A Tale of Two Dreams

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Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. … The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.”                                                                                                                                                                                          Genesis 41:25, 32

I woke up with the dream still very clear in my mind. I pray daily that I will remember the dreams that I need to remember and forget the rest, so I lay there for a while, pondering what this dream might mean. Remembering a certain Facebook chat, I thought, Ibra.

There is a young man in Uganda who friended me on Facebook. (It was his Christmas card I described in “What Color Is Jesus?” https://seekingdivineperspective.com/2020/07/31/what-color-is-jesus/ ) This friend had told me about his two younger brothers in an orphanage who needed sponsors. I had decided to sponsor these little boys with food and tuition for school.

It turns out these “little boys” were about seventeen and fifteen, and although they were lacking much of what we would consider the basics, they each had a cell phone. (This is not unusual in Uganda.) They began to message me frequently on Facebook, calling me “mummy” and expressing their affection for me. The younger one especially seemed downright giddy to finally have a mother! One day in the middle of a chat, his account just vanished. His brother Ibra told me later that he had been hacked.

A week or two later Ibra sent me a message saying his phone had been dropped in the water and was no longer working. (He’d had logged on from a friend’s phone.) He wanted to know, “mummy, would u get us phones please, mummy?” I thought, Man! Teenagers in Uganda aren’t that different from American kids!

Cringing a bit (“Tough love” never came naturally to me.), I answered with the following message: “Boys, I am amazed that teenagers in Uganda are just like teenagers in the U.S. The money I am sending to [orphanage] is for your food and tuition, and some extra for the teachers, who are having an especially hard time right now [and] don’t have enough food to eat! I think for now you will have to log in from a friend’s phone and cut down on the texting time. (I Timothy 6:8) I didn’t have a phone at all when I was your age, and somehow I did just fine.(I guess PARENTS are the same everywhere, too. 😉 ) I know you boys are strong and resourceful, and you will do well, too. Maybe there’s some way you can help [director] and the other adults with the little ones. Invent some new games to play with them.”

(I know, I can’t believe I resorted to “when I was your age … !”)

I fully expected the typical teenager’s response. So, when I looked at my phone just after awakening the next morning and saw two messages from Ibra, I opened them reluctantly…

“Wow thats nice mummy i wrlcome it too maybe it is the best.”  All spelling aside, I was impressed with his mature response!

The second message left me breathless:

“And by the way mummy i had a dream   I saw a big man in the sky and he was with two small buddies behind him and the big one was wearing a crown and other small ones also having theirs and when i was coming i saw him and at that moment i called him like Jesus and at that moment i fall down coz the man was too powerful i think Jesus is with me in whatever stape i make i was like wow”

I responded:

WOW! As I am reading this, I just woke up from a dream, too! I think it was about you. I had a new baby that I had adopted. He was black. I was teaching him things, like how to obey the grownups, telling him, ‘This is what big boys do in school.’ And even though he was a tiny baby (I would never have tried to teach a real baby those things yet) he was learning like a much older child! We were in the middle of a lot of people, and noise, and it was chaotic, but this child was doing an amazing job of focusing and growing, way beyond his years! When I woke up, even before I read your message, I was thinking that’s you! You are growing spiritually way beyond other boys your age. I was feeling bad about telling you “No” about new phones, and expecting you to pout like most boys your age  would when they can’t have what they want (That’s how most kids in America would respond.) But you didn’t! That’s huge! I think the other boy in your dream was probably [your brother], don’t you? You are sons of the King, and he is getting you ready to rule with Him. The rest of the world is so chaotic and distracting, especially with social media. Maybe God is telling you He has better things for you and [your brother]. I am excited for you!

And I understand if you aren’t able to message me very often. That’s OK. I always pray for you and [your brother] every day, no matter what. I love my boys (I guess I will have to call you my young men now. 😉 ) and I am so proud of you!

So, here’s another story just beginning to unfold. Life with Jesus – still not boring!

Prayer: Lord, thank You for taking away our idols and distractions when necessary, even when we don’t like it! You know what’s best, and You have great plans for us that we can’t even imagine right now. Keep us focused on You, in Jesus’ name. Amen

Published by seekingdivineperspective

I am a forgiven sinner and adopted child of God, seeking to see life from His perspective - as opposed to the world's flawed perspective - and living my life accordingly.

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25 thoughts on “A Tale of Two Dreams”

    1. Thanks for your concern, David. I do my giving through a church in North Carolina, after vetting the orphanage and speaking at length with their contact, an American man who has personally visited the orphanage with his wife – and came home with a son! (I followed the family for a while on Facebook, and their story is very touching and well documented.) We get so many requests for financial gifts, we would never send money anywhere without thoroughly checking it out first.

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    2. I HAVE had some “kids” contact me and ask for money. They can get very manipulative, saying things like “What if it were YOUR child who was starving?!” When I found out that a couple of them were in the orphanage where my boys are, I contacted the director of the orphanage, and HE assured me that the ones who contacted me were “not desperate.” I think he had a little talk with them, too. One kid wanted me to send him money for new shoes, and sent me a picture of his old shoes. I’ve got sandals that look WAY worse than his. I laughed and laughed …

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  4. Hi Ann, my wife and I provide assistance to a minister and his family from Burundi in Africa but before we started with the assistance there was a good amount of dialogue that took place involving teaching and answering questions etc, which isn’t the case when dealing with the scams. I agree with David, one does have to be very cautious but the dialogue you got seems to validate their authenticity. And of course, those dreams don’t hurt! We find that our so called “needs” are kept in their proper perspective because of what we know they endure. It’s a humbling experience and we are grateful we can help. Keep a notepad by your bed! Blessings.

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    1. Haha, yes, at one point I kept a dream diary, when I was taking a class in dream interpretation. I finally had to quit, because it was too time consuming, writing down all my dreams (I had several each night that I remembered.) and interpreting every detail. This is why I pray daily that I would remember the important dreams and forget the rest. I remember a lot fewer dreams now. 😉

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  8. Gladdened to see your response above about giving through a church because that throws off lots of red flags to the untrained eye, lol. When they asked you to buy them cellphones that may have been them pushing their limits with you. But even then… not any different from American teens! Money tends to complicate relationships especially with the perception some less fortunate foreigners have that Americans are all living like kings.

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  10. I love your response to them; typical of a mother. Now I realized too, no matter the difference in our race and culture, we all are the same underneath. 😊

    This is a post that speaks of God’s love and greatness!
    More blessings!

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