My Dad & Sheryl just got back from their vacation last night. They’ve been gone for nearly 3 weeks. It all began when my stepbrother, Travis, went to a Bible College in California last semester. One of his good buddies he met there was named Geoff. Travis & Geoff both decided to go to the bible college's campus in Maui this semester. Dad & Sheryl decided to make a vacation out of it. My dad's birthday is this month and he’s always wanted to go to Hawaii, so off they went on the 16th of January. Dad & Sheryl stayed in Maui for 5 or 6 days, saw Travis a lot, got him settled, and spent a lot of time with his friends, Geoff & some other girls from the bible college.
Then Dad & Sheryl moved on to another island by themselves for the duration of their trip. They were supposed to be returning home Friday, the 25th. On Thursday, the 24th, Travis called them in a panic saying that he, Geoff, and 2 other students had been on this hike & Geoff had fallen off a cliff & died, and begged them to come back to Maui. So, they cancelled all of their flights, unsure as to when they'd be returning to the lower 48 or what really had happened, and headed back to Maui to be with Travis. Apparently they had gone on this hike that guys from the Bible College have been going on for a few years. It’s pretty dangerous, but they were having the time of their lives. They were almost done with the hike, had one more waterfall to either jump over or scale down. Geoff was figuring out the best way, slipped, and fell down head first. It was an hour’s hike back to the road to get cell phone service to call for rescue. They came and as one of the boys was taking him back to Geoff’s body, he got to share his faith and the rescue worker accepted Christ right there. Amazing. Already salvation had come just two hours after his death. They had devotionals and memorial services at the school to pray for his family and worship. My Dad & Sheryl said that Geoff was on fire for the Lord and so refreshing to be around. He had had two close encounters with death before and had given his life to the Lord in July of 2007. He was baptized the 1st Sunday in January, and gave his testimony at his home church soon after. They spent the next week in Maui before heading to Geoff’s hometown in Oregon for the funeral.
They spent a few days in Oregon staying with one of the girls from the college’s parents. They said that this family was such a blessing. The dad is an evangelist & they have 4 daughters. They said the funeral was amazing. There were 1700 people there, it was 3 hours long, and around 50 people ended up accepting the Lord at the funeral! Wow. They just said it was a worship service. I really hope that’s what my funeral is like. I’ve always thought that if because I lived, just one person came to know Jesus & experience His love, my life would be worth it.
Anyway, all of this to say, I picked them up from the airport last night & were looking at their pictures. They took pictures of the people’s backyard in Oregon & there’s a river running by their house. I hadn’t thought about it in forever, but I was immediately reminded of a prophetic dream I had about 2 years ago. Almost like I knew the place. Weird. So I get out my journal & below I’ve written out the two journal entries centered around the dream. I have no idea if there’s a correlation, but I know when a dream is from the Lord. I remember it differently & I believe that if the Lord gives me a dream, there’s something I’m supposed to take from it, whether a lesson, direction, or revelation. I had this one two months before I finally wrote it down because I couldn’t get it out of my head. I haven’t thought about it in forever, which is why I wonder if the Holy Spirit brought it to mind when I saw that picture. I’m going to leave it at that, post this, and pray for more direction.
4/4/06
I feel like the Lord wanted me to write this dream down that I had a couple of months ago:
As a preface, none of the faces in my dream are people that I currently know in real life. Me & my immediate family were going to take a trip to visit some old friends of my parents. All I knew about these people was that they lived in the middle of no where, loved Jesus, served/followed Him in maybe some unconventional ways, and that 2 of their children had died. So we pulled up to their house: it’s in the woods, leaves everywhere, a river runs beside their house. In the yard, we see a rather unusual sight. There is a grave/mound – not fresh, already covered with leaves – and a dead child lying on the ground next to the grave (boy). The child was stiff & gray/blue, so he had been dead for a significant amount of time. The reason his body was laying out is because every day (either 2 or 3 times), they take his body down to the river and baptize it, believing that god will bring their son back to life. Obviously, this was slightly unusual to us, but we continued on into the house. The mother is giving us the tour when she casually mentions that the spirit of her dead son visits her at night to chat. She said that sometimes this woman spirit comes also. Um, okay, so the inner turmoil starts here. (As if I wasn’t already racking my brain over the dead kid in the front yard!) First of all, I’m scared to death that I’m going to see these “spirits” in their house. Second, I’m so torn the whole dream as to what I think about what’s going on. Do I just have no faith, or are they total freaks?! I knew my parents trusted and loved these people, so I wanted to, too. I knew they loved Jesus, but obviously we lived very differently—who is right? Can I accept this? Etc. & I’m tormented with what to do & think. The End.
4/6/06
After telling my dream to about 4 different trusted friends & receiving blank stares, I told Dustin Randle. He, being the prophetic man that he is, had some suggestions as to interpretation.
- The fact that I didn’t know any of the people’s faces could have something to do with surrounding myself with a new community
- My immediate family could represent my immediate spiritual family, the people I’m walking with (John said I should be on the lookout for new “spiritual parents”)
- The traveling could have something to do with moving, visiting somewhere (church planting?)
- The dead boy could symbolize the church. That I may be part of a people who are believing that the church will come back to life.
- The buried child (Dustin thinks it’s a girl – not necessarily relevant) could represent discernment of knowing what to bury/let lie & what to believe for
- The torment could foretell of a confusion & finding of new faith in the near future
- The woman spirit could be some kind of spiritual guardian over the boy & visits the mom as encouragement to continue doing this seemingly foolish thing
Interestingly enough, this kind of correlates to my life right now:
- I’ve decided to move to Amarillo & be involved in the singles ministry at my mom’s church (new community, moving)
- Some man met mother & john at church & said that he felt like they would be on a church plan within 3 years (w/ me?)
- My friend Lindsey took me to dinner & said that she feels that the Lord very clearly told her to ask me to go with her wherever she goes after graduation next May. Does this give me a time frame in Amarillo? Will I teach ESL like her? Or will I do something totally different alongside her? I don’t know.
My roommate got a book/dictionary of dream symbols, so I’m going to see if there’s anything else in there (Habakkuk 2:23 “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.”)
Autumn – transition, about to enter difficult times, end of something and beginning of another (Jeremiah 5:24)
Baptizing – a change from the natural to the spiritual. Dying to self, expression of the new man (Luke 3:3, Romans 6:4, Colossians 2:12)
Buried – permanent end to something (Colossians 2:12)
Death – dying to self usually
Family – Christian or spiritual family. Group of people in unified fellowship
House – one’s spiritual & emotional house, personality, or church
Leaves – dry leaves – pressures of life
River – movement of God, flow of the Spirit
Unknown Woman – messenger from God
Thinking – time of study, reflection, meditation, & intellectual exercise
A few weeks ago, my friend in life group, Teensy, gave me a word with these 2 verses:
- Habakkuk 2:3 (above)
- Zephaniah 3:17 – “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with His love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
She said that she felt like my time in Amarillo would be a time of refreshment spiritually and that I am in a time of preparation.
Another girl in life group, Stephanie, has come up to me the past 2 weeks with a word about finding my “niche”, or a place I belong. She also said she sensed a prophetic gifting.
My roommate, Kelly, told me at the prophetic conference that she felt like I had a prophetic gifting.
