Kisses from Katie

When We Love the Least of These

Frank

A little over a year ago I was part of a book club reading Kisses From Katie by Katie Davis, which documents her time in Uganda eventually adopting many of the kids she went to care for. I was reminded of her when I first heard the story behind the award-winning Documentary Blood Brother. Similarly, this documentary tells the story of Rocky Braat who went to an orphanage in India for a “short term” missions trip to find himself and found much more instead.

This story is compelling enough but Braat’s friend, filmmaker Steve Hoover didn’t stop there and has made a new documentary, Gennadiy about a priest in the Ukraine who “rescues” homeless kids from the streets. I put rescued in quotes because his methods are unorthodox to say the least. Hoover is currently running a Kickstarter campaign that concludes tomorrow.
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So this is supposed to be a “music Monday” post, so I added the video for Audio Adrenaline’s song, Kings and Queens. As a parent, seeing children suffer tears at my heart but as a Christian, seeing people like Katie Davis, Rocky Braat, Fr Gennadiy, and the Hands and Feet Project from Audio Adrenaline encourage me that there is hope out there.

Without further ado, here are some videos. Grab a tissue.

Eyes and Ears

Frank

I don’t have a lot to say about this week’s reading from Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis and Beth Clark. I encourage you to check out my friends’ posts over at Connecting to Impact.

When watching over a little girl dying from malaria, Katie wrestles with the poverty and disease right before her while remembering the luxury and comfort she left behind in the United States. Katie writes, “My heart began to break over and over for the other children around the world who had no one to protect them, no one to speak up for them, no one to sit up with them at night and control their fevers. Who would hold them? Who would sing to them?” (pg 70)

Dare I be so bold to say that Katie is wrong? God makes it clear in His Word that He is the ultimate advocate for the poor, the hopeless, and the forgotten. And as Katie herself admits in this chapter, it was He who put her right in that place for His purpose.

When I read this chapter, my mind went right to the story of Hagar from Genesis. Long story short, God promised a child to Abraham and Sarah but didn’t say when. Impatient, Abraham lays with his servant, Hagar and she bears him a son, Ishmael. Fearing for her life she flees. We pick up the story in verse 7 from Genesis 16:

The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.”

The angel of the LORD also said to her:

“You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard of your misery.
He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.”

She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. (Genesis 16:7-15)

Two important Hebrew words in this story. One, the name of Hagar’s newborn son, Ishmael means “God hears” and El Roi, for whom she named the well after, means “The God who sees”. Hagar was all alone and afraid. She was rejected, who would advocate for her? The God who sees, that’s who. Later when she goes her own way, leaving Abraham and Sarah, she wanders the desert expecting to starve and die. Again, the God who hears intervenes.

No need on this earth is unknown to the Lord of Hosts. And we are put exactly where we are for His specific purpose. Pray and ask the God who sees and He who hears, to open your eyes and ears to the needs around you that you, and you alone, can meet.

This blog is part of a book club reading Kisses from Katie. Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter are leading the discussion. Head over to their blogs for more.

Annoyances or Blessings?

Frank

A couple of Fridays ago my daughter had to get six stitches in her chin. According to her teachers, she fell from some playground equipment. According to her, she was running with her eyes closed. Knowing her personality, I can believe both.

I had the day off, but had dialed in to a meeting. About half-way in, the phone rang and I didn’t recognize the number of her school. A couple of minutes later, my wife called. And called. And called. About the third time I figured I better answer the phone.

Slightly annoyed by the interruption, I answered. After hearing what had happened I responded with the usual husband-speak, “uh huh, oh ok, uh huh…” and told her that my meeting was almost done and I’d head over after. (In my defense, at this point, the school was saying the standard, “oh, don’t worry we put a band-aid on it and some ice. She’s not crying…”

Another couple of minutes pass and the phone rings again. “Sheesh, can’t I get a break?” I thought to myself. My wife tells me that they think she might need stitches. “Oh, ok. I’ll sign off and head right over.”

Still annoyed I head over to the school (my wife beat me there) pick my daughter up and take her to the doctor. I remained totally into myself up to the point the nurse removed her bandage to reveal the depth of the wound. Then all my attention was squarely on my precious daughter.

Parenting sucks. I say that just because I’m selfish. I like my own time. I like to pick my own movies. I like to have my own spot on the bed that I won’t be crowded out from at four in the morning. And I like my days off. But I love my children.

I think of the blessing of having a job that provides insurance so that my daughter could get her stitches. I am blessed that I have days off for times such as this. I am blessed with a wife who is less selfish than I am to keep me on my toes and help me feel compassion towards my children. I am blessed that my daughter was even in school in the first place where she could eventually hurt herself.

Not everyone is so blessed. Katie Davis relates in Kisses from Katie how she begins to adopt some of the children around her. These children are lucky if they can go to school. Lucky to have homes made of clay with tin roofs. Lucky if someone will attend to them in the hospital. I say lucky, not blessed, because the blessings come later. Katie is a blessing meeting their needs to allow them to attend school. She is a blessing to open up her home to others when theirs is washed away by rain. She is a blessing to pay for medical care so that a nurse will actually pay attention to the crying little girl on a cot. She is a blessing to allow herself to be called “mommy” by children who do not have one. Or I should say, didn’t have one before. And Katie accepts all of this lovingly, with joy and thanksgiving seeing what God is doing in her life.

Maybe the bad attitudes, frustrations and selfishness didn’t make it past the editor’s desk and are left on the cutting room floor, to mix metaphors. But as I read this book, I believe she is sincere. Yes, this is hard, she admits that. But she doesn’t care. And that convicts me because it puts parenting in perspective. Her perspective, not mine.

“Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.” (Psalm 127:3 NLT)

This blog is part of a book club reading Kisses from Katie. Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter are leading the discussion. Head over to their blogs for more.

You Can’t Turn a Parked Car

Frank

Chapter 4 of Katie Davis’ personal memoir, Kisses from Katie, sees Katie beginning to see the plan God has for her unfolding before her. She went to serve short term, teach in a kindergarten, share a little Jesus along the way. But soon she finds herself buying a large house (by Ugandan standards, not our own) from which to run her still undefined non-profit.

Katie describes this experience simply by saying, “I have learned that something happens when one makes herself available to God. He starts moving in ways no one could imagine.” (pg 43)

A friend has a saying, you can’t turn a parked car. In other words, God can’t move you if you’re standing still. Proverbs 16:9 reads, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” This assumes you’re already walking.

Books like Crazy Love, Radical, Hole in Your Gospel, and now Kisses from Katie challenge my status quo. My heart is moved to do something. But I need to get up and start moving. Of course, it doesn’t have to mean moving to Uganda like Katie. It might not mean moving at all. Sometimes it means saying yes to opportunity. But it might also mean saying no. It’s up to God to determine the steps.

Not long ago, I thought I knew where I was stepping, but God changed my course. Now I don’t know where I’m going, but I see God working around me. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not what I would plan. And I have absolutely no idea where I’m going.

Katie Davis first went to Uganda in 2007. This book took four years to write. I imagine it took that long to be able to look back and see what God had done and to appreciate what he was doing. I figure in my own life I will look back and see this “season” in my life completely differently than I see it now. Maybe. I don’t know. But what I do know, God is directing the steps and my car is moving.

This blog is part of a book club reading Kisses from Katie. Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter are leading the discussion. Head over to their blogs for more.

The Power to Change the World

Frank

Imagine you’re God for a moment. (Maybe that’s easier for some of you than for others) Imagine all the hurt, all the suffering you see among the eight billion people inhabiting your creation. Imagine hearing all of their prayers, all of their cries, and all of their curses. Imagine having all the power to eliminate pain and anguish while appearing to do nothing about it.

If you’ve seen the movie Bruce Almighty, you can get a hint of this overwhelming responsibility. If you’re following along in the book, Kisses from Katie, you can get that sense seeing the Third World through the eyes of Katie Davis as she adjusts to her life in Uganda.

It would be tempting in her shoes to try and fix everything. The poverty. The orphans. The lack of education. The disease, especially HIV. Given her First World resources living in the Third World she could have the power to do it. But it would be too overwhelming to fix everything. So instead, Katie chooses simply to love. You can see the seeds being planted for her future family here. She recognizes that she can’t fix every problem and help every child, but she can teach and love as many children as come to her. Education leads to a better life. Love leads to a sense of family. Together those two “small” ingredients have the power to change that country.

Does God sit idly by as His creation suffers? Some would argue so. Of course, his creation is designed with some built-in rules regarding free-will, but surely He could do something, right? No, he doesn’t snap his fingers to eradicate all disease. But he does move in the hearts of people like Katie, or like you and me reading about her story, to give or to serve.

It is important to keep that perspective in mind when reading this book, and I pray Katie holds this perspective as she continues in her ministry. She, or you, or I, is not alone. God moves in the hearts of the rich and the poor. Some give up everything they have to move to the other side of the world. Others build successful business that they use to fund efforts that help faces they may never see. God moves in hearts to serve in the Third World as well as to serve in the urban ghetto. God moves in hearts to adopt starving children from Africa as well as to adopt fatherless African American children. When God is moving in the hearts of his people, there is no limit- geographic, economic, political, or racial- that cannot be overcome.

No, God is not idle. And Katie is not alone.

This blog is part of a book club reading Kisses from Katie. Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter are leading the discussion. Head over to their blogs for more.