I had a dream last night about a bombing that woke me up about 7:30am this morning. I couldn't go back to sleep very easily because of some of the images I remembered because it was so thorough and some of it disturbing. I wasn't sure who to tell or where to post this so I just decided to post it here. I'm sure I will talk to someone sooner or later but for now, this is what happened:
I was standing outside of some building, kind of wandering about. They were large buildings, not small. I suddenly noticed a man walking to a building with his wife and child in a stroller across from where I was. There wasn't a street dividing the buildings, just cement. Well, he started looking around the building very suspiciously. I pulled out some small binoculars from my pocket to get a closer look, but for some reason never really looked through them. I knew something was up. Then I saw another man standing nearby the building where I was, looking a little suspicious as well.
At that point, I decided to go into the building where I was standing initially. I was met by a security guard who told me to come with him. My first thought was that maybe he suspected that I was up to something! But I went along with him. He led me to a large group of people not far from there, one of which was my mom. She was standing on my left. I didn't recognize anyone else. The next thing that happened was, we all got down on our knees as if to pray, getting ourselves prepared for something. I knew that something was going to happen at that point. I remember somebody saying "It's going to get very hot now." Right after he said that, I heard a loud explosion, and just as he said, it started to heat up around us. I remember taking a quick glance just before that. Along with the heat was this sound like a powerful wind going over us. I remember lifting up my right hand to pray that God would protect us! It was pretty intense from what I remember!
After about a good minute of that, it calmed down and everyone turned out okay. We all got up and just looked at each other with great relief and even hugged and held on to one another. I don't remember anyone screaming or yelling or even crying, we were all okay. It was done and we were all relieved.
While the first part was intense, this next part was a bit disturbing.
After this, I wanted to know what happened out there. I remember going outside and looking around. On the other side, all I saw were large rocks and boulders all around. I walked closer to the building to get a better look. I couldn’t see very much so I walked over to what seemed like a sliding door made of metal, kind of like a large shed door. I slid it opened, took one look and shut it instantly! All I saw inside were body parts lying on the ground. Right after I shut it, I noticed a little girl, maybe 8 yrs old, sitting in the corner by the door. She immediately got up and led me into that same room. This time, however, the scene was more bearable yet still a bit gruesome. After looking around for a good minute, it became apparent what was going on in there. The scene was one of people caught up in sexual immorality, or as the world would put it, an orgy. However there was nothing explicit that was in view. All the bodies were charred, and some of the bodies were even kneeling or sitting in a ‘frozen’ position, almost like mannequins.
Now the weird thing is, along with these normal people were other smaller people in a pile on my right side. They were the size of dolls, but they had the appearance of real people. The little girl explained to me that the people were using them in some sort of idolatrous way, as if they were bowing down to them. She was trying to show me by going through the motions as well as explaining it to me. I didn’t totally understand what she meant.
After she explained this to me, the dream ended.
I woke up feeling very uneasy and couldn’t go back to sleep. Those images were still in my mind, so I got into prayer for our nation and those caught up in immorality. Eventually I fell back asleep. I had another dream that was a kind of the aftermath, but I can’t for the life of me remember what happened! I don’t think it was anything of significance.
Well, this indeed was a rare dream. I wasn’t sure what to make of it exactly. But as I got into the Word later, it seemed to speak to me, or interpret, the dream I had. I read Hebrews 10, which basically describes the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who’s sacrifice was able to forgive sin once and for all, whereas the blood of bulls and goats was not. It’s a great chapter! But it also speaks of those who make His sacrifice seem like no big deal. These verses spoke to me directly about the dream. Starting in verse 26 it says:
26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!
35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has a great reward.
36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
37 “For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.
The message was clear to me: for those who understand what Christ did for them, and reject Him and continue in sin without regard to God will be devoured by the wrath of God. But for those who live by faith and continue to put their trust in God and in the work of Christ who shed his blood for us, will be under His protection and receive the promise of eternal life!
Amen! =)
*NOTE: DREAM ACTUALLY OCCURRED ON JUNE 6 BUT POSTED JUNE 7.*
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Being Stretched
Well, this time off of work has been interesting to say the least. I've had my hands full getting Onoma up and running, networking, sponsoring, getting new designs printed, trying to decide the best course of action as to how to sell the shirts online, and registering at Mt. SAC for Speech class. Man it seems everyday I have a list of things to do. But, I'm hoping that by the time I get back to work, this list will be managable! Well...it has to be, that's the bottom line.
I decided to take a break today and focus on other things, like cleaning my mess of papers. lol And I got alot cleaned actually. Then I decided to take time to blog tonite to write down some thoughts of mine. Maybe this will help relieve a little stress.
So, this business has been a great challenge in the area of decision-making, an area that I've always struggled with. There are times I know what I want right away, but when I don't know, oh boy! I'll be pacing back & forth forever analyzing the situation, which has taken most of my time lately. But you know, I thought that this is actually good for me, because I DO want to make good decisions, and good decisions should not be hasty but thought out and weighed carefully right? So this has helped me to do just that. I tend to get ancy and want to just make the decision and be done with it, but the decisions I'm making will affect the company and I can't afford to just makes hasty decisions, so I'm learning that as well. It's been tough, though, and trying.
Right now, for instance, I'm trying to decide whether I should: A) Sell my shirts at an online store where they print all my shirts, provide the site and take care of all the shipping and customer service, or B) Get my own site (like Yahoo commerce site or other), print my shirts locally, and ship them out myself. There are adv/disadv to both sides. Doing this myself, I have more control over it as well as the experience of fully running the business. When I get my tees printed locally I can simply take what I need out for sponsorees, friends, etc., and there's no min order I need to fulfill. And I like working with someone personally when they go to print to sort out details. On the other hand, letting someone else do it takes that off my hands. When I run low on inventory, they'll just replenish it (with a min. 24 shirt order, which is a tad high). I can then focus on the website and marketing of my company. But if I need extra shirts I'll need to get them shipped to me. Also, I wanted to send out stickers with each order, and I'm not sure if another company would even do that for me.
Now, one thing about doing it myself was, I wouldn't have anywhere to store the tees, so I thought the answer was obvious, until...one day I came home to find out that my mom (yes I still live at home, I know) had cleared the top shelf of the closet I use in the hallway. Later, that got me thinking. I realized that if I folded the tees nicely enough, I could fit them all side by side on that shelf and store a good deal of them there, while keeping the rest in the storage! I though 'perfect!' So that may just work out fine. So my other thought is, what if I DO get busy and I find I don't have time for all this shipping stuff, then what? But seriously, how much time does it take to check for orders, grab the tees, package them and take it to the post office? Maybe I'm worrying unnecessarily. Anyhow, if I do get to the point where I'm shipping tees on a regular basis, maybe that means it's time to let someone else like PrintMojo to do the printing/shipping for me. For now, I think I'll be okay, and again, this will give me some experience regarding this side of the business, so maybe I should take advantage of it while it's still new!
By saying that, yes, I do have this amazing confidence that Onoma WILL grow. It must be the Lord, cause from time to time I look at where I'm at and think 'What am I doing? Should I even be doing this, should I just let this go? Maybe I'm getting in over my head.' And I'll feel very unsure and incapable all of a sudden. Then I'll remember why I wanted to do this in the first place (to use the gift He's given me, to create a business to provide for missionary work, the poor, etc. and be fully involved with the company) and realize that this is good, and He has gotten me here, not me. He reminds me of that when I see so much happening with this company, and I look at other clothing co.'s and don't see much happening with them, and I start to wonder if I should have started much simpler like them! But the Lord reminds me that I wanted to do so much with this company, so being 'simple' is NOT in the equation! lol In order to get the company where I'd like, I've got to keep pushing forward, which seems to be all that's happening, and NOT look behind.
It reminds me of Peter when he walked on water to meet the Lord. He started out fine, right, but what happened? When he stopped and noticed what was going on, he started sinking. That's how I can feel from time to time, like I'm gonna sink instead of succeed! But when I get my focus back on Him, he rejuvenates me and encourages me to go forward with the momentum of a jaguar and the grace of a doe and the...okay maybe He wasn't that detailed. lol Just couldn't resist. But he does encourage me to move forward and to keep my trust in Him.
Wow long post. So last Thursday I saw the Ortho, who instructed me to start doing some strengthening exercises so I can go back to work soon. My arm is very close to having a full range of motion, almost. He gave me four weeks to see him again, but told me if I feel capable to go back to just let him know and he will release me, so I'm hoping maybe in two weeks or so, we'll see.
So right now, I'm feeling very good about option B, running everything myself for now. If it gets busier, I'm sure I can transfer that work over fairly smoothly, since I'd own the domain name. So I just might go with this option. *pause* Yeah, just might.
I do have another brand called HBC (Hummingbird Concepts) that I'm working on as well. I brought that up because for THAT company, the decision was easy! lol I just used a print-on-demand site where I can send in all my designs, have a site, and sell shirts as the orders come in. Very simple concept. I like that! So I'm pretty stoked about that. I have about four designs total I'm presently posting so they should be out soon. The new designs for Onoma should be out soon as well, and as soon as I get the shirts printed, I'm going to do a little photo shoot with a couple of people, then post those to my site. It's so close...I can taste it! hehe
In other news, I recently saw Apocolypto on DVD. Freaky man! It was intense for me and kept my attention for sure. I couldn't stop watching til the end cause I had to see what was going to happen to Jaguar Paw! lol Yeah it was intense, it reminded me of the part on King Kong where they came face to face with that tribe on the island. That was also pretty freaky. But this movie was more bloody and barbaric. I'll tell you, when you put your faith in anything but a loving God who wants your life to be a blessing, you'll start believing the strangest things, not unlike the people in Apocolypto.
Okay I can't end like that.
Ummm...sweet thoughts...sweet thoughts. Draft autosaved at 2:16 AM. lol Quote from Night at the Museum: "Someone's gotta pay!" "Why does someone have to pay?" "I don't know! Look...stop whining and take it like a man!" lol Loved that movie.
Okay, now I have to go it's getting a tad bit late. Nite. =)
I decided to take a break today and focus on other things, like cleaning my mess of papers. lol And I got alot cleaned actually. Then I decided to take time to blog tonite to write down some thoughts of mine. Maybe this will help relieve a little stress.
So, this business has been a great challenge in the area of decision-making, an area that I've always struggled with. There are times I know what I want right away, but when I don't know, oh boy! I'll be pacing back & forth forever analyzing the situation, which has taken most of my time lately. But you know, I thought that this is actually good for me, because I DO want to make good decisions, and good decisions should not be hasty but thought out and weighed carefully right? So this has helped me to do just that. I tend to get ancy and want to just make the decision and be done with it, but the decisions I'm making will affect the company and I can't afford to just makes hasty decisions, so I'm learning that as well. It's been tough, though, and trying.
Right now, for instance, I'm trying to decide whether I should: A) Sell my shirts at an online store where they print all my shirts, provide the site and take care of all the shipping and customer service, or B) Get my own site (like Yahoo commerce site or other), print my shirts locally, and ship them out myself. There are adv/disadv to both sides. Doing this myself, I have more control over it as well as the experience of fully running the business. When I get my tees printed locally I can simply take what I need out for sponsorees, friends, etc., and there's no min order I need to fulfill. And I like working with someone personally when they go to print to sort out details. On the other hand, letting someone else do it takes that off my hands. When I run low on inventory, they'll just replenish it (with a min. 24 shirt order, which is a tad high). I can then focus on the website and marketing of my company. But if I need extra shirts I'll need to get them shipped to me. Also, I wanted to send out stickers with each order, and I'm not sure if another company would even do that for me.
Now, one thing about doing it myself was, I wouldn't have anywhere to store the tees, so I thought the answer was obvious, until...one day I came home to find out that my mom (yes I still live at home, I know) had cleared the top shelf of the closet I use in the hallway. Later, that got me thinking. I realized that if I folded the tees nicely enough, I could fit them all side by side on that shelf and store a good deal of them there, while keeping the rest in the storage! I though 'perfect!' So that may just work out fine. So my other thought is, what if I DO get busy and I find I don't have time for all this shipping stuff, then what? But seriously, how much time does it take to check for orders, grab the tees, package them and take it to the post office? Maybe I'm worrying unnecessarily. Anyhow, if I do get to the point where I'm shipping tees on a regular basis, maybe that means it's time to let someone else like PrintMojo to do the printing/shipping for me. For now, I think I'll be okay, and again, this will give me some experience regarding this side of the business, so maybe I should take advantage of it while it's still new!
By saying that, yes, I do have this amazing confidence that Onoma WILL grow. It must be the Lord, cause from time to time I look at where I'm at and think 'What am I doing? Should I even be doing this, should I just let this go? Maybe I'm getting in over my head.' And I'll feel very unsure and incapable all of a sudden. Then I'll remember why I wanted to do this in the first place (to use the gift He's given me, to create a business to provide for missionary work, the poor, etc. and be fully involved with the company) and realize that this is good, and He has gotten me here, not me. He reminds me of that when I see so much happening with this company, and I look at other clothing co.'s and don't see much happening with them, and I start to wonder if I should have started much simpler like them! But the Lord reminds me that I wanted to do so much with this company, so being 'simple' is NOT in the equation! lol In order to get the company where I'd like, I've got to keep pushing forward, which seems to be all that's happening, and NOT look behind.
It reminds me of Peter when he walked on water to meet the Lord. He started out fine, right, but what happened? When he stopped and noticed what was going on, he started sinking. That's how I can feel from time to time, like I'm gonna sink instead of succeed! But when I get my focus back on Him, he rejuvenates me and encourages me to go forward with the momentum of a jaguar and the grace of a doe and the...okay maybe He wasn't that detailed. lol Just couldn't resist. But he does encourage me to move forward and to keep my trust in Him.
Wow long post. So last Thursday I saw the Ortho, who instructed me to start doing some strengthening exercises so I can go back to work soon. My arm is very close to having a full range of motion, almost. He gave me four weeks to see him again, but told me if I feel capable to go back to just let him know and he will release me, so I'm hoping maybe in two weeks or so, we'll see.
So right now, I'm feeling very good about option B, running everything myself for now. If it gets busier, I'm sure I can transfer that work over fairly smoothly, since I'd own the domain name. So I just might go with this option. *pause* Yeah, just might.
I do have another brand called HBC (Hummingbird Concepts) that I'm working on as well. I brought that up because for THAT company, the decision was easy! lol I just used a print-on-demand site where I can send in all my designs, have a site, and sell shirts as the orders come in. Very simple concept. I like that! So I'm pretty stoked about that. I have about four designs total I'm presently posting so they should be out soon. The new designs for Onoma should be out soon as well, and as soon as I get the shirts printed, I'm going to do a little photo shoot with a couple of people, then post those to my site. It's so close...I can taste it! hehe
In other news, I recently saw Apocolypto on DVD. Freaky man! It was intense for me and kept my attention for sure. I couldn't stop watching til the end cause I had to see what was going to happen to Jaguar Paw! lol Yeah it was intense, it reminded me of the part on King Kong where they came face to face with that tribe on the island. That was also pretty freaky. But this movie was more bloody and barbaric. I'll tell you, when you put your faith in anything but a loving God who wants your life to be a blessing, you'll start believing the strangest things, not unlike the people in Apocolypto.
Okay I can't end like that.
Ummm...sweet thoughts...sweet thoughts. Draft autosaved at 2:16 AM. lol Quote from Night at the Museum: "Someone's gotta pay!" "Why does someone have to pay?" "I don't know! Look...stop whining and take it like a man!" lol Loved that movie.
Okay, now I have to go it's getting a tad bit late. Nite. =)
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