It Was Only a Dream

It was only a dream!” We have all said those words at one time or another, and most of the time that is true. But every now and then, especially here in Africa, we hear about dreams that have great meaning. Let me share one of these with you.

Elizabeth accepted Christ as her Savior about 5 years ago. Since that time, she has been faithfully praying for her family to know and experience her wonderful Savior. Well, this story is not about her, but about her father.

Mr. Chungu is a kind and gentle man. He is 69 years old and has been a Catholic all his life; a good church-goer. Mr. Chungu recently started working for us in our yard. You might be thinking, “He is too old.” Actually, he says the work in our yard is “like playing compared to his previous job.”

Recently, I went outside to talk to Mr. Chungu. In our conversation, I invited him to come and visit our church sometime. I also gave him a pamphlet titled, “I’m a Pretty Good Person.” I asked him to read it and tell me what he thought.

A few days later, I asked him about the pamphlet. He said it was good and that he understood it. We talked for a few minutes, and I shared with him that it is Jesus who saves us from our sin, not our good works. He agreed and went back to work.

The next Sunday, Mr. Chungu came to visit our church. The message being preached by one of our leaders (a man named Dimas) was from Matthew 18:1-4. The disciples had asked Jesus who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. To answer their question, Jesus called a little child to come to Him and said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The following day when Mr. Chungu came to work, Dimas, the one who had preached the message, was also at my home. I asked Mr. Chungu what he learned from the sermon. He then began to share with me how he had returned to his home on Sunday thinking a lot about the sermon. When he fell asleep that night, he had a dream. In the dream Jesus was teaching the children. As He was teaching, He looked up and saw Mr. Chungu standing nearby. He invited him to come to Him.

When I asked Mr. Chungu what he thought about the dream, he said, “Jesus is calling me to come to Him. He wants to come into my heart and be my Savior. I must accept him with humility like a little child.” Right there in the yard, Mr. Chungu prayed and invited Jesus to come into His life. He made a commitment to follow Jesus as His Savior and Lord.

No matter what we think about dreams, who can deny the fact that God used this dream in Mr. Chungu’s life to draw Him to salvation.