Katie Davis comes to realize, or is led to realize, that a need exists for an organized ministry in the Ugandan village she’s working in, and she begins to figure it out.
Led by Jason Stasyszen at Connecting to Impact and Sarah Salter at Living Between the Lines, we’ve been reading and discussing Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption by Katie Davis and Beth Clark. I’ve been chafing a bit during the reading – Katie has been expressing an attitude towards her home culture that I’ve had problems with.
The attitude changes in Chapter 4, “Saying Yes.”. If she’s to create the organized ministry needed to educate, feed and clothe the children she’s working among, the resources are available locally. So she turns to her parents, their families, their friends and other people in the United States. Far from being self-absorbed in their SUVs and shopping mall expeditions, they all step forward and give. The funds and organizational structure are created in the United States and then flow to Katie’s work in Uganda.
Miracles begin to happen. Children would have had no opportunity for schooling, a good meal, clothes or hope – suddenly find all three. The story Katie tells at the end of the chapter – how the mothers and grandmothers come to understand what is being done for the children – is marvelous to read.
Something in this chapter is changing for Katie as well. No longer is she comparing and contrasting cultures or the affluence of the U.S. versus the poverty of rural Uganda. Instead, she has become a bridge – a bridge between resources in the United States and a great and growing need in Uganda. She’s working, and fully understanding how God has created the resources in one place for use in another place.
Katie has become a catalyst.
To see more posts on this chapter of Kisses from Katie, please visit Sarah Salter at Living Between the Lines.
To see more posts on this chapter of Kisses from Katie, please visit Sarah Salter at Living Between the Lines.
I like people bridges. They span great differences and bring them together.
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ReplyDeleteI like this "a bridge between resources and a great need." What a wonderful calling!
ReplyDeleteIn some ways we are all called to that place of interceding even as God told Ezekiel that He "looked for one who would stand in the gap." As I've heard that taught on before, it was said that a person stands between the need and the breakthrough and then brings them together by His Spirit. Great perspective here, Glynn. Thank you.
ReplyDeletei sounds like she really loves uganda and the people there, especially the children.
ReplyDeletethe story shows me that the cultures of katie's home in the usa and her home in uganda both have their own unique forms of poverty and wealth.
A pastor friend of mine told me that she couldn't put this book down. I ordered it and just finished reading it! This pastor friend of mine had visited Uganda on a mission trip last September and had written 4 guest posts for my blog.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I was wonderfully surprised to pull up your blog and to see this book featured. Wonderful!
I think we're learning through Katie's experience. No one is better, the one in the field nor the one still at home supporting from afar. Some of us are eyes, others feet. I think Katie is learning to appreciate this difference and partnership by being exactly what you say, a bridge between the resources and the great need.
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