The dream is so disturbing that I guess it’s easier to set it aside. But it came back to me today and I had the thought, “maybe this is something that represents God’s heart about those who are voiceless and in great pain.” A lot of people are living lives like the people in Shannon’s dream. Here it is.
In this dream we were in a white church van. Outside the van was a leper colony. People were covered in sheer gauze, wrapped like mummies and destroyed burn victims. Those who had discernible faces were ruined physically. Most were missing limbs, and ALL were missing tongues and could only weakly, but persistently, moan. With what little strength they had, they were reaching for us, moaning. They were so weak they could barely reach or move, but they were all trying.
At this point all I could feel was deep terror. The scene was horrific and I was scared as they reached, near-dead, for me. I remember being glad for the van because they couldn’t reach us.
Then, to something deeper than horror, I saw the most disturbing image. Standing in the middle of all these diseased people was an African woman. Her body was charred completely, no flesh visible at all. She was blackened to a point that she looked like a piece of burned food. She resembled a skeleton more than anything, no eyes, no teeth, no fingers, no facial features. Her mouth was hanging open like a skeleton might. She held a baby that was in identical condition to her, if not worse.
Terrifyingly, though, she moved. Her movement was extremely slower than even the lepers. You had to concentrate almost to see the movement. They were clearly dead, devoid of life long, long ago. Yet, somehow, an echo of life remained to the point that she was moving. She was crumbling as she reached out the last of her strength, strength impossible to be in her burnt body. She reached her dead baby out to me.
My heart broke. It was so devastating, as if in her not-even-living condition she was still trying to save her not-even-living child. That broke my heart the most, as if she wasn’t even aware of the death of her condition, but still had hope to be saved.
This was my dream. It was so vivid and graphic that it made me cry every time I thought about it.
I’ve heard that it so unsettled Shannon that she’s preparing to go as a full-time missionary to the country in Africa that it calls to mind: The Sudan.
Ever have a dream that scared you like that? I have – it was so vivid I awoke with my heart pounding. Anyway, let me know if you have some thoughts about it.
Wow, what a dream. It definitely is to graphic and detailed to shrug off. Its is calling for an interpretation.
I do agree that the dream is saying people are in pain and mute to us.. .that we don’t see them or maybe we don’t want to be near there pain, afraid we will catch something or be creeped out…
kinda like when you walk into a really dirty place with disease and parasite conditions you feel protective of your skin and your person.
The fact that the dream is so horrific in the description of the leprosy condition and burnt charred dead woman,
(albeit they were moving so maybe they just appeared beyond hope and as dead but there still really was hope if even the slightest movement could be detected then that would indicate life)
makes me want to interpret it further than just having the unseen people in pain… this seems to be saying what will we do with the grotesque people who though are perhaps very contagious and outcast who need us to find them and reach out to them because they are reaching out to us for hope and help. Like Father Damien did, going to live among the lepers…knowing that it would more than likely be his death as well… most of us who have the true love of God like to be fruitful and we like to help others but we have our limits and boundaries… we will help children or the elderly or something safe and yet very fruitful… nothing wrong with that… but there are those who are called to get their hands dirty and lose their life or risk their life to get into the trenches with those people who are already cast offs, HIV, AIDS, Lepers, etc… they need to be given love and hope. Its one thing to help others, its another thing to risk your life to help others.
This dream seems to be a calling.
I don’t know who Shannon Morgan is…. was this dream a specific calling to her or his life and to share with others… certainly if I had been given that dream I would want to know what to do with it. It was obviously a message or cry to get out and help, to do something. It certainly has made me think.
“Lord Jesus, I pray for Shannon, that you would come and be near her. Oh God, use her to bring LIFE – to bring WHOLENESS – to make ANEW that which was dead….
“Holy Spirit, I ask that you would speak to her in more dreams in the night – in the early hours of the morning in the middle of the night…
“Come in your power and use Shannon for your glory and your GREAT NAME…”
I have loads of dreams. But since I stopped watching TV and being fed with this sad stories, my dreams became more happy!!!