Parking Lot Meeting

In last night's dream I was walking from a large building to my car in a huge parking lot like at an arena. I had just been at some sort of conference that I some-what enjoyed. I agreed with some of what was said but not everything. (I think this has to do with what was mentioned on SWRC radio's show yesterday about an upcoming conference called "The Future Conference" somewhere in an M state... can't remember which. Tom Horn was on the program yesterday and though he was interesting, I had a hard time with some of stuff he talked about.)
So as I was walking to my car, I was thinking through all that had been said.
I got a few steps from my car and saw 6 or 7 Jehovah's Witnesses walking to their car. They were talking about eschatology and I caught the sentence, "Well, we have 7 more years." I spoke out, "You mean 4." That was an open invitation for them to start talking to me about their Watchtower pamphlets. They started handing me the little booklets and the thicker one that says, "What The Bible Really Says". I told them I already had all of their stuff. (I've taken a copy from any of them that offer it to me. I read it once, and now I throw them away.)
Well, then they asked if they could pray with me. "Sure," I said. We sat in a circle on a tuft of grass in a section of the parking lot. It was me, then to my left, a girl, then a teen boy, then a woman, and another woman, and a man, then another woman or two, back to me. The teen boy started the prayer... I thought about how many people had to pray before I got a turn. But as he started his prayer he said, "Thank you God for all these sexabilities..." The word that should have fit was "possibilities", but because he said it all wrong my mind picked up on it being a dream, and I woke up.

I haven't had any interactions with JWs recently, so who knows where that came from, but the rest seems pretty straight forward. Well, other than the word "sexabilities".

"notes, prayers and conferences"

Last night was like dream central.

But, I only remember the last one.

I was at my best friend from childhood's house in a room with her mom and siblings. We were all talking, then Vanessa (my BF) pulled me into her room to look through some old notes. Her little sister Anne came in with some drawings she had done for me. (Anne is now totally grown up, but in my dream she was very little like I remember her.) I wanted to look at our notes, but Anne kept putting crayon pictures under my nose. There was a brass bed and white vanity in the room, all very girly.

Then I walked outside and on to a crowded Italian street. (We lived in Italy when I was a teenager. Vanessa lived there with me. We were both Air Force brats.) Vanessa was no longer part of the dream but other people from high school were popping up all over. I was headed up a set of stairs (ala Venice) and there were a few old friends heading down. I turned to follow them.

My ex-boyfriend Shane was walking with the group, along with his friends Kevin and Jay. Shane started to pray. I listened very intently (they didn't know I could hear). I was overjoyed at the sincerity of his prayer. Then Kevin prayed, his was a little less, but satisfied me none-the-less.  Then Jay prayed and made a big joke of it; saying, "God, did you see the bunch of $#&*$% nerds up there..." then faded into a laugh. Shane prayed again, and I continued following them into a sanctuary. Shane's sister was there, along with many many other familiar faces, and some non familiar faces.

I tried to find a seat, but no one would let me sit near them. I turned, and my husband was with me, so I took his hand and headed for the front. Towards the end I slid down the aisle on my butt and said, "weee". He was embarrassed.

We sat down and realized that the event was a John Bevere marriage conference.

The big screen came on and played a promo for what we were about to see. The advertisement started with a very boring lecture snapshot and a snapshot of an audience member yawning. Then it cut to John Bevere speaking in his overly zealous way, bouncing around stage. The voice-over said something to the effect of "you won't be bored here". 

Then to my right I saw one of John's traveling companions talking to the lady seated by her. The two women were slightly up in the tiered seating. She said, "well usually you won't be bored. I don't know what went wrong at our last conference; there wasn't much response."

 ...I woke up questioning the validity of the conference.

Perhaps the John Bevere part was suppose to remind me to take some DVDs to my pastor's wife today. I forgot anyway.

I'm hoping that Shane praying sincerely was a window into reality. I've been waiting for decades for him to take God seriously. Not to say that he doesn't in a small way, but not in a "change your life" kind of way.

"Prayer in Dreams"

In last night's dream (the one I can remember), I was with my family in a Vegas type place.  We were in a nice hotel room/apartment looking out over the back wall of the building. The back of the building was covered in white twinkle lights. There was a party going on behind our building. I wanted to go.  We walked out of the room and down to our car. We got in and drove around back. It was just like Vegas where going around a hotel is an event in itself, so by the time we got to the back, we couldn't actually see the lights that I was aiming for. There was a massive parking structure and more 'hotel entry' road ahead that may have also led to parking, but my husband pulled into the first parking structure, a block or more away from our building. (My husband loves to take the tight turns up the parking levels fast when no one is around)... and that's just what he was doing. I was in the passengers seat scared as usual, and then it happened... He drove off the side of the structure! In front of us was a huge gorge with trees on the hill sides. The fall went on for miles. My kids and husband were silent as I said a family prayer out loud for all of us. "Thank you God, that we are coming home today..." The prayer went on and on with thanks. I thought of saying "please help..." but I stopped myself, knowing that we were surely dead at the bottom, so I just said "Thank you." I thought about my legs breaking on impact, but the impact never came. Still in my dream, I woke up surrounded by my family (Mom too). They told me I had been talking in my sleep. "You were about to die, and you were praying. It was beautiful," they said.

I can distantly remember having dreams where I woke up in the dream, but was still asleep; it usually had to do with needing to pee. I would dream that I woke up, got out of bed and went to the bathroom, only to realize that when I got back to bed, I still had to pee... and had to wake up for real.

I can't remember ever having a dream where I woke up to other people around me (all "Wizard of Oz' like).

I have woken up a few times before where my husband is there saying, "You were talking in your sleep." Nine out of ten times that I wake up talking, I'm praying. However, I am usually casting out a demon, or some other type of spiritual warfare, not "thanking" God. So this too, was a first.

And who knows if I was really speaking out loud this time. My husband didn't hear anything.