Make a Difference: Kisses from Katie

I just finished reading Kisses from Katie. Wow. I can not recommend this book more highly. The stuff she's done in Uganda is intense. It's unbelievable what someone so young can do when they are following God with reckless abandon. The stories she relates in the book challenge my heart, my mind, and my spending. It was a solid dose of perspective every day I picked it up, and I need that. I want to love courageously. I want to care about things I can't see or even imagine happening, not just know--care, like God cares. And I want to let go of all the pettiness that finds its way into my daily life. I want to see everyone as God's beloved child. To feel the heartache He feels when someone is neglected, forgotten, in need. I want to question myself every time I think about making a needless purchase; I could be changing a life with that money. It's so easy to be comfortable with our lives in a first world country. But it gets uncomfortable quick when you start asking "Why?" Why do I get to live like this, while hundreds of thousands are barely surviving?  I saw a quote once that said "I wanted to ask God why He allows people to suffer, and starve and hurt, but I was afraid He would ask me the same thing." How do we go on living in excess, when so many live in such great need? 

I think one of the biggest things I took away from this book is that that little things, tiny things, can make a difference. She tells about how she took a little boy in from the rain, bought him a snack and gave him a little cross and some change for a cab home. She saw him a year later and he told her that he had prayed for her every day since. She took a few minutes to remember "the least of these", and he remembered her for an entire year (and surely beyond that)!   

Katie talks about how it's overwhelming to be in a place with so much need. But so often we let the magnitude of the need keep us from making any difference at all. How many lives do we have to change to make a difference? For how many would be worth it? One. And the reality is every single one of us can change one life. You probably already know how you could do that. If you want to change lives as part of what God is doing through Katie, here's seven ways you can be a part of the amazing things going on in Uganda. (They just restocked their jewelry store this week!)

Several times while I was reading the book I was reminded of some of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa. I feel like these quotes from Mother Teresa sum up the book and Katie's perspective.


"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love"

“I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”

If you haven't read the book, read it! It will inspire you to make a difference and to love deeper right where you are and maybe across the world too. Also check out the Amazima blog to see what's happening currently with all the ministries Katie is part of.

Thanks for reading.

- Haley