France 2011: Trip Report

Around six months ago I received an email from Joel Trefcon asking if I would speak at his church in Marguerittes, France. I’m trying to learn to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit for trips like this and so spent some while praying about it. One night I had a dream in which I was underwater but dressed in a suit and tie. I could breathe without any breathing apparatus. I was conducting a wedding underwater between a woman (somehow I knew she was a French woman) and a dolphin. In the dream I was telling people this was a unique event, it had never happened before. Interestingly a big feature was that it was warm in some places but very cold in others.

As dolphins normally mean kindness and compassion and the woman obviously represented the French church I took it as a green light to go ahead. We booked the trip in and I thought no more about it. Two days before we were due to fly my wife Caroline and I were praying when pressed me more on the dolphin. She said “Dolphins just mean so little to you; it must have more meaning to the people there.” After googling ‘dolphin’ and France (and being slightly confused by a spoof website that actually said that the French used to have an actual dolphin on the throne!!) we then found the truth which was that in French history the person who was next in line for the throne was actually known as the le Dauphin (which means dolphin in French) because of the dolphin featured on his coat of arms. Suddenly the dream made sense – Jesus was promising was that he was coming as the true king of France for his bride- the church! The warm and cold spots in the water represented that the nation was warmer in some places-cold in the others but that Jesus was going to help them change the water temperature. So, encouraged in faith, we took a small team on the trip and we were so welcomed by the French people.