5 years 11 months

Day 2160. I had set my alarm for 7 am but Sammy was up before that and then Randy was up as well. Tammy and Emmy were on either side of me and had a harder time getting up, especially Emmy. It was hard for me too after less than 6 hours of sleep. We got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. The room was pretty busy. We saw that one African-American lady again who we've also seen at the conference, and then she said she had a gift for the kids. She gave them a kids' Bible each, and they were really nice Bibles. I was impressed.

After breakfast we returned to our room and got ready to leave the hotel and drive to the conference. By 8:15 am we were already at the church, and it was already a very busy place. Randy unloaded us and got a parking spot, while I went inside with the kids. We were in line to sign in the kids for their conference, when Randy joined us. I then left them to line up to get into the sanctuary; the doors were to open up at 8:30 am. They opened a little late, and even though we were quite far in the back of the line, we got some nice seats. Then I went to the bookstore to buy the children's books they had for sale. Randy took them to the car while I sat in our seats. I then got talking with the couple sitting next to us. 

At 9 am the conference started with an hour of worship, then Randy Clark came to speak. It was on impartation, and there were lots of stories. In the end he prayed over the crowd. Just before 12:30 Randy and I left as it was time to pick up the kids. Heidi Baker had been with them in the morning, so I was curious to find out how that had gone. I then found out that Heidi had asked for the shortest kid, and everyone had pointed at Emmy, so he got chosen. He was up front with Heidi to help her. When she asked his name, she was amazed as her topic was what his name means, "God with us". I was then told that Emmy went around with her to pray for all the kids. He said he'd had a lot of fun.

We stayed in the area as there was an informal gathering of the people in the network at the nearby tables. I had already put a pizza order in but as it was lunchtime it was 30 minutes until delivery. We sat down at a table, and the kids were whining that they're hungry. A lady offered them cheese that Tammy actually ate. 

I was very excited to finally meet the vice-president of the network who'd been in email contact with me and had been very encouraging. We ended up talking for quite a long time, and I learned more about him and his family. We have a few things in common. I also talked with one other lady. After having eaten, the kids were playing with some other kids they knew from their conference and had lots of fun. Randy was around them and got to talk to people over there as well.

At 2 pm the meeting slowly disbanded, and we headed to the car to return to the hotel. The next session was at 2:30 pm, but not for the kids, and they needed a nap to make it through the day. By 2:40 we were back at the hotel. I couldn't believe it when the cleaning lady was in the process of doing our room. Sammy had been talking about her a lot, but we had not thought that he was going to meet her. She was Hispanic but didn't seem to speak English. We waited for her to finish, then we got to go into our room.

We all took a quick shower, then it was nap time. Emmy complained about it again, but thank God, he gave in faster than yesterday and lay down next to me. Soon the five of us were asleep. One spam call woke me up, but I put it on "do not disturb" so that would not happen again. I didn't realize that that meant that my alarm wasn't gonna go off either.

And so it was after 5 pm when Sammy and Randy woke us up. It was time to leave the hotel. We all got ready and got into the car and drove the 10 minutes to the church. It was 5:50 pm, when we got there, and the parking lot was already quite full - probably because of Heidi Baker speaking that night. We found a good parking spot, then we crossed the road to go to McDonald's - primarily for the playground, only secondarily to eat. 

They had a very nice playground, and the kids started playing right away. There were some other conference people and kids there. They were all having lots of fun. But after a while it was time to cross the street again to go to the 7 pm service. We took the kids to their conference, signed them in, and watched them being taken inside. Then we went to our seats. I got to talk to the couple next to us again until the service started with worship at 7 pm.

The worship time was wonderful. I was enjoying his presence and praising him. Then Leif Hetland did the offering and introduced Heidi Baker. It was good to see her again. She knelt down on the floor and started worshiping, inviting all of us to join in. After a while she got up and started telling stories, and it was stories I hadn't heard yet. It was a delight to listen to her. At 9:15 pm she knelt down again, and we all worshiped again - until the meeting ended at 10 pm.

Just before 10 pm we left to go pick up the kids. They were happy to see us. They said they'd had a great time again. Their team is now in second place, instead of third. We walked to the car and drove back to the hotel. There we all had some food, then we got them ready for bed and put them to bed. It was another late night for them - and for me. Now it's 1 am, and I have to go to bed, as we're getting up at 7 am again. And tomorrow there won't be time for a nap, it seems.