By Michele Degarmo
That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:10-11
This is why we go. IWM goes to difficult mission fields to wipe the tears of our sisters in Christ. We go because God tells us to go. We use every gift He’s given us when we go, and we use our tongues, our mouths, to proclaim His goodness and offer encouragement to those who come to hear. We proclaim the goodness of the Lord, the faithfulness of the Lord, and the love of the Lord.
We went to Indonesia this trip, to the islands of Bali and Java. They are very different islands, Bali being majority Hindu and Java being majority Islam. We spoke mainly to pastor’s wives, encouraging them to carry on in their good fights against the forces of darkness and evil that prevail on both islands. We talked about dreams and visions from Joel 2:28-29, and how God speaks to us through dreams and visions, whether they be sleeping dreams or dreams of the heart that He gives to us. We found out that many of these women of God dreamed but, until now, didn’t know what to do with those dreams or that they even mattered.
I want to share one testimony from a woman named Tirsa. At our first conference, Tirsa shared that she’s started to have dreams of warning. She had recently had a dream where someone had died and there was blood everywhere, only to wake up to find that one of her church members was in a bad accident. She was scared by these dreams and didn’t know what to do about them, and this was the first time she told anyone about them. I encouraged her to take it to the Lord, every dream, and ask Him what it meant. (We did make it clear up front that we were not a team of dream interpreters!) He’s the one who is giving the dream, so asking Him for interpretation is the best first step. Then we discussed sharing the dream with a trusted mature believer, like her small group leader. She asked if she should be telling these dreams to the people involved in them, and again I pointed her to the Lord for discernment.
Tirsa came again to the second conference on Bali. She had an update she wanted to share with me. Our first conference was Monday and Tuesday of the prior week and this was now the following week. Tirsa reported that she had another warning dream on Wednesday night, warning her about a man and his daughter getting into a motorcycle accident on Friday 9/6 and 12 noon. Date and time given. She told me she woke up and immediately asked the Lord if He wanted her to share this with the person involved, someone she didn’t know directly. He said “yes.” Then she took the dream to her small group leader and asked her if she should tell the person, as it ended up being the neighbor of her group leader. She said “yes.” So, Tirsa and her small group leader went to the neighbor’s house to tell of the dream. Tirsa admitted to being very afraid to tell the family this dream for fear that they would be very angry and hostile toward her. She felt the Lord’s nudging and told the dream to the man’s wife as he wasn’t home. The woman contemplated the dream, then told Tirsa that she felt as though it was God speaking directly to her to bring her back into the fold. She had been away from God, the whole family had been, for a long time and she took this as a sign to come back. She hugged Tirsa and fears turned to relief. They agreed to pray about the time and date and safety for the father and daughter, as that was the time he always picked her up from school.
Tirsa was unsure of what had happened on Friday 9/6 at 12 noon, but found out at church on Sunday because the whole family had returned to church and was able to tell her the outcome! They did, in fact, get into an accident at exactly 12 noon on Friday 9/6. The motorcycle was smashed to pieces, the father had a scrape on his knee and the daughter didn’t have a scratch on her. They were there, back in church, to tell Tirsa the story and how grateful they were that she shared her dream with them as it saved their lives, both physically and spiritually.
Tirsa went on to tell me that she has had 6 of these types of warning dreams so far, and this was the first one she had told to anyone. She was amazed at how the Lord used her to intervene in the life of that man and his daughter, and told me she had learned about sharing her dreams from us (IWM team) at the conference.
We go to tell of the amazing God we serve, to proclaim the name of Jesus throughout the world, and to support missionaries in difficult mission fields. The impact we make cannot be measured by how many come to the altar, as that practice is very culturally dependent. The impact we make cannot be measured in how many women make a commitment for Christ, as we talk a lot to pastor’s wives and women who already know the Lord. But the impact we make can be measured by the testimonies of the women who’s lives are changed, who begin to be able to impact other’s lives, who tell us that they sense a new calling from God to be encouragers of those around them in their neighborhoods and in this workplaces. We go to plant seeds of hope, to encourage women to draw closer to Jesus so that He can then draw nearer to them. This time we encouraged them to draw near so that He will give them dreams and visions. I wonder what He’ll have us say the next time we go?
