Paul is a single father, a subsistence farmer who lives from hand to mouth. Often he struggles and feels inadequate raising his children by himself.

One night he had a dream that there was a snake in his house. The dream was so vivid that he was startled from his sleep. He woke his children and shooed them out into the yard. Then he looked everywhere in the house but couldn’t find a snake. Nonetheless he told the kids to continue their sleep outside. They had barely fallen back asleep when he dreamed again of the snake. Once again he made the poor kids get up, and as they rubbed their drowsy eyes his daughter pointed. There it was, a snake trying to get into the house. Paul was able to kill it, and finally everybody was able to go back to sleep in the house, this time without any more interruptions.

The next day, Paul talked to Hyacinthe, our local coworker, about the dreams, wondering what they meant. Hyacinthe pointed out to him that this was an act of protection from the Lord. God had sent these dreams to wake him up, let him find the snake and kill it before it could cause any harm. Suddenly Paul realized that he was not alone in caring for and watching over his children. Someone infinitely stronger was there with him, and he didn’t need to feel inadequate. He left Hyacinthe’s house full of gratefulness and with much joy.

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