MY DREAM HOUSE ON FIRE - Part One

 I saw a house engulfed in flames, as I ran towards it, I Held my cell phone to my ear and called 911...

This year God has been drawing my attention back to things he said 20 years ago. At that time My wife and I made a decision to leave everything and to move to this small city, in response to the invitation of God. 

He told me that, "because you have prayed asking to be a part of the last days movement of My Spirit on the earth; I am inviting you to join me, but you will have to move here and live among this people, and it will cost you everything." 

I made the decision to move here in September of 1992.

In November, of that year, I found a job doing the exact same thing I had done for over four years in the metro area, but at a 66% pay cut. They offered only $12,000 salary a year, and starting with no established customer base. With my family of five that was not much to work with! 

In January 1993 we began looking for a house in earnest, but there were only 80 listings in the entire area, including vacant lots and dilapidated house trailers. We began to look beyond the city within a radius of 20 miles around and still nothing felt like it hit the mark. I even went to a couple of builders in the area and asked if they had plans to develop any new areas; they had no plans in place. One builder however, offered me their very last lot, but it did not fit with in the parameters given to me through prayer. We looked at anything and everything that was at all reasonable.  

After six months of looking... The Lord showed me a house in a dream. 

MY DREAM - May 1993

In my dream I saw a house that was on fire, it was engulfed in flames, as I ran towards it, holding my cell phone to my ear (calling 911), the fire was extingushed.  

A couch and a couple of other pieces of furniture were smoldering on the lawn. 

I could see that the roof was gone and the second floor was completely burned; however, the first floor walls remained intact. 


I stood there shocked at the mess. 
Looking in through a picture window opening, I could see ash and debris piled on the living room floor.  
I lamented the loss of wedding pictures, photo albums, and other family heirlooms and memorabilia  
While I was looking around, the next door neighbor to the left, came out of her house and spoke to me and she said, "it will be okay, in these situations you are just happy when there is no loss of life. 

They will just cut off the second floor, replace the roof, the siding and the windows, you will see... it will look as good as new!"  

She went on to say this is not the only house that has had a fire. That one, she said pointing to a house to her left, had a fire and it was moved in on a new foundation.  I asked myself why would they move a house (that had a fire) onto a new foundation? If it had a fire, the foundation would not be compromised. 

Do you want to take a look inside? I followed her as she gave us the tour, it had hard wood floors and enough space for my family. On the way out the door, I glanced through an open door and saw an older man (in his 60's) pushing a piece of wood through a table saw. He paused long enough to look up at me and smile. 

IN REAL LIFE May 1993 
Later that same day, my dream was played out as we looked at a real house, a house that was not even on the market! In fact it was not salable in its present condition, it had a bad foundation with bowing walls that were ready to collapse. This could not be my dream house, it was more like a nightmare!

That morning we stood outside the house walking through the dew soaked grass of the back yard, and we waited for the widow (Bella) who currently lived there, to put in her teeth and show us around. 

She was the neighbor to the left of the house, that had a fire. Really, she was literally the next door neighbor to a house that had a fire just like the one in my dream. She explained that this property was originally a family farm and that the house next door (the house to the right) was the original farm house.  
My wife said, "really? It doesn't look like an original farm house." Bella said, "well... that house had a fire and the second floor was burned completely, they cut it off at the second floor, replaced the roof, the siding,  the windows, well you can see, it looks as good as new." 

 Then she summed it up by saying let's go see the house and gave us a tour of her home. 

Later, I was able to verify through historical society records that our street number address had a fire but it occurred when it was attached to the original farm house right next door at the time. When the owner finished his new home in 1951, he must have moved the street number to the new home and changed the street number on the original farm house. So according to the historical society records, this house had a fire some years back and city building permits show that it was moved in onto a new foundation in 1993 when i replaced the foundation. Many other details of this dream were verified as well, like the old man at the table saw we found out later that he had built the house himself as his retirement home. 

I will tell more of the story on my next blog Part 2 - A river runs through it. 

Various writings from the past
The Road Not Taken
At Home In MN