Wonderful thoughts...

I am reading an excellent, true book called Kisses From Katie, which is written by Katie Davis, who went to do some work in Uganda and never came home. She couldn't leave!! She was so sucked into the people there, the call of God to help them, that she ended up setting up a non-profit and just living and serving. She was asked to write a book (as she did just have a blog), and I am so glad she did. I am only halfway through, but it is so powerful, and I wanted to share a few passages.

"When I thought about Mary (the mother of Jesus), I decided not to strive to be the perfect mother but to simply endeavor to be like she was- completely unprepared but ready to take the child God handed to her. Mary's faith was courageous and her obedience complete. She submitted to God, regardless of the cost or consequences. She submitted, even if it meant losing her reputation and the man she loved"....

I loved this! I also want to be like Mary, as I am certainly unprepared for how my life will be changing, but I trust that in my obedience to God to raise these children He is entrusting us with, that He will be there to fill in all the blanks that I am missing. I pray I will be obedient in all that He asks of me.

She was speaking about going back to America to try to do some fundraising, and that when she went "home" it was not home any longer, but a place to visit while she longed for her Ugandan home. All around her she saw the richness of what we all experience in daily life, when all those she knew in Uganda were suffering with malaria, nalnutrition, etc. "The truth is that the 143 million orphaned children and the 11 million who starve to death or die from preventable diseases and 8.5 million who work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under other horrific conditions and 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 this earth proclaim to be Christians.
The truth is that if only 8% of the Christians would care for one more child, there would not be any statistics left."

No, she is not saying that we all should drop our lives and move to Africa, or that we are all called to adopt one of these children, but we can all do without weekly Starbucks and sponsor a child, or skip dinner at Morton's and feed a village for a week! We don't have to go without to save a child...

She also wrote a wonderful part about what adoption is, and isn't (as she ended up adopting 14 girls since she lived there!) "Adoption is God's heart.... He accepts me, adores me even, just as I am. And He wants me to accept those without families into my own... It is not a good deed for the day; it's not what I am doing to 'help out these poor kids.' I adopt because God commands me to care for the orphans and the widows in their distress. I adopt because Jesus says that to whom much has been given, much will be demanded (Luke 12:48)"...

She has such faith and such passion, and I encourage you to read this great book. If it doesn't touch you, not sure what will.