DREAM ON

As I pedaled away from Autumn and the boys my thoughts turned to my previous life…before the world dissolved into chaos and we had to flee to Zion. I had traveled to Serbia to visit my paternal ancestors' original home and birthplaces in what used to be Yugoslavia. Now it was called Vojvodina, an autonomous province that occupied the northernmost part of Serbia. My ancestors were the Slovaks, minority immigrants living in Yugoslavia. For decades my Aunt Winnie and her mother, Oral Amanda Blackburn had done research on my Slovak Grandfather's side but never got further than his parents. They had contacted his half brother, Josef (from his father’s third wife), but he didn’t know much about his father’s side of the family. I wrote to his son, Jan, when I was young. It was exciting to think I had relatives far away in a place called Yugoslavia. I remembered that it was communist for a while. My letters would come back to me with parts cut out because I had asked him abou...

Why so many dreams about children? Two children, a boy and a girl, was it symbolic, was it literal? How was I to know anything? As my life has played out, I have been actively involved in many children’s lives helping them to navigate negativity, danger, and become closer to their best selves. Maybe THIS was my message? I wasn’t sure. I walked over to where choir practice would be held. In the same compound as the music building was the Creator’s Workshop. Inside that huge workshop I could hear a lot of cool musical sounds interrupted with intermittent crashing sounds and laughter. I still had a few minutes so I peeked in. There I saw two of my grandsons, Emmet and Taran. On a nearby whiteboard was a design of a contraption. In front of the whiteboard was a partially finished model of the contraption. It was Emmet's brainchild. He loved to design “inventions” and then build them with Uncle Ephraim’s help. This was an instrument for his younger brother to get inside a...

I believe the two children I brought back had been the only survivors of the Novi Sad branch in Serbia. They lived in Bački Petrovac in the rural farming area. They had been living in caves up in the foothills and had run out of food. I don’t know how long they had been alone, but they decided to give up. As they began to walk down the mountainside, a slight tremor in the earth loosened the boulder which provided the way for their escape. My father’s family is from Bački Petrovac and his ancestors in that place can be traced back for hundreds of years. When the members of the Novi Sad branch were openly persecuted they called church headquarters looking for advice and help. Originally they were told to have a year’s food storage and supplies and to live by the spirit so they would know what to do. Some of them did this and their supplies were used up helping those around them who hadn’t prepared or couldn't afford to. This was during the time of the “wooing”. Elihuel an...