Day 2441. It was day 2 of the kids being at the Royal Rangers camp which is why they missed their piano class in the morning. I had a student at 11 am so I got up at 10:30 am to teach. After I was done, I had warmed up food for us to eat, then I sat down to teach from 1 to 2 pm. Randy and Sammy left at 1 pm as he had his music class at 1:30 pm. After that, they took the subway only half-way home. And after I was done teaching at 2 pm, I took the subway coming from the opposite direction to meet with them there.
Sammy had been asking me for weeks to go to Kasperl but time is always short. He wanted to go to a different theater but they had no performances this weekend so this place was the only option. We walked to the theater and got there twenty minutes before it started. And so we first went to the section of kids' rides right there. Sammy loves the kids' rollercoaster so we headed there. He was very excited. And then the lady actually let Sammy go for free! Randy went with him, and they were the only ones on the ride. It sure looked like they were going more rounds than unusual.
After getting off, we headed to the theater. We got good seats in the middle, with Sammy sitting between us, and he couldn't wait for it to start which it did at 3 pm. The show lasted only half an hour but Sammy had fun. That's all that mattered. After it was over, we made our way back to the subway. It was too early to go straight to church so we stopped at the playground on the way. I was so extremely tired that all I could do was to close my eyes while Randy and Sammy were having fun. At 4 pm we left, walked to the subway, and rode two subways to go to church where we arrived early which was good. I gave my flashdrive to the tech person and explained to them what I needed with the pictures and the video on it. Then we sat down and waited for the service to start. Randy and Sammy didn't stay in the sanctuary; Sammy thought it was too loud. So they went outside and went to the baby room.
After worship and the announcements, it was my turn to give an update on Mali. My heart was already heavy with what's been going on there; I had talked to Paul the day before. I started with the good news, giving two great testimonies, then shared what had happened a week ago and since. I also shared how Paul had not moved to our base yet but wanted to move on Sunday even though the jihadists have cordonned off the city. So I asked everyone to pray for that. When I mentioned the 6 Christians from our churches that have been killed, I broke into tears and the tears kept flowing as I continued talking about Paul's move and the lack of money that has had such an effect on us. Then the pastor came forward to pray for Mali. Suddenly the previous pastor, his father-in-law, came forward and said that they would do an offering for Mali. It deeply touched my heart. I then sat down.
I stayed until the service ended at 7 pm, then went outside to the common area and coffee shop where Randy and Sammy found me. I thought people would talk to me but that was not the case. They always have food to buy there, and tonight we were given two plates of food as a gift which was nice. So we sat down to eat. Still, nobody talked to us. After we were done eating, we got up to get ready to leave. I had talked to the pastor before eating, and wanted to exchange a few words with the previous pastor and his wife which was nice. Then we left.
Sammy had been wanting to eat at McDonald's so we grabbed a Happy Meal on the way out. Then we rode the subway to the train station and rode the train home where we arrived just after 8:30 pm. Sammy went straight to bed. As for me, I turned my computer on to work. Just after 9 pm, Emmy and Tammy called from their camp, and we spent a few minutes talking with each other. This time Emmy was doing much better, no tears, no great sadness. Then we said good-night and hung up. It was their last night away. After that, I went back to work on the computer and went to bed late, as usual.
