It is a bold claim, to look up your mountain, to look out over the dry, cracked places and the barren places and the broken places, outcomes yet unknown, and call the place The Lord Will Provide, to believe that He will when you cannot yet see how.”

As she walks through many difficult circumstances she begins to call each one, The Lord Will Provide:  and He does, although not always in the way she imagined.

Katie brings to life many of my favorite Scriptures — the road to Emmaus, the resurrection of Lazarus, Mary of Bethany and more.  She learns to hope because “God Himself is our reward,” to see people through His eyes and to cope with the unwanted and unexpected consequences of life.

I give it 5 stars and I’m sure I will be passing it on.  It may show up in our Little Free Library of Leitersburg!