We want them, we enjoy them, and after a long and stressful day we really need them.  My wife Nancy just finished a week of takehome exams for her doctorate in public health, and I know she wants nothing more than a good night's sleep.  But there has never been any way to control the content of our dreams.

Until now.

A Japanese toymaker has invented a dream machine that is intended to banish nightmares forever.  In place of bad dreams, you can program your most heartfelt hopes and hungers, whether you dream of dating a movie star or scoring Olympic gold.  You can even plug in Isaiah's vision of a new earth a serene and peaceful place in which the wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox (Isaiah 65:25).

Standing 35 inches tall, the dream machine is equipped with a voice recorder, an array of lights, a picture frame, a fragrance display, and a selection of stored background music.  According to Wired News, these components work together to allow you to design your own dreams through a multisensory combination of scents, sounds, and soft lights.  If all goes well, you can enjoy some very sweet dreams.  (Louise Knapp, "Sweet Dreams Made by Machine," Wired News, January 23, 2004, http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,62004,00.html)

This sounds pretty attractive, doesn't it?  But there's a limit to this technology:  No matter how well it works, the dream machine cannot transform the world we wake up to, each and every day.  If you find yourself stepping into a nightmare when you climb out of bed, there is not a single thing that this invention's lights and smells and sounds can do to change this reality.

The dream machine can change the night - but not the day.

Now it's true that much of the world would look at our lifestyle here in the United States and say: "What a dream!”  Half of the world - nearly 3 billion people - live on less than two dollars a day.  Almost 800 million people in the developing world are chronically undernourished, and over one billion have no access to clean water.  When I visited Honduras with the Midlife Men on a Mission during the last week in October, we encountered a good number of people who were struggling with these very problems.

It kind of makes you wonder: Who are we to say that life is a nightmare?

But here's the fact of the matter: Suffering is not limited to any one nation or economic class.  The nightmares of depression, despair, emotional abuse, failure, meaninglessness, betrayal and loneliness are going to afflict us every bit as powerfully as the people of Honduras.  Walk down any street in Fairfax, and you are bound to encounter people who are living bad dreams during every waking moment.

Maybe you are one of them.

What we really need today is a dream machine that can change our days, not our nights.  We could use a device to transform real life, not dream life.  What would really make a difference is an invention with the power to bring about the new world predicted by Isaiah - one in which weeping is replaced by laughter, cries of distress are turned into shouts of joy, hunger is eliminated by good nutrition, and substandard housing is turned into a safe and sanitary place to live (vv. 1922).

Well, I found such a dream machine along with the Midlife Men on a Mission, and it's called a Boeing 737.  No kidding.  This is the aircraft that delivered us to Honduras on October the 23rd - this plane is the technology that God used to give us a vision of a new heaven and a new earth (v. 17).  We members of this mission group were hoping to see and experience another culture, to connect with fellow church members, to become personally involved in mission, and perhaps, even, to experience some personal transformation.  We went looking for a vision of what God's desires for the people of this world - and I'm happy to say we found it. 

Let me give you just three snapshots of this new world that God is creating.  The first picture is of Rancho Vida, a Christian camp for the children of La Entrada, a crossroads town about an hour and a half from the city of San Pedro Sula.  The town of La Entrada, like all Honduran towns, is absolutely teeming with children, and they are desperate for wholesome activities.  Youth ministry is almost nonexistent in the country, and so Rancho Vida is meeting a desperate need.  These children are hungry for organized games, healthy snacks, and a Christian message of love and acceptance and hope.

On our very first day, the camp director, a Honduran named Mauricio, took us on a tour of the camp.  He pointed out the caretaker's cottage, which was blackened by soot and missing its roof.  He talked about the dining hall, which was little more than a dirt foundation.  He showed us the snack bar and dormitories, and took us to the spot that would hold the confidence course.  His passion for the camp was absolutely infectious, as was his love for the children that it would serve.  Carl Waltrip commented that Mauricio had a perfectly clear vision of the completed camp - he was seeing what the camp would look like in God's own time.  This vision inspired us, and helped us to work hard throughout the week on the cottage, the dining hall, and the confidence course.  We caught sight of God's new heaven, new earth.

Snapshot two:  Sunday morning worship at the Plan Escalon School, a Christian boarding school for about 400 poor junior and senior high school students from across Honduras.  The openair sanctuary was packed, and the students joyfully sang and clapped and danced during the worship service.  A number of them gave testimonies about how Jesus had changed their lives, and then our group was invited forward - as is customary in international churches - to share a message and a song.  Now I'm sure that our 13 Midlife Men felt a bit stretched by this challenge, but I had warned them about this possibility, and Dave Thalman rehearsed the group well as we rode the bus to the school.  The men did a great job singing "Cantad al Senor, O Sing to the Lord” - in English and in Spanish and came out of the service feeling inspired and fulfilled.  The Spirit of God was with us that day, and it felt great to be connected to such a youthful and vibrant part of the body of Christ.  The service prepared us well to be surrounded by children throughout the week, children who came to the camp every day to check our progress, play soccer with us, and participate in organized activities.  Once again, we were given a taste of a new heaven and earth.

Snapshot three: A mountaintop medical clinic run by an American nurse named Lisa Armstrong.  Thanks to the generosity of you members of FPC, we were able to deliver $3,000 worth of medications to this clinic, which serves 120,000 people in the mountains of Honduras.  Lisa and her Honduran colleagues were thrilled with our donation, and they took the time to give us a tour of the clinic and share their vision for the ministry.  They are working hard to provide good medical care to the community, but are looking to move beyond their clinic to a project that will teach sustainable agriculture.  They are also helping the members of the community to build safe and sanitary homes for each other, so that the overall health of the area will be improved. 

Lisa and her colleagues know that they must do more than treat the diseases of the very, very poor - they must also address the root causes of poverty and disease.  "No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime,” says God through the prophet Isaiah.  "They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit” (vv. 2021).  Once more, a vision of a new heaven, new earth.

There is much we learned in Honduras, and much we still need to digest.  You'll be able to hear from a number of men on the trip when they lead worship here on Sunday, December 12.  But as I think about the dream machine that took us to Honduras, and as I reflect on our experiences among the people of the region, there is one strong conviction that is shaping up in my heart:

We Christians in the First World NEED to be involved with our brothers and sisters in the Third World.  They have so much to teach us about faith and joy and inner peace, and we have much to offer them in terms of our love and concern and technical skills.  Andy Wescoat discovered how important it was for him to give the gift of himself when he went to Honduras on a scouting trip for us back in February, and he shared that insight with us as we went on the trip together.  Each of us is challenged to be peacemaker persontoperson, congregationtocongregation across the boundaries of nation and culture.  We are invited to be part of God's new creation, and to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah that says, "they shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain"” (v. 25).

God wants us to sit with this vision and let it work on us, causing us to feel an aching hunger for a future that is so much better than today.  The point of Isaiah's vision is that today's reality is not truly satisfying, today's unhappiness is not permanent, today's experience of life is not the end of the story.  Sure, it is certainly true that God's dream has not come to fruition in the world today - that is correct.  There is still hunger and disease and substandard housing.  But our longing for something better is what pulls us forward into the future that God desires for us.  Our desire for something more complete and fulfilling is what will cause us to hop back on the dream machine and return to Honduras for more hard work, and personal connection, and spiritual growth.

So, do you want to be part of this?  Do you want a seat on the dream machine?  Conversations are now starting about a family mission trip to Lisa Armstrong's clinic, and about another Midlife Men on a Mission trip to La Entrada.  You can discover, along with the 13 of us, that everyday nightmares tend to go away when you work hard in a place of service and sacrifice.  Inner peace comes from sharing the love of God with others, and from being loved by brothers and sisters in the faith.  We truly do save our lives by losing them, and we grow inwardly as we look outwardly to a world in need.

This sounds like a dream, I know.  But from our week in Honduras, I can say that it's a dream come true.  Amen.