Book Review {Kisses From Katie}

I came across Katie’s blog a few years ago and was blown away by her selflessness and her insight.  There are a few blogs that I come across on occasion that leave me astounded and deeply moved.  Katie’s would be one of them.   I lost track of her for a while but heard last year that she had a book coming out.   I knew it would be one to read.  

Kisses from Katie is somewhat of an autobiography with a deeper message that leaves you challenged to be a radical servant to others.  Around the age of 19 God called Katie to not only minister to the orphans in Uganda, but to start Amazima, a non-profit organization that supports children throughout Uganda that allows them to attend school.  She has also heard and accepted the Lord’s calling to adopt 14 young girls as her own.

The book was so good, and such an easy read, I finished it in one day (including one late night).  Living in America it is so easy to get caught up in the luxuries and easy access we have to whatever we might want.  Katie’s book is a great eye opener/reminder to those who are struggling for 1 meal a day.  

While her book left me contemplating many things I am most impressed with her servant’s heart as a mother to her girls.  The fact that I dred (a majority of the time) cooking dinner for five a few times a week, giving baths every other night is sad compared to the meals she not only cooks for  her 14 girls every day, plus hundreds of other children on the weekends. 

I sometimes got caught up in “I deserve this” moments; I still do.  I have moments when I compare myself to other people and trick myself into believing that I am doing pretty well.  There are still moments when I believe I should be able to relax and do nothing some afternoons, instead of taking care of one more sick person.  There are moments when I think that because I have worked hard all day, I deserve to be able to sit down and eat my food instead of answering the door for one more person who needs help.  

The truth is that these thoughts are not at all scriptural.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that I deserve a reward here on earth Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do work at it with all your heart.” It does not end in, “and after this hard work you deserve a long hot bath and some ‘me time’.”  It does end with, “ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.”  

Her life is much different than mine, but serving my family selflessly is one of my biggest struggles.   It is a message that I have heard many times, but I am still working on getting my heart and attitude there.

Her passion is great and I hope you will put her book on your reading list if you have one!  Here are a few more “teasers”…..

-The truth is that the 143 million orphaned children and the 11 million who starve to death or die from preventable diseases and the 8.5 million who work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under other horrific conditions and the 2.3 million who live with HIV add up to 164.8 million needy children.  And though at first glance that looks like a big number, 2.1 billion people on the earth proclaim to be Christians.

The truth is that if only 8 percent of the Christians would card for one more child, there would not be any statistics left.

This is the Truth.  I have the freedom to believe it.  The freedom, the opportunity to do something about it.  The truth is that He loves these children just as much as He loves me and now that I know, I am responsible.

-The Lord has shown me that the more I give of myself, the more He fills me up.  The more I love, the more love I have to give.

-I believe that God is in control, yes, but I also believe I have a choice:  I can follow Him or I can turn my back on Him.  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 loves 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.  The rich young ruler certainly did.  He didn’t fall dead, as Ananias and Sapphira did; and maybe he went on to live a great life, but it wasn’t the life he could have lived had he said yes to what Jesus was asking of him.

-Joy costs pain, but the pain is worth it.  After all, the murder had to take place before the resurrection.

-I am waiting and God is teaching me this:  I beg Him to bring me close to His heart, to even transform my heart that I might be more like His.  I think orphan care gets us close, because He sees us as orphans.  I think adoptions gets us close, because this is how He brings us into His family.  The poor, the beggar, the widow, the prisoner, the get us close to His heart because these people are so dear to Him.  

But nothing gets us much closer than injustice.

When babies starve and people die cold and alone and children are ripped from their parents—these are some of the injustices of a broken world.  And I think of a Savior who spent His whole life doing nothing but good, saving and healing and feeding and helping even the most undeserving of people, dying on a cross like a thief or a murderer.  I think of a Father, a Father who desires good things for His children even more than I desire good things for mine, a Father who could have stopped His Son’s torture at any time but instead watched it happen.  For me.  For you.  And I weep at the injustice of it.  He knows this pain.  He knows what it is to lose a child to the injustice of a fallen world.  And so while I still cry and beat my fists on the floor, I find comfort in that, and I ask to be closer still.

You can find Katie’s blog here.  You can also support her ministry or purchase magazine bead necklaces made by the women of Masese (some of the women she ministers too) here.