A Journey to the village of Dzuwa in Malawi...

To just take you into Dzuwa without you knowing the history would not seem right. The first time we heard about Dzuwa was about a week after we had moved to Malawi back in August of 2007 we met Ronald. Ever since then, we have been apart of it (financially and having a deep friendship with people working there). Bob and Roland became fast friends and were soon traveling around Lilongwe and into the back parts of Lilongwe that only a local Malawian would know. Roland had graduated from ABC in 2006 and was working as campus maintain manager for a year before he was going to was going to move there after getting married to Ulemu. The wedding (click on that and you can see their wedding we were apart of) came and it has already been a year they have been living in the village.

They are what ABC is about. Training Africans to train Africans. They are missionaries out in a village about 2 hours way ( in the middle of nowhere). Mind you they are city people. They grew up with running water and electricity and conveniences here in Lilongwe. But they have heart to help so they are apart of Joy to the World Ministries (click here are the projects they are involved with). It is amazing to hear their heart for Dzuwa and the surrounding villages. Around 10,000 people or more. They have a team of people working with them on building a hospital, a school, and providing a maize mill ( so people can grind their food up to be eaten), using irrigation ( which is unheard of here because Malawians depend on the rainy season for irrigation) to set up a farmers association, building wells for drinking water and so on. They help the villages so much spiritually and with their projects here in the middle of Nowhere - Africa.

You know how Hollywood has made ... "Africa" the Hot Hollywood Trend. The new fashion accessory is to help Africa. Even the stores are into it. (Gap, Starbucks, etc) This Africa that they are pushing you to give a dollar to help stop AIDS or a dollar to help provide water. I do like that they (Hollywood) are trying to think of others than themselves but Where is this Africa that this dollar is going to?

Well- for us this Africa is here in Dzuwa. They are making a difference with all that they are doing and we are so glad to be apart of it. Here are so pictures of us in Dzuwa...


As you can see - very busy traffic getting there. Bumper to Bumper... in the middle of nowhere.

Where Ron and Ulemu live is an area that they are building up for more people to help out there. Here is where a Doctor house and Nurse can live in for the clinic they have started.

Here is where Ronald and Ulemu live. Analise and Nya are putting on a show for the local kids. Love that Laughter is cross cultural and breaks through all language barriers.

The Bathroom and bucket shower room. We are not very good at peeing in a hole we decided. They are call Pit Latrines here. I love toilets and I am a very big fan of running water. I appreciated coming back to my toilet and so did the girls...

Here the girls are so cute playing duck duck goose. Love that they initiated it too. I was very proud of them.

Here is the normal life with Bob and Ronald. Talking! They chat and chat and chat...

Now for most people that know me - I don't love to cook. But I was so proud of my self that I cooked dinner on a coal stove and had no problems. And it tasted good. It did take some practice of maintaining the coals so it didn't get too hot and burn everything.

We woke up the next day to take a tour around the area and this was our transportation. The girls were so excited. It might as well been a Disneyland ride.

off they go....

Bye....

Walking to the hospital clinic...

On Uncle Ron's shoulders...

Here is the clinic in which they are hoping to open in about 6 months. A church in California sent over a container full of medical supplies and so we just need to finish the houses for the medical staff and they should open.

Here is a well that was dug for the village through what Ronald and Ulemu are doing...

Touching and feeling the water

The girls trying to pump the water...

The front of the clinic. There is a huge open area for people to rest and wait for medical help under shade of that hot African sun. It is hot.

Nya took this picture of this girl that was following us... We will be giving clothes for these kids. We have plenty and she has a hole in her dress. Seriously, sometimes my priorities are messed up.

Here we go into the Maize Mill. Malawians eat this as a staple. It is about 16 miles away to another maize mill so this a helped amazing for the area. Can you imagine walking with a 120 pound bag that far. No way. So below is the inside...

Hard at work...

So we continued on with our journey. One of our friends from ABC who is a junior, Blessing also came with us out there (Analise is on his shoulders)...

Then about 5 more college students and a friend who is a teacher at the Academy came out for the night. We all climbed in our new old (20 year old) truck -(we sold our other car and got this) and went to look at the irrigation site.

We headed out to the irrigation area that you can see. It is a huge project and it has changed on how they can grow food and sell it. They are able to grow crops out of season due to the irrigation. They help subsidize for things they need with that income of selling those crops.

For example these potatoes only grow during the rainy season and here they are plentiful due to the irrigation.

Michelle and Analise loving it...

Some of the crops! There has been no rain here since April so the ground is dead, but not this area. Water irrigation has changed it all...

water has changed it all...

Here is a pump that is helping irrigate the land. Analise taking a turn pump the water....

Both girls taking a turn....

Back at Ron and Ulemu's house we are drying out the maize for it to be made into the nsima ( staple food). There are allot of steps of getting this processed.

Here is Ulemu. She is about 6 months pregnant here. We are so excited to see the new baby in Feb.

Here are some other people journey's if you want to keep reading... A doctor's story and here is Josh and Emily story of Dzuwa

So thanks for coming along. And keep Dzuwa in your prayers and that we would continue to be able to help them also. We will be going back. Lots of love- amy louise

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