Now here is some amazing music from Malawi

The above video is from chapel today at African Bible College.   This song is in chichewa (Malawi's local language) and it is delicious to listen to! Enjoy!

My little shopper in my little grocery store

Here is one of the grocery stores I go to weekly. This one is like the size of 2 gas station marts put together! Can you see my good little shopper! He is such a good shopper and gets all the people to smile!

I read this today in my book...

In Jesus Calling by Sarah Young




Trust and thankfulness will get you safely through this day. Trust protects you from worrying and obsessing. Thankfulness keeps you from criticizing and complaining: those “sister sins” that so easily entangle you.

Keeping your eyes on Me is the same thing as trusting Me. It is a free choice that you must make thousands of times daily. The more you choose to trust Me, the easier it becomes. Thought patterns of trust become etched into your brain. Relegate troubles to the periphery of your mind, so that I can be central in your thoughts. Thus you focus on Me, entrusting your concerns into My care.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
—Colossians 2:6–7

But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign Lord; in you I take refuge—do not give me over to death.
—Psalm 141:8

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
—1 Peter 5:7

A typical house in Malawi

Some amazing mamas and kids that live in that typical house in Malawi

Such a good reminder! We have so much and yet we spend our days worried and complaining!  I am the first to say I am guilty! As I keep seeking Jesus daily - I am reminded that I need get to have a new perspective that only comes from Him!  Then I have His eyes and can take my eyes off myself and love on someone else!

ABC Chapel

Every day the college has a chapel service before classes begin.  Here is a video clip (click here if you don't see a video) to capture the singing of the students.  I need to capture some of the beautiful songs in Chichewa.

Also- my neighbor put on their blog what my husband is up to besides teaching.  Since we don't have a car - I haven't been outside of the campus much to capture the happenings.  Click here to read what Bob is doing with our neighbor Bruce

My cute chickens at 5 months!

Nya Beans at 5 months

Analisey at 5 months

Lukey at almost 5 months

Lukey making googley eyes at me!

My sweet babies!  What a joy to share life with them!  Each one has had a different journey!  Nya remembers growing up in San Diego, Analisey remembers growing up in Africa and San Diego and Lukey will only know Africa until we go back to America for our next home assignment.  Imagine- having a child that has not tasted a good Costco hot dog or enjoyed Target popcorn! - So different than me.  As Bob and I are raising our kids - we know that they are being shaped by the culture that they are growing up in.  In our house and in Africa, their journey in this life is being made. Their story will be so different than their friends and us; they will often feel like an outsider in America and as well as here in Africa.  They call it third culture kids! Please pray that we would be able to shape and guide them to be Heaven cultured kids.  We are praying that they would know that their home will be always in heaven and be content where ever God calls them to live in this world when they grow up.

Thank you for loving, praying and supporting us as we serve Jesus over here in Malawi!  We are so blessed to have an amazing group of people be apart of our journey as we serve here at African Bible College! 

If you are interested in supporting us as we serve at African Bible College - please click here

one more from analisey!

Analise again in town driving with us- we borrowed a car to run some errands.  Too cute!

click here if you can't see the video

Analise's perspective- too cute

Analise took these videos as we borrowed a car to head over to the market.  As I went to get some fabric she continued to video!  Love her narration!

Driving to the Market

waiting in the car as I shop really quick!

Sometimes the videos don't show up- so click here to see them

Update on sweet Tina!

We love our Tina girl!  Here is an update on her journey!  She is finishing her MBA degree in which she is amazing in.  We are so proud of her.  She was able to come to visit us for Christmas and is coming to visit us in Malawi in March!  We can't wait!  Below is an update in her own words of her holiday vacation and her schooling journey!  Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Tina girlie!  We love you! 

Loving on her little brother!

Working hard in Spokane!

Dear Family and Friends,

I know I have kept quiet for a long time. My excuse is that I have been trying to get back into routine. I was gone for quite a while and its good to be back.

I hope this email finds you well. I am physically well. I am not sure about my emotional well being. I guess I am still going up and down.

I will catch up with you about what I have been up to and maybe what’s coming up. And yes it was so wonderful to see many of you around Christmas time. What a treat.

I started my adventures on December 16^th right after I was done with my fall semester to go to San Diego to introduce myself to Luke (He was the only reason I went there)… It was good to see my family too but I really fell in love with Luke. He is such a sweet baby. The second reason why I went to SD might be my birthday. It was wonderful to celebrate a new year in warm SD.

So I left San Diego right after my family left for Malawi. It was so sad to see them go. I had bonded really well with Lukey, so easy to babysit. Its so sad I will not get to see him everyday but I guess everything has its own season. I am so thankful for the two weeks I got to know him and he got to know me (He asked me why I did not come to Malawi with them).

To be specific I left San Diego on Dec 31^st. I took the train to LA then a bus to Porterville. I stayed with my friend’s parents (The Halemeiers) for a night. My friend’s name is Michelle and she is a missionary in Malawi. Michelle’s sister Kristin picked me up for a visit to her house in Apple valley (3hrs drive from Porterville). I stayed with Kristin and her Husband for three days then I went back to Porterville with Michelle’s parents. I stayed there for a week. It was such a great week cause I got to sleep each day. It was such a restful week. Then I took the train and bus to the bay area. My friends Lydia and George picked me up in San Jose and I spent 9 days at their house in Los Altos.

While I was in the bay area, I visited a lot of the friends that I made in the summer of 2009 at the internship. It was good to see all of them and actually meet a couple more people. I also went back to San Francisco and walked the golden gate bridge. It was really fun to be back, see things that I saw in 2009 and eat real sea food. After my 9 days there, I took the bus and train back to Porterville. I stayed there Friday and Saturday. My plane was from LA to San Francisco then to Spokane. So that day a lot of the planes were delayed because of bad weather. In San Francisco our plane could not land for about 45 minutes then my next plane was delayed by an hour. I made it home safely and I went to bed at 5pm that day and I slept 13.5hrs straight.

It was a great break and it was sad/NICE to come back to cold Spokane. There was about 10 inches of snow on the ground when I landed that day. Its all melted away now and its not as freezing as I thought it would be.

 I started school well (feb 1^st) and its been a week and half into serious lessons. I am still taking my Swahili class and my teacher is still fabulous. He teaches with a passion and he always corrects and encourages us when we are wrong or getting discouraged. Last semester he had about 30 students split between two classes but this semester he only has 10. The majority of the students took the class in the fall because they went to Tanzania for January term. A lot of them gave positive feedback and said it was a very helpful class for them to take. So I am encouraged and my Swahili is improving each and everyday. Also the teacher decided that this semester we will only use Swahili in class and we only get two time outs where we can speak English. It’s been fun but stretching. I guess its true that “what doesn’t kill you strengthens you”….do they say it like that?...i bet you know what I am trying to say. So this Swahili class is considered my independent study for my masters in international management requirement.

The next class for my graduate studies is integrated marketing. I hope to enjoy this class and its starting on Monday feb 13^th. It is always hard for me to start a new class and I am pretty nervous because I don’t really know the teacher. And as you know my classes go really fast. So this class will be a 2 credit class. This means we will finish the module in 8 sessions. We will meet each Monday and Wednesday night from 6pm to 9:30pm. They are always long classes with a lot of homework. My prayer is the Lord continues to give me more grace to understand the material and be able to be on top of things. My teacher I heard is originally from Italy and we will also be doing a simulation in the class. I anticipate to be done with this class by March 6^th.

So I called the immigration office here in Spokane and I had a good visit with them just figuring out what I can do about my visa (It expires May 1^st). They told me to go back to my country if I need to renew it. So this needs to happen before May 1^st. I really need to go home visit extended family and friends. After being gone for a while I think there is always a point you need to go back and reboot. I think that’s what I need. So I will go from March 10^th through the 29^th. Guess who I will see again??? LUKE, Nya and Analise (I hope the parent will be home too).

I talked to my advisor and he said that’s valid for me to go. I also talked to my Swahili teacher and my international economics teacher (next class am taking) and that will be March 26^th through April. The teachers will give me extra work to make up for the classes that I will miss. I will only miss a week of class.

While in Malawi on top of seeing family, friends and getting my papers straight, I want to go back to my former high (secondary) school and see how the ministry that I was involved with is doing. I used to go there with some girl friends to do Bible studies every Wednesday with an organization called The Navigator. It was such a neat opportunity to encourage and get encouraged. Also I can’t wait to eat and see things that are familiar and speak Chichewa.

Also after my trip from California, I talked to my advisor about my career direction. At that point I had decided that I was going to take any internship that came my way. And for now I want to do sales and Marketing. The assistant director to the MBA program recommended an internship the Junior Achievement (JA). It’s a non paid internship (which works great for me as an international student) and they need two interns they can train what JA is all about. So I applied for this internship and had an interview this week on Monday. The interview was more like a chat and it was good to meet Suzie (she is the president). She said they were going to get back to me. Yesterday she emailed me and asked me to make an appointment to go see her Marketing manager and Events Director. So I am scheduled to do that on Monday. Then at the end of the email she said she was looking forward to working with me. I guess I got the position..so thank you Lord. We will see what develops from this.

The great thing about this organization is that it will give me a lot of connections with business people in the area and they will teach me how a nonprofit organization works. At this point the experience I will get  is what matters so much. So please keep that in the back of your mind as you pray for me (actually keep it in the front).

I am still the president of the international club this semester. We have great plans and our first activity will be a bowling night on the 17^th then a pizza party. It’s a great time to connect with friends and meet new people. Each semester we also plan a trip. In the fall we went to Seattle and this semester our options were Portland or Nelson, Canada. We cannot do Nelson because a lot of us need visas and that’s an extra cost. So we asked the members if they want to do Portland and most of them said they think there is nothing much to see in Portland. So one of the students suggested that we go to San Francisco…a lot of them agreed to this and they like it but it does not look realistic to me so we are still working on trying to convince them to go to a place that is affordable. San Francisco is pretty far and also it will cost them a lot. So this week we will try see and finalize what we will really do for Spring break.

Other activities for this semester include “cooking around the world” where an international student teaches how to make something from their country then we share the food. It’s always fun. We will also do a community service. We have a lot of options on this one. We might go to a retirement home, go to a local school and help with their garden, help at an elementary school with a cultural night or go tutor at a public school. So again I am meeting with my officers to see what we really want to do.

Since I have been back I have been able to catch up with a couple friends. Just today I had lunch a friend from the MBA class. She just had her last class yesterday and she is graduating in May. She got laid off two weeks ago and she is still trusting that the Lord will give her another job. We are praying. It was good to see her keeping the faith.

I am also in one of my friend’s wedding in August. The other day we went dress shopping and it was fun. I tried on three dressed I liked and they all look great on me but we did not buy them yet. I think it will be fun.

This semester they reduced the hours I work on campus. I had about 17 hours a week last semester and now I have fourteen. Its been different. So Tuesdays and Thursdays my day starts at 10:30am. It used to start at 9. So I decided to join a water aerobics class. I have attended two classes so far and I love it. All the people in the class are at least 70 and above. I love them and they are kind to me.. So I am looking forward to next week and see what this class brings.

I know it was a long email (blog). Thanks for your support, love and friendship. I appreciate you so much. I know the Lord continues to be faithful and evident in our lives. So lets keep on trusting.

God bless you.

Sending you some hugs from cold Spokane.

Love,

Tina Kamkosi 

Shopping here in Malawi

Here is a quick picture of our Wally world here in Africa. The store is called Game. Things are 2-3 times more expensive. At least we have it to let our eyes enjoy. I will post more pictures this next week of where I grocery shop!

loving on the little people!

The video above is babies that are here in the medical clinic (click on the words to see more on the medical clinic we have here at African Bible College).  These babies are from an orphanage that is about 3 miles away.  If they get sick at the orphanage they come here to the pediatric hospital and get taken care of.  Some are very malnourished or some have malaria.  They all have lost their mama and/or dad and are staying there until they get old enough to go back to their home village or they are adopted out.  My sweet neighbors are helping take care of the first baby Chikumbutsa on the video (Chiku for short).  He is the same age as Luke- and so sweet.  There are some health complications but he is finally starting to gain weight. He is about 6 pounds.  His mama died due to complications of a bad c-section.  Please be praying that they figure out what is wrong with him and he can start gaining weight. 

We are so thankful to be apart of ministry that is able to help these sweet little people.  We all deserve to have a chance and that is what we do here at ABC!  Love on people.  Whether it is big or small- we all need food, love and touch!  We are all connected here in this world.  We can live so selfishly and so consumed with taking care of us! 

But this is what Christ commands us to do - As we serve here at the African Bible College- we come into contact with so many people!  

Matthew 22:35 - 37

³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

 ³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^[b] 38 this is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[c]

As we serve here at the African Bible College- we come into contact with so many people!  Please continue to pray that we would continue to be transformed by Christ's love and grace for us, so that we can love others.  If we don't choose to receive God's love for us- we are not able to love people in return.  Even the people closest to us  (for example- like our immediate families) - and I am no better than anyone else.  I need to choose Jesus daily to love others!  

Thanks for praying, loving, supporting and encouraging us as we serve over on the other side of the world.  

Love- amy louise for the stauffy family!


P.S.  If you can't see the video please click on this!