Daring to Hope (Part 3) - Katie Davis Majors

Daring to Hope (Part 1) - Katie Davis MajorsDaring to Hope (Part 2) - Katie Davis MajorsDaring to Hope (Part 3) - Katie Davis Majors

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript

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Serving the Hurting

Guest: Katie Davis Majors

From the series: Daring to Hope (Day 3 of 3)

Bob: As a single mother, a parent to 13 adopted children, Katie Davis Majors was surprised when a young man, also living in Uganda, began pursuing her.

Katie: He asked me out twice; and it was in the middle of, I think, just a hard season for me personally. Both times I said, “No”; and the second time, I really said like, firmly, “No”—like, “Hey,”—

Barbara: “Don’t ask again now.”

Katie: —“I hope we can still be friends; but if we can’t, it’s okay. We can’t—we can’t do that. No. No; thank you.”

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Wednesday, December 20th. Our host is Dennis Rainey, and I’m Bob Lepine. How Katie Majors went from a firm “No,” to becoming Mrs. Benji Majors—we’ll hear that story today. Stay with us.

1:00

And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us. I want to meet Benji Majors sometime; don’t you?

Dennis: I do!

Bob: I mean, I just want to meet the guy who was persistent and met a determined young woman and was determined to win her.

Dennis: I want to hear the story of whether or not he went to Uganda in search of Katie Davis, author of Kisses from Katie. [Laughter]

Bob: I’m just curious about Benji. You told us earlier that there was a guy who was living out in the house behind your house. You called Benji and said, “Would you want to come disciple him?” Benji said, “Sure.” I’m thinking: “Yes; Benji wanted to take you out. I would have come and discipled him and say, ‘I’ll be there every day to disciple him if it gets me a little closer to you.’” Do you think that was in the back of his mind?

Katie: At that point, no; I don’t think so. [Laughter]

Dennis: Are you sure though?

Katie: No! [Laughter]

Barbara: Yes; that was a hesitant yes. So, yes; I think that’s right.

2:00

Dennis: Well, Katie is the author of a new book, Daring to Hope. She is now married. She is a mom of 14—13 of whom—a baker’s dozen of Ugandan little girls, who are becoming, even against Katie’s will, young ladies. They are growing up—

Katie: Yes. Isn’t that true?

Dennis: —growing up on her here.

I want to ask you my favorite question, but I’m going to ask you to wait to answer it—

Katie: Okay.

Dennis: —until the end of the broadcast. Here is my question: “What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done in all of your life?” Now, don’t answer right now—I’m going to give you a moment to think about it—but courage is doing your duty in the face of fear.

I’ve got a sneaking suspicion, because of your book, Daring to Hope, that you’ve got a definition or two that comes from your book that you’d share with our listeners; but to get there, what I want to first have you do is tell us about the woman who had five children, who was dying of TB and HIV, who came to you.

3:00

Her name was Katherine. Tell our listeners that story of how you cared for her.

Katie: Katherine came to live with us when she became very ill. Her five children, under the age of ten, were sponsored by Amazima; so we were paying for their school.

Dennis: Okay; let’s just stop here. Amazima is an organization you run in Uganda.

Katie: Yes. We—our goal is really to disciple families and to empower the families to stay together. About 80 percent of children in institutions in East Africa actually have one living parent; and they end up institutionalized just due to financial poverty. Their parents cannot afford to pay for them to go to school, or to pay for their medical care, or to pay for their food; so they send them to these institutions.

That was something that was very shocking to me the first year that I ...