KEYWORDS: kids, teaching, materials, mama, teachers, children

Teaching the Children Dream

David Berg

DO 2845 2/93

1. I had a wonderful dream! (Mama: Thank You Lord!) We were on a beach & we had all these different children's classes going on. It was just like we were camping out. We just had tarps & curtains dividing the different classes, but you could go & look over into each class at what was going on. The teachers were volunteers of different ages, they weren't very trained or educated, but they were doing a good job. They were all really going at it, & the kids were really listening, fascinated! Some of the teachers were teens‚ including David & Techi.

2. We were walking down the beach & saw these two little toddlers playing around, away all on their own, & the face of one of them was real dirty. It was the son of somebody important‚ like Fred Jordan's little boy, & I fussed at him, "What are you doing out here? How come you're not in class, & how come you're all dirty?" He knew he was being naughty. And we grabbed them both & took them over to the classes & fussed at the teachers for letting them get away & get all messed up, & stuck them back in class.

3. Then somebody else was working on the beach, a couple of young people were laying gravel, making a gravel walk along a straight line down the beach by the street.

4. Everybody was very busy, & the main thing of the dream was the kids & teaching the kids. And I thought of all the things they'd need, such as more literature, & more working materials‚ like workbooks & teaching materials. That was the most important thing they needed. The most important thing they had to do was to teach the kids, & the most important things they needed to have were workbooks & teaching materials for them to work on. (Mama: Were you thinking about scholastics or Word?) Both!—All kinds of teaching & education.

5. This was right out in such a public place, right on a beach like Miami or someplace, & all the public was passing by, looking in at these classes going on, & they were very impressed. It was like our children's schooling was the most important thing there was, as well as materials for them to learn with. (Mama: It could be symbolic of how our Homes are getting so much more open now & the public is scrutinising our schooling.) Exactly. And that materials for them to work with are the most important kind of literature we need, & they shouldn't neglect their little rascals & let them be running around just playing on the beach & getting dirty on their own. Everybody had to be in class, everybody had to be taught.

6. This was an absolutely miraculous dream! The whole thing, the dream, everything! It just seemed like it brought me to life. I felt like I was dying last night! I had another terrible nightmare! I was having a real battle with the Devil, & this dream just brought me to life! I just had the dream, & now I want to get up & drink my milk.

7. One of the most important jobs our teens can be trained for is teaching our little ones. I was a Sunday School teacher when I was about 12. I was teaching 8 and 9-year-olds, from the time I was about 12 to 14, and I really took it seriously and I really made it work. In Sunday School we were always winning pennants and prizes for doing the best job and having the best class, knowing memory verses the best and having the best increase and progress and all kinds of things. We were constantly winning a banner for something, and I took it seriously and I worked hard. Even my friend Lamont, who was my age, was in one Sunday School class I was given to teach, so some of the kids must have been as old as I was. I really made them work and really learn their lesson and their memory verse. They had to get up and recite the memory verse together before the whole Sunday School.

8. That dream was like sunlight‚ it was like a lifesaver! Those other two were absolute nightmares, horrible terrors‚ terrifying nightmares. (Mama: You told me the one about being in Miami.) Yes, in an empty building with gangs roving the streets. (Mama: And then did you have another one later?) Yes. (Mama: Oh, I don't think you told me that one.)

9. We were sleeping in a car someplace, & this tough guy came up to the window & was trying to get in. And somehow David was outside & he came over to try to make the guy go away, but instead of that, this tough guy got into the car, & we were just terrified! David was doing his best to try to make him go away, but he couldn't. Anyhow‚ it was just like a terror movie! I was just terrified! I felt like I was going to die! My breathing was getting more difficult & I was getting thirstier. Then I woke up & I just really fought the Devil! I said, "Lord, You've got to save me, please save me! Help me‚ I can't help myself! You've got to do something to save me. Give me something to live for!"—And later I woke up at 10 A.M. on the button & I'd had this wonderful dream about the kids & their materials & teachers & having classes‚ even right out there in front of the public.

10. The most important thing we have to do right now is to train our children & supply them with all the materials they need.—Workbooks & whatever else they have to have. We can buy workbooks for the standard subjects that are already made, we don't have time to make them. And in the meantime we can be working on workbooks for our own subjects. We've got to do it right now!

11. This last dream was all bright & sunny! The other dreams were all dark & at night & terrifying! It's like we've got very little time, we've got to do it quick! That should be our biggest emphasis. The most important thing we have to do right now is to train the children, because we don't even know how much longer we're going to have them.

12. We've got to put on a drive, a crash course to train our kids so that no matter what happens to them they'll be able to stand, even if they're taken away from us. We have to have that in mind‚ that it's urgent, it's an emergency. It's got to be done quickly because we don't have much more time. We've got to spend whatever it takes to get materials for them to work with. It should be our biggest emphasis. (Mama: In other words, you're talking mostly about spiritual training and materials for spiritual training, right? Because if they're going to be taken away from us, that's the thing that they need most.) Yes, of course. All kinds of training, all they need‚ whatever they need. But also educational workbooks and stuff like that.

13. I was looking over into this one class and the teacher was a parent, a handsome, Latin-looking fellow, and I thought‚ "It's amazing how well he's doing at his teaching!" He was teaching these young kids and he was really going at it. You've got to really turn on the liveliness and the charm to teach kids. I had to be a three-ring circus when I was teaching school just to keep their attention.

14. They need workbooks, they need the materials that they can work on! They need them right now, so we need to put that first, top priority: Teaching the kids & materials to teach them with, & teachers to teach them! Schools are to be our very top priority!

15. Look what our kids have already done in being a witness to the System‚ a counter-attack on our attackers! Our greatest witness is our kids, our schools, our young people! That's our greatest witness.—The teens, demonstrations, activism, protests downtown to the general public & on television, & the witness of our little kids being taught in our schools.

16. There's nothing new about this school vision, of course. I got this revelation over five years ago! (See "The School Vision!" ML #2430.) I said then that schools & teachers & materials & the training of our own children should be our emphasis! We've been doing it, but we've now got to make it top priority, the top emphasis, put top funds into it, top personnel & top accommodations.—Whatever we have to have!

17. Our top priority now is to be our children!—And putting our teenagers to work teaching them.—Helping them feel the responsibility & know what they have to do. And we need to provide whatever they need—the facilities, some support staff, some provisioning, some teaching, outreach, whatever. We still have to do our various ministries‚ but the top priority has to be put on the kids!

18. This was my conviction as I looked over those classes. Imagine, having classes out on the public beach with those flimsy partitions, like canvas! Some of it was almost like beach towels flapping in the breeze. The classes were all packed close together with nothing but these flimsy curtains in between, & here were all these kids & they were teaching them all & really going at it. I mean, you could really hear them! The kids were fascinated with the teachers, & the teachers were fascinated & inspired with the kids & really socking it to them. But they needed materials & they needed teachers, & we've got to put the teenagers to work to help teach them. I used to teach kids when I was only 12 & 14—we've got older teens now who are better than that!

19. We've got to teach them everything—not only scholastics, but they've got to teach them Scripture & music & witnessing & everything we need for our task, & they've got to do it now or it'll be too late! We've got to put everybody to work on it. That's top priority—support staff‚ provisioning staff, outreach‚ literature‚ everything we need for the children. The kids come first! That was the burden the Lord gave me as far back as five years ago.

20. (Mama: The teens enjoy caring for the children & they're good at it, but a big desire of theirs right now is to witness. So maybe they can do both.) Yes, of course! Teens need lots of variety. They love to get out there on the witnessing front & do Holy Ghost samples & demonstrations & skits.

21. Oh my God, I went through Hell last night, and this revelation was like Heaven! It was a beautiful, bright, sunny morning on the beach, like a little bit of Heaven with all those children there and all those teachers busy teaching them. Even though they had no place but the public beach with little cloth partitions between them, and insufficient materials, they were really socking it to them & the kids were really listening! And these two little rascals were out playing around on their own. They'd been unsupervised & had gotten away somehow, & I really scolded them because they knew they were being naughty, & I pulled them back to the class.

22. Maybe Fred Jordan was like a symbol.—Like it doesn't matter who the important people are, or whose kids they are, they've got to knuckle down & get down to business & behave & obey‚ & not be thinking they can get away with anything because they're some top person's children. It meant that nobody gets away with anything! We've all either got to be students, or teachers, or supporting them.

23. Time is short. We don't have much time, we've got to do it now! Tomorrow will be too late. We've got to be able to train our kids to stand on their own against the Devil & all of his demons!

24. Boy, what I went through last night—the house of horrors! I mean‚ I had nightmares! In that first nightmare I was trying to protect Techi, & David was in the second one. So in a way, the emphasis in both was on the teenagers. Well, they're some of the kids too, & should be top priority too!

25. We've got to make sure we're taking care of our young people, & be sure we're giving them what they need.—Not only good training in childcare, but in witnessing as well. We don't want to give them so much to do that they can't handle it & become frustrated, but when we do give them responsibilities, we need to give them some authority to go along with it. If they're old enough to do adult jobs, they're old enough to make the decisions that go along with them, whether it be in childcare or witnessing.

26. If you've trained them well, then you should be able to step back & let them do it—just keeping an eye on them, of course‚ & being there if they need your help. Let's stop treating our older teens & EAs like children, when they're in many cases just as capable & responsible as our older people. They want to grow up!—Let's let them! We need to think of what we were doing when we were their age, & loosen up a little & let them burn free. God bless'm! So I guess the emphasis is on all of our kids, from baby up to adult. We've got to take care of them all!

27. I think I'm going to get better! (Mama: Amen, Honey, that's so encouraging! Thank You Jesus!) I think I'm getting better already. A few minutes ago I got the words, "I will heal thee!" It was like it was beginning right now. (Mama: Thank You Lord! Thank You Jesus!) And this carrot juice is going right down—gulp, gulp, gulp!

28. The teachers teaching the beach classes in the dream were all ages—adults & teens. And obviously they were in a very recreational situation where there was lots of fun & recreation as well. (Mama: Yes. Our teens have carried a very heavy responsibility taking care of little kids, & a lot of times they've been left with it all on their own.) Mothers have been prone to lean on them too heavily. (Mama: Yes, and teens need variety and change and fun things to do.)

29. "Without a vision the people perish" (Pro.29:18)—both the teens & me. I was just dying on the vine here, & the Lord had to give me some new incentive‚ some reason for staying alive!

30. I drank two bottles of carrot juice, one right after the other without a hitch, without a pain! Thank You Jesus! Thank You Lord! It all went down just as smooth as could be. Thank You Lord! I was inspired! I had an incentive, something to live for! (Mama: I think it's just sort of the Lord's timing in all of this. Thank the Lord! I guess when you got so desperate, & everybody else was desperate, the Lord did it!) Let me tell you, I was fighting battles with Hell last night! Whew! Thank You Lord, what a wonderful, glorious ending that final dream was! It was like the difference between Hell & Heaven‚ night & day! Thank You Jesus!

—Are you willing to answer the Call?