The Canary in the Coal Mine Dream – TRANSCRIPT Dec. 1, 2022

[I] had this dream between December 1st and December 5^th. The first three days was pretty much just the first part before I went down and you’ll see in the dream… I’m one of the characters in the dream. but here it is. it’s called, I’m calling it the canary and the coal mine dream. I had a dream that began with me working in an underground coal mine. now I grew up in Indiana – South Central Indiana. and Amax Peabody Coal Mines were very prominent around me – the coal  cars, the trains, the people who worked in underground mines. so I’m very familiar with this. so I was working an underground mine. and I was riding an elevator up with fellow Miners. and I was holding a canary in a cage. and you may know the story there that you would take canaries down to make sure there were no gas leaks and things. so in the dream I’m covered in coal dust. I’m wearing the hard hat with a light on it. and a uniform with a label across the pocket that said Global Underground. so that’s what it said Global Underground. everybody in the elevator with me is dressed the same covered in coal dust Everywhere. everybody in the elevator with me is dressed like I said just the same. we’re covered in coal dust you

barely you see the whites of our eyes and that’s about it. we’ve been working. we’ve been busy. the elevator is very bright and we’re all squinting after being below ground. and we’re blinking our eyes constantly as we adjust to the brighter light as we’re going up. we got to the top okay out of the elevator which rose straight right up out of the ground. and not like in an outer area where we walk outside basically; [we]  just kind of walk out. and we walk out okay. And that’s when I realized that Jesus had ridden with us up to the top. and as we got out and the new crew stepped in the elevator… so we’re getting out, the old crew is getting out to go home or whatever, the new crew is getting ready to step into the elevator.  Jesus came up to me and He pointed at the canary and He said, “Pay attention to details more than you ever have. Go back down with the next crew. Be sure to take the canary.” so I simply turned around and got back on the elevator and crowded in with the rest of the people. they were all wearing clean clothes. and I’m covered in dust and I’m covered in you know I’m grungy I guess you’d say. I’ve been working in the mine all night long. and so I noticed that, that was the only

one covering the coal dust. I appeared disheveled, weary. and this new crew was clean and fully awake. as the elevator started down somebody asked loudly with alarm, “Where’s the guy with the canary?” and I raised the canary in the cage and I said, “I’m here.” he said, “No, where’s the one assigned? Where’s the one assigned to the next crew since you just came up?” he asked me.  and he seemed very concerned, almost agitated. “Well the guy assigned to this shift, where is he?” [he] said again a little bit more angry. and I said, “I was told to go back down with this crew and to be sure to take

the canary.” as the elevator is moving down the guy squeezed through the people, through the tight fit of all of us there, he came right to me and he said,  “You are not assigned to this crew. so who told you to come down?” and I replied, “Jesus told me.” and he looked at me very seriously and then he burst into an exaggerated laughter. and he said in a very firm voice, “Well I’m telling you to leave.” and then he tried

to grab the bird cage out of my hand. he started fighting me. he started pushing me. and the other guys were just trying to kind of get out of the way because we were all in their like sardines in that cage elevator going down. I was getting slapped and beat around but I kept my grip on the cage. and the bird inside that cage remained on its perch. it made no noise. it wasn’t squawking or squealing. and even though all those altercations going on around me, it was causing that cage to go back and forth. and was banging us up against you know I was banging me up against him and him against me.  I was holding that bird cage but I kept on and I kept fighting back. I held on that cage and I kept fighting back. and the guy was getting more aggressive. and I said loudly, “I’m not letting go of this cage. I’m not letting go of this cage.” because the small area that the fight was going on and the people there who had been put in the awkward situation as

well, I knew that I had to get to the corner. and so I’m moving my way to the corner. and that meant literally I had to turn my back.  see when I did hold that cage and I ran towards the corner I tried to cover it with my body. and when I did finally get to that corner, that meant my back was to the guy. and he started pounding me. but I held

the cage I tried to protect the bird. and he kept hitting and hitting me until I heard Jesus in my head say to let the let the bird out. I heard the same voice as the Jesus I heard on the surface. so I argued between the blows to my back but that it was not a good idea. so inside I’m thinking God that’s not a good idea. he’s gonna… he’s trying to kill that bird.  I got to protect that bird. I kept getting hit harder and harder. And harder but finally the elevator hit the bottom. and at that moment the doors open those other guys got out as quick as they could. he kept hitting me harder and harder. but I opened the front of the cage and I dropped to the ground to keep from getting hit. and the bird came out and flew around the head of the man who’d been hitting on me. and the man began to curse and scream and yell. but he but he could not get the bird in his grip. he kept trying to grab at it but he couldn’t get it in his grip okay. but finally the bird grabbed the man by the nostril the talons were right there when up his nose and held the man in place. and he literally froze himself in place because this bird has these talons up his nose. it was almost as if the bird was looking at the man right in his eyes. and the man appeared terrified. and then the bird flew into the air and stayed in place between the man and myself. and then it left the cage and flew back in and out in and out like it wanted me to follow him. now the workers who had come down on the elevator with me, they were already in place and they were working in those areas with shovels and wheelbarrows. and they were loading up small train cars that would take the coal to the surface. and the bird began to fly to each one of them and was singing around their ears almost like it was encouraging them. but then the guy who would attack me came in the area and started yelling at the people and swatting at the bird. but they kept working. they were cautious of him. they were aware he was there. they were looking and watching but they just kept working. they kept working. and they kept their hands on the shovels and they did not try to hurt the man either. they just kept working. and then all of us started singing out loud. we weren’t singing the same song. It wasn’t a chorus. each one of us was singing a different kind of praise and worship song. and Shari, I didn’t tell you this but the song I was singing was that old version of I exalt thee. it was just an older style an older style song. but they were all singing; it was modern worship and hymns. but everybody was singing a different song but we were all singing, just worshiping the Lord. and this enraged the man and the man picked up a bunch of chunks of coal with coal dust I mean through those chunks of coal at us. but the coal didn’t hit us but the dust just kind of floated through the air. but nothing he threw at his hits. and the people and myself we were just working through with the shovels. and then one of the men walked up to me with a shovel in his right hand removed his hat and it was that man that I see so often. and he wiped his face on a cloth and he handed it to me. and he said, “Somebody has to take the light to the dark places. There are those that will not like the light that you bring. they can extinguish the flame that I started in your heart so burn brilliantly and with passion. fight the good fight and remain grounded in the Word because the world is about to go dark. that dark world will need the light you carry to reveal the way to me.” and he went back to work alongside the other men. and the bird came and landed on his shoulder and it stayed there. and he turned and said, “go and encourage the crew that’s coming down the shafts. tell them that I will be working right beside them in the dark.” and that was the end of the dream.