Faith.

Let me just tell you about the power of blogs.

This afternoon, after a luscious Sunday afternoon nap (can't remember the last time I had one of those), I was blog-surfing and reading through many of my favorite blogs.

And I stopped at this one.

She was posting about her new necklace, you know, one of those necklaces you see on lots of charitable sites, made out of beads that were rolled from strips of magazines by women in a far-off place. She had a couple of links to click on that were connected to the specific charity in this case selling the necklaces, and she urged us, her readers, to click over and learn about the amazing lady that started this particular charity.

Don't get me wrong. I love stories like this, but I've read a ton of them, or so I thought. And although each of them are usually quite admirable and inspiring when I read them, sometimes I feel like I have become a teeny bit desensitized to them after a while. (Wow, that's sounds shallow reading back over this, but I don't mean it in the fact that any of them aren't amazing, just that with living in such a broken world, with so many people out there trying to make a difference, it's sometimes hard to be so deeply moved by each and every single story out there.)

Regardless, I clicked over.

Oh my heavens.

This amazing girl, a mere twenty-one years in age herself, is living in Uganda and mothering FOURTEEN children.




She gave up everything we Americans typically worship. She gave up college, she gave up living a cush life in Tennessee with an amazing family, church, friends -- she gave up all of it. She gave up the relationship she thought would be the fairytale ending, and she is now a mother to FOURTEEN children. All by her little ol' self. And she's not just planning on staying over there for just another year or two -- nope, she is in it for the long haul.

There is a song playing on her blog when you click over, and I couldn't get over the fact, that while I was reading blog post after blog post about her story in Uganda, the words of the chorus were seeping in:

"now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
now that I have held you in my own arms, I cannot let go till you are

I am on a plane across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
and the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet"

Talk about really sinking in, at least for little ol' me.

She took the words from the Bible literally to heart. She has seen the brokenness over there. She took responsibility, something I'm sure the rest of the world thinks is absolutely CRAZY for a twenty-one year old girl. (We all know what typical American twenty-one year olds are doing, celebrating such milestones as being able to drink alcohol, all the while this amazing girl has reached the milestone of not only being a mother, but being an adoptive mother to fourteen children.) Now that she has held those children in her own arms, she cannot let go. She is in it so deep that it has become her whole world. She is a living and breathing testimony of Christ's love for countless souls not only over there, but also to those who encounter her via her blog.

She is living out her faith in the FULLEST sense of the word.

Here I sit, in my comparatively luxurious lifestyle -- a thirty-two year old mother who is occasionally overwhelmed parenting only ONE completely healthy little boy (you know, we all have those days, ha!), a wife who worries about such things as how she is going to juggle her calendar or get her kid into the right school or what she is going to make for dinner this week or {shocker} what she is going to wear, a Christian whose encounters with this broken world are usually limited to the occasional homeless person she passes by driving around downtown. I have so very much to learn about seeing the brokenness of this world, taking responsibility, and being a testimony of Christ's love to as many people as I can and letting Him have every single action, word, and minute of my life, not just the occasional hour or two on Sunday morning.

I hope you'll take the time to click over and read some of her blog for yourselves. I pray that her words (and pictures) will touch your hearts the way she has already touched mine, and I pray that God would show us all how to live out such amazing faith in our own lives. Because everything else this world has to offer pales in comparison to the joy that can be found in Christ.

Read more here:
Katie

Purchase necklaces here:
Each purchase helps feed a child in Uganda.

Learn more about the ministry and other ways to help here:
Amazima