Today is Saturday.

I woke up this morning at 5am due to a rooster. 

This lovely, wonderful rooster has a backstory. Somewhat. 

He's actually a gift for my friend Dacia, from my friend Josh who is housing us.

Well, the rooster is for Dacia's African father, who is giving his blessing to Josh to marry Dacia today.

This "blessing" ceremony is called an Introduction. But, for this story to make somewhat sense to you, I'm going to start over...

I woke up this morning at 5am due to a rooster. That rooster was creating so much noise, it was nearly impossible to sleep. Josh, the keeper of the house, resolved the problem fairly quickly thanks to the many rocks we have around the outside of our home. 

Once I was up, I was up. I guess it was a good thing because I could get my devotion done for the day right as the sun was rising. I feel like that is my favorite time to do my devotion. Bright and early. 

I also got to talk to many friends back home. Since it was 5 am here, it was 11pm at home and 10pm in El Salvador (for when I talk to Kaylee). So that was extremely nice to talk to them.

Later that day, around 10am, my mother and I departed the house to go pick our Gomezi's (Go-mez-ee), which is an African traditional dress for women. We needed one of these to wear to our friends' Dacia and Josh's Introduction. They both met and live here in Jinja, so they saw it right to include Africa into their marriage. An Introduction is basically the couple announcing their engagement to be married. The groom spends a ton of money on gifts to give to the father (fruits, veggies, animals) to show his love for Dacia. If the father accepts these gifts, he has then given his blessing. The whole ceremony lasts about 4-6 hours and usually starts 2-4 hours after the original set time. 

But it is indeed a fun time! The entire introduction is meant to be comical. It is meant to create a fun and friendly atmosphere to the engagement process. I got to meet many new people and reconnect with familiar faces. I even received a traditional Ugandan buffet dinner! And it was so good (well, the stuff I decided to eat)! This might have been where the rooster came into play...

Once the ceremony ended, it was already dark. My family then left and we went on our way. Oh, and if you all remember when my family tried to adopt those two children from Bukaleba a couple years ago, they were there as well! It was so nice to see them and how big they have got. 

We finished the night watching Captain Phillips and quickly went to bed shortly after. 

sincerely yours,

Katie Sandy

it's thursday.

we completely skipped wednesday. 

my family and I, along with our trusty friend maegan, traveled from 9:00am on tuesday, and didn't settle down to rest until just now.

it's now five 'till one in the afternoon.

my travel experience was none-the-less miserable. of course, i tried extremely hard to avoid all sickness while i was home, only to finish packing Monday and end up the flu.

but now i stand here in awe. here i am, in africa. 

where it is already 82 degrees and I'm still wearing the same clothes since tuesday morning.

within my first two hours of arrival to the town of jinja, i got sunburnt on my forearms and  mosquito bites that cover my legs.

i'm already wanting my normal teenage life back.

but. you know what i want more? ALL the time? i want to be spiritually and emotionally filled every day of my life. i want to be loved and cuddled by snot-nosed children and never go a day without laughing. i want to wake up to a rooster, the lovable african dog outside my window, and that splendid view of the nile river from the backyard. i want to be challenged endlessly; i want to be learning and growing every minute. i want to be taught by those i teach. i want to share God's love with people who otherwise might not know it. i want to work so hard that i end every day filthy and too tired to move. i want to feel needed, important, used by the Lord. i want to make a differnce and i want to follow the calling that God has planted deep in my heart. i want to give my life away, to serve the Lord with each breath, each second. i want to be here. right here. 

sincerely yours,

Katie Sandy

Sara Laufer Photography

Over the weekend, my brother married the love of his life. I was (and still am) overwhelmed with joy and, of course, my heart is full, not only by their commitment to each other but also to God! It was a beautiful wedding. Simple. Cheerful. Magical. The ideal wedding. 
But then came the question, "So Katie, you're next right?" 

Oh boy.

This question really bothers me. I am sure many of you have been asked this dreadful and awkward question many times before. I understand that I am only an eighteen year old college student and that these people asking me this don't expect me to get married next week (or in a year from now, for that matter). But I am just now noticing that while being too busy searching for that "certain someone", I haven't been living the life of a single woman that God has intended for me to live.

What exactly am I getting at here? My heart aches realising that there have been mission trips and other evangelism opportunities I have chosen not to be a part of, solely for the reason that I didn't want to be away from my boyfriend for a month or two. This is absolutely devastating to me. Not only for the reason that I have done this, but because I know that there are other people out there doing the same thing.

Lately, I've stopped finding myself, self-worth, and fulfilment in Him, only to put my life on hold for that special someone that I have never actually met. But I want to wake up every morning and be excited because I get to spend my day with the God who created the universe, not mope around because I'm not dating anyone. God promises us many wonderful things, but one thing he does not promise is that you will find a husband in college, or even a husband at all.
It pains me even more to realize that I have been pursuing God for all the wrong reasons. My pursuit of Him was in pursuit to find someone else. Maybe, subconsciously, I have had the mindset that God owes me something - like he isn't holding up his side of the deal, like He has given me the desire of a relationship and a marriage, but he isn't following through.
I've been acting like I deserve a relationship. When, in all honesty, I don't. My spiritual life is far from what it should be. My life lacks prayer and worship to the one who has put me on this earth to merely praise Him. If I don't have this as a priority in my life, how can I expect my relationship with someone to last? It cannot grow if it's lacking God. We both need to be strong in the Father to have a relationship that is able to overcome trial and tribulation.
I need to trust that God is in control of my love life. I need to stop looking forward to the future for Mr. Right and embrace what's going on in my life now. There is so much to do before I meet "the one", from self-improvement to evangelism, there are endless opportunities for single women to do God's work.
I know being single can be hard, especially when your Facebook feed looks more like a Pinterest wedding board; but trusting in God’s plan for your life will have huge benefits in the long run and will save you from needless heartbreak along the way. If you find yourself temped to go with a guy you know God wouldn’t approve of, stop and remember it isn’t worth it. Many times that temptation pulls us most when we are lonely and vulnerable (I say this from experience).
“I’d rather have the right God than the wrong man.” –- Christen Rapske

sincerely yours,

Katie Sandy

Just recently, I was asked by sweet friends to join them in their journey with Christ as a group. It is going wonderfully well and I’ve even made some new friends with the same morals and values as myself. We are studying Angela Thomas’ book, Stronger, that is about finding hope in fragile places.

My favorite thing about devotional studies and learning scripture is that God always tends to show me something new about an old story other than what I had originally thought it was about. That, or He uses scripture to speak to us even when we aren’t listening to Him in other ways. In example, today’s devotional was about loneliness. When I first saw the title I was thinking to myself, “Oh boy, this WOULD be the first devotion I read about…

Professional researchers say our culture has become the most disconnected, socially isolated, loneliest community of people ever. The reasons for our loneliness are as diverse as our personalities and journeys.  Coming out of high school, I had my two best friends go off in separate directions to different schools. My brother was getting married to the love of his life an hour away from home. My wonderful and obedient parents along with my little brother were going off to Africa for three years. My family is already small, but my close family relatives don’t even live in Virginia (excluding my mother’s parents who are greatly ill and extremely busy with work and medical appointments). It has definitely been a struggle for me to get rid of this feeling of loneliness, of course, but I didn’t realize how bad and big of a problem it has been in my life as well as many of your hearts that have already encountered the same pain.

I’ve tried everything, so I thought. I tried to “cure” my loneliness. I tried dating. I’ve tried making new friends through taking on new jobs or adding more classes. I even looked into getting a puppy. Some of us do find a cure for our loneliness though, but then it just circles back around to us in another way. Coming to terms with this struggle for myself has meant finally understanding lonely times are just going to occur on this journey. Charles Spurgeon says, “No believer traverses all the road to heaven in company. There must be lonely spots here and there, though the greater part of our heavenward pilgrimage is made cheerful by the society of fellow travelers. Christ’s sheep love to go in flocks. We take sweet counsel together and walk to the House of God in company. Yet somewhere or other on the road, every Christian will find narrow paths and close places where pilgrims must march in single file.”

This is the kind of loneliness that us as believers experience. At times we will walk “single file”, but we are still in the company of other believers! But can you imagine loneliness apart from Jesus? I shudder at the thought of such a desperate place. God is much stronger than any loneliness we will ever face. He made us this promise in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you or forsake you”. As I continued through in my study, I learned that this English translation does not do the original just or show us the full weight of this verse. Rewritten in its full original language intended, it goes like this: “I will not, I will not, I will not let you down, leave you in a lurch, leave you destitute, leave you in straits or helpless, or abandon you”.

We may struggle with times of loneliness, but this promise always holds, as we’re lonely but never forsaken by God.

I know I shouldn’t have favorites, but my favorite disciple to learn about and study is Paul. Growing up, I wanted to be a missionary and a teacher, ironically, during this time of my passion for those two things I had been studying all about Paul and his books of the Bible. While I’m studying loneliness, I can’t help but to think about the loneliness he experienced in a Roman prison cell. In those ancient jails, there was no modern-day cure for his loneliness, but as a follower of Jesus, Paul had what he needed, the promise of God’s faithfulness. Paul had multiple reasons to feel lonely: his living conditions were unpleasant- he was imprisoned in Rome, winter was approaching (cold weather and dark days), he’d been abandoned by his friends, he missed his friend and ministry partner, and he knew death was close (in his case, execution).

Paul was a smart man of God. He became proactive and took healthy action to treat his loneliness. Paul asked for the visits of godly and trusted friends, physical comfort from the cold, his books to keep his mind occupied (these would not have been Scripture but additional teaching), his old copies of the Old Testament, he genuinely forgave those who had abandoned him, he reaffirmed that his strength came from the never-forsaking presence of God, he kept his hope secure in Jesus Christ (his Savior), he kept his worship focused on the glory of God, and he turned his thoughts away from himself and onto the welfare of his friends.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4

Some good reassurance scripture: Genesis 2:18, Psalms 68:6, Matthew 28:20, Ecclesiastes 4:10-11

Something interesting to think about is that the average American today probably meets as many people in one year as the average person did in a lifetime 100 years ago. Yet we’re far lonelier. Why?

Several recent surveys suggest that lonely people, especially teenagers, reach out through their social networks, desperately looking for someone who cares. We continue to CRAVE personal interactions—perhaps more so because we have electronic witness to the interactions of others. We as Christians can see this as an opportunity to reach out to disenfranchised, lonely people and show the love of Christ, a man who knows sorrow and pain.

Angela Thomas’ devotional, Stronger, has made me realize that I may become lonely on my journey toward home, but I am not alone. God promised never to leave me. That truth makes all the difference. Even in loneliness, I will not despair; my hope is secure in my Savior.

sincerely yours,

Katie Sandy