4 years 2 days

Day 1462. This morning the alarm went off at 7:30. After a late night last night, and then quite a bit of coming and going during the night, they were tired this morning and only Sammy woke up from the alarm. The other two continued sleeping. We got up, got dressed and went to the breakfast room. They had a few more options than most hotels we've stayed at, even though everything was packaged and needed to be microwaved. We were lucky to get a table; just after our arrival a lot more people came into the small room. We ate, and then Emmy poured out all his juice over his clothes and mine. He already had his Malian pants on for the service, so he had to take it off, and I gave him normal  pants to wear with his Malian shirt.

At 9:15 we left the hotel to drive the short distance to the church. It was the second campus of the same church I preached at yesterday, and I hadn't been to this location before either. It was small, right in the heart of Burbank, and actually originally a movie theater. Most people there had not  been to yesterday's service, and one lady stood out as such a servant, as she wanted to help me with whatever was necessary. I set up our product table, and about then it was time for the service to start at 10 am.

This time the service was live-streamed online, which was great, as I now have a recording to share with everyone. https://rumble.com/v3cbfnl-special-guest-speaker-claudia-wintock.html Emmy had gone into the sanctuary with me, but the others weren't there. The service started with two songs, then Randy and the other kids came as well. I danced with them just a little bit, but they didn't really want to stay, so they left to go play before the second song was over. I continued worshiping God and enjoying His presence. After the pastor had done the announcements, they showed my video, then I came up to speak. Yesterday, the presence of God had been strong in worship, but then it was a little hard-going for me. Probably because of the high stage looking down at the people in the pews going all the way to the back. Today it was a small room with a comfy carpet so I took my shoes off to preach, and I was on eye-level with everyone. I flowed so much better this morning and just had a great time. I've really missed preaching these past 4 years since the kids were born, as I have not had a lot opportunities. It's time to travel more again!

And so I shared lots of stories from Mali, then told some of my own story from early on to encourage everyone to step into their own destinies. I just had such a great time. In the end I prayed, then they did 3 more worship songs. I stayed for two, then went to our product table. Emmy ran to me, happy to see me. Soon people started coming to sign up for our newsletter or get a book or just to talk to me. I was having a great time.

At some point most people had left, and it was time to pack up and drive to a nearby restaurant for lunch. The pastor and another couple in leadership I had not met before were already there, when we got there. It was a barbecue place, and they gave us a nice table to eat and talk at. The food was wonderful, and so was the fellowship. I had the greatest time. As for the kids, we had brought the tablets inside to keep them occupied, so we could talk.

After 2.5 hours, at 3:40 pm, we said our good-byes and returned to our hotel room. It was already pretty late for their nap. Emmy was so tired he was crying because he didn't want to sleep, and then he fell asleep right away, as did Tammy. It was Sammy that was a little harder to put to sleep. Then I lay down myself. Sammy was the first one up again, as usual, and Randy had only just laid down himself. Tammy and Emmy continued sleeping for quite some time. It was late before they finally got up. I had wanted to take them to the playground across the street, but Daddy was fast asleep. And so I was working on the computer, while the kids were on their tablets.

Eventually Randy got up as well, but it was too late to go anywhere. They were getting hungry, so we warmed up some leftovers from lunch. Randy got the toys out of the car, especially for Sammy, to occupy him. Since their nap had been so late, I let them stay up longer than usual, but then I showered them, and we got them ready for bed. Some time after 9 pm they were all in bed. Emmy wanted to sleep on the couch, where he had had his nap both yesterday and today, and even during last night, he had slept there for part of the time. But then suddenly tonight, he did not want to sleep there after all and had a fit. Eventually he moved to the bed with Sammy, as Tammy had moved to our bed to sleep. Surprisingly it did not take them very long to fall asleep.

It was time for me to keep working on the computer. And at 11 pm I had a student, until midnight, then I continued working. Now it's nearly 1 am, and I should really go to bed. Tomorrow we move on again.