Three Dreams A Personal Testimony from a New Believer in Central Asia
I was born into a Muslim family, though we were not devout. As a young woman, I was not interested in religion. I believed in God, but when I thought about suffering, disease, disasters, poverty, and death, I was forced to question God’s existence. As a university student, I moved away from my family to the city where I eventually pursued a career in communications. As a public relations consultant, I managed branding projects in the press and media. In many ways, I was in a position to be envied by others. I interacted with the wealthy and famous in business and in the arts. However, personally, I was lost. I had no sense of meaning in life, and I had not found happiness. I often felt like I didn’t really belong to this world, as if my purpose in this life was something other than what I had ever known. At that point, my mother was diagnosed with cancer, and she was forced to stay at home for the treatment. I thought to myself, If my mother dies from cancer, O God, why do we live in the first place? As my questioning continued, one night, I had a dream. I was in the 8 | witness
heavens, on a ship. I was sitting at a table directly across from a man wearing a white smock. He informed me that he was a teacher and that he would unfold the mystery of truth to me. On the table before us was a bowl with stones inside. The man asked me to pick out three stones. Each one I chose was in the shape of a fish. The man said that one stone represented my mother, one myself, and one I would come to understand in time. Then I woke up. The dream had a powerful effect on me because it was so real! The face of the man was so clear in my memory that, if ever I saw him in real life, I would know for sure. When I shared my dream to my closest relative, she also was affected by it. I thought this dream must be some kind of message. But I had no idea what it was about. The next night, I had another dream. I was back on the same ship with that same man. He said he would train me. He asked me to extend my hands and open my palms. When I did, I saw a strong light from heaven hitting and reflecting off the center of my palms. The man said that power and healing were in my hands. Again he said, in
time you will understand what this means. Then I woke up. The next night, I had a third dream. This time I was taken to another room aboard the ship. There were bathtubs in this room and women were stepping in and out of these tubs filled with water. There was a curtain to my right. The man pulled the curtain open to show me an available tub. “Do you want to enter the water in this tub?” he asked. “If you do, you will be cleansed. In fact, you will become a new creature.” Then I woke up. For months, I thought about these three dreams. Although I could not figure out what it all meant, I knew that one day it would be revealed to me. My life began to change. My heart was alive, and it was crying out to me. I knew something was going to happen. After some time, I decided to move back to where my mother lived. There, I learned that there was a church only five minutes from my house. Unknown to me, my mother would often attend the services there, and one day she invited me to join her. When I entered the building, there was a man at the pulpit speaking, but I didn’t pay attention to him because I was so busy observing my surroundings and
