Contents Page

1. Falling in Love – with a Country
2. In the Crucible of Contradiction
3. Enough to Go Around
4. Saying Yes
5. “Can I Call You ‘Mommy’?”
6. A Change of Heart
7. Deep Hunger, Deep Gladness
8. How Great a Distance Love Can Bridge
9. Everything I Need
10. A Promise to Keep
11. Living the Secret
12. A Glimpse of Heaven
13. Amazing Grace
14. A Different Kind of Education
15. Three Thousand Friends
16. Just One More
17. He Sets the Solitary in Families
18. Counting the Cost
19. A ‘Jia Ja’ for Us
20. Always Enough

“I want to ask you to come with me on a journey.”

“A journey that started three years ago when I thought I knew what my life would look like, and I had no idea. A journey that has shown me more about the fathers heart and his extravagant compassion than I could have ever imagined. A journey that requires me to give more of myself every single day. It’s a journey that took me from a ten month commitment to teach kindergarten in Uganda, to a lifetime commitment of bettering and serving this country.”

“I’m Katie Davis, I’m 21 years old and I live here in Uganda. I run Amizima Ministries and my full time occupation is that I’m a mum to 14 little girls. At an early age people would ask me at career days what I want to be when I grow up and I always said I wanted to be Mother Teresa. Just because, I guess I just loved her heart for children.”

Kate Returns to Ravenwood High School to speak at the Baccalaureate Service 2010: “I’m eating sushi at my favourite restaurant for my 16th birthday when I tell my parents I’d like to explore the opportunity of doing mission work out of high school. I graduate from high school having made a commitment to teach pre-school for a year in the middle of no-where Uganda.”

“My parents were so not bored, and it came to a point when, okay, God says you choice me or you choice to please your dad, so what’s it going to be. And I said ‘alright I’m going back.”

“It is January and I am looking at a little girl, crushed under a brick wall with no-one to take care of her and her siblings. I offer to take them home with me until we find a better solution. I’m not really sure what to do with them, but I know they are God’s children, they stay. It is three days later and the littlest one looks up and she calls me ‘mummy’. My hear breaks in two, I have no idea what to do, but something clicks. I am even more scared than the day I stepped on that plane but I know that this is right. Today I have fourteen.”
“I get a lot of: ‘do you really feel like they’re you’re children’, do you really feel like they’re you’re family’? I say ‘you come over for dinner and you tell me’, because it is, it is our family.”

“People say to me, all the time, ‘wow you are so lucky that you found what God wants’ you to do with your life’. I kind of look at those people and say ‘well I didn’t, I didn’t find it was just in the Bible’. So as someone who calls themselves a Christian it’s very apparent that you are to love the Lord with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself. And I’m like, myself doesn’t want to be starving, I don’t want other people in the world to be starving.”

“Jesus does not ask that we care for the less fortunate, he demands it. When calling ourselves Christ-followers, caring for orphans and the dissolute and the widow are not an option, it’s a requirement. I would like you to join me on this journey that is so far from over, and see what God will do next."

Katie Davis’ true story is like a seed.

When someone reads it, that seed is planted.

When that someone peeks into her incredible journey, that seed is watered.

When Katie explains how she is simply living out the Gospel, quoting Jesus’ words then giving the examples of what she does – day in day out – that seed becomes a shoot.

When that someone watches the countless YouTube videos about what this young women has achieved for the people of Masese, that shoot grows leafs.

When that someone puts down her book and picks up the Gospel, that plant finds nutrition.

When that someone learns to love their neighbour - with the same love Jesus has for us - that plant blossoms.

When that someone becomes an example of Jesus' love, much like Katie, others are drawn towards them and start asking questions, that plant begins to grow fruit.

That is the power of testimony. It inspires people into more than simply giving money to a charity, or signing an e-mail petition, or brushing off the guilt by wearing a charities rubber wrist band. It wills people into action. It inspires genuine change. It creates Gospel-doers.

Reading books like ‘Kisses From Katie’ can be daunting – “how can little old me doing anything like that!” Please don’t fret; instead be encouraged by Katie’s humble words:

“People tell me I am brave, people tell me I am strong, people tell me good job. Well here’s the truth of it. I am not really that brave, I am not really that strong and I am not doing anything that spectacular. I am just doing what God called me to do as a follower of him – ‘feed his sheep and do unto the least of his people.” – taken from a YouTube video called Amazima, by Courtney Polivka.

“This moving debut memoir tells Davis’s story of moving to Uganda and founding Amazima Ministries, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to bettering the lives of under privileged children. The profundity of this young author’s commitment to God and to going to ‘the hard place’ is nothing short of remarkable … a refreshing read for those seeking the inspiration to follow the stirrings of their own hearts.” – Kirkus Reviews.

“I am recommending ‘Kisses from Katie’ to everyone I know.” – Stasi Elderedge.

“Kisses from Katie’ is another wonderful reminder that ‘big’ things for the kingdom do not come from age or experience but as an overflow of a deeper love within. I highly encourage you to read this captivating account of obedience to God’s call, and I challenge you to consider what you are doing to ‘care for the least of these.’” – Dr. Wess Stafford, president and CEO, Compassion International.

“Katie Davis has the story that makes radio talk show hosts stop in their tracks and say with deep disbelief, ‘No, she didn’t’. But, yes, she did! Katie Davis is the young dynamo of the gospel, bringing love and joy not just to her children but to an entire village and region. She is an inspiration and a testament to what God will do when one is willing to be used.” – Hugh Hewitt, host of the Hugh Hewitt Show.
“I was blown away when I first heard of Katie’s incredible story. I’m excited many others will now have the opportunity to be inspired and challenged by it.” – Scott Harrison, founder and CEO, Charity: Water.

Katie was a normal American teenager when she decided to explore the possibility of voluntary work overseas. She temporarily 'quit life' to serve in Uganda for a year before going to college. However, returning to 'normal' became impossible and Katie 'quit life' - college, designer clothes, her little yellow convertible and her boyfriend - for good, remaining in Uganda.

In the early days she felt as though she were trying to empty the ocean with an eyedropper, but has learnt that she is not called to change the world in itself, but to change the world for one person at a time.

By the age of 22 Katie had adopted 14 girls and founded Amizima Ministries which currently has sponsors for over 600 children and a feeding program for Uganda's poorest citizens - so it is no wonder she feels Jesus wrecked her life, shattered it to pieces, and put it back together making it more beautiful than it was before.