He came home in one piece...

Bob with a friend in Luwanga, Zambia. His name is McDonald ( we always think of french fries when we say his name. ) McDonald is going to be a full time missionary out in a village! He will be doing what ABC is all about. Training Africans to reach and teach other Africans!
One of the big cats on the safari trip and that is with out zooming in!
Here is the Senior Class this year. Remember the girls from the Pancakes. Those are my girls.
On the way to Safari
God's Beautiful Creation!!!

He said it was a great time. He said he was soo close to the lions he was even a little bit scared. What Bob be scared?!? The seniors had a great time. Doesn't anyone want to come and visit? We would love to have you. Come and have fun with us!

So today we start our busy end of the year stuff. We are hosting a team from San Diego Flood church. They will be here for 8 days. We have a 2 day conference this weekend and then we have Baccalaurette to prepare for and off we go in to Graduation week.

So I will have more pictures to come from this week!

Love you and will keep more stories coming! Amy Louise

Hello friends and Family...

So Bob is in Zambia on the College Senior Trip. The College sends them to a safari retreat. So they will be there until Saturday Night. We then have one more week until all the Graduation end of the year activities come. We are definetly excited to be apart of all of that!

Here is a email I sent out for those who didn't get to read it...
We are so excited to see our first Graduation here in Africa. Our kids are graduating...That is our Senior ABC Students are graduating. On June 7th we will be there! We have guest speakers and fun graduation events to be apart until then. On June 8th we are going to be apart of our Church as it gets commissioned here in Lilongwe as a branch church of the Flood church in San Diego. So fun for us. We are all well here. We have been super busy with the students investing as much time in them before they leave to work in the big world out there. Some of them are only 21 years old and others are 50 years old. Many are planning to be missionaries in villages. A couple of them are planning to be pastors and teachers. We will be putting pictures on our blog. Anyways just wanted update you all as we continue on in our journey here in Malawi.

Please remember prayer for us-
- as we have only 3 weeks until School is done here.
- as we go back to the village of Khuyu on June 12 -16 to do more discipleship with those who received Christ in March with the first team. Nya and Analise are coming too. It will be an amazing experience for them to stay in the village! With all the goats cows and chickens.....
-continue to show the Jesus film to new crowds and share the gospel and disciple local Malawians.

We are thankful for all your prayer and love and support. We definitely would not be here if it wasn't for you!
Love the stauffachers

the island pictures finally and what we are up to...

Hi so sorry it has taken sooooo long to get these pictures. I can't believe that it was 3 weeks ago. We had a spectacular time with the students. Yes I did say spectacular. This first picture is on our way. It took a 2 hour car ride and a 2 hour boat ride. The island on the right is where we stayed.

This is main area that we hung out and in it had a place where we could get drinks. Yippee they had Coke. We did bring our own food and cooked it... Here is where we slept! Here is Analise helping with the dishes. The girls did soooo great the entire time. They loved hanging with the all the teenagers!

So we have been super busy even with a kidney infection. I am much better now. Thank you for you love and prayers. We have been super healthy for the last 4 months. It has been refreshing. We have really enjoyed having deeper relationships with the students. I pretty much now know all the girls names. With Names like Mwai, Chimwewe, Atupele, Hennelise, Chifundo, Kisa, Chokondi, Mtendere, Dyna, Mufunasa It gets complicated. I love being apart of their lives and really investing. We had all the seniors over for French Toast this week . How fun to feed people something they have never really had. Then I had the senior girls over for Tacos ( you know that means in Chichewa -Butt) I know wow I got to feed them Butt! They loved the tacos. We then got to watch a movie and feed them my favorite thing in life here - POPCORN! Then this morning I got to feed them and teach them how to Make Pancakes and Waffles. Oh so fun. They were all crowded around and loving it all. I tell that is fun. We have fun feeding and spiritually feeding these people. They are now trusting us with deeper things and coming to Bob and I for Guidance in many areas of their spiritual journeys. Yippee! We love it. We love being challanged and growing too.

Here they all are trying to get as close as possible to the pancakes! See cute Analise in the back of Chikondi. So Cute.

Please pray for Bob this weekend. He will be traveling to a village of a students here at ABC about 1 1/2 hour away to preach at a local church and secondary school There will be about 1000 people that will hear how God can change your life! So if you remember to pray that Lives will be changed and also impacted. He has been really loving going to the villages and impacting people lives. He went and showed the Jesus film to the village I had put on a previous blog. He connected with the head chief of the village and will continue to reach this unreached area as we continue on here at ABC. The head chief is head of about 10 villages or more Bob tells me. WOW! that is what I call Impacting what God has put us.

thank you for all your love and financial support. We could be here and sharing the gospel and loving people for Jesus if it wasn't for you. Your team support is amazing. Love - amy louise for the stauffacher family

Well it was 5 hour trip to the island...

But the island was great. thank you for your prayers...I will post some pictures on the blog hopefully by monday! I have been down with a kidney infection, so i would appreciate some prayers... I am on antibiotics to I should be feeling better soon! thank you- Amy louise

So are off...

We are headed to Lake Malawi to stay on a island. WIth Bob's class he teaches at the academyIt is a senior high retreat we are chaperoning. We will be devotionals with 17 of them. So pray for us for safety and that these kids would deepen their walk with Christ. We will have updates later. thank you for all your love and support. We have 5 weeks until school is done. WOW!
Zikomo- Thank you in Chichewa
Amy Louise

Hi just a quick follow up!

So you remember that cute little girl. So last week Bob went to the Village and saw them. Her eye is completely normal and she is continually smiling so her mother says. What a treat! She looked like a totally different girl so said Bob. thank you for your prayers and love- The stauffacher family

So this is what it is all about...

So you remember I had nothing new to share. How that changes in a day-the next day it all changed. Bob took the seniors to their outreach (remember the village of Mchoka - a previous post I did)and while they were there they saw a little girl with an eye infection. Of course there is no doctors for miles and miles. Bob over heard the leaders Rosemary and Joseph talking and saying to them "we will bring medicine next week" Okay so Bob swung into action and no lets take to the ABC clinic and get her to see the the doctor. So that is what we did. They have never been in a car much less in a city much less in a clinic! Amazing... We got to be apart of all that. That is why we are here. To impact!

Little Melenia here with her Momma Theresa... Her eye is swollen shut and unable to open.

Here is Melenia and Momma Theresa with the leaders (Rosemary and Joseph) of the outreach with my girls... We were able to get medicine and we will bring her back to the doctor to check up on her. You the amazing thing that if they werent going to that village who know what would of happened. What Rosemary and Joseph say probably she would lose sight with such a bad infection. They say it happens all time. We are so spoiled with our opportunities to go to the doctor whenever! So pray that the medicine takes affect and that Theresa eye would be better!

So that night we went to the Junior/ Senior banquet. That is where the Juniors serve the Seniors dinner... and us too!

All the students and staff waiting for the Junior to come and serve...
Here are all the Juniors getting ready to serve us

A special Singing performance

here is Mary and Tendeli and me!

Here I am with my friend Pam. She works with the Navigators here at ABC and other colleges... She has become a really treat to have in my Life... She is from Ireland and has lived here in Lilongwe for the last 5 years. Here are the Juniors waiting to serve us! MMMM doesn't look good?

Here is more friends... Rosemary, Me, Linda and Funa (Roesamary is the leader on the Outreach, Linda is a Freshman that is an amazing singer and Funa went to the Village with Bob over easter Holiday)

Here is a picture of Lisa (sixth grade teacher at the Acedemy) and Me and Ari the preschool teacher here!

Here is Catherine a senior with her Boyfriend Russel. She goes with me everyweek to teach Bible at a local Girls High school. She is one of my favorite students here. Love her

Here is a group together. Michelle the white tall lady is a missonary here helping put together the new Pediactric Ward and organize the Baby Ward and overnight clinic here. The girls and Cute Momma with the Baby Is Joshua, The is the Nasson Family! Friends of ours Remember from Nya birthday. Maya and Faith were there.

Here is Neke a senior with Nell Chinchin who started ABC along with her husband. Neke is from Liberia and has amazing stories to tell about surviving civil war in Liberia.

Analise was staying with a friend while all this was happening but it ran late so She got to come in her PJs. Here she is with Atupele. She is a senior also and she comes and hangs out with us alot! We love her! And so do the girls!

Lastly here is Bob with Roland. He and Bob are really good friends. Roland is a graduate of ABC and will be a missonary to a village out in Dzuwa in August. He has been the on campus maintaince person! Our friends from san diego will be coming in July to take His place. Josh and Emily are coming! Pray for them as you remember them

So that all for Now! Lots of love- Amy Louise

hello...we are still kicking over here...

Wow time has flown by since my last blog. First of all my internet was down for a week. that really doesn't help. I could check email sometimes but that was it. So really I felt of out the loop. We are busy with School. As you know Bob is teaching 4 classes and I am teaching a bible study with the Senior girls. Nya is busy with school and Analise is dreaming that she was in School. I have been able to meet with some of the college girls and other girls here on campus for one on one what should we call it - counseling or mentoring ( I am too young to be a mentor) or discipleship. I have really enjoyed it so much. Really I have been stretched and learned so much about myself through it. We are on our 9th month here and man we really can't believe it.

So here are questions for you the readers. What is that I have not told about Malawi or here at ABC. What questions do you have for me about Africa. What pictures or videos do you want that I haven't given you. My mind is blank in what to give you next. So Email at amystauffacher@yahoo.com I will answer here on the blog if it not too personal! I will do anthing for my readers.

thank you for your love and support and prayers... Love all of us the stauffy family

This is our outreach....

Here are some videos and pictures of our Outreach... Please read the first post at the bottom of the videos and then watch the videos. If you have it sent to your email you will have to go to my blog to see the videos... www.stauffacherfamily.blogspot.com

Love - amy louise

Praying for our journey to the Village

Starting out and Starting out singing

Still Singing and Analise is Asleep and Nya ears are ringing

Driving to Village Mchoka

Arriving at Mchoka

Kids singing at the Village Mchoka

Saying Goodbye

Hey you want to join us for our outreach?

So here it is. We went with Bob with his Open Air Outreach that he does every Thursday. These are the seniors of the class... The students designed a ministry in this class and make it happen every week. They do door to door evangelism and work with the local church to disciple the people they bring to the Lord. They are doing a great Job and so here are some pictures...

Here we are beginning our journey at ABC... We left at 1:30pm (during Analise's naptime...) It takes about 1 hour to get to the village of Mchoka.
Inside the bus
On the Road called M14. It is the landscape is beautiful
Here is Cecelia Christopher and her kids and Nya and I... We shared the gospel with her with our door to door evanglism...
Nya and Chokandi as we walk back to the bus...

Here are my girls with the kids...

Our family with the cute kids

So I put videos of us on our journey... Please enjoy... thanks for joining us as we go and love the students of ABC and the people of Mchoka...

Camping with monkeys...and sad stories...

So we took off on Wednesday to camp. Yes we camped here in Malawi. Some friends had a tent we could borrow. Very nice. We brought our Malawian BBQ and brought food to eat. Blankets, bug spray and a flashlight and we were good to go. Mind you I am a girlie girl. Don't like to camp at all. Really haven't done it since High school. So this was a stretch for me. But I came to quickly realize that Camping here is not much different than living here. It feels allot of the time we are camping all the time. Not really but yes it does feel like it. So we headed about 3 hours north and ended up at a place called Nkhotakota on Lake Malawi. We were charged 10 dollars a night to stay at their camp site. It really was nice. They had bathrooms, showers, a veranda and fire pit. We were the only ones there. Nice. They had guards there 24/7. Amazing feeling to know that someone is there to watch over you. Didn't think of that until we went to go swim in the lake and there were tons of kids passing by and all of sudden you see your stuff walking off with them. So it was nice to have a guard there to watch your stuff. By the time it was evening the first night there were about 20 monkeys encircling our camp. Strange feeling. Really Africa you know. Anyways of course Bob was throwing food at them to get them to come closer. I really wished I had brought my camera. That would of been awesome pictures. We had a real restful time with each other.

By the end of our 4 days we started talking with our day guard. You know your heart is never really ready to hear heartbreaking stories. He has one. He is of 4 kids, 2nd born , and he is 21 years old. His name is Cyness (sinus) anyways- both parents died when he was 11 of AIDS. He has been taking care of the rest of the family since then. He didn't finish school because of he had to work and support the family. Right now he works 12 hour days as a guard at this lodge place we went to. How much does he make a day ? $1.00 a day. really a dollar a day that is about 8 cents a hour. Ugh. Here we are camping for a getaway and he is working for what 8cents a hour to survive. How did we get to be American and not live his life. So deep of thoughts. We talked about Christ and gave the gospel to him. He seemed to get it and he told us that no one really had explained it to him. Of course we wished we had a bible to give him right away. But we didn't. We gave him the money to get a bible. He of course said he would and continued to thank us continually. We don't know if he will get the bible. With that money he could need it for everything. Just life. That is when you want to change the whole world and the way poverty is. When people are working 12 hours for a dollar it just breaks your heart. That when you want to give it all away to those in need. I told Bob how do we live balanced. We don't know. But I guess just baby steps and affect those people that come across our path.

It makes me sad for these families that are affected by AIDS. Who wandered away from their spouse first. His Dad first or His Mom. Who brought the disease to family. How did they become another statistic. Deep thoughts. How is possible that a one night stand destroys a whole family. Knowing many families affected by AIDS. It really comes down to it is called commitment to the family and to your spouse. Giving a condom is not going to fix it. Awareness is not going to fix it. It is the family commitment that is broken and until people start not breaking the vows this AIDS crisis is still going to be around. It affects our families in america too. We just don't have AIDS to show how broken our families are. We have to be intentional to our spouses in marriage. We have to be emotionally there for our spouses and we have to be physically there for our spouses. Here and there and everywhere. We don't let the laziness creep in and settle for whatever in a marriage. It happens so fast. Anyways. I am getting off my box. I am mostly talking out loud to me! Anyways Just a snippet of our journey here. Taking Baby Steps... Love - all of us

Happy Easter and Happy Birthday Nya!

We had a wonderful Easter with friends and the next day was Nya's 6th birthday. We had a tea party and had a slip n slide. Who knew that they would have one of those here. It was so much fun as Nya states continually. We are still on spring break and Next week we are in full busy mode again. IT will be fun! Thank you for prayers and love! Love - Us

My journey to Khuyu...

Here I am preaching to some of the villagers in Khuyu
The many kids of Khuyu
Some of the team singing at the Sunday service

I had the priveledge to take 6 of my college students on a 3-day trip into the bush (a little village called Khuyu). We spent our three days sharing the message of Christ with this village by going door to door, sharing the Jesus film, open air preaching, etc. This village (about 600 people) was literally in the middle of nowhere. We traveled about eight hours to get to this village (two of these hours were on dirt roads/paths/animal trails ???). The village setting was amazing; mountains all around, tobacco and corn fields in the valleys, and beautiful mud huts scattered throughout. The people were very friendly and were amazed to see an azungu (white person) in their village. Many of the children had never even seen an azungu. There was no electricity within miles, so the night sky and the stars were stunning. I felt priveledged to be at this place. Both Saturday and Sunday night we kicked on the generator at night to show the Jesus film on the big screen. This outdoor showing drew a big crowd, most of them had never seen a movie before. The movie was in their own language, which allowed them to really understand the message. What an impact.

On Sunday we held a church service outside using our sound system and pretty much the whole village showed up. This was amazing considering their were many different denominations throughout this village. Many of them said that this was the first time the whole village has come together as one. They said "why should it take a group from African Bible College to finally bring us togother after all these years. We need to be coming together more often".

Many people received Christ and were saved during our trip. We plan to go back soon and to train leaders and pastors in this village who can care for and lead these people.

Thank you for your love and prayers.

As a side note, I just wanted to let everyone know that teaching here is going very well. I love my classes and feel that God is truly using me in a wonderful way. I am teaching an outreach/practical ministry class and we go out as a class each week into the local villages, giving each student a chance to put their knowledge into practice. I get to see these students really making a difference in the lives of people who are in real need of the hope of Christ. These students will be the future leaders of Africa and it is a real priveledge to train them in the ways of the Lord and to encourage them as people. I couldn't ask for a better opportunity than what God has given us as we continue to serve here in Malawi. Keep praying for us as God is leading our family and keeping us close to Him.

Bob Stauffacher