Day 1441. This morning the alarm was set for 8 am. Tammy had joined us in bed during the night, and Emmy had come and gone a few times. Randy was actually up before 8 am, and so was Sammy, and he took him to breakfast early. We had agreed with our hosts to have breakfast at 8:30, which is why my alarm was set to 8 am. Tammy was on my left, and Emmy on my right, but neither one heard the alarm. I turned it off and let them sleep and stayed with them. After a while I finally got up, and so did Tammy. We let Tammy sleep as long as possible before waking her up as well. Then we went to the dining room for breakfast, and our hosts were spoiling us with great food.
After having eaten, they had to leave to go to church, while we had a little more time. I got our "Mali bag" ready, the bag containing all the stuff for our product table, and got everything else ready, then spent a few minutes singing and praying. The kids enjoyed that and Emmy wanted to join me. Just before 9:45 we left the house to go to church ourselves.
It had been over 5 years since we were last here, and the church I've known for many years had finally moved into their own building, which had now been years ago already. And so it was our first time at their own church building. We went inside and were immediately greeted by the pastor who's a long-time friend. He got us a table for our stuff, while I was admiring how beautiful the sanctuary was. Then they showed us the kids' room where the kids could go to play during the service, but there was no program for them. And then the service was already starting, at 10:30 am.
I went to the front of the sanctuary with the kids, but they did not want to stay in worship at all. They wanted to go to the play room, so I let them go there. Randy soon returned; the church had two teenagers to stay with them there. We were enjoying the worship time in the sanctuary, then there were a few other items, and then they showed my video before the microphone was handed over to me to preach. God had been speaking different things to me, and so I was excited about the opportunity to minister.
I started off by saying it was my 20-year-anniversary in Mali, and just like last time, my heart broke and I could not continue speaking. After having regained composure I shared how I would have never thought that I could not be there to celebrate those 20 years. I don't know how long I preached then. The pastor had not given me any time constraints but had told me to go as long as the Lord was leading me too. And I was completely led by the Lord to share what He wanted me to share. I told stories of what God was doing in Mali, as well as how God prepared me to go. I got great feedback afterwards. In the end I had everyone get up and prayed for visions and dreams to be resurrected, and for people to lay down the things that keep them running the race, as well as to let the Lord into those corners of the heart that they had not. People were coming forward, and the pastor encouraged everyone to get prayed for by me. So I started ministering to all the people in the front, and God was moving powerfully, touching them, while I was speaking prophetically over them.
I prayed for quite a long time, never seeing Randy and the kids. By the time I was done, there were not a lot of people left. That's always a shame, because it means I don't get to be at our table to sell books or other products. I went there and ended up selling two books. We spoke to a few people, then packed up to go have lunch. The kids had had a good time in the play room.
It was already 1:30 pm, when we left the church grounds. By 1:45 pm we got to the restaurant - Texas Roadhouse, yeah! The kids were hungry and were happy, when the food came. The peanuts helped them wait until then. They also had their tablets to keep them busy, which allowed us to have a conversation. It was great catching up with our friends, the pastor and his wife, and the food was great as well. It was nearly 3:30, when we took a picture together and said good-bye to each other. It was high time to get those kids to bed.
It was a 25 minute drive back to the house. I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open myself, and then I saw that Sammy's eyes were closed. I quickly woke him up, as he does not sleep at the house if he even sleeps a few minutes in the car. By 4 pm I had them all down on their beds for their nap. Everyone was awake and not wanting to sleep, except for me. Eventually Emmy finally fell asleep, and I finally gave up and lay down in my bed. Sammy and Tammy both never fell asleep, which meant that I never got to sleep either, and I would have needed it bad. All my saying that there would be no tablets the rest of the day if they didn't sleep made no difference at all.
It was after 5 pm, when I looked at the time, and it was time to get up as we were supposed to be at our friends' house by 5:30 pm. I had to wake up Emmy, who was not at all happy, and we all got ready to leave.
In the car, the first thing they did was to ask for their tablets. Only Emmy got it as he had slept, and so Sammy started crying hard for it. Randy then convinced me to give it to him, even though I think the same rules should apply to him, as he's smart. Then it was Tammy's turn to cry, and not only that, she had a fit. She cried and screamed the whole time we were driving to their house, which took 25 minutes. I did not give in to her. At 5:50 pm we got to our friends' house, and she wanted me to carry her. We greeted our friends and sat down, and Tammy lay down on my chest and fell asleep. It was a little late in the day for a nap. She stayed there for a while, while I was talking with my friend. Then it was dinner time, and she woke up, when I got up. We all sat down at the table to have a nice, simple dinner to have fellowship with each other. The kids ate decently, then got up to play. Our friends gave them some blocks to play with.
After we had also finished eating, we sat back down in the living room to talk. Sammy really liked our other friend that had come as well and had lots of fun with her, as well as my friend whose house we were in. At 8:15 we said our good-byes, got them into the car, and started our half-hour journey back to the house we're staying in.
By 8:45 we were back at the house, and we got them into the bathtub right away. They were having lots of fun in it. Then we got them ready for bed. I read them a story, then prayed for them and put them to bed. Sammy was asleep quickly, not having had a nap, while the other two both wanted me to come be with them. I stayed with one first, then the other, then the first one again, but neither one seemed to be ready to sleep. It looked like I was the most tired. Eventually Tammy was close to sleeping and I left her side to go be with Emmy. I thought he had fallen asleep, when I left, but he had not. After some time he did finally fall asleep. As for me, I closed my eyes for a few minutes as well, as I was so very tired, before turning my computer on and starting to work on the pictures. Now it's 1 am, and I still have to do all the pictures, but at least I got my report done.
