A day trip out in the country of Malawi to Mua Mission...

We headed out of town to go see a mission...


So above is a public bathroom. It says 20 K which means about 5 cents to use it. Also I love that it says Now Open- It has said that for the last 2 years....

There is a place that builds furniture on the side of the road. Now those couches in the back look comfy cozy, but they are like sitting on bricks.

Need a shirt? The way clothes are sold here is open air. They are all used clothing and on top are materials for women.

All in a days work....Aren't you glad for your car? Me Too.

Ok this guy wins the prize for WOW! that is amazing to see how much they can put on their bikes.

A typical village out in the country. This about 20 minutes out of town for us.

In our car headed down the dirt road to get to the mission...

here we are at the cultural center that is for getting to know Malawi's different cultures

Love this tree. God didn't have to make such amazing variety but He did...

Here is a Mua mission. They set up a school and hospital for the people in 1902. Wow!

It is beautiful...

So Josh and Em got a little deer. We all named her cutie... cutie toes.We are the foster parents until she gets big enough to eat normal foods. She is being also fostered by our deer dainty toes.

Some of the amazing paintings that they did there at the cultural center. They were way too expensive but I loved them.

Here is nya with some of the art sculptures - That is a woman i guess. :)

More Paintings and that is a real life type picture. The women are pushing charocal to use in cooking and to sell.

On the way back from the mission with a new baby for Josh and Emily! The girls love it.

Well- We are doing great living back in Malawi. Actually this was the first weekend that I finally caught my breath and have slowed down. We all are healthy and rested. It has been amazing to see all our friends, see the students that have come back to college and meeting new students and staff. We are finally adjusted from America time to Malawi time and that is nice. More pictures to come soon! YAY! Lots of love- amy louise

First Day of School...

Hi! Just wanted to show you some pictures of the girls first day at school...
Before the day started...

Here is Nya in her class

Can you find Nya at the school assembly in the gym?

Analise was looking good at this moment but while she was sitting on my lap she was coming up with every excuse in the book to go home. "I think I have a cough, so I need to go home. I think my back hurts bad, I need to go home" and so forth. So we will see how she handles today with her first long day of school. Lots of love- amy louise

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

Life passes by so quickly...

And definetly trying to find the pause button to stop it so we can stop and smell the delicious ocean! This is a picture of the girls at one of my favorite beaches in san diego. La Jolla Beach. I want to bottle it up and bring it to Malawi and spray it when I need it! Here they are hanging with some good friends Micah and Cambria! We all have loved visiting and connecting with good friends. We have felt very loved!

We head back to Malawi tomorrow Friday at 4:43 and arrive in Africa on Sunday at 2pm. So we will be wishing that time would fast forward through that. Please just keep us in your prayers as we head back for travel safety, health and that our suitcases will come along too and not miss any flights. We head right back in to school land and start that next week preparing for classes! The girls start school on the 24th so that will be good to have time to catch up on the jet lag.

We are so looking forward to seeing good friends, seeing all the students, sitting on our front porch, African rain, meeting new people, living well not just surviving, being intentional as people, exploring more about Africa, learning something new, laughing alot and doing nothing and going nowhere! Simple pleasures are so great!

lots of love and will write more on the other side of the world- amy louise

Seriously way too long...

So Sorry! Really we have been super busy since we came off the airplane. What an amazing country this is that we are priviledged to live in. America. I love it. Of course after living in Africa, my perspective has changed but I love it even more since I came off that 37 hour flight. After a week of running around and seeing great friends - we headed up north to Spokane. We went right into family reunionland. You all know that land. :) It was great though. We have had a refreshing time with family!

Of course PF Changs was a must stop by! Seriously So Yummy! Here I am with Kaitlin and Emily and Bonnie - from our home church...

Cousins from my side of the family!8 girls and 2 boys!

Cousins from Bob's side of the family!

Here the girls are with their Grandma! Bob's Mom

We have been great! Thanks for loving and supporting us as we are here in America! just wanted to let you know that we didn't fall off the face of the earth. We have been enjoying target, dr pepper and rootbeer, all the delicious american cuisines, 7/11, amazing freeways, family, and great friends, driving on the right side of the road...(even though i start off on the wrong side of the road after Africa driving), all the fun food in the grocery store that has everything you could ever want and dream of, Target if I could say it again, Milk! Yummy!, paying with debit card, the pacific ocean, cousins for my girls and all the extended family they get to know and love. After living in Africa, I have a deep sense of love for America. It is a deep journey that I will blog about sometime.

Thanks for all of you have told me that you read this silly little blog- it has inspired me to continue to write. Sometimes I thought nobody wants to know about our journey! Well- I was wrong. thanks again for loving and supporting and praying for us. We couldn't be here and really there-Malawi without people behind us pushing us forward! The difference we make there maybe small but at least we are trying! And we could do it without our friends and family supporting us! Thank you again and again and again! Love- amy louise for the Stauffacher family!

My Senior Ladies...

They came to sing me a song! I decided to video it. They are singing how much they love me. So sweet.

graduation Day on June 6th...

We had the chiefs over from the Village that we go to regularly over for a meal on Graduation Day. They brought some cute mama's too. The oldest one had never been to the city before. We served them lunch. Here they are over for lunch. Josh joined us.

here I am with my of my senior ladies... Alice.

Bob and Analise so cute...

All the families coming to see the graduation.


Just wanted to update you with the happenings. We have arrived yesterday in San Diego. Wow - what a treat to be able to come and visit friends and family. What a lovely place this is! We love San Diego. It is amazing to smell familiar and tastes (dr. pepper). :) Just wanted to post some pictures since the internet is super super fast. Connect with you all soon... Amy and family

Life in Busyland.

Seriously! I am so sorry I will try and catch you up. We have been busy busy with the countdown of Graduation. It has really exhausted us in everyway. We are slowly catching up. So I will catch you up.

For the last year- I have been having over 12 amazing women over again for weekly Life chats...

We talk about having a deep walk with God, Marriage, Dating, Friendship and Culture on real Deep level. Really the stuff that women need to talk about. It really has impacted me tremendously. More than half are way older than me. When I started this class I thought - what do i have offer these women. But what ended up is they taught me about life and more. I walk away with deep friendships and also alot of respect for these women who live in this country of Malawi. I learned that it is not what I have to offer them in their own culture but what I have is Christ in my life. With Christ being both of our cultures, we have a common denominator and so we plug away with that. So here is my class this year...Their names are Grace, Kene, Juliana, Rose, Christina, Linda, Doreen, Villimika, Cindy, Alice, Fieda, and Ruth.

So every Wednesday and Friday we meet to talk deep, have tea and eat a bit. These women live all through out Malawi, North and South and Central. So when I say that it has been an amazing priviledge to encourage these women. They have left deep footprints on my heart!
More to come- amy louise

Tinkerbell the Monkey and Braii and Goats...

So this story reminds that we are in a different world. We give gifts to students and share often. This is one of them. Above here is one of the many goats that have passed through our lives. This one just arrived and analise wanted a picture.

This goat was given to Bob's security head guard on his last day. Joseph was so excited for the gift.

Actually- 2 goats were served for these men above for a goodbye party for Josh's coworker that left this last month. (He was also working campus maintaince with Josh) Bob and Josh spent all day cooking and serving about 75 guys. ( more pictures on my friend's blog http://joshandemilyketchum.blogspot.com/ )

Cooking on the Braii (South African word for BBQ) Goat meat!

Josh and Bob are building a cage for the Monkey we are watching until she gets bigger. She will go to the local Zoo here that. But for now she is apart of the Stauffy Zoo. The girls named her Tinkerbell.

Nya and Tinkerbell...

Here is emily and her love for Tinkerbell.

Well- there is a snipet in the Animal Kingdom here in Malawi. For more stories make sure to see Emily's Blog from above... love- amy louise

Junior - Senior Banquet

So every year the Junior class honor the Seniors with a Banquet. This year they celebrated with a dinner! Here are some pictures of that special night!


Here is everyone waiting for dinner to start.

Here I am with Shonduri. She went with Bob on the Tanzania Trip. We got to chat about what she learned. I think I will have her do a blog post. To hear it from her would be amazing.

Here I am with Rosemary in the middle (I had her in my bible study last year) and the girl at the end is a sophmore- Mtendere. And that cute baby is Joy Louise. I gave her middle name. So very Kissable are those cheeks!

Don't you love the coat. So 101 dalmation cute!

Here is my girlie Emily! She is a 3rd grade teacher here and she is from our church back in San Diego.

Here is Bob and Josh with Richard and Thompson! Josh is Emily's husband. He is Charge of the campus maintaince and does so much here.

Here are some of my girls that are in my senior bible study class. I love these women.

We are doing pretty good over here. We have a month to go until we get to come home for a visit. We have many things happening before then. So please keep us in your prayers as we have elections in this country and also so many functions to put together for the end of the year events.

Lots of love- amy louise

Prayer Request...

Our neighbor and friend wrote this. It really explains what is happening politically here. Please pray for us as we are here in Malawi....



Dear ones,

Please commend Malawi to prayer this week as it conducts its elections for president and parliament Tuesday, May 19. Malawi has had a peaceful post-colonial experience. The people still wear smiles. But that was also once true of Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Congo, I think you get the idea. The elections this year have caused concern because of the former president's attempt to get back into power. The result has been a string of coup attempts, high-profile arrests, thug-driven politics, and rallies which turn into violence. Up front, let me say, we are in no danger. And it is our prayer to remain that way. But, there is only one thing predictable in Africa and that is unpredictability! So, pray for free and fair elections, free from violence, retribution, greed, and hatred. We are on holiday during the elections and will stay close to home. One of our graduates, Shadrek Chikoti ('05) is in position to win a seat in parliament as an independent. He is independent because he refused bribes from higher officials in the established political party. This action greatly angered the powers that be, but energized the people that a young man trying to break into politics held his ground with integrity.
Please pray that Shadrek will win and continue to challenge the way government is conducted with the gospel.Thanks and we will, I promise, be sending a prayer letter letting you know all that the Lord has used us for this semester. It has been one of our most fruitful times. That is why we haven't been sending letters. He's got us busy. Thanks for your love and post this, please in your church, or announce it in prayer groups to commend these matters for us.

All our love,The McDonalds in Malawi Sam, LeAnne, Amber, Molly, Sarah

Coming Home! Yippee....

Sorry we have been so quiet these days. Busy with life! You know how it all goes.

We have good news... Some loving families have helped us be able to come to the states for 2 months. We will be in San Diego and Spokane to see friends and family. We will be in the San Diego area on June 20-28th and off to Spokane. We will be in Spokane from July 2nd until 29th. (we have 2 family reunions to go to! :) We will travel back to San Diego until the 14th. So if you would like to get together we would too. So email me and we can set up a time to get together. I will update with pictures later this week. Lots of love- amy louise

My Trip to Tanzania...

The group heading out at 4am... Shonduri, Grace, Joseph, Mercy, Bob, Lewis, Josh, and Blessings

My Tanzanian Experience.....
Over Easter break I had the opportunity to take six of my ABC students and Josh Ketchum on a two week mission’s trip to Tanzania. Most of these students have never even left their own country let alone their own village or city. So, this was an amazing opportunity for them. This would be like travelling to Europe for most of us Americans. Before leaving, these students had to apply for a passport, which only a few people in Malawi can actually get. When they got their passports, they could not believe it....you would have thought they had just received $10,000.00.
So driving to Tanzania took forever.

On the way overlooking Lake Malawi

Just driving through we saw giraffes, water buffalo, zebras, and antelopes.. Our own personal safari... God's amazing kingdom!

We travelled by car 15 hours the first day and 15 hours the second day. Two thousand kilometres later we arrived in Arusha, Tanzania. The students were in culture shock. They had never been in a place where people spoke a different language and where everything was totally different. To them their world was being blown apart. What was interesting is that Josh and I were not really affected by all these differences. It was normal for us to not know the language or the culture. For Americans, there is little difference between the village in Malawi and the village in Tanzania.....village is village to us. It was not like we were going from 1st world to 3rd world or vice versa, but we were going from 3rd world to 3rd world. For the students though, it was like two different worlds. They were looking out the windows like they were on a safari.
We spent eight days in Arusha working together with the Maranatha Christian Center. Pastor Eric Mukwenda is the pastor of this church and is also a very good friend of mine. I have known Pastor Erik for 12 years now. Pastor Eric kept us very busy with construction projects, outreaches, preaching, teaching, evangelism, etc. I was so proud of my students because the only way they could talk with the Tanzanians was through English. When they were teaching or preaching, they had to do it in English while someone else translated it into Swahili. They did great! What was interesting is that these students picked up the Swahili language so quick. I have been to Tanzania five times now and I have learned a lot of Swahili, yet in just eight days, these students knew twice as much. This amazed me at how fast they can learn languages. Most Africans know at least three to five languages, so their brains are accustomed to learning languages, while most of us Americans only know one language. It is very difficult for me to learn much of anything in eight days, let alone a language.

Grace teaching the students at Maranatha Christian School

The team performing for the church

After we said our “goodbyes” to the pastor and to the rest of our Tanzanian friends, we got back into the car and headed for “home”. It was interesting because I was actually looking forward to getting back to Malawi. Malawi had become a second home to me. It was now familiar, comfortable. So, we finally got to the border of Malawi, cleared customs and then drove through the gate. The students let out a loud cheer and were singing and clapping. They were experiencing the sweetness of coming home after being in a foreign land for 8 days. The familiarity and the comfort overwhelmed them. The students were on cloud nine. Although I was excited to be in Malawi after our 8 days in Tanzania, I knew I would be even more excited to come home to America, after being in Africa for several years. The students got to feel in Tanzania a little bit what Americans feel all the time in Africa.
Looking back on our journey, I can see that God did a mighty work in the lives of my students. God used them in powerful ways and we saw his faithfulness in everything we did. God protected us on our journey and brought us safely home. It was a privilege for me to be a part of such a great team. I am so blessed because I am much closer to these Malawian students as a result of this trip,
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this....
Bob

THE EDITED VERSION.... :)

About 25 people came to ABC this last week to visit one of our friends that is here from California. They were here to go on outreaches and to do other short term stuff. There were a couple of comments they had said which I have thought a lot about. One of those comments was "I thought we were going to stay in villages the entire time we were here". My friend had them staying in the ABC Campus Guest Huts for4 days and then staying in the "village" for 3 days.

So after they went to the village the comment that was made was "Oh.... so that is why we didn't stay in the village the entire time! We wouldn't of made it through the entire week." "It was really hard to stay even one night" The "villages" in Africa are really amazing places to visit, yet at the same time they truly show us what we are really made of. It is emotionally and physically exhausting when you come from the 1st world and are plunked right down into the 3rd world. Being people who have grown up in the 1st world, you can't really take that out yourself. That is our culture - 1st world. It is really ingrained in us. The way we live and the things we are surrounded by. Those comments that were made, made me really think.

One thing that is funny to me is that in all of Africa, only village life is all that is shown to the rest of the world. Urban African is never shown. Cities are never shown - A normalish grocery store - never shown. (When Madonna comes to visit here in Lilongwe, she stays at a really nice lodge that some really nice people from South Africa built. - Ok side note... Bob and I went out there (were Madonna stays) for a 2 day get away. it is about 45 min from town and there is a horse farm next to it and a huge area to hike and bike around. Super nice place to stay. They had wonderful food and they had a huge flat screen TV in the lounge and we watched Animal Planet and a movie.... Cozy beds and amazing bath tubs and showers. Anyways- the only problem I had was that they played the greatest hits of Madonna at the restaurant the entire time. Ok back to my original thought) But when Madonna comes, the paparazzi only shows her out in the villages. They don't show anything else but the village. So the perception of Africa to the outside world (and I am so guilty in doing this), is that the entire continent of Africa is one huge village. It isn't. There needs to be an expose' done on "Urban Africa". But who wants to see that. The rest of the 1st world wants to see the village and rustic settings of Africa, so that is what is seen. I thought when I would be moving to Africa I would be living with my cow for milk and trying to wash my clothes by hand. Ahhh I have about 6 different places I shop at and I have an amazing washing machine. Of course we do have other aspects of life that are more complicated than what we are used to. But we don't live in the village. We live with about 150 college students and about 75 Americans and 40 other Malawians on this 50 Acre campus. We are a village but an urban village. I teach the senior college girls and I think they are more urban than me. Many of them grew up with TV in their room. I think that is more urban than me. They have travelled to the UK and many other western countries in the world. The media, even National Geographic, shows only the village, and fyi - Africa is more than just a village! Anyways- just some thoughts.

Along with that comment from that team came another. They got out of the bus that brought them from the airport here to ABC and were saying "We can't take pictures of ABC because it is too nice" Ok this was made about the housing that was provided by ABC for short term teams ( the guest huts).

What are we thinking that we can't show the rest of the world that something is actually nice in Africa. Are we supposed to suffer on mission trips. When we show people the pictures of the missions trip and how we "roughed it", does that make it a better mission trip that you had to sleep on the ground? I think it would make you more crabby! Why do we have to suffer to make it sound like "you did it". You survived. Go on Survivor to suffer and survive! A missionary as God calls us - a real Missionary... is not someone who is suffering and showing the world we are able to handle survivor.... but it is to share the gospel by going out unto the world and sharing how Christ changed your life from the inside out. We have this mentality that you have to go and suffer to be a real missionary. Maybe going out just means going out your front door. I may be called a "missionary" yet at the same time have a bad attitude and a fake walk with Christ. I will not accomplish what He has called me to do. First I have to love God , and then love His people. It is so simple. Many days I should just stay inside my house and not come out until it's not about me anymore, but about what He is doing. Yep. I still am not perfect. :)
Just some side notes on life. There are some days that I really think about Africa and how amazing it is and yet it is so different from what I had originally thought, and many times it is exactly what I thought. Other days I am so ready to have my comforts and run home to my mama! I have learned so much of the African culture and at the same time I know nothing. So, this journey that I am on is ever changing. I wake up loving it all and then I go to sleep dreaming of home and familiarity. One day this seems like home and within that one day I feel like a total stranger. It is one thing to visit for a few weeks and then go back home, but to stay for a few years, that is where you see what you are made of. ( I personally am not impressed with myself most days. For some reason I thought I was tougher and not so crazy! ). I love the story that God is developing in my life and somedays I just want to stay in bed.... Oh well- Thanks for reading my thoughts on life.... Amy Louise

The comments of a visiting team....

About 25 people came this last week to visit one of our friends here from California. They were here to do outreach and short term stuff. A couple of comments that they said, I have thought about allot. One of the comments began was - "I thought we were staying in the village the entire time we are here" My friend had them staying in the ABC Campus Guest Huts and then after 4 days being here they were going to stay in the "village" for 3 days and 2 nights.

A typical village house

So after they went to the village the comment that was made was "OH so that is why we didn't stay in the village the entire time! We wouldn't of made it through the entire week." "It was really hard to stay even one night" Really it is amazing this thing called the "village" and at the same time you see how much you are made of. It is emotionally and physically exhausting when you come from the 1st world and are plunked right down into the 3rd world. As people that have grown up in the 1st world, you can't really take that out yourself. That is our culture - 1st world. It is really ingrained in us. The way we live and the things we are surrounded by. But what that comment has made me think is that It is funny to me that of all of Africa- village life is all that is shown to the rest of the world. Urban African is never shown. Cities never shown - A normalish grocery store - never shown. (When Madonna comes to visit here Lilongwe. She stays at a really nice lodge that some real nice people from South Africa built. - Ok side note... Bob and I went out there (were Madonna stays) for a 2 day get away. it is about 45 min from town and there is a horse farm next to it and a huge area to hike and bike around. Super nice place to stay. They had wonderful food and they had a huge flat screen TV in the lounge and we watched Animal Planet and a movie.... Cozy beds and amazing bath tubs and showers. Anyways- the only problem I had was that they played the greatest hits of Madonna at the restaurant the entire time. Ok back to my original thought) But when Madonna comes The paparazzi only shows her out in the village. They don't show anything else but the village. So the perception and I am was so guilty that this Continent is entirely a huge village. It isn't. There needs to be an expose done on Urban Africa. But who wants to see that. The rest of the 1st world are the ones who want to see the village so that is what is seen. I thought when I would be moving to Africa - I would be living with my cow for milk and trying to wash my clothes by hand. Ahhh I have about 6 different places I shop at and I have an amazing washing machine. Of course we do have other aspects of life that are more complicated then we are used to but really to. But we don't live in the village. We live with about 150 college students and about 75 Americans and 40 other Malawians on this 50 Acre campus. We are a village but an urban village. I teach the senior college girls and I think they are more urban than me. Many of the them grew up with TV in their room. I think that is more urban than me. They have travelled to the UK and many other western areas in the world and they get it. The media even National Geographic shows the village and fyi - Africa is more than just a village! Anyways- I just have thought about that comment alot.

Along with that comment came another. They got out of the bus that brought here to ABC from the airport and immediatlelty were saying" We can't take pictures of where we are now because it is too nice" Ok this was made about the housing that was provided by ABC for short term teams ( the guest huts)

ABC Campus Guest Huts

What are we thinking that we can't show the rest of the world that something is Nice in Africa. Are you supposed to suffer on mission trips. When we show people the pictures of the missions trip and how we "roughed it"! Does that make it a better mission trip that you had to sleep on the ground? I think it would make you more crabby! Why do you have to suffer to make it sound that you did it. You survived. Go on Survivor to suffer and survive! A missionary as God calls us - A Real Missionary: is not someone who is suffering and showing the world we are able to handle survivor.... but it is to share the gospel by going out unto the world and sharing how Christ changed your life from the inside out. We have this mentality that you have to go and suffer to be a real missionary. Maybe going out just means going out your front door. I maybe called a "missionary" over here and have a bad attitude and really have a fake walk with Christ. I will not accomplish what He has called me to do. First love God , and then love His people. Simple and yet so many days I should just stay inside my house and not come out until it's not about me but about what He is doing. Yep. I still am not perfect. :)

Just some side notes on life. Some days- I really think that Africa is amazing and so different of what I had thought and many times it is what I thought. Other days I am so ready to have comforts and run home to my mama! I have learned so much African culture and at the same time I know nothing. So this journey that I am on it is ever changing. I wake up loving it all and then I can go to sleep dreaming of home and familiarity. Then I realize one day that this is home and within that one day I feel like a stranger. It is one thing to visit and then go back to home , but to stay. That is where you see what you are made of. ( I personally am not impressed with myself most days. For some reason I thought I was tougher and not so crazy! ) I love the story that God is developing and somedays I just want to stay in bed.... Oh well- Thanks for reading my thoughts on life.... Amy Louise

Easter- What a full day...

Just wanted to connect and let you know that we are doing great. Bob is having a wonderful time in Tanzania. The team has done amazing. Thank you for your prayers. I only get tidbits when he phones for a few minutes.

We had a good Easter. We went to church and feed the team that sets up for church and then after we ( the girls and i ) had about 13 people over for an Easter dinner. We played games and laughed alot. It was great.

Definelty am missing family during this time. We can't believe that it will be 2 years in July since we were able to see family last. That is a long long time. Thank you for loving us as we are so far away! Wish each and everyone of you as you journey on. Please remember we love you and cherish you! Lots of love- amy louise

Things aren't as easy as they should be...

This has been the longest journey yet. You know how you love the DMV! Well just know that the DMV here is even more amazing. That is all in a sacartastic voice! :) Last year when we tried to get our Malawi Driver's License and were denied because we only had a reciept of our visa ( we hadn't been given our real visa until this last December) The Man - told us " I don't know if you will get your visa because this piece of paper is only a receipt." Ok. So what are we supposed to do about driving and being pulled over. ( Pulled over here is not the same in the US.) Pulled over means a man standing in the middle of the road waving at you to make you stop and check our your records. So we had his boss make us a piece of official paper that says we can drive here in Malawi. So we had to get Bob's his license here becasue since he was traveling it would make sense not to deal with any problems. The journey began at 7am. We got there and waited 2 hours. Here is analise taking pictures...

Waiting...

Still waiting...

By 2:30pm we had come and gone back and finished the process. We had it done...

Then the Man who I didn't take a picture of because I know he would of been cranky... Had to clear it... With....

Money... It is what makes the world work....

Waiting... To .... Pay.....

Still Waiting......

Ah the Temporary until the real thing comes in 2 weeks. Bob ended up getting his faster with a little Malawian help.... So You think things in America can get on your nerves. Just come to a place where the system doesn't work right and see how it all goes for you...

So the latest on bob and the team. they got there with no problems and are doing great. They are helping build as school and in the afternoon working with the church there. Us girlies are doing good. No problems. AHHH....

Lots of love- amy louise