Kate Davis, who was 18 years old at the time, did something that most girls her age would not have done. As homecoming queen and senior class president, she had a world of opportunities ahead of her, but forwent all of them for a life few can imagine.
Katie joined a mission trip to Uganda in December of her senior year of high school. During this trip, God etched fresh desires on her heart and opened her eyes to a different kind of possibility.
After praying and seeking God’s guidance on her next steps, Katie decided to forego university and her yellow convertible. Rather, she volunteered to teach kindergarten in an orphanage in Uganda for a year.
In 2008, Katie made Uganda her permanent home due to her devotion to God and faith in what she couldn’t see.
The name Amazima Ministries is derived from the Ugandan term “amazima,” which means “truth.” Through the truth of Jesus Christ, Amazima Ministries works to heal lives, repair relationships, and fundamentally impact communities.
She wrote the New York Times bestseller Kisses from Katie-A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption.
By the time she was 23 years old, Katie had become a mother to 13 little girls, whom she had adopted and raised like her own.
Katie tells TODAY that the foster care and adoption process taught her the most important lesson about what it means to love.
When I was laying sleepy heads on pillows and teaching tiny hearts to know Jesus, I had no idea the crazy, heartbreaking, uncontrollable love I would feel for children.
It didn’t occur to me that they would become extensions of me. This is because when they grieved, I would be hurt more deeply than before, and that when they expressed joy at a success or passion for God’s Word, I would burst into tears of joy.
It never occurred to me that when I looked at them, sometimes I would feel so much love in my chest that my heart would physically hurt.”
When Major arrived in Uganda to serve as a missionary, they met for the first time. They were both raised in Franklin, Tennessee.
According to Katie’s blog, “We shared a hometown with only a few hilltops to keep our adolescent lives from ever colliding.”
“My husband’s love is yet another way God lavished His extravagant love on me, a constant reminder that He delights in me and each of our daughters.” I see them come to life under their new father’s loving gaze, and I hear the joy and certainty in their voices as they name him.
When the couple married in 2015, Katie didn’t have sisters or close friends as bridesmaids, but she did have 13 lovely girls who continue to demonstrate God’s faithfulness, restoration, and love.
According to Katie, just because she lives in Uganda and shares the love of Jesus with the people she meets doesn’t make her any more of a “missionary” than anyone else.
“We live in Uganda with our three children. My neighbors, friends, and family live here as well. Here are the streets we live on, the people I wave to on the street, the community we pray with, and the friends we eat with. This is where I belong. You can do what I do right where you are.”
Amazing Ministries is just one of the many ways you can engage in the movement and help educate and empower a generation of children.
As Katie points out, you don’t have to be in Uganda to be a missionary. You don’t need to adopt 13 children to be Jesus’ hands and feet.
You can simply share God’s love with people who are close to you. Be nice to your neighbors, introduce yourself to new people, greet each day with delight, and be filled with the spirit to bless others. “Right where you are,” says the narrator.
Source: godtv.com
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