I needed help lighting the hope candle… 

I sent a letter this Christmas to our friends back home saying that I had been fighting discouragement. I wrote this year’s letter focusing on Hope and confessing that I needed help lighting the Hope candle. I wanted to share with you how God literally lit the candle for me this Christmas through my neighbor, Aziza. It starts with a dream and ends with a candle lit on my mantle. Please read my story and may the God of miracles continue to shine his light in the darkness.

She came to our gate, eager to tell Lana (that’s me) about a dream. In her dream a man dressed in white and surrounded by small children called her name. He called her name three times. Each time she turned to him, but he said “No. Not you.” The third time he called her, she said “Yes? That is my name! You are calling me!” He was lighting several colorful candles and said “Yes, you! Take these colored candles to light your life. And this white one… give it to Lana. “Lana? Why Lana?” she wondered. “For it to shine in her life” he replied.

It was Christmas night and the Advent Candles were burning on my dining room table. I invited her in to see. I told her the meaning of each of the candles according to what we’ve learned in church this month. “The first candle is for the prophets, the second for Mary and Joseph, the third for the shepherds, the fourth for the magi who came from the East to worship Jesus. The middle candle is the Christ candle. It represents the light of Christ that came into the world on Christmas.”

“It’s WHITE,” she gasped as tears filled her eyes.

I led her to my living room mantle where I had set my Christmas gift from my daughters. A candelabra. I took the middle candle out of the candelabra and gave it to her. She went to the dining room and lit it. Giving it back to me, she said “It’s for you because in the dream the man gave me the lighted white candle to present to you, to make your life shine.”

Pray for:

• Aziza – she wants to know more. She told me that she wants to spend more time with me reading the Bible and praying together. Please pray that she believes the whole gospel and that she and her husband “pass the Light” around our neighbourhood.
• Her husband – he identified the man in white in the dream as Jesus. He said, “He is dressed in white and he is surrounded by little children, just like all the stories Lana has shared with us. He is Jesus!” Aziza agreed, which is why she cried when I told her that the white candle is the Christ candle.
• My hope candle – Thank you, Lord Jesus for literally lighting my hope candle this Christmas. Forgive me for loosing hope when you are clearly at work in the community around me. Pray for other workers like me who may struggle with discouragement from time to time.
• My other neighbour – That isn’t all! God sent another neighbor to my house this morning to tell me about a dream. Once again, a dream that included me as well as a man dressed in white. Please pray that she becomes convinced that the man in white is Jesus! Ask God for more dreams for people all across North Africa. They are so significant in people’s journeys towards knowing and recognising Jesus as Saviour.

From a worker in North Africa, names have been changed.