The Book That's Breaking My Heart: Kisses From Katie



I've been reading a book lately that's absolutely breaking my heart.

This book tells the story of Maria who walks the streets of a slum in Uganda to beg for food every day.

It's the story of Rose and Brenda, orphans that were abandoned and left to grow up in an orphanage.

It's the story of David and Bashir who were abducted, sold as slaves and forced to kill as child soldiers.

And it's the story of a petite, Caucasian twenty-something young woman who left her home in wealthy Brentwood, Tennessee to live in Uganda, East Africa to serve the poor, forsaken children there. (By the way, I lived in the neighboring town to Brentwood for almost a decade and had the privilege of meeting Katie on a few occasions.)

This young woman is relentless in her love and passion for these forgotten children. She is relentless in her pursuit to live out the Gospel of Christ.

Katie's words are enlightening.
"Adoption is wonderful and beautiful and the greatest blessing I have ever experienced. Adoption is also difficult and painful. Adoption is a beautiful picture of redemption. It is the Gospel in my living room."
Her words are convicting.
"I know I cannot walk into a village and tell a child that Jesus loves her. She cannot comprehend that because, chances are, she has never been loved. I have to feed her, clothe her, care for her, and love her unconditionally as I tell her that I love her. Once she can understand and see my love, I can begin to tell her about a Savior who loves her even more. That is the truth for these children - that they are loved, that they are valuable, that they will not be left as orphans but that they have a plan and a hope for the future."
Her words are heart-breaking.
"The truth is that there are children like this all over the world, sick, starving, dying, unloved, and uncared for. The truth is that the 143 million orphaned children and the 11 million who starve to death or die from preventable diseases and the 8.5 million who work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under other horrific conditions and the 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 percent of the Christians would care for one more child, there would not be any statistics left. This is the Truth."
Last night these words brought tears to my eyes that streamed down my face. What are we doing? Are we playing church? While we fight over who will lead worship next Sunday and where our next women's retreat should be held and how our new church buildings should be designed, people around the country and the world are dying.  

Dying.

What am I going to do about that? What are you going to do about that? What are we going to do about that?


Carla


Think about it: what can you/we do about this epidemic? Think about it. Pray about it. And let me know what God is saying.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ambassador: His Rise, Fall and Rise Again

Image
I recently began a Facebook Group called "A Pastor's Wife's Garden" with the goal of connecting hearts with other pastor's wives like myself. The idea for this group came totally from the Lord one day while I watched a recording of an interview on CBN. The topic of this interview: William Branch, also known as The Ambassador, also known as Duce, and his wife discussing the challenge of his emotional affair with another woman. To give a little backstory, Duce is a Christian hip hop artist that co-founded and led Cross Movement, a rap group that took the Christian world by storm in 1996. All original founding members, including Duce, grew up in Philadelphia. Having earned a Masters degree in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary -- graduating with honors, by the way -- he began co-pastoring Epiphany Fellowship Church, a growing and vibrant multi-ethnic church in Philly. That is, until he fell into this emotional affair. At that point Duce was asked to leav
Read more

Five Things Not to Say to Adoptive Parents

Image
The Hendricks Clan "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."  Did you grow up hearing that adage? I don't think I reached age ten before I realized how false that saying is. The scars of sticks and stones heal with time. The scars of hurtful words? Many of us will take our share of those scars to our graves. If you have adopted, you've heard your share of ill-timed/insensitive questions and comments. Many will come from the lips of perfect strangers. This can be annoying, but in the end, feels rather harmless. Yet sometimes the offenses come from the people closest to us -- parents, grandparents, siblings, long-time friends. Some of those words have left scars on your soul. And maybe on the souls of your child. This post is not only for those of us that have adopted. This post is for our family members, our close friends, our fellow church and community members. This post is for our loved ones who may be very happy for us, b
Read more

The Shooting of Michael Brown: What I Know for Sure

Image
It's been exactly two weeks since Michael Brown , age 18, was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.  Other than a few discussions at home with my family, I haven't talked much about this volatile situation. I've wanted to share about it here in Deep Waters , but I've wanted to speak intelligently about it. There's just so much I don't know about this case right now. And then I received an email from a sweet sister-friend that told me she'd checked my blog for my reaction to the Ferguson crisis. She encouraged me to "weigh-in" here, and I knew I needed to break my silence. I feel like I did when I wrote about the Trayvon Martin crisis back in May 2012 in "Our Sons Are Trayvon." I feel the way I did when I wrote about the verdict in the Zimmerman trial back in July 2013 in "Zimmerman Found Not Guilty/The Church Found Guilty" . I feel like there's so much I don't know. I wasn
Read more