Book Club Questions for Kisses from Katie

1.Katie uses the word "wrecked" to describe what Jesus did to her life — and says that the wreckage was the best thing that ever happened to her. What do you think she means by that? Does that framing attract you, unsettle you, or both?

2.Before reading this book, what was your mental image of a missionary or someone who does overseas humanitarian work? How does Katie's background — homecoming queen, college-bound, comfortable suburban life — fit or challenge that image?

3.The foreword frames Katie's story as one of radical obedience to Jesus. In your own life, what does obedience to Jesus typically look like? Is it mostly comfortable, mostly costly, or somewhere in between?

1.When Katie first arrived in Uganda to teach kindergarten, what was it about the children and the people that began to capture her heart? What do you think made Uganda feel less like a place she was visiting and more like a place she belonged?

2.Katie describes the gap between the life she had in America and the poverty she encountered in Uganda as disorienting. Have you ever had an experience — a trip, an encounter, a conversation — that made your normal life suddenly feel strange or inadequate? What happened next?

3.James 1:27 defines true religion as caring for orphans and widows in their distress. How does Katie's instinctive response to the children she meets in Uganda reflect this verse? Do you think most Western Christians feel the weight of that verse the way she did?

1.In this chapter, Katie begins to encounter the daily, unglamorous realities of life among Uganda's poor — sickness, hunger, death, bureaucracy. What surprised her most? What surprised you most reading about it?

2.Katie reflects on the difference between loving people from a comfortable distance (sending a check, saying a prayer) and loving people up close (touching, staying, being inconvenienced). Which form of love comes more naturally to you, and why?

3.1 John 3:17-18 asks: "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." How does Katie's early ministry in Uganda embody this passage? How does it convict or challenge you?

1."Amazima" means "truth" in the Luganda language. Why do you think Katie chose that name for her ministry? What truth was she trying to embody or proclaim?

2.Amazima Ministries began with Katie personally sponsoring children's school fees and feeding programs — not with a strategic nonprofit plan, but with simple, direct obedience. What does this origin story suggest about how God often grows Kingdom work?

3.Katie describes the logistical and emotional challenges of building a ministry from scratch in a foreign country — language barriers, cultural differences, corruption, heartbreak. Which of these challenges would feel most daunting to you, and why?

1.Katie begins adopting children almost as a natural overflow of love rather than a calculated decision. How do you feel about the way her family formed — gradually, organically, without a master plan? Does it inspire you, unsettle you, or challenge your assumptions about what "family" should look like?

2.By the time she is twenty-two, Katie has fourteen daughters. What are some of the specific joys and specific griefs she describes in building this unconventional family?

3.Each of Katie's daughters comes from a story of loss — abandonment, illness, death of parents. How does she hold together the grief of each child's backstory with the joy of their new belonging? Is it possible to celebrate adoption without acknowledging the loss that precedes it?

1.What specific things does Katie describe letting go of in this chapter — both material things and internal things (dreams, expectations, control)? Which category of loss seems hardest for her?

2.Katie is honest about the grief of letting go — she doesn't pretend it's painless or easy. How does her honesty about the cost of surrender make the book more believable and more useful to you as a reader?

3.Luke 14:33 says, "Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples." How do you interpret this verse? Does it require literal poverty, or is Jesus pointing at something deeper about the posture of our hearts?

1.Katie faces real tragedy in her work — children who die despite her care, families she cannot save, situations she cannot fix. How does she describe these moments? What is her emotional and spiritual response?

2.The title of this chapter is "When God Asks Hard Things." What are the hardest things God seems to be asking of Katie in this season? What is the hardest thing God has asked of you in a recent season?

3.Isaiah 43:2 promises that when we pass through the waters and fires of life, God will be with us — not that we will be kept from them. How does this distinction matter? Does it comfort you, frustrate you, or both?

1.How does Katie's work begin to extend beyond individual children into entire villages and communities? What does this expansion reveal about the nature of poverty and the nature of genuine help?

2.Luke 4:18-19 describes Jesus's mission: good news to the poor, freedom for the captive, sight for the blind, release for the oppressed. How does Amazima's work in the villages reflect this multi-dimensional vision of human flourishing — spiritual, physical, relational?

3.Katie learns that truly helping a community means listening to it, not just arriving with solutions. Have you ever seen "help" that was more about the helper than the helped? What made it ineffective or even harmful?

1.What are some specific things Katie discovers she was wrong about, or had to unlearn, as she grew deeper into Ugandan life and ministry? How does she respond to being wrong?

2.Katie writes with refreshing self-awareness about her own limitations — cultural blind spots, moments of naïveté, times she overreached. Why is this kind of humility so important for anyone who wants to serve others effectively?

3.Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust God rather than lean on our own understanding. What does that look like practically for Katie when she is facing a situation she doesn't know how to handle? What does it look like for you?

1.The book's title, *Kisses from Katie*, comes from the way her daughters shower her with physical, exuberant, exhausting love. What does this image of love — unearned, excessive, delightful — suggest to you about the nature of belonging and family?

2.Katie frequently reflects on how much she receives from the children she serves — more, in many ways, than she gives. Have you had an experience of serving someone and coming away feeling you were the one who had been given something? What happened?

3.Jesus tells his disciples that unless they become like little children, they will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3). What qualities of childlikeness do you see in Katie's daughters that seem to embody Kingdom values? Which of those qualities do you most need to recover?

1.Katie is frequently at the end of herself in this book — exhausted, overwhelmed, grieving, out of answers. How does she describe those moments? What does she do when she reaches her limit?

2.The cliché "God won't give you more than you can handle" is often offered as comfort, but Katie's experience seems to flatly contradict it. Do you think this phrase is true? What does the Bible actually say about this (see 2 Corinthians 1:8-9)?

3.Paul says that he was "given more than he could handle" in Asia precisely so that he would not trust himself but God, who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:9). How does this reframe Katie's experience of being overwhelmed? How does it reframe yours?

1.When Katie returns to visit family and friends in Tennessee, how does she describe the experience? In what ways does she feel like a stranger in the place she grew up? Have you ever had a similar feeling of not quite belonging where you used to belong?

2.By the time of this chapter, Uganda has become home for Katie — but it is an imperfect, costly, sometimes heartbreaking home. What does her complicated relationship with "home" reveal about what human beings are really longing for?

3.Hebrews 11:13-16 describes the heroes of faith as "strangers and aliens" on earth who were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. How does Katie's experience of belonging nowhere quite perfectly reflect this biblical vision of the Christian as a pilgrim?

1.How does the idea of love as a *choice* rather than primarily a *feeling* show up in this chapter? What are some of the specific choices Katie makes in this season — choices that required will rather than just emotion?

2.1 Corinthians 13 describes love as patient, kind, not self-seeking, not easily angered. Which of these qualities does Katie seem to have to work hardest to embody? Which ones do you?

3.Jesus says in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." In what daily, ordinary ways does Katie lay down her life — not dramatically but repeatedly, in small deaths of preference and comfort? Where do you see this pattern in your own relationships?

1.Katie talks about being "the hands and feet of Jesus" — a phrase that is common in Christian circles but can become a cliché. How does her story give that phrase specific, concrete, sometimes uncomfortable content? What does it actually look like in her context?

2.2 Corinthians 5:20 calls believers "Christ's ambassadors" — as though God were making his appeal through us. What does it mean to represent someone else so fully that people encounter *them* when they encounter *you*? Where do you feel the weight of that calling?

3.Jesus says in Matthew 5 that his followers are the light of the world and that their good works cause people to glorify the Father. How does Katie navigate the tension between wanting the glory to go to God and being visibly, publicly associated with the work? Is that a tension you feel in your own service?

1.How does the final chapter bring together the major themes of the book — sacrifice, family, joy, grief, obedience, and belonging? What note does Katie end on?

2.Katie coins the phrase "radical ordinary love" — the idea that transformational love is not usually spectacular but faithful, daily, and unglamorous. How does this reframe what it looks like to live radically for Christ? Does it make the call feel more accessible or less impressive?

3.Micah 6:8 calls us to "act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." How does Katie's life embody all three of these commands? Which one comes most naturally to you, and which one requires the most effort?

1.Which chapter or moment in *Kisses from Katie* stayed with you most? What was it about that particular story, image, or idea that lodged itself in you?

2.Before you started this book, how would you have described your vision of faithful Christian living? How, if at all, has that vision been expanded, deepened, or challenged by reading Katie's story?

3.Katie's central conviction is that we are not called to change the whole world, but to change the world for one person at a time. Looking at your own life right now — who is the one person, family, or community you believe God is asking you to move toward?