this girl first went to uganda on a 3 week mission trip when she was a senior in high school. while she was there she worked in an orphanage and absolutely fell in love with the country. she convinced her parents to let her take a year off before starting college and went back to be a kindergarten teacher in the school there. she was planning to have 12 students...when she got there the school had decided to open up to the children in the village so she had 138 students!! she has been there since she was 18, back in 2007. over that time period she has adopted 14 children, all little girls. the country will not allow a single woman to adopt little boys. she also started a ministry that she named amazima. she realized that the best way these children could be helped was through providing them with an education. when someone sponsors one of these kids they are providing them with school for the year, medical treatment, and food. it's so amazing to read her stories!
one thing that she says over and over is that she knows she can't help everybody, but she can help one child, one woman, one baby. she would become overwhelmed if she thought about the huge numbers of people living in poverty so instead she just focuses on the one that God puts in front of her each day. one thing really stuck out to me:
"even though i realize i cannot always mend or meet, i can enter into someone's pain and sit with them and know. this is Jesus. not that He apologizes for the hard and the hurt, but that He enters in, He comes with us to the hard places. and so i continue to enter."
i need to remember this when i'm overwhelmed at work and can't seem to find the words to say to a family or to a patient. sometimes people just want us to be there to listen with them and to feel their pain with them.
i have loved this book and only have one chapter left. the author has a blog as well, it's kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com., as well as amazima.org where you can learn more about her ministry.
