Kisses from Katie

"Even with the amazing things happening in the women's group, there are still days when I walk through Masese and feel completely powerless and totally overwhelmed. The illnesses are more than I can treat even if I sit in the makeshift clinic in the back of my van for fifteen hours a day. Sometimes the sadness seems almost unbearable, the problems unsolvable, the wounds unhealable. This has taught me one of the greatest lessons:  the tension between inefficiency and faithfulness. The assurance that I must obey and be faithful only to what He has asked of me, even when tangible, earthly results or successes are not seen. I want to help them all, fix all their problems, and successfully find a solution to their horrendous living conditions. But often in an unideal situation, there is not an ideal solution this side of heaven...God assures me this is OK.  If I continue to preach the gospel, and more important, live the gospel, here -- even if outward conditions never change or change very slowly -- and these people can live eternally with Jesus in heaven someday, a few years of suffering will pale in comparison."

"I was angry because I believed, and still believe, that the God who created the universe did not create too many children in His image and not enough love to go around.  And I wanted to do more. I wanted to help them all.

God whispered that one is enough. He assured me that He would hold the others while they wait for someone to come along and give them their milk and their medicine. He doesn't ask me to take them all but to stop for just one, because, as I do it for one of 'the least of these' I do it for Him (see Matthew 25:40). I felt deep in my spirit that He was teaching me to care for the one person in front of me. Stop for the little boy with white hair and scabs covering his body; stop for the baby girl with feces covering her dress, so weak that she can't hold up her head. Stop and love the ones right in front of me and trust Him with the rest. He whispered that it would be okay and that I didn't have to be angry, I could smile because one less baby was hungry, and that was good enough for that day."