It was on a nice Saturday last month when a blue car pulls into our parking area and out of it pop three people who obviously are recently from somewhere in Africa. I approach, introduce myself, and ask if someone is scheduled for a driving test. This actually occurs quite often. What usually happens is that recent immigrants go to our test site to practice their parking, they see me and decide to play it cool by sitting there while telling me that they are just checking out the required parking maneuvers, then when I leave with a client they hustle and get their practice in.
I tell the leader of the group that my name is Bob and he introduces himself and gives me the English meaning of his African name. His first name is something like "One God has blessed" and his last name means something like "Rock of God". Then he tells me that he is a pastor. When I ask him if he has an appointment scheduled he says that he will do his test with me today. I respond that I'm pretty sure that he is not on my schedule - "You must go to our office over there to make an appointment" to which he responds; "Then I will make an appointment to take my test with you today!" After I tell him again that I am booked and that today is not possible he assures me that "everything is possible." "I believe that as well" I tell him "But you better start praying that someone cancels".
"One God has blessed" doesn't head to the office. He and the other two people stand outside their car to watch the other examiner conduct the parking test with a client. Since I am waiting for my next person I ask the pastor if he knows my friend. "What? he wonders. "Do you know my good friend?" I ask again. "Who would that be?" he answers, very puzzled. "My good friend Jesus!" I announce.
A big smile spreads across his face. "You are a brother! I will do my test with you today!" "Then you better get to the office and start praying" I tell him again. It turns out that today did not happen for the pastor but he scheduled for the next Saturday.
Two days before our first encounter I had this dream. I am sitting in the tailgate of a pickup truck, facing away from the truck and looking at a road that climbs up a hill. Next to me is Jesus who is ministering to a woman who is sick and laying in the bed of the pickup. At the top of the hill is a driveway which leads sharply right to a garage and in the garage is a woman who is in a coffin. I cannot actually see inside the garage but in my dream I knew this was so. Several women start walking from the driveway, down the hill toward us and several more women come out of the garage onto the driveway, looking at us. The women coming down the road call out to Jesus who turns His head quickly to look at them, once, twice and then a third time. He leaves me and the women in the pickup and starts walking up the hill toward the other women. After Jesus gets about 10 yards away I think I better hop off the tailgate and follow Him. Then I woke up.
Nothing clear came to me as to the meaning of the dream. I thought maybe there were references in it to the story in the Bible where Jesus hears about the death of his good friend Lazarus, waits a couple days, then goes to where he is buried and raises him from the dead, but that does not seem to apply to anything personal for me. I pray and ask God to show me if there is anyone that I test that He wants me to share this with.
The Saturday comes when I do indeed have a test scheduled with "One God has blessed." As we are driving along I find out that he is a missionary who has come from the Congo to the U.S. This privately amuses me. If I was asked where was the deepest and the darkest part of Africa I probably would respond that it would be the Congo. Yet today we have missionaries coming from there to our enlightened country. How ironic.
I ask him if he believes in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. "Well yes, of course!" he answers. The pastor is connected with a Pentecostal denomination that is based in California and he will be going there later in the year for missionary training. At this point I remember my dream but am hesitant to share it. I think I should but I don't want to try to appear "spiritual" to him just because I had a dream with Jesus in it. My worry is that it would be wrong to use the dream to gain "brownie points" with someone because he is a pastor.
But then I recall a story told earlier this year by my own pastor Dave. One time when he was an inexperienced youth pastor the senior pastor at his church was going through a very difficult period in his life. A scripture verse came to Dave that seemed to apply to the situation but he was not bold enough to share it. A week later Dave gets a phone call from his father who is also a pastor. "Dave, God gave me this verse and told me it was for your senior pastor." This was the exact same verse but still Dave did not follow his original prompting or the request of his father. Two weeks later Dave has a scheduled meeting with the senior pastor and Dave asks how things are going. The pastor tells Dave that the last month has been hell, but last night he was reading the Bible and a verse caught his attention. It assured him that God understands everything he has been going through and that He has been with him all along. "I am so relieved. A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I am so much better today." The verse was of course the same one that Dave and his father had, a verse that could have brought relief weeks earlier.
When we get finished with the test and the paperwork I share the dream with the African pastor. I tell him that I am usually quite good with interpretations but that nothing had occurred to me until the last leg of our route (this was just after I decided that I would tell him the dream). In the Bible Jesus tells us that He does what He sees the Father doing (John 5:19). The message of this dream is that we should do what we see Jesus doing.
The dear pastor from the Congo grabs his steering wheel and in his broken English tells me that after we first met his wife told him that "that man has something to tell you."
Do I know what help the sharing of my dream will be for the Congo man? No. I suspect that the cost and everything else involved to go to California for missionary training may seem overwhelming at this point. Just because we believe that "everything is possible" does not make it a breeze to take the next step, even for a man of faith. But if our heart is right God finds ways to encourage us. And I too am encouraged.
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