The Power of Dreams

The rule of God is advancing in the midst of opposition and setbacks. Here in our city, this last year has seen a local language Fellowship emerge from and work alongside a Russian language Fellowship. They hold their meetings in a yurt (dome-like tent) and the fellowship consists of 20-30 people, and is growing.

Late last year, one of the young local ladies in this group, Michele, who has been a believer for 6 years, moved to a village about 2 hours drive from the city. She did this because she felt God’s call to go there, and had the support of both the Fellowships. Though there were no others who could go with her full time, occasionally a small team goes from the city to help. Despite times of loneliness, the physical demands of single-handedly looking after a house and being threatened with assault, Michele has stayed in the village. She has prayed and befriended people, and found opportunities to share the gospel.

One of the people Michele met was a 12 year old girl, Lorna, whose mother is in prison. She has not seen her father for many years and was being looked after by her grandparents. However her grandmother was in hospital for a short time, so Lorna stayed for about a month with Michele. Towards the end of December, Lorna made a commitment to follow Jesus.

It turns out that one of Lorna’s aunts, while living in our city had spent some time with a large church, though currently is not close to Jesus. Also, an uncle, while in prison had received help from visiting believers, and had heard the gospel, though without making a commitment. Then the grandmother let it be known that she wanted to read the Injil (Gospels or New Testament) in her own language. Two believers obtained copies of the Injil from the city and went with Michele to visit the grandmother, now back home. With tears in her eyes she accepted the copy of God’s word in her native language, and reading from this, with further explanations in the local language, found forgiveness from Jesus. Her husband also prayed a prayer of commitment. For two weeks, Lorna’s grandmother developed her relationship with Jesus in prayer, and then passed into His presence.

The grandfather had a dream shortly after this, seeing his wife dressed in white, which we take as an encouragement to him to know where she now is. However, this time of bereavement is very hard for him, and he and two of his daughters often resort to the traditional comfort, vodka, even though one of the daughters has also prayed asking for forgiveness and committed her life to Jesus.

It has also been a difficult time for the granddaughter Lorna, working through the loss of her grandmother. For a while, she stopped coming to the children’s group that meets with Michele. Then she had a dream, and saw her grandmother, outside their block of flats, sitting, where she usually sat. Her grandmother said that she was alive, Lorna replied that she had just been buried, how could she be alive? Then in the dream her grandmother told her of heaven where she was, and of hell, and as she spoke Lorna saw pictures of the two places. This dream brought a restored joy to Lorna and a return to fellowship.