Day 1773. Sammy was once again up very early. Tammy stayed on the top of the bunkbed all night, which was remarkable, as she has not slept a whole night in her own bed in a long time. That also meant that she was soon up after her brothers were up. Randy then got up and made breakfast for them, while I stayed in bed.
But I got up earlier than I would have liked and was really tired. At 10:30 we all left the house together. We needed to buy some food for lunch and dinner, and there was a playground on the way to the grocery store. We were walking there, and the kids were excited, when we got there. They needed to be able to move again.
The kids enjoyed the caroussel and the swing. At first there was a bunch of teenagers there, but then the belt also became available, and the kids had lots of fun jumping on it. After a while we moved on.
We briefly went into the cemetary right there, then we went to the grocery store and bought all the groceries we wanted. From there we walked straight back to the house. It was 11:40, and the kids were already hungry, so we put the mini-pizzas into the oven, while I got my salad ready that I was looking forward to eating. They were happy, when the food was finally ready, and we all had a good time eating together.
A while after lunch, I knew I needed to lie down to be able to make it through the rest of the day. I lay down at 1 pm and set my alarm for 3 pm, which was ambitious. The kids were loud, so I was awake or half-awake a lot, but I did get some sleep, and I did get up before 3 pm. I soon had to get up to get everyone ready to leave the house.
We left at 3:30 pm. It takes some time to strap everybody into the car seats, then we started our 17-minute drive to the pastor's house.
And guess what, Emmy fell asleep again. Just before we arrived Sammy also fell asleep. And so Tammy and I went inside, while Randy stayed in the car with the boys. It was great to see our pastor friends again. We sat down in the garden and were served some cake. Tammy was shy at first, but not for long. We were looking at the frogs in the little pools in the garden. And then Randy already came with the boys. Emmy was still very sleepy at first. They had some cake and drink, then wanted to draw. All three kids did some drawing. Then our friends got a hammock out and put it up, and as the kids had never been in a hammock, they had lots of fun in it, especially with Daddy playing with them. That gave me some time to talk to my friends.
At 5:30 we said our good-byes to get back to the house and ready for church. Tammy hadn't slept, and so she was pretty tired, which also means that she starts crying over little things. At the house I made some sandwiches for them to take with us and dressed them all nicely for church, as well as myself. At 6:30 pm we left the house to drive to church.
It was only a 6-minutes drive, which was nice, but we ran into a road closure, so we had to take a detour and lost some time. But we still got to the church 20 minutes before the service was to start. I set up my Mali table right away, and gave the tech guy my USB stick with the video and pictures I needed. The kids were running around and checking out the kids' room. Then I went up front with Tammy, and soon Randy and the others joined us. Then the service started.
We started worshipping God, and I had Sammy at first, but not for long. I also danced with Emmy and then with Tammy at different times. However, they didn't stay long. They went to the kids' room together with Randy. And so I kept worshipping by myself. I didn't even notice Randy coming to take these pictures of me doing so.
After worship, the pastor introduced me, then they showed my short video presentation. Then it was my turn to speak. I started telling them about the current situation, then prayed, and then started preaching. I could hear Tammy cry in the back, and she cried for a long time. Randy told me later that she wanted to come to me, which is why he kept her from doing so. A lady there tried to help and eventually took Tammy and Emmy to the front row, where they sat down and simply listened to me speak. At some point they lay down on the chairs, and then they fell asleep. Randy stayed in the back with Sammy.
I had a wonderful time preaching, and the Lord gave me the right words. It went really well, and I got my message across. I entitled it "What do you see?". In the end I had everyone stand up and prayed over them all, while the pastor went to the piano to start worshipping again. After I was done praying, I lay down the microphone, and they did the offering, then continued worshipping. I was looking for Randy so he could come and pray which would allow me to go to the table and talk to people and sell books. I prayed for one person up front, then Randy came, and I went to my table, where I prayed for more people and sold more books than I had expected. It was great! And I got great feedback from people.
At some point Tammy and Emmy came to me. Most people had left, so it was time to pack up. We said our good-byes, and people helped us get kids and stuff to the car. Emmy was being carried by the pastor's wife; he was still asleep. Tammy was crying because her arm was hurting; she must have lain on it while sleeping on the chairs. She cried for a while, and so I carried her to the car on my shoulders. We strapped them in and left, only having 6 minutes to drive back to the house. It was nearly 9:30 pm.
After we had parked at the house, I got Emmy out of the car to carry him, while Randy got Sammy. When Emmy woke up, both he and Tammy walked with me. In the apartment, we got everyone ready for bed right away. This time it was Emmy who was crying because I said no story. All three were asleep right away, after I had prayed for them and put them to bed.
Randy and I then sat down at the table to eat some food for dinner, as we had not had anything, contrary to the kids. I then turned my computer on and started working on the pictures, while Randy was getting ready for bed and went to bed. Now it's 2 am and time for me to also go to bed. Tomorrow we're doing some fun stuff, and the day after we're driving back to Vienna.
