D r e a m s D r e a m s D r e a m s I love dreams! I guess I've had a fair share of them in my life (who would have thought?!)... There are the dreams when I am sleeping: the random ones... silly ones... scary ones... stressful ones. Did you ever wonder what a missionary dreams of? I don't know about others, but I dream quite a bit about traveling to foreign places. Like the dream I had a couple of nights ago. It was soooo cool! I'll spare you the details, but Rich and I were on some trip with a stop-over in China, and it became an unexpected long stay with a Chinese family. The dream was so vivid and I really enjoyed learning all kinds of things about Chinese culture (including the fact that the whole family was wearing exactly the same shoes, just in different sizes - funny!). The main frustration of course was the communication - or lack of it :) Now, how exciting is that? A trip to China (never been there, only Taiwan and Hong Kong for a couple of days - 20 years ago) - all in a dream? Pretty time-efficient and good for the budget, too:) And no, there was absolutely nothing triggering that dream, like something I'd seen on TV or read. It was a blast and I didn't want to wake up from it. Now have a guess at what my stressful dreams are usually about??? Very hard to guess - - - NOT! They are about moving, selling or giving away our bigger belongings and trying to fit the rest into a few suitcases - and then trying to clean a home and catch a plane on time - with the kids in tow! Oh, I don't even want to go there - - - you may be able to imagine the literal nightmares :) Besides the night dreams - which have, at times, even been messages from God, I have one other MAJOR dream for my life - a dream of my heart. I am not sure if and how and when it'll come about, but I figure it may be when I am a grandma. Have you ever met anybody who was looking forward to getting old? Well, you're meeting one now :)! If that dream may only come about when I'm old (I mean REALLY old - some teenagers think I'm old already :)) - I am actually looking forward to that stage of my life - VERY MUCH SO!! This week I came across an article about a ministry in South Africa, called Door of Hope at http://www.holeinthewall.org.za THIS is exactly what my dream is all about - caring for abandoned babies. If it won't happen any time soon, I am willing to wait until I am old. After crying my heart out - once again - about the abandoned babies and orphaned children - I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited when I read about this ministry - even to the point of it disturbing my sleep:) I have carried this dream in my heart since I was a little girl. Even as a teenager I was trying to find an orphanage to help care for the little ones, but there wasn't one. So far, in all the places I've lived at, there has never been a need in that area and I know it hasn't been time yet. To find out that in Johannesburg alone there are 40-50 newborn babies abandoned every month just about tears my heart out - and puts such a strong desire in my heart to do something about this! I know that the needs are pretty much the same all over Africa - Rich's and my desire is to do something - one day - in French Africa. We'll see - - - For now, I am kept busy with my own tribe, but I would so love to start doing something besides praying - - - God knows - - -