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A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging Paperback – March 9, 2018
This is the story of a woman who watched “home” slip away again and again—through her parents’ divorce, a foreclosure, two international moves, ten rental homes in ten years, and her mother’s terminal battle with cancer. Add in the challenge of cross-cultural marriage, and Kate Motaung was constantly adapting to a new environment. When home is supposed to be synonymous with love and comfort and safety, unpredictable and unwelcome life events—even the chosen but challenging ones—can shake you to your core.
A Place to Land is a globe-spanning memoir that wrestles with the question, “Where is my home?” Motaung authentically shares her brokenness over the divorce of her parents, her gnawing grief over her mother’s death, and the joys and sorrows of her cross-cultural life. Whether or not your struggles are similar to Kate’s—divorce, grief, financial uncertainty—you’ll feel her losses and grow through yours.
Journey with Kate across two continents to find the answer to one of life’s great questions: no matter where we go or what we do, this world is not our home.
- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOur Daily Bread Publishing
- Publication dateMarch 9, 2018
- Dimensions5.75 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-10162707662X
- ISBN-13978-1627076623
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From the Publisher

Meet Author Kate Motaung
I moved ten times in ten years, bookended by transatlantic moves from Michigan to Africa and back again. I married a South African and had three kids in Cape Town, but struggled to feel settled while hopping from rental to rental in a foreign country.
Where was my home, anyway?
When my mom passed away at age 59 after a nine-year battle with cancer, I started thinking more about heaven and realized it’s so easy to want to establish roots here, to desire deep foundations in this temporary home.
But what would happen if we set our minds on things above, not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2)? What would happen if we lived each day with an awareness that eternity is but a breath away?
My prayer is that through this book, you would be reminded that these “light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Cancer. Divorce. Foreclosure. Loss. Grief. Pain.
Nobody expects or wants these realities to barge into their life. But they come anyway, uninvited. The question is, what do we do then?
It’s easy and common to look for satisfaction in this world—to strive and labor for happiness and fulfillment here and now. We long for safety, for stability, for security.
But we will soon discover that the pleasures of this life are temporary. They can be snatched away at any moment, often without warning.
When we learn the hard way that this life is full of hardship and trials, we need something more—something that lasts. Something eternal.
A Place to Land challenges us to see beyond this life and to cling to the only treasure that will never spoil, perish, or fade—the hope and promise of eternal life for those who trust in Jesus.
A celebration of home, eternity, longing, and belonging
- Engages you in an interesting story and focuses your heart on heaven as home
- Addresses the common tension of living on earth until heaven is reached
- An appealing multi-cultural, multi-continent story of family and belonging
Editorial Reviews
Review
“The best memoirs either pull the reader into the author’s compelling story or draw the author’s universal truths into the reader’s story. A Place to Land deftly manages both. Despite the many challenges she faces, Kate presses on, urging us by example to do the same. In the end, her thoughtful conclusions about longing and belonging may well become our own.” -- Liz Curtis Higgs, best-selling author of Bad Girls of the Bible
“We have all experienced home as longing and loss. Can we find hope in our seasons of suffering? A Place to Land confidently answers yes, lifting our eyes beyond this fragile, temporary life to a better world to come.” -- Jen Pollock Michel, author of Keeping Place and Teach Us to Want
“Kate Motaung draws us into the spacious place of God’s never-ending love. Into a place where we can land, forever.” -- Emily T. Wierenga, author of Atlas Girl and Making It Home, and founder of The Lulu Tree
“A Place to Land will be an inspiration to anyone who is wrestling with God through life’s unexpected losses.” -- Lynn Austin, author of Where We Belong
“As a missionary kid, I always felt like I'd never quite found my place. Kate understands the tension of being pulled in several directions, bearing the burden of loved ones from thousands of miles away. A Place to Land is more than an honest memoir—it’s a hopeful narrative of a home lost and found, and a gentle reminder of our Companion all along the way.” -- Asheritah Ciuciu, founder of One Thing Alone Ministries and author of Unwrapping the Names of Jesus: An Advent Devotional and Full: Food, Jesus and the Battle for Satisfaction
“Every one of us was created with a yearning for a place to call home, a place to belong and to rest. And yet, as Kate so beautifully writes in this book, our sufferings force us to come to terms with the truth that we will never fully be at home in this world. Let Kate’s story break your heart, and then let the truth that pours out of these pages settle into your soul—that only eternal life with Christ will forever satisfy your deepest needs for belonging and home.” -- Kelly Givens, editor of iBelieve.com
“A Place to Land is a page turner. I found myself swept up in her story. Honest and authentic, Kate brings the reader into the highs and lows of life and the hope found with and in Christ. Her vulnerable writing lifted my eyes and recalibrated my heart to long for home.” -- Vivian Mabuni, speaker and author of Warrior in Pink: A Story of Cancer, Community, and the God Who Comforts
“I’ve heard it said believers are so heavenly minded they’re of no earthly good. Kate’s compelling story proves the opposite. It’s exactly because she’s learned to take the long view—living with eternity in mind—that her impact in this world is so startlingly powerful. This is Kate’s story, but it’s yours and mine too.” -- Dalene Reyburn, author of Dragons and Dirt: The Truth about Changing the World―and the Courage It Requires and Walking in Grace: 366 Inspirational Devotions for an Abundant Life
From the Back Cover
So was I heading home? Or not? The conflicting voices in my head kickstarted a long-lasting soul search.
Heavyhearted, Kate boarded the plane to fly to her mother’s funeral. When a woman in the next seat asked, “Are you heading home?”, Kate wasn’t sure how to respond. An American Christian living in South Africa with her native-born husband and children, she was flying to Michigan where she had grown up. Kate stammered an answer, but wrestled with the question, “Where is my home?”
This is the story of a woman who watched “home” slip away again and again—through her parents’ divorce, a foreclosure, two international moves, ten rental homes in ten years, and her mother’s terminal battle with cancer. Add in the challenge of a cross-cultural marriage, and Kate was constantly adapting to a new environment. When home is supposed to be synonymous with love and comfort and safety, unpredictable and unwelcome life events—even the chosen but challenging ones—can shake you to your core.
“But maybe this tension is how it’s supposed to be,” Kate writes. “Maybe this home isn’t meant to feel safe. Perhaps we’re supposed to squirm in discomfort and groan with longing for the only place where moths and cancer ‘do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.’”
Journey with Kate across two continents to answer one of life’s great questions: no matter where we go or what we do, this world is not our home.
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Our Daily Bread Publishing (March 9, 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 162707662X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1627076623
- Item Weight : 10.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,103,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #226 in South African Travel Guides
- #546 in Extended Families
- #8,485 in Christian Women's Issues
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Kate is the author of A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging, Letters to Grief, The Five-Minute Writing Prompt Journal, The 31-Day Writing Prompt Journal, The 90-Day Writing Prompt Journal, and A Start-Up Guide for Online Christian Writers, and co-author of Influence: Building a Platform that Elevates Jesus (Not Me).
She is the host of Five Minute Friday (fiveminutefriday.com), an online community that encourages and equips Christian writers, and she blogs at Heading Home (katemotaung.com). Kate is the owner of Refine Services (refineservices.com), a company that offers writing and editing services.
Kate has degree in Bible, theology, and cross-cultural missions from Kuyper College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and an Honours degree from the Bible Institute of South Africa. She loves writing creative nonfiction and memoir. Kate and her South African husband have three children.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2018
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Pass go, collect two hundred dollars and get this book.
Seriously. This is not one you want to miss.
I had the joy of “meeting” Kate Motaung several years ago when she took over as the Fearless Leader of the Five Minute Friday community. (She did not give herself this title. I did. I don’t remember why, but it’s stuck in my brain). We have chatted via Twitter, Voxer and blog comments. As I’m sure others can attest, Kate has the unique gift of making one feel at home; I don’t doubt that, were I to show up in her driveway today, that I would be welcomed inside for tea and good conversation.
This is part of what made this book so fascinating for me. Kate writes of being torn between houses following her parents’ divorce and between continents after moving to South Africa in her early twenties. Her story is one of longing for home, of never quite knowing where or what that place is. Out of that longing, I believe she strives to give others a sense of comfort and security. Even those of us who have only connected with her through electronic means pick up on this and celebrate her gift of welcoming embrace.
Ultimately, and encouragingly, Kate reminds both herself and the reader that our true Home, the place our souls ache for, is not to be found in this life. We get teases, little glimpses, that give us hope and keep us going when things get hard, but we never get the full picture. We have to wait. So we sit in the discomfort, knowing that all is not as it should be, asking Jesus to daily give us the grit and the grace to navigate yet another bump in the road.
The pages of A Place to Land are full of honesty and humor. Kate looks unflinchingly at herself and allows us to do so as well. In that, we are given permission to be that honest. To acknowledge that we don’t always know the answers or do the right things. Her choice to tell her story in such a raw way is deeply refreshing. There are no neat and tidy bows, no pristine images of perfect kids and conflict-free living. There is, instead, a woman who consistently, constantly, preaches Jesus. His presence, His love, His guidance, His help. Over and over again, Kate finds Him in the middle of the mess. She shows the reader how to reach out for His hand.
God took the tug-of-war that waged in my soul, the thick rope that spanned across the ocean, and yanked from both sides. He cut it clean through the middle, somewhere over the depths of the Atlantic. And He made me look up. To see that the greatest and strongest pull is neither east nor west, neither here nor there. It’s the heavenward pull.
It’s the pull toward home.
I now know how to respond the next time someone asks me the simple question, ‘Are you heading home?'” Regardless of my earthly destination, and purely because of the grace of Christ’s sacrifice, I’ll be able to answer with confidence, ‘Yes. Yes I am.'”
– p. 266-267
To that I can only say, “Amen.”
Thank you, Kate, for sharing your story with us. Thank you for the hours you spend leading the ragtag FMF troop. Thank you for being who you are. Usikelelke.
I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR MY FAIR AND HONEST REVIEW.
Motaung doesn’t shy away from speaking on the hard topics of family separation, difficult diagnoses, enduring heartache, and loss.
If anything, Kate encourages her readers to look beyond their circumstances to the God who resides in a place where we’re all really hoping to land: Eternity.
A Place to Land isn’t Motaung’s story alone. It’s the story of her mother, a woman of undeniable faith, who continues to love and serve her daughters and grandchildren well.
A Place to Land is a memoir of a teenage girl with many questions and fears. Who is God? Does God still love me when my heart doubts and questions? Will God be faithful?
A Place to Land is the story of a teenager who evolves into a woman of quiet fortitude and gentle strength…trying to understand some of humanity’s biggest questions when faced with life’s hardest moments: Why me, God? Why my own mother, God?
Deeply humane. Full of fragile moments. Honest and heartfelt.
A Place to Land doesn’t disappoint. It offers its readers a sacred reality, that no matter our plans, God’s grand scheme for our individual lives miraculously occurs, covered in deep grace.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 17, 2018
Motaung doesn’t shy away from speaking on the hard topics of family separation, difficult diagnoses, enduring heartache, and loss.
If anything, Kate encourages her readers to look beyond their circumstances to the God who resides in a place where we’re all really hoping to land: Eternity.
A Place to Land isn’t Motaung’s story alone. It’s the story of her mother, a woman of undeniable faith, who continues to love and serve her daughters and grandchildren well.
A Place to Land is a memoir of a teenage girl with many questions and fears. Who is God? Does God still love me when my heart doubts and questions? Will God be faithful?
A Place to Land is the story of a teenager who evolves into a woman of quiet fortitude and gentle strength…trying to understand some of humanity’s biggest questions when faced with life’s hardest moments: Why me, God? Why my own mother, God?
Deeply humane. Full of fragile moments. Honest and heartfelt.
A Place to Land doesn’t disappoint. It offers its readers a sacred reality, that no matter our plans, God’s grand scheme for our individual lives miraculously occurs, covered in deep grace.
