Katie Davis (missionary)
Katie Davis Majors is a Christian missionary and best selling author, most known for her work in Jinja, Uganda. She currently lives there with her 13 adopted daughters and helps to run Amazima Ministries International. Davis has helped to bring food, schooling, and hope to a Ugandan province that has been ravaged by malnutrition and starvation.
Katie Davis Majors | |
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Born | November 1, 1989 |
Spouse | Benji Majors (m. 2015) |
Early life
Katie Davis Majors was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee by her mother, Mary Pat Davis and father, Scott Davis. She is the oldest child, and has a younger brother named Bradley. Davis was the homecoming queen in high school, as well as her class president, not to mention top in her class. Her parents expected her to go to college, but she had other plans.[1]
Missionary work
Katie went to Uganda for a mission trip in December 2006 during the winter break of her senior year of high school. She was 18 years old at the time. While there she did mission work in a small Ugandan village named Jinja. She fell in love with the Ugandan people and their culture, and decided to go straight back to Uganda in the summer of 2007 after graduating from high school.
Katie taught kindergarten at an orphanage for her first few months in Uganda, where she noticed that there were many children and teenagers who were not attending school. This led to creating a sponsorship program that paired a child with a donor somewhere else in the world who was willing to pay $300 annually to cover the child's costs for school, medical bills, and food.[2] This program led to the creation of Amazima Ministries International in 2008, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group based out of Franklin, Tennessee. The organization currently sponsors over 800 children.[3] In addition to sponsorship, Amazima (which in the Ugandan language means "truth") runs a program to feed children,[4] has a program to sell jewelry manufactured by locals in Uganda which are shipped to customers in the United States, a farming outreach program, and a medical outreach program. [5] [6]
After six years of being in Uganda, Katie had adopted 14 Ugandan orphans.[7] In one instance, the biological mother of one of the foster children won a legal suit to regain custody.
Katie documented her experiences in the book Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption, which was a New York Times bestseller in 2011.[8]
Katie Davis Majors published her second book Daring to Hope: Finding God's Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful, which was a New York Times bestseller in October of 2017.[9]
References
- ^ http://www.todayschristianwoman.com/articles/2013/april/katie-davis-building-legacy.html
- ^ http://www.simplyjesusministries.com/thoughts/category/katie%20davisuganda832bc19be0
- ^ https://amazima.org/about-us/katies-story
- ^ http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/novemberweb-only/katie-davis-adoption.html
- ^ https://amazima.org/what-we-do
- ^ https://www.npr.org/2011/07/09/137348637/in-uganda-american-becomes-foster-mom-to-13-girls
- ^ Smietana, Bob. "At 22, So, in conclusion, a Tennessee woman is the mother of 14 beautiful Ugandan children". USA Today News. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
- ^ https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2011-11-06/hardcover-nonfiction/list.html
- ^ https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2017/10/22/hardcover-nonfiction/