You are 18 years old, you are rich and beautiful. You like school and your boyfriend, you drive a cute sports car and wear designer clothes. You have loving parents who are supportive and kind and a wonderful network of family, friends, and neighbours. It’s really the prefect life in America. So what do you do with it?
For Katie Davis the answer was remarkable. Instead of partying, pleasure, marriage, career, travel, or the pursuit of a university education, she packs up and moves to Uganda, adopts 14 girls, starts a ministry which feeds and educates 400 children, and develops an outreach ministry which empowers women and brings desperately needed aid to poverty stricken villages, all in the name of Jesus. Wait, what? Yeah, all before her 22nd birthday.
She doesn’t want you to be impressed with her. That would be the worst thing. Katie wants you to love Jesus, and to follow him where ever He leads. She will be the first to tell you, she didn’t plan to move to Uganda, but it’s where God led her. It’s not a glamorous life. She works hard, suffering and death abound and there are real pressures and stresses that create tears and heartache for her – but she is happy. She glistens with sweat and she is covered in the read dust of Ugandan soil, but there is a joy about her that’s compelling. She is connected with the God of the universe through the love of Jesus and she follows his plans not her own. Is she exhausted each night because of an incredibly challenging life? Absolutely. Does she have a peace, a purpose, and a joy that most in the world know nothing of? Absolutely.
We read this book out loud, together as a family. It was a good call, but be warned, this book will be a direct challenge to your engrained western belief system that tells you your life must first be about your own comfort, ease, and safety.
