Russia

 

Twenty one years ago I began a journey that was inspired by a dream I had 2 years earlier.  I had this dream near the anniversary of my mother's death.  It actually was the 4th anniversary of the day she spoke her last words to me.  She said, "God will take anything away without giving you something better."  The dream went like this,  I was walking into a house and in the front room was my mother and she was in the blossom of health.  When I saw her I said, "Mom, I am getting married!"  She was so happy for me and she gave me a kiss on my cheek.  I then said to her, "Mom, how can you be here?  I saw you dead in your casket.  She said "They tried to pierce my hands for the sins of my father, but I told them no and I rose up out of that casket."  She then took me into the next room to show me what she was going to wear to my wedding.  She put on this beautiful floor length silver dress.  As I was admiring it, I thought, "Wow, if mom is wearing this silver dress then my wedding should be red with silver instead of red with gold.  I then went into the next room and began making wedding plans and the closing thought of the dream was that I only had 2 weeks! 

 

I knew this dream was rich with symbolism but I didn't know what it meant at the time.  All I knew was that God was telling me I would be married.  A couple of years later, I began to ask God for timing of when I would be married.  I had another set of dreams that involved a Russian girl, Irene Crandel, that I knew from a women's Bible study, the only Russian person I had ever met.  I thought that this dream would be fulfilled the summer I had it in 1994.  One Sunday morning that summer, July 10th, I woke up very discouraged and the Lord brought to my remembrance, Galatians 4:4 "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law."  I did a word study on this verse and I came to the knowledge that fullness of time meant a certain amount of time.  So, I set out to find out God's timing.  The Lord gave me timing in weeks of days.  From the time I had the 3 part dream involving the Russian girl until they were confirmed by Pastor Mike Reed as being prophetic was 122 weeks, then from that time until I moved to the city I was to meet Rich (I was living in Vista and I moved to Oceanside) was another 122 weeks, from then until I got the timing of my visitation was 69 weeks.  The day that ended the last 69 weeks a lady gave me a scripture, Proverbs 23:18, "For surely there is an end and your expectation shall not be cut off."  During the next year and 33 days I came to the understanding of the dream about me telling my mom that I was getting married.  I found out that Red with Silver is a common Russian wedding theme.  I came to the conclusion that I was to go on a missions trip to Russia.  When I booked the trip, 2 weeks later a beautiful bouquet of flowers showed up on my desk. It took a couple of months to figure out that it was Rich having those put there.  He was having flowers put in the front office from the job he had as a party decorator assistant.  When I found out it was him, I began to have some wonderful conversations with him and I began to really like him.  Just 6 days before my trip to Russia, he called and asked me out.  That was July 10, 2001, exactly 7 years from the day that the Lord gave me Galatians 4:4, in the fullness of time...  I knew this was the beginning of the fulfillment of the dream I had.  Sure enough 1 year later he asked me to marry him and he has been all my heart has longed for in a spouse.   So now we sit 14 years from that time (2 weeks of years).   We are waiting to see God move in a mighty way in our lives.  The dream about mom wearing the silver dress was not just my wedding but it was speaking about the resurrection power in our lives because of our union and what God would reveal to us over these last 14 years.  We are no strangers to waiting for God to work.  He brought us together in an amazing way, he gave us a child in an amazing way and He has a work for us to do and we are patiently waiting to see what He will do!

 

In the summer of 2000 I came across this book that was published in 1996, 4 years after I had the dream about my mom with the silver dress and red and silver wedding colors.  I came to the understanding of the symbolism of that dream.  It was giving me the timing of when I would meet the one I was to marry.

 

This Russian Winter wedding theme was near the front of the book.

 

I also got the priveledge of seeing this beautiful silver dress in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.  The royalty wore these beautiful silver gowns to all important ceremonies like coronations and weddings.  They were made with real threads of silver, just amazing!