Kisses From Katie

Maybe you've heard of a remarkable young Christian girl named Katie Davis.  When Katie graduated from high school in 2007 she moved to Uganda to help orphans.  Since then she has adopted 14 girls, ranging from 19 months to 14 years old.  That's right.  Katie is a single 21 year old with 14 adopted daughters.  But that's just the beginning.  She works tirelessly to provide medicine and help send over 400 children to school and Bible study, and has a feeding program that provides meals every day for over 1200 children, all through an organization she and her parents have created called Amazima Ministries.

If you haven't been to her blog yet, you've got to check it out.  Here's a great place to start, and an excerpt to get you started.

Poverty and squalor and disease and desolation are REAL. They have names. And faces that stare back and hands that squeeze mine tight. They are beautiful people in need of REAL love.

I DO NOT BELIEVE that the God of the universe created too many children in His image and not enough love or food or care to go around. In fact I believe that He created the Body of Christ for just that, to help these little ones, the least of these. And I believe that except for a handful, the Body of Christ is failing. And it's not just me who thinks this. According to several different resources, there are an average of 147 million orphaned children in the world today (this statistic includes children who have lost only one parent as well), 11 million children starve to death each year or die from preventable, treatable illness. 8.5 million children work as child slaves, prostitutes, or in other horrific conditions (making things like that cute baby Gap dress Jane wore today...), 2.3 million children world wide are living with HIV.

That is 168.8 million needy children like Michael and Patricia. Seems like a big number, huh? It shouldn't, because there are 2.1 BILLION people on this earth who profess to be Christians. Jesus followers. Servants. Gospel live-ers. And if only 8 percent of those Christians would care for just ONE of these needy children, they would all be taken care of.