But instead you stay in Uganda, adopt 14 children by the age of 22 as single mom and start a huge ministry while living amongst extreme poverty, disease, heartache and filth.
Let's see now. I am trying to think back to my own college years and how I used that time. Not well my friends. Not well.
As I read Katie Davis' story in book, Kisses From Katie I began to notice at every crossroads in her life I would have chosen opposite of her.
College or Africa? Well, you can do more good in the long run if you have an education.
Get married or Africa? Well, if I go back to America and get married I could probably still run my ministry and raise more money and awareness from there than in Africa. And two are better than one.
Adopt children in Africa or just run my ministry? If I adopt children here in Africa I can never bring them to the USA therefore I am committing to living here forever. Is that fair to me or these children? No. Especially since I'm not even married. I should probably just run my ministry.
Should I still allow sick people into my home with AIDS, scabies, worms, lice, skin diseases and other serious illnesses now that I have children? No. God gave me these children and I have to protect them first and foremost. That work will have to someone else without young children at home.
Should I still cook for the 200 children in my ministry who come over on Saturdays for praise and worship now that I have 14 children? No. That's too much. I need to cutback and put my family first. (I cannot imagine having 200 children in my home on a weekly basis!)
So now you have seen my answers to questions Katie has had to answer, And basically, I suck.
The truth is she has gotten an education by staying in Uganda that no university could provide. And although she may not be married, she is loved by thousands and even better, has the deep love of her 14 children. And do you know that her house is a refuge for the sick in which she nurses them back to health. She turns no one away and each time God protects her children from disease. The food doesn't run out, every answer is yes, and God continues to bless.
She has done so much at a young age. Was I not called to do great things or have I just answer incorrectly to God's calling over and over again?
Her faith amazes me. She was more spiritually mature at 18 than I am today. She calls me out on my many flaws of mothering without even trying to. The wisdom in her voice is that of a woman far beyond here years and more to the tune of an elderly woman who has already seen all of life.
"My knees are dusty orange, stained by the soil into which they press for hours as I beg God for mercy and strength to continue. My tears flow in puddles that do not soak into the red, parched earth of Uganda. The puddles and the color of my knees remind me that I was not to leave this life unstained or unscarred. Even Jesus kept his scars after the resurrection. My stains are beautiful to Him and as I become dirtier and more beat up, I am hoping to become perfect, transformed into the image of the one who made me. And I am thankful." -Katie Davis
When I grow up I want to be like Katie Davis. I am praying I grow up today.
1 comment:
ohh Christina! I love your post. I was answering these questions all wrong too! I want to grow up today also! I loved her testimony~ we need to get together and talk.
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