loving our neighbors...

That is what God called us to do. Simple as that. Don't try and conquer the world just what is in your sphere of influence (your neighborhood). So on Friday Nya and I just did that. We were able to go to crisis nursery and help feed and hold some babies. There are about 33 orphaned babies there and there are only about 5 workers. So we go love on the little ones because the workers don't have time to sit and rock and cooo at the them all. So Nya is holding Maggie who is about a week old or so and I am holding Manuel about 3 months... It is overwhelming at times to go there. We were there 2 weeks ago Nya held a baby named Ruth. Which she fell in love with... We found out she died of an infection about 2 days ago. Heartache is an understatement. There is no words to describe loss of life. Just knowing that we have to believe in God's Sovereignty even when it doesn't make sense at all. We just know that we can help in loving our neighbors and He ultimately reigns in over all the earth. here is a picture of her with my friend Bethany last week...

Continue to Pray for us as we love our neighbors and make a small dent in this world even by being able to hold and kiss on God's babies... And as we continue to trust in God that He is in all things even death.

love you and loving babies- amy louise

African Rain for real

The African Rain

But what is this. Rain. It was amazing. We have tin roofs so it was so very loud. It smelled even more delicious. I wanted to take a big bite out of it. Here is the sunset after the rain! Anyways wanted to let you hear the magical african rain ( you know not that kind of Magical but romantic magical.) On the video I showed you my new screen door. I just got because I was tired of saying close the front door, the mosquitos... Again and again. So now it closes by itself. AHHHH the mother has a big sigh of relief.

That's all for now!
Love Amy Louise

Lake Malawi..

On Saturday we went for a road trip to a little lake named Lake Malawi... Seriously you can't see the other side of the lake....below are some of the small villages on the way. You know I wanted to stop by and look and meet the cute families that live there... We drove through some small towns that have more stores... And a super transit system... of course I am joking....Small pick ups with lots of people Not the safest way to travel...
HEre is my cute analise and my cute Thandie.... Analise face is continually covered with dirt. Whether at the beach or home.
The waves were a little overwhelming at first for the missy. But at the end of the day she was waist deep letting them crash on her
She loves Thandie and prefered her to take her in the water. James (thandie husband) also along with Nya and bob which are the small dots in the picture below. We couldn't drag them out for about 2 hours. Nya was diving into the waves and swimming like fish also.

Here is a school trip from our neighborhood actually! These kids played for hours in the beach just as our girls...

Here is the cute couple up close. We really enjoy them and you will be seeing more of them.

Lots of love-Amy Louise

11 weeks already...

Seriously How does the time fly? We have had such a busy week . Bob has had his Mid -Terms for the college. The students did great. Then Nya was off the entire week. Mid Term break. So nice for the kids. We have had fun. Busy but fun with friends and hanging out with each other.

We really got to just love on people. Our favorite thing to do...So on Monday night I had 12 people over to watch a movie on Bob's projector that he uses for teaching! Then we had friends from the College (James and Thandie she works in the administration and was an ABC grad over 9 years ago) over on Tuesday for dinner Then on Wednesday we went to our campus bible study after having some academy teacher friends over for dinner. And by Thursday we had some new friends over for dinner that are doctors at a ministry that works with HIV/AIDS patient exclusively. They are truly on the front lines with that disease. They have a website if anybody is nosy. http://www.partnersinmalawi.org/ I am connecting with them as they are looking in needing help with xray! So we will see! Here is the website...



So here is Friday and it is potluck night here on campus. We do it every Friday, fun to just connect with others on the campus. So tomorrow we head to Lake Malawi which is 1 1/2 hour away to swim and hang out! We are going with James and Thandie and some college students. I will get some pictures. That will be fun. Then it's Sunday again and here we go.


I wanted to tell you how much fun we had at the crisis nursery. They have about 30 babies is a house about 1700 square feet. About 4 workers taking care of the babies. So I arrived with some friends. there was 7 of us total. My car which is station wagon really only holds 5 people but we put some in the back. I had to turn away some college students that wanted to come but since I didn't have enough room in my car. We are praying for a car that will hold more people so more people we can take to outreaches like this. We will probably at least once a week with college students to go help feed and hold babies. They are about 1 week old to 18 months old. Nya came with us and let me tell you she was so wonderful with those babies. She held about 8 babies ( or maybe even more than that I think I lost count) while she was there - I held maybe 3. How do you put one down? She would rock, sing and giggle at them for about 10 minutes and go and get another and repeat it all over again even with the same song. Of course she came home and told Bob it would be fine if we had another baby that didn't have a mommy or daddy. How tender is her heart. It is so beautiful to see your daughter love others. Especially knowing these babies have it all going against them but this house. It is haven for them.
So Please pray that we continue to press on and serve Jesus daily.
Please continue to pray for our health and safety.
Please pray that we would impact people in a way that they see Jesus in our lives and that we would be a light.
Love you all and thank you for your friendships and prayers We cherish it so much more....Amy Louise

P.s. I am still trying to get to bob to blog. You know it is not natural to him. Me I crave it. Just time flies past and I say AAAHHHH I need to blog... But this next time I will tell you about the lake with pictures and my new bible study I get to be apart of.

Another sickness...

Homesickness... Just wanted to let you know to continue to pray for us as we go through cycles of Homesickness... Okay really me. Bob loves it here, He is so cute that he doesn't really recognize that the food taste different. How does he not notice?
I am the one who vents it mostly. Oh Mylanta... I miss my friends, my family, and my familiar surroundings. Like my front porch. I try not and focus on it most days but the days that I have been sick it comes like a huge wave and pounds me. We are here in Africa and I have to say it out loud. Every day is an adjustment. I know my blogs make it sound that we have settled in and adjusted but it is of course it is not that easy. The food, the driving, the bugs, the different culture and did I mention the bugs. The days without electricity or water that is when it is really prevalent that we are not in America. Days are blurring together but after living here for 63 days. Yes today I am counting that do I miss home...
But those days that I do miss home I look at where God has called us and say to myself. Hush it sister and step up to plate and continue to serve right where He has us. And I go out and keep on keeping on.

So just wanted to give you a realistic picture of me.
P.S. I am making Bob Blog starting next week. I need time to emotional prepare him to blog. I am the natural blogger and he is not! He is a natural adapter to third world countries and I am not. :)

We are still here...

So these 2 weeks have been a blur for us. How is that time flies the older we get. We have been busy. Busy working, Busy being sick, busy spending time together, busy going on outreaches with the College Students, busy being parents, busy being a family, busy going to school, busy teaching, busy helping out at the clinic and tomorrow we go Nya and I will go to the orphan crisis nursery to help out. We will go with Megan and a couple ABC College students...

You remember her from this picture with Analise....

Here is my friend Megan (Nya's next year teacher) with her favorite girl who was abandoned because she has AIDS. This baby's name is Madalitso... Here is there website... On it it has the place where we are going...

http://www.ministryofhope.org/

But Life here is good. We are connecting and thriving here. Analise and I got sick last week with fevers. At first we had thought we had malaria, but it ended up being just a common virus. So please remember to pray for us as we live in a high malaria area. We were out for the entire week. By just this Tuesday we had started feeling like ourselves. AAHHH! So nice. I will be connecting again. Just want to let you know we are still here :)

Lots of love- Amy Louise