Shared Dreams

Have you ever had a friend who shared your deepest dreams? By dreams, I don’t mean the asleep kind of dreams or the I-would-like-to-have-a-red-Mustang-convertible-someday kind of dreams (although those certainly can be good too); I mean the God-given, I’d-be-willing-to-give-my-life-to-this kind of dreams. Have you ever had a friend who shared those dreams? A friend whose heart beats with yours at certain (whether small or large) ideas of discovery, dominion and discipleship? What a blessing a friend like that is!

I’m thankful to say that I have at least one friend like that. My sister. And, oh, the adventures we have had!

A fairly recent adventure was attending the Illinois Christian Home Educators Convention. One of the wonderful things about ICHE is the fabulous resources waiting at one’s fingertips. This year we came across MP3 CDs of specific Stories of Great Christians, biographies of Christian men and women dramatized for radio by the Moody Broadcasting Network. In our area, these stories still air on the radio daily, and we have enjoyed them, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to purchase some for our personal library.

So far, my favorite of the CDs we purchased is “Saint: The Story of Nate Saint, Missionary Pilot”. While the story obviously focuses on Nate’s life from childhood to the gates of eternity, Marjorie Saint’s life is, of course, also woven in. Knowing honestly very little about Marjorie beforehand, I zoomed in on her part of the drama.

Imagine you are a young wife. You have just arrived in Shell-Mera, Ecuador, to see your new house (the mission station) that your husband has been working on. As he gives you a tour, certain things become obvious: your water will come from the rain barrel, the walls don’t go all the way up to the ceiling so that fresh air can come in (even though bugs will probably come in as well) and so much more. You can tell that your husband is nervous, thinking you might not like roughing it like this. How will you respond?

In the radio drama, Marjorie Saint responds like this, “I think I’m going to love it here. I’ve been sharing your dream for pioneer missionary aviation for as long as I’ve known you. It’s my dream now, too. It’s become a part of me. And if you think you can hog all the pioneering to yourself, you’ve got another thing coming!” ¹

Remarkable, right? Marjorie responds with grace and gusto because God had given her the same dream as her husband’s. She owns it for herself and can’t wait to get into it as much as he is. Beautiful, isn’t it? That’s what sharing God-given dreams looks like. That’s why we hope and pray to share dreams with our dearest friends (and especially the man God might have for each of us) - so the watching world can stop and say, “That’s beautiful! God must have done a great thing here.

If you want to see pictures or learn more about Nate Saint, you can start here: http://www.maf.org/about/history/nate-saint#.UeCEnRacN6E 

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¹ “Saint: The Story of Nate Saint, Missionary Pilot” Stories of Great Christians (Moody Broadcasting Network, Chicago: Chapter 11 8:03)