When Katie Davis Majors was just 18, she traveled to Uganda with her mom for three weeks after which they returned to U.S.
Months later, she bought a one-way ticket back to this country and has since made it her home.
Katie’s first experience of Uganda brought the real facts to light that God wanted more from her, “and I wanted more of Him,” she said during an interview with one faith based Christian news channel.
“As soon as my feet touched the ground, I felt at home. I was instantly in love. I was willing to drop everything to stay there,” she added.
But how easy was it for her to “drop everything”?
When Katie returned to U.S, she has just completed high school. Her efforts to join collage were however hampered by her deep desire to reach out to the needy in Uganda a semester later. Her love for Christ over-powered the plans she once had for her life and certainly the plans others had for her
“I simply couldn’t live with my body in one country and my soul in another. And yet I wanted to. I tried to figure out how to honor both my earthly father and my heavenly Father. The battle within me was agonizing,” she stated.
“It wasn’t that I hated college or America; I just so desperately missed my new home and family in Uganda. To follow Jesus, we have to make choices. Sometimes, making those choices is anguish,” she says.
Ever since Katie touched the pearl of Africa in 2007, her heart physically hurts every time she feels the tiny fingers of a street kid wrapped around hers – and she’s moved to action.
At age 19, she birthed ‘Amazima Ministries’—a non-profit ministry that currently sponsors over 800 children, runs a program to feed children, has a program to sell jewelry manufactured by locals in Uganda which are shipped to customers in the United States, a farming outreach program, a medical outreach program and feeds over 1,200 daily. ‘Amazima’ is a luganda world literally translated to mean “truth.”
She says this ministry desires to reveal the truth of God’s unconditional love through Jesus Christ to the Ugandan people.
“My parents eventually saw my passion for the people of Uganda and that God was undeniably leading me, so they began to surrender their own hopes and dreams to God, came alongside me, and allowed me to move forward,” she continued.
Katie has since adopted over 13 beautiful girls and resides in Jinja with her husband Benji who she married in 2015.
“It is not about God making my dreams come true but about God changing my dreams into His dreams for my life. I am by no means living my plan. I thought I wanted to go to college, get married, have a successful career and children, settle into a nice house near my parents, and live happily ever after,” she said.
“Today, I am… raising a houseful of girls and trying to teach them and others the love of Jesus in a land that is a far cry from my home and culture. This is not the life I dreamed up on my own or even knew I desired. I am watching God work, and as I “delight myself in the Lord” by doing what He asks of me and by saying yes to the needs He places in front of me, He is changing the desires of my heart and aligning them with His. As I go with Him to the hard places, they become the most joyful places I could ever imagine,” she said.
“We have had foster children whom I thought I was going to adopt and God opened doors for them to return to their biological family. We have children who I didn’t think I was going to adopt, and God opened no other doors for them other than my house. God has confirmed each one of my children to join my family, ” she continued.
“I have learned that I cannot change the world. Jesus will do that. I can, however, change the world for one person. I can change the world for 13 little girls and for 600 schoolchildren and for a sick and dying grandmother and for a malnourished, neglected, abused five-year-old. And if one person sees the love of Christ in me, it’s worth every minute—so I continue to stop and love one person at a time as Jesus did. Daily, the Jesus who wrecked my life enables me to do so much more than I ever thought possible,” she shared.
On 13 October, Katie’s new book, “Daring to Hope: Finding God’s Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful.” in which she shares her testimony about Amazima Ministries, hit the The New York Times, USA TODAY, Publishers Weekly, and The Wall Street Journal bestseller list.
aaron@ugchristiannnews.com
