Jesus “Wrecked” Her Life: The Amazing Story of Katie Davis Majors

When Katie Davis showed up for her first day of class as a kindergarten teacher at an orphanage in Uganda, she was expecting about a dozen students to show up. But when she walked into the classroom—converted from a barn—she was surprised to find the room packed with 138 kids, ages 3-8, all there to meet the new teacher from America. 

That was an early clue for the 18-year-old single girl from Tennessee that her year in Uganda would be much, much different than she expected. 

Katie grew up in the Nashville area and was a normal teenager in most respects. She figured she would go to college, earn a degree, start a career, probably get married and start a family. 

Her parents taught her about loving people, especially those who were less fortunate. “By the time I was 16,” Katie recalls, “I was working downtown at a halfway house in Nashville, where women came to after rehab to get their children back from foster care and kind of rebuild their lives. I loved to go down there and just be with them. I loved to babysit their children so that they could go to their meetings or do different stuff. And so, I think that really grew in me a love for serving people.”

She would ask her friends, “Do you want to come with me to the homeless shelter this weekend?” and they would say no. 

“Okay, well that’s where I’m going to be this weekend.” 

Katie talked to her parents about delaying college for a year—a “gap year”—and working as a missionary somewhere overseas. An orphanage in Uganda appealed to her, and during her senior year she convinced her mom to go with her for a preview visit over Christmas break. While in Uganda she met a pastor who wanted to start a school, and he challenged Katie to consider returning as a teacher.

When she returned home to finish her senior year of high school, her mind kept returning to Uganda. She would look at the clock during classes and think, “What time is it in Uganda?” ... “Okay, the kids are going to bed” ... “The kids are waking up.” In her head, she was living “in this different world that I just couldn’t shake.” She decided God was calling her to spend her gap year in Uganda. 

When she returned and began her work at the orphanage, she began falling in love with the people and the children she was teaching. One day she wrote in her diary:

Sometimes, working in a third-world country makes me feel like I’m emptying the ocean with an eyedropper. And just when I have about half a cup of water, it rains: More orphaned children from the north migrate to where I live, more abandoned and dead babies are found, more people are infected with HIV. It is enough to discourage even the most enthusiastic and passionate person.

And yet, the discouragement lasts only a moment. God tells me to keep going—that He loves me. That He loves these people—that He will never leave or forsake any of us, not one. That my work important—to Him. 

I spent the day at the wedding of my friend Lydia. ... At the reception, there was a cake, and singing, and dancing just as there would be at any American wedding. One thing that wasn’t like an American wedding, though, was the congregation of street children, at the gate, all longing to join the party inside. 

I immediately felt suffocated inside the gates of the extravagant party. So, for most of the reception, you could find me outside with the raggedy, dirty street children—dancing, and laughing, and cuddling. Most people didn’t like that I was associating with these children—the outcasts of society. ...

We had so much fun, though. The children ate up every bit of attention I could give—danced as close to me as they possibly could and lavished me with love. We spun and laughed until we ached and had to collapse in the grass outside of the place where the reception was taking place. 

Those who had been shy at first ended up snuggled close to my side, petting my hair or kissing my hands. The smallest ones fell asleep in my lap despite the blaring music from the wedding. Those who could speak English wanted to know all about me and thanked me, unnecessarily, for spending time with them. They were so happy. I can’t describe the new light in their eyes after all of our dancing. 

It’s that light.

It’s that happiness.

It’s that love. 

That love is the reason I just keep filling up my little eye dropper—keep filling it up and emptying my ocean, one drop at a time. I’m not here to eliminate poverty, to eradicate disease, to put a stop to people abandoning babies. I’m just here to love.

As you can probably guess, Katie didn’t return to America to begin college. 

She stayed in Uganda and ended up founding Amazima Ministries in Jinja, Uganda, which today offers a school for 750 kids, vocational training, medical treatment, and much more. She wrote a book about her experiences called Kisses for Katie, and to her utter surprise it became a best-seller in America. 

And get this—as a young single woman she ended up adopting 13 girls. After her marriage in 2015 to Benji Majors, she had two more biological children. 

One of my favorite phrases from Katie’s book is, “Jesus wrecked my life.” Everything turned out so much different than what she and her parents had planned.

I describe it as a “heart transplant” that occurs in the process of following Jesus Christ. In an interview on FamilyLife Today, Katie told us, “As I’ve grown in my relationship with Him, I’ve learned that ... when you are seeking after the Lord and you find great delight in Him, the desires of your heart become the desires of His heart. ... 

She never dreamed that God would give her the desire to start a ministry, to raise all those girls. “I just love being where He is moving, and He is faithful to make that the desire of my heart to just be where He is.”

credit: Amazima website

The interviews we conducted with Katie for the FamilyLife Today radio program were among my favorites in 27 years of broadcasting. We put some of the highlights together in a two-part series that begins this week on our YouTube channel. Don’t miss this series—it’s an incredible story of what can happen when someone gives their heart to Jesus.

As you reflect on Katie's faith...what are you inspired to trust God for in your life right now? In your marriage? Your family? Why not take a moment and ask God to give you a courageous faith like hers to tackle a God-sized challenge you are facing in your life?  

And remember Hebrews 11:6: “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” 

Will you believe God for too much or too little?