Hello from Lilongwe...

We made it to the other side of the world. It was such a long trek this time. I was traumatized a little bit from it. It all began when the flight in San Diego was cancelled and they scheduled us to the next available flight 6 hours later. Waiting in the airport is not so fun. So we flew to San Francisco and had to spend the night in a hotel. Which was OK but you know flying and going to a hotel in the middle of the night and then waking up and rushing back to the airport is not a fun feeling. I woke up exhausted because I dreamed that we had missed our flight. Then while we in SF, they lost our luggage for about 6 hours. (all 13 of them). Bob was in the baggage claim looking for them. Finally, they showed up. Who knows what Baggage Claim Monster ate it and decided to give it back. Then we headed off to London! (Sounds so romantic) And got there 11pm our California time and 6 am their time. We had a 13 hour layover again. So we headed to a hotel, closed the curtains, closed our eyes, woke up and headed to Johannesburg South Africa. We arrived and caught a airplane to Malawi and were able to retrieve all 13 of our bags. I think that hardest part was all the continual delays. It exhausted us all. The girls were so glad to be back in Malawi and so were we. We were so happy to see our dog Dolly and Dainty Toes and the pigs! We are a farm over here. We came back to see many old friends and met many new people that are here at ABC for the first time. There are 15 new people that came over this year to be here at ABC. Some are teachers, doctors, kids and mamas. We jumped right back into busy land. Bob has been put in charge of the Freshmen Orientation ( they have never had one before). This year there are 101 students this year instead of 40. So it will be a big change. They are going through a 4 day orientation. Bob has them doing all sorts of stuff. From campus tours, some meet and greet with professors, to a fun game time! It was amazing to see what he put together. Below is the welcome area for the students as they came into campus.

The students that are now juniors that are helping are wishing they had a freshmen orientation!

Here is Nya with her new teacher. Also Jordan her best friend (who moves back to Zimbabwe this week We will really miss sharing life with her and her family! ) Nya is headed to the 2ND grade. Nya's teacher is Jeannette from wonderful San Diego. She and her husband moved here this summer. So it is all new and fresh for them. So fun to see Africa with new eyes! It changes my perspective. Here is their blog.

Here is Analise in her classroom and teacher. Her teacher's name is Rebecca Harper from Mississippi. Analise is very concerned that she won't know everything and will have questions. So Rebecca told she will help her! Analise then responded with confident "ok" thinking that she can do school now. Here is the Harper's Blog It is fun to see other people's journey in life.

Well as the school year begins around the world and here in Malawi, I am finding that I want to thoroughly enjoy it. I am continually reminded on how short life is and that I don't want to miss out on living fully! I don't want to just survive- I want to live life intentionally. As we drove through LA this summer, we stopped in traffic on the 405 freeway. Of course after going 70 mph, we got crabby and reminded each other how much we hate LA traffic! So as we inched along for about 15 minutes, we came to the part that had slowed us down. As we got closer we saw about 10 cars on the side of the road and a dead body all alone not covered up on the ground. That was it. That was why we had slowed down. Somebody was dead and was left alone. People were all standing away from the body (about 50 feet). If that person had been alive, somebody would of been right there. It went to core of my being. I was reminded at that moment as I am sure many other people that drove past it thought, that it was a sad thing to see and was reminded on how life is short. But then about 5 minutes later we are instantly doing the same crazy LA driving that is always done. Living and not letting that thing we just saw affect us for real. What it was, a momentary light bulb and then gone. Back to the normal mediocre life. Just surviving and not living. Me too! I was one of them. I just have been thinking over and over lately though, is that we one have one life and that person that died on that freeway wasn't thinking "OK today is my last day, this is what I want to wear, these are people I am going to talk to and these are the last things I want to do on the this earth" Seriously. If we all lived in light of that. Wow! Even if I lived that way for a week! Wow! So that is really what is on my heart -Is to live life intentional.

Prayer Requests:

• Please continue to pray for us as we want to live intentional. That we would make the most out of our journey that God has given us.
• Pray for Nya and Analise as they start school on the 24th and as Bob has really already started with Freshmen Orientation.
• Pray for our supporters as they give to us every month and allow us to be here and be intentional here at African Bible College in Lilongwe, Malawi in Africa!
• Pray for more support to come in because life has gotten more expensive here. (gas, groceries, paperwork for the government to live in Malawi, investing in people here in Lilongwe)

Well- that's all for now! More to come as the days of our lives :) continues! Lots of love- amy louise for the family