This is a rather remarkable story of one couple’s journey. (Source)
It was January 2006 and she was living in Singapore with her husband, Kumar, and her son, Karthi. In her dream she saw a “very humble lady” surrounded by candles.
She and Kumar were devout Hindus and they knew the lady in Uma’s dreams was not a Hindu god. They knew little of Christianity, but they thought this lady might be the Blessed Mother. Still, because they came from a long tradition of Hinduism in India, they didn’t give the dream much thought.
Later that year Kumar got a job that took him to San Diego. A few months later, he found a new job in McLean. Uma and Karthi joined him that December.
This past April, Uma began to have more dreams of Mary.
One night she dreamed she was walking into a church she’d never seen before. Once inside, she turned right and found a little room where there were red candles and a statue of Mary.
The second night, she was in the same room, but this time she saw a big cross made of palm leaves.
Another night, she dreamed she was in a boat. On her right was a black woman with dark hair and on her left, a lady wearing a blue scarf and holding a Bible. The woman in blue showed Uma some verses to read to make her worries disappear. In her dream, Uma read the Bible verses and both women disappeared.
Uma and Kumar talked about the dreams and, by the fourth night, they decided to visit a church to see what was happening.
Kumar typed “St. Mary Church Fairfax” into Google and entered the address from the first result into his GPS device. The address was for St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax.
When they got to the church, Uma was shocked. On the outside, it looked just like the church she had dreamed about the first night. When they went inside and turned right, there was a small chapel with red votive candles, a statue of Mary and a cross. It was just like her dreams. Uma started to cry.
Read the whole thing. It gave me goosebumps when I read it. The Holy Spirit moves in Mysterious Ways, using methods and persons that could confound us, if we did not believe. I like what the priest says in the story:
“It makes you think, are we flexible enough to understand the ways God may work that are outside the box that we have constructed?”
Related:
From the same source, From Sikh to Catholic Priest
November 5th, 2009 | 3:11 pm | #1
Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that incredible article. God truly does work in wonderful and mysterious way. Blessed be the name of the Lord!
November 5th, 2009 | 3:29 pm | #2
I was reading in Edward Rutherfurd, an account of how some Irish Druids became Christian priests. They decided that the wisdom they were groping towards led them to the worship of Christ, & this was the true meaning of the shadows they saw.
While a lot of the pagan priesthood was fervently against the whole thing, many of them had been uneasy about human sacrifice & speculating about the new religion for quite a bit.
You would have liked it- but it was in a full-length book & I know of no reduction to article size of the thing.
I wonder whether this happened much I suppose the “GREAT IS DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS” factor often kicked in amongst laity & clergy. But not always.
November 5th, 2009 | 4:08 pm | #3
This Christianity business isn’t for everyone though
November 5th, 2009 | 4:20 pm | #4
These must be very, very special people to have this level of intervention. I hope they pray for us as we pray for them.
November 5th, 2009 | 4:46 pm | #5
What a wonderful story! It sounds like the closer Uma came to her conversion, the Evil One was working overtime to keep her from becoming a Catholic. But, God does work in mysterious ways and His Spirit protected her.
November 5th, 2009 | 5:14 pm | #6
Through God, all things are possible!
November 5th, 2009 | 5:49 pm | #7
Kudos to this couple for being open to Mary’s call to them, and to Father and his parishioners for their availability and flexibility. Great story! My prayers that they continue to share it.
November 5th, 2009 | 7:05 pm | #8
What a beautiful story! Thank you!
November 5th, 2009 | 9:39 pm | #9
Somewhat related. At a parish discussion group (Episcopal Church) the asst rector commented on the great number of converts in Africa. He quickly claimed that it is a mixed blessing as the increase in converts may be “a mile wide but it is an inch deep”. Strange comment as I think “the inch deep” aspect overestimates the faith of some episcopal leaders. The converts are wonderful reminders of the beauty of God’s love. God bless them.
How wide is the Tiber?
November 6th, 2009 | 1:23 am | #10
In many instances, the ‘conversion’ is not quite what you would call ‘conversion’. But still Biblically supported.
Paraphrased, “You see, in former times, God allowed us lost sheep to go our own way. But in this time, He sent His Son Jesus into the world to save us, and therefore we are to serve as witnesses to others.
But God has never left Himself without witness; the very heavens and the earth proclaim His glory, and we stand condemned when we reject His knowledge for our own.”
When Christian missionaries swept into Asia and Africa, to their surprise they found in many, many instances that their coming had been foretold for ages by local prophets. They were even more surprised when they started sharing the Gospel and people started weeping because they realised that Maganos, or Thakur Jiu, or Y’wa, or any number of other names, had revealed Himself to them once more.
It seems that many folk religions throughout the world retained some knowledge of Creator God, and Mankind’s sin. When the missionaries returned and preached salvation, it was easy for the tribal folk to make the one-to-one correspondence between their tribal god and YHWH. And so, Jesus Christ is known and preached amongst the Koreans as the Son of Hananim, amongst the Karen as the Son of Y’wa, and Nagaland and Mizoram are heavily Christian states in India.
It’s not just that they are translating ‘God’ into the various different languages and dialects. It’s that the God the Christians proclaim is indeed *their* God also. And so, becoming Christian is not so much a turning away from false religion as it is a fuller fleshing out of their current metaphysical framework.
Ad majorem Dei gloriam.
In unrelated news, I will be praying for the families of the 12 soldiers gunned down in Fort Hood.
November 6th, 2009 | 2:42 am | #11
Oh if we could only get stories like this starting to flood in from Catholics who have lost their faith in supporting the democratic party and there strong abortion agenda. We might be able to stop the holocaust of abortion in our country in a single election cycle.
November 6th, 2009 | 10:04 am | #12
There are many stories circulating lately of Muslims coming to Christ through dreams and visions. The Holy Spirit speaks to us in many ways, and we should never discount dreams. The Scriptures are full of references to the inportance of God revealing Himself in that manner.
November 7th, 2009 | 4:20 am | #13
“These must be very, very special people to have this level of intervention. I hope they pray for us as we pray for them.”
Jack, These people are not special as in “particularly valued” compared to you and me. God is just showing them the same love that He gives to us all.
November 8th, 2009 | 7:09 pm | #14
“How wide is the Tiber?” Steve, speaking as a former Episcopalian, it’s not as wide as some might tell you, but deeper than they could ever comprehend.
Rosemary in Missouri
November 15th, 2009 | 5:05 pm | #15
[...] Fallaci, an atheist who understood and appreciated Benedict, must be smiling. Hindu-to-Christian: Dreaming her way to Christ “They Do Not Love Jesus” Comments [...]
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