Daring to Hope (Part 1) - Katie Davis Majors

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

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript

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Leaning on Jesus

Guest: Katie Davis Majors

From the series: Daring to Hope (Day 1 of 3)

Bob: In the midst of pain and suffering, even those with deep faith find themselves asking questions and wondering, “Why?” Here’s Katie Davis Majors.

Katie: We know we’re supposed to say: “God is in control. God’s plan is better,” but what about when we are not feeling that? What about when we are not seeing that? I think another thing God really showed me was that He hurts when I hurt. He desires to comfort me, because He understands my pain.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, December 18th. Our host is Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. We’ll hear from Katie Davis Majors today about how Jesus becomes real when we walk through the valley of the shadow. Stay with us.

1:00

And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us. We’ve got a hero back in the studio with us today.

Dennis: We do. I don’t think we’ve ever had a guest introduced by their 14-year-old daughter, but that’s what we’re going to do here on the broadcast. I, first of all, want to welcome back Katie Davis Majors, married now for how many years?

Katie: Almost three!

Dennis: Almost three. You’ll hear more about that in a moment.

My wife Barbara also joins us on the broadcast. Welcome back, Sweetheart.

Barbara: Thanks! It’s a delight to be here.

Dennis: Katie has written a book called Daring to Hope. Many of you probably heard about Katie, about a decade ago, when she wrote a New York Times best-seller, Kisses from Katie. It’s a story about her adopting a few Ugandan young ladies. One of those young ladies wrote the afterword for your book—I’m not going to read it all.

Katie: Okay.

Dennis: It’s really not fair that I don’t read it all!

2:00

Her name is Joyce—she’s 14. Here’s what she said about her mom:

Katie Majors is my mother. No mother is as brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous as my sweet, awesome mother!

Barbara: Sweet!

Dennis: You have really got her snowed; don’t you? [Laughter] That’s not what you say in your book—you talk about losing your temper and getting impatient; but somehow, she didn’t ever see any of those moments, I guess; huh?

Katie: She’s gracious! [Laughter]

Dennis: She concludes by saying this:

I pray for my mom each day that God would continue to bless her life and use her to do incredible things. I love my mother because she brings glory to God, not only through her gifts, but also by calling out gifts and talents in others, including me. She speaks to us that we, too, can be used by God.

3:00

He works through her to shine His light into the hearts of many. I admire my mother; and I pray that I, too, can live a life like hers, serving others first before myself. No matter what my mother goes through, she will tell you that it is okay; because God has always been with her. She teaches me that I can trust Him to be with me too. Joyce Liberty Majors, age 14

Bob: And a lot of listeners are going, “How do you get a 14-year-old to say things like that about their mother?” [Laughter]

Barbara: Exactly! [Laughter]

Katie: Yes; you’re going to make me cry at the beginning of this interview!

Dennis: Where did you find Joyce?

Katie: Joyce came to me when she was about five-and-a-half. She had lost both of her parents in the war in northern Uganda. She had been shuffled around since then in some pretty dangerous situations when she was brought to me.

4:00

Dennis: She is one, now, of how many that you have become “Mom” to?

Katie: She’s one of 14 kids—13 through adoption and 1 that we just gave birth to about a year-and-a-half ago.

Dennis: And there’s a new dimension to your life that I hinted at earlier—the second love of your life—God being the first.

Katie: Yes; yes!

Dennis: Benji—tell us about Benji.

Katie: Benji! So Benji moved to Uganda about seven years ago. He was really—he had come on a short-term trip to volunteer at a special needs orphanage; but he was really burdened that there were a lot of ministries pouring into women, and a lot of ministries really helping out children, and not a lot of ministries pouring into men—discipling them and teaching them to be good fathers and good husbands. So, he came back, fulltime, just to disciple men and to encourage them in their roles as husband, father, [and] provider for the family.

5:00

He has been doing that now for about seven years.

We met when he first came to Uganda.

Dennis: Okay; I’m going to stop you there, because we’re going to tell more of this story on a later broadcast.

Katie: Okay; okay! [Laughter]

Dennis: Your book begins in your kitchen.

Katie: Yes.

Dennis: It’s a place where relationships are made / miracles occur. I love it—you must have a little bit of a perfectionist in you—because you talk about mud, and red dirt, and footprints in the first couple of pages of your book that all 14 of these children that you’ve adopted have to track in there.

Katie: Oh, yes! [Laughter] I spe...