The Nursery School

Katie Sandy

CRO- Children Restoration Outreach

“Auntie Kate, would you like a lift on my boda?”

The past two Tuesdays, I’ve gone with the street kids to recreation club from 10am-1pm. We take around 80 children to a futbol field for loads of physical activity and tons of love. Last Tuesday, I played futbol with the older boys (about 7-12 years old) and showed them how us Americans play back home. At first, the boys mentioned how slow I was, but they held their tongue after I snatched the ball from their teacher and assisted in a goal! GO CRANES.

This Tuesday, I played with the younger boys and the girls. Which, I preferred more considering I wasn’t gasping for air the whole time.

As I walk around the open field surrounded by continuous questions and constant touch, my newest friend John grabs my hand and says he wants to walk with me.

Who is John you ask? John is a 10 or 12-year old boy that was born with a mental disability. In all honesty, most of the time I don’t hang out with the mentally disabled children as much as the others, only for the reason I’m an awkward person and don’t know how to talk or relate to them. But John is different. Or maybe the Holy Spirit is just really working through me. I’ve never related so much with a child from Africa like I have with John. I am so in love with this kid.

“Where should we go, Kate? Kampala? Okay, you pay me one-thousand.”

His imagination is beyond any other child’s I’ve ever met. Today, a game was laid on my heart and I decided to pursue it.

After he picked out the perfect stick from the pile of misfit sticks, he hoped on it like a witch on a broomstick. Once he started it up with a few “vroom vrooms” he was off. He started small. Just giving me lifts to “Jinja” and “Tororo” and “Namatala” or also known as the big tree, the goal post, and the man on the bicycle selling popsicles. Once that became too familiar to him, the idea of a farther distance sparked his imagination. He then began giving lifts to the other children to “Kampala” and “Nairobi” and “America” or the pile of trash across the field, the pile of sticks next to a large tree, and the middle of the futbol field.

That’s when John and I created our own little town. We started using leaves from the big tree as one thousand shillings each and handed them out to the children for boda rides. Then, we started hiring people to be policemen, street vendors, and petro stationers. Before we knew it we were catching robbers, selling chicken on a stick, and pumping fuel into John’s boda.

“Auntie Kate, my business is going so well, I want to buy you a car.”

I have never seen John so happy. Even though I’ve only hung out with him for two days, I’ve noticed the other kids taking things from him, kicking him, pushing him over, and yelling at him. But today, he was the hero. The main character. The boda man. The one everyone wanted to be with.

When we were walking home, John held firmly to my hand the entire journey. He told me he was glad I was his friend and that he won’t let anyone hurt me if they tried. He’s so smart too. Every time we passed something that grasped his attention he would tell me the word in English, then make me repeat it in Lugisu. He also was telling me about his trip to get his medicine for his disability. This boy truly trusted me and loved me. So I thought, “Katie, when was the last time this boy was ever showed love like you are showing him right now?”

Then I thought-- this is why I’m here: to not only to show love, but to spread it as well.

collecting our leaf money

selfie of me and john

John was teaching me how to dance

he's really photogenic!!

but really, he's super cute :)

me + my homies

Katie Sandy

Maegan's Wedding

MAEGAN IS MARRIED.

. . . . .

For those of you who don't know, Maegan works with my parents at LCMA in Mbale. She'd lived here  for more than a year and met the love of her life when she had finally stopped looking. 

Maegan was the first friend I made when moving with my family to Uganda. She is literally the sister I never had. She is filled with so much wisdom and encouragement, the weakest person could come to here and leave stronger than ever before. 

On April fifth, two-thousand and fourteen, I was able to be apart of an important chapter of her life: her wedding.

This is the day she becomes one with the man that God has designed specifically for her. The day that every little girl dreams of her entire life. The day that man and woman become one in Christ. 

I am so joyful to say I am extremely ecstatic for my friends, Maegan & Emma, on their wedding and I pray that God blesses them more than they could ever have imagined on their journey through life together. Love you Meg!

. . . . .

Katie Sandy

Week 11: Completed

Hello Friends!

So, I've come to the conclusion that I really enjoy filming and taking photographs. Even though I don't have the best camera (it's merely a lousy old school nikon), I still find such excitement + joy from capturing even just the smallest everyday moments. 

. . . . .

I love how photogenic people are.

I love showing the african children their adorable faces.

I love not making it about me, but about someone else.

I love that everyone smiles when they see my pull out my camera.

I love how I can take a grimy picture and make it beautiful in a shocking three minutes.

Now, I've decided that photography and filming is definitely in the future for me, God willing, of course. (Time to save up for a new camera!!)

Some of you are probably thinking, "Hm, that's funny. I haven't seen much of this superb work you speak of Katie..." Well, my friend, here is where I answer your prayers. These are some of my favorite snaps from the past few weeks. Also, at the bottom, you can find the links to my past four videos I've created! What an exciting time.

. . . . .

My Pretty Friend, Emily

Ana, My Friend Callie's Kid 

Em & Ana

Out On The Farm

Maegan's Wedding

My Lovely Model, Em

Joe + Lily Hiking Up Wanale

The Path To Narnia...I Mean Wanale

Dramatic John

Here We Go, Up The Mount

John Conquering Wanale

We Make Friends Everywhere We Go -Lily

Bex

The Top of Mt. Wanale

Vogue

My Homies

Me with my Homies

Momma and a Jjajja That Was Saved at Church

3 Girls w|Water Jugs

Futbol at Lulwanda

Sunset at Lulwanda

Oops, how did that get there...

And my videos:

https://vimeo.com/91874189

--Week 11

https://vimeo.com/91666091

--The Band Concord Film

https://vimeo.com/91454566
--Week 10

https://vimeo.com/87195931
--Butiru//February


Katie Sandy

I Will Call You, Beloved

Romans 9:25 says--

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
    and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,"

Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, “Why did you shape me like this?” Isn’t it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers + another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure + another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn’t that all right? Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people. Hosea put it well:

I’ll call nobodies + make them somebodies;
    I’ll call the unloved + make them beloved.
In the place where they yelled out, “You’re nobody!”
    they’re calling you “God’s living children.”

Katie Sandy

What Is Love

as i crouch under a shady tree, next to a futbol field on a hot and dusty day, he quickly jumps around the tree after shouting "TEN!" and we take off running.

what is love? 

love is feeling at home in a place you hardly know anything about
love is feeling like you've spent years with someone but you only just met them ten minutes ago
love is caring for someone else's child and forcing back the tears when it's time for them to go home
love is never wanting to miss out on a big bear hug from sixty-five dirty children
love is the way they hold tighter to your hand when you say "Nkwagala nyo", or "i love you so much"


he chases me around and around the large tree until i finally give in. as his brown hands wrap around my waist, he looks up at me and whispers in my ear "i've caught you auntie kate, and now you can never leave."

Katie Sandy

God Is Good, Even When The Ending Isn't

a few days ago we lost a child from our program.


it's always hard to lose someone close to you, and even more if you loved them. a mother brought us her child on the verge of death and we had to take immediate action in order for this baby to make it. it's heartbreaking to know we were too late for this one.

We live in a world where innocent people suffer and good friends die and stories don’t have the endings we prayed for, and the pain and the hurt, it is everywhere. But the joy and the hope that we find in our Savior? It is everywhere, too.  I do not have all the answers; in fact, I don’t have many at all. But this is what I know: God is who He says He is. And in the hurt and the pain and the suffering, God is near, and He is good, even when the ending isn’t.

Katie Sandy