Last summer when I was in Uganda, one of the ministries we had the privilege of working with was
Amazima, a ministry started in 2008 by Katie Davis, who was 19 years old at the time. I had been introduced to
Katie's blog a number of years ago and was so excited that we would have a chance to work with her ministry and possibly even meet her!
Our day at Amazima was "the day" for me.
Let me back up. A few days before - in fact, I think it was the day before - several of my teammates suddenly started to seem tired, overwhelmed...."done". I remember Mike, one of our team leaders, saying that the time would come for each of us. The time when everything we were seeing and experiencing would start to overwhelm us and we would have to pull back a bit, spend some time alone in prayer and introspection, and sort-of regroup before we could move on.
The day we spent at Amazima Ministries was that day for me. I remember sitting on the playground, holding a little boy who was probably about 2 years old. He had been standing in the middle of the playground crying….just standing there….occasionally fighting off older kids as they tried to steal an unripened mango out of his hand....and I felt so helpless because I didn't know why he was crying or how to help him. He didn't understand English and was skeptical of this strange white person speaking strange words to him. Finally I just picked him up and he laid his little head on my shoulder and fell asleep. Poor sweet baby. I think he just wanted someone to hold him. He was LITTLE, and he was tired and hungry, and just wanted to be held, like any baby wants his mama when he's tired and hungry.
And so I picked him up and held him while he slept.......while HUNDREDS of children swarmed around us, playing on the playground, gnawing on green, unripe mangos that they knocked out of the trees with giant, long sticks.
I sat rocking that sweet baby, and when he stopped crying, that's when I started.
The enormity of the need in that place - the hundreds and hundreds of children, many without families, or some who had families that lived in poverty more unimaginable than anything you've ever seen - suddenly it became more than I could handle. The apparent hopelessness of their situation overcame me, and I couldn't stop crying. I sat on that playground thinking, "Why are we here, God? What's the point? We can't help these children - we can't help ANY of them! There's no point in us being here. Their lives will be exactly the same when we leave here as they were before we came. We’re not making any difference. Why are we even here? What are we doing?"
And I'm not sure that I was completely wrong. I'm not sure that their lives WERE any different because of our being there. But I do know that one little boy (actually, many little boys and girls) had someone to hold him that day. He had a soft, warm, safe place to close his exhausted little eyes and sleep for just a few minutes, without having to worry that his beautiful, prized, life-giving mango would be stolen if he closed his eyes for a minute.
And here's what else I know. Katie Davis is that soft, warm, safe place for these kids (and many of their families) every single day. She didn't quit when the enormity of it all overwhelmed her. She didn't give up and turn back. She's there, serving these precious people every single day, being the hands and feet of Jesus to them, doing all that she can and more to make their lives a little less hopeless.
I did get to meet Katie that day. Just briefly. Just long enough to say "thank you for letting us come" and "I'm so inspired by you" (which she would hate :) ) and have my picture taken with her. It was sort of surreal to meet someone on the other side of the world who you've been reading about for so many years.
And then not long after I came home I heard that Katie was about to publish a book. And something weird happened. I didn't want to read it. I don't know why, I just didn't.
And so I sort of avoided it. For months. I clicked away from blogs that raved about it. I think maybe I looked it up on Amazon and read the blurb about it, but then I clicked away from that too. I didn’t chime in on Facebook when all my teammates were excitedly discussing it, saying “I met Katie and she’s awesome!”
But then one Wednesday night I dropped my kids off at church, planning to go to Barnes and Noble, find a quiet table in a corner, and work on my Bible study homework. Well, it turned out all the tables were full, and so what else is a girl to do with an hour to kill in Barnes and Noble and nowhere to sit? I started browsing. And don’t you know, there was Katie’s book. Hmm.
I picked it up, read the first page or two, and put it back. I browsed around for a while, looking at other books that caught my attention, but it was like Katie’s book was calling to me the whole time. I wasn’t even really paying attention to the other books I looked at. My mind was really on her book. So finally I went back and picked it up, found a place to sit down (at the table in the kids’ section because everything else was taken), and started reading. Half way through the first chapter I was crying. Because Katie loves Uganda. And now I love Uganda too.
Well, all the sudden it was time to go pick up the kids, and of course I HAD to have her book now (wishy-washy is what I am), so I quickly paid, zoomed off to pick up the kids, and couldn’t wait to get home to pick up where I’d left off.
*
*
*
No, I didn’t.
Even though I couldn’t WAIT to read more, I also couldn’t bear to pay $25 for that book at Barnes & Noble. I’m cheap like that. Actually, I would have waited for the paperback that’s coming out in a couple of months, but after crying my way through the first chapter, I didn’t think I could wait that long.
But I did wait until the next week when my 33% off coupon at Lifeway was good. :) And then I spent every spare moment reading about Katie’s life of surrender to God’s call, nodding and smiling when she talked about the ubiquitous red dirt and the terrible roads and the crazy drivers….like being there for 2 weeks somehow made me a local.
Wow. I so wish I was an eloquent writer and could aptly explain how much I loved this book. I sucked it in like breathing air. You all know that God has somehow – for some reason that I COMPLETELY don’t understand – put an inexplicable love in my heart for Uganda and its people. And reading Katie’s book was like reading about that one special place – that one certain
thing – that you just love with your whole heart and can’t get enough of (not talking about spiritual things here….just, you know, quilting, or cooking, or Ireland, or history….or whatever that
thing is for you).
I would so love for every single one of you to read her book and tell me what you thought. I know that’s not going to happen, but I wish it would. :) You know how it is when you want your passion to be everyone’s passion? And you want everyone to love the same things you love? Of course life would be incredibly boring if we all only loved what everyone else loved, but if you ever have the inclination, I would love for you to read
Kisses from Katie and get a glimpse of this one little corner of my heart.
And not only to read about Uganda, but to read the true-life, happening-right-now story of a young(!) woman who has totally, thoroughly, and completely surrendered her life to God’s plan for her – a plan that looked totally, thoroughly, and completely different than anything she had ever imagined – and has found her ultimate joy in laying down her life for the One who laid down His life for her.
Please, watch this to hear a little more about Katie, from Katie.
It’s an awesome read, y’all. If you decide to read it, please let me know. I'd love to hear what you think.
