Juli Boit - From Beyond the Skies: An Invitation Into the Wonder of Love

This is a remarkable story about impossible things becoming possible through love, perseverance, and the strength of community.

Eliud Kipchoge

Marathon World Record Holder and Olympic Gold Medalist

Julis story reminds me that God will and does choose the most unlikely people and places to show up through. It inspires me to see and remember the impact, power, and necessity of not doing life alone!

From Beyond the Skies dives deep into the suffering and fear Juli and her family went through during one of the hardest, scariest seasons of their lives; it dives even deeper into the healing, transformative power of having a community knit together by love, intentionality, and openness around you.

Reading Julis book reminds me how different life can look when youre surrounded by people who care. I needed that reminder.

If youre seeking community and need to believe in the goodness of your fellow man again because you cant quite see it lately, grab this book.

Albert Tate

Co-Founder and Lead Pastor, Fellowship Church

Monrovia, California

In From Beyond the Skies, Juli Boit describes far more than the harrowing struggles her family endured prior to triumphant bone marrow transplants for her two Kenyan sons facing pain and early death from sickle cell disease. Hers is the story of how a life grounded in love can dare to be vulnerable to the unexpected as an essential path toward wholeness for herself, her family, and the community of support that surrounds her. We all need to face the unknown empowered by her invitation to the wonder of love.

Dr. Joe Mamlin and Sarah Ellen Mamlin

AMPATH Kenya

For years, Ive had the grand privilege to watch God call Juli Boit to just take the next step in Love. And I have seen her, as well as Titus, do just that. Jesus once said, In this world you will have trouble, but take heart for I have overcome the world. This true story of faith, hope, and love is one that shows as real as our troubles may be, they are not the end of the story. Your challenges may not be the exact same as Julis remarkable story, but I trust through this you will be strengthened to take Gods next step for you in Love.

Tom Hughes

Co-Lead Pastor, Christian Assembly Church

Los Angeles, California

Author: Down to Earth: How Jesus Stories Can Change Your Everyday Life

Julis story is a gift to all who read it. Its a story of the brutality of love; how it is a mess and a burden and a great invitation, all in one. Julis story is a reminder that love looks like saying yes when it is scary, saying yes when its shrouded with uncertainty. Love is being interruptible, as Juli and her husband demonstrate when they said yes to bringing a premature baby boy into the fold of their family. As Juli said, We had a choice, and it wasnt necessarily that there was a right or wrong way. But there was a yes and a no. There was a stopping to pay attention, interrupting our plans and the way we imagined our family would grow, as we chose to affirm Ryans worth, to discern and discoverone day at a timewhat it meant to love. Love is a privilege that is both hard and holy. As you read her story, Julis grief will become yours. You will find yourself in tears at times as she shares her pain and her questions in their rawest state. You will likewise share in her joy as you see God and others show up in her story to embrace her in the love and support her story is defined by.

Blythe Hill

CEO/Founder, Dressember Foundation

AN INVITATION INTO THE WONDER OF LOVE

JULI BOIT

NEW YORK

LONDONNASHVILLEMELBOURNEVANCOUVER

FROM BEYOND THE SKIES

An Invitation into the Wonder of Love

2022 Juli Boit

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in New York, New York, by Morgan James Publishing. Morgan James is a trademark of Morgan James, LLC. www.MorganJamesPublishing.com

This work depicts actual events in the life of the author as truthfully as recollection permits and/ or can be verifi ed by research. All persons within are actual individuals; there are no composite characters. The names of some individuals have been changed to respect their privacy.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV.

ISBN 9781631954276 paperback

ISBN 9781631954283 eBook

ISBN 9781631954290 audio

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020950540

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Interior Design by:

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For our children and all who walked beside us

When my Kenyan friends wanted to introduce me to Juli in March of 2007, I am embarrassed to say that I had low expectations for our relationship or for the work in which she was engaged. At that point, as a pediatrician and an HIV researcher, I was deeply immersed in the challenge of trying to scale-up an HIV care system across western Kenya with my colleagues at Moi University. My guiding question was how to provide long-term access to HIV treatment for the hundreds of thousands of families living with HIV in western Kenya and beyond.

I was doubtful that some Christian white woman living in a village in Kenya would have much to do with that big goaleven if I, too, was Christian and white and American and a woman.

Although I grew up in the Christian church, my encounters with American Christians in Kenya and the US very often left me wondering what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. I saw many groups of American Christians drop into Kenya for short periods of time on mission trips, and it was difficult to see the impact that they had on the HIV crisis gripping my heart. Almost every day, I was seeing desperate parents bring their dying children to our clinics. And even though there were medicines available to prevent or treat HIV and the other infections killing these children for only a few dollars, we were struggling mightily to make those accessible to families. Personally, I wrestled to keep my heart soft and open when it kept breaking over these children again and again.

I had a lot of questions for God. And I did not see the church doing much to even acknowledge the devastating deaths of one million more lives lost to HIV every year.

But, I have to tell you what it is like to meet Juli. When you first meet Juli, you are struck by a strong, deep beauty that radiates from her. This is not because she is physically beautiful, though she absolutely is, but the only words I have ever been able to use to describe Julis beauty are that her love for God somehow radiates out of her and hits you as a deep beauty. I do not talk about God very often with people, but I have used those words to describe Juli at least a dozen times over the years that I have known her.