Cliffhanger

Footsteps thudded behind me as the sound grew louder the closer he got. Running down a dark and deserted street, only heavy breathing alerted me to the fact he steadily gained ground on me.

I glanced over my shoulder to see my pursuer only an arm's length away. I tried to see his face, but a black ski mask covered it. He neither called out nor spoke, just continued the chase. The sweat poured off my face in rivulets. My heart hammered in my chest. My skin now cold and clammy, made my clothes feel sticky. My limbs pained me horrifically, protesting the sudden onslaught of imposed exercise. My breath came out in short gasps with sobs of terror. I pumped my arms and legs faster, my limbs already in excruciating pain. Looking behind me once more, my strength almost gone I tried to stay ahead of my pursuer. His footsteps gained on me with every step I took. I, Katrina ran for my life.

I frantically searched around me, my legs trembling heavily as terror gripped my insides, searching for any place of refuge. Seeing none I forged ahead. I suddenly spotted a sign up a head. A yellow road sign stood on the right shoulder of the road warning of a steep decline. The sign depicted a man falling down a steep cliff indicating danger the road ended. I continued running past it, thinking I could slow down before reaching the edge of the cliff. I ran too fast to stop, and downwards I fell, my arms and legs flinging wildly in the air.

Tumbling through the air, I plunged towards the earth screaming the name of Jesus as I fell. I dragged out his name in one long wail, hoping that He would save me. Falling faster towards the ground, my life flashed before me, all the good times, bad times, childhood memories, and regrets that my life came to an end so abruptly.

As I reached the bottom of the cliff my body suddenly righted itself, as if a giant hand turned me right side up, and I landed on my feet. Looking down at my body, I realized I made it! Alive and whole, not a scratch on me!
Shaking all over I fell to my knees, as tears of gratitude streamed down my face, thanking God He had saved me from death.

With a shout my body jerked, and I woke up, sitting straight up in bed, the sweat pouring down my face, arms and legs, my nightgown soaked hugged my skin in sweat-drenched horror. Just a dream! I lay pondering the meaning of the dream, a warning for something coming into my life in the future.

Other experiences had taught me to pay attention to my dreams, but I didn't recognize the dream corresponding with anything current in my life at the time. I knew it came to warn me of approaching danger, to heed the signs, to whatever situation would develop, scary moments would occur throughout the ordeal, but I would land on my feet. Since nothing at the time warranted as danger to me, I put it out of my mind a few days later.

A few months later trouble came to visit me. I believed a legitimate home-based business opportunity on the Internet was worth looking into. This person hired financial facilitators to conduct transactions between his organization and potential sponsors. Very ecstatic, I could see myself getting caught up in my bills, get out of debt, and help out my children and grandchildren. Extra money would be available for things I wanted instead of scraping by each month. Raising funds for life support systems in third world countries, a worthy goal and a good job. OK, I thought, legitimate businesses that do just what they claim they'll do. Life support systems very important and much needed equipment in poor countries.' We corresponded for a few months, and finally he wrote and told me the sponsor would be sending a check made out to me. He instructed me to cash the check at a certain bank, take out my fee for handling the transaction and send the rest on to him.

From the beginning of the correspondence until the day the check arrived in the mail, each email was carefully scrutinized, looking for anything that didn't look right. A prime suspect of scams is to ask for money, but they never asked for anything.

So when the check came that day in the mail, I thought, "Wow!" This is a real check; they did just what they said they would do!"

My daughter informed me cash stores have machines to verify the authenticity of check's. So with assurance I took the unsigned check to a cash store instead of the bank they suggested, thinking this would speed up the process.

While I waited for them to verify the legitimacy of the check, time dragged on. They made me wait, saying it would take time to get all the money together. I realized the longer I sat there, it shouldn't take this long. My intuition told me something was wrong! I had called before coming and told them the amount. They told me to come over, and they would try their best to cash it for me. Sitting on the bench out of view of the teller's cage, I could hear nothing of what they were saying. My nerves were getting the best of me!

Then one of the tellers, a young man came to the nearest window where he could see me and said, "It will only be about two more minutes, we're trying to get all the money together for you."

Two minutes after telling me this, a policeman walked in from the other side of the cash store. When I saw him come towards me I knew they had called the police on me. I still could not image why, the check looked real. Why did they not tell me a problem with the cheque existed instead of calling the police on me! I never signed the back of it because I wanted the check verified. He asked me several questions concerning the check, and my job position. I answered his questions. He told me the check had already been used. I was under arrest for uttering a forged document, my rights read to me, handcuffed and led out the side door of the cash store and placed in the paddy wagon. While they had me outside of the store, checking my handcuffs, I looked around ashamed and embarrassed, hoping no one I knew saw me being arrested.

The hours crawled by as I contemplated my predicament. Here I sit in my cell, a born again Christian, arrested and charged with fraud. I had ruined my own testimony. "How could I have been so gullible," I asked myself.
The company name was on the check, but I didn't call them because I still believed it real, and could not see how they would send me a forged check.
I got up to use the toilet in my cell, trying to hurry because a guard kept coming in and looking into the cell, checking on me every thirty minutes. So I only used the toilet after the guard had just left the cell-block. No blanket, no pillow, only a cold concrete slab for a bed.

While I lay on the cold bench that night in jail, the Lord reminded me about the dream I had months before. I recognized my situation corresponded with the middle of the dream. The reason the dream came- to warn me that trouble was coming my way, and when it did, its warning signs would not be heeded, thus the fall from the cliff. I had failed the test!

I lay on that cold slab and asked the Lord to forgive me for not recognizing and acting on the signs, revealed to me through the dream. I should have recognized the signs. When the check came I tried to show it to my son, but he wouldn't even look at it! Possessing a very cynical nature, I disregarded his comments. "Throw it away, Mom. It's a scam." Another sign concerning the dream! But I didn't believe anyone could send me a check already used. That just didn't make sense to me, and he knew I would get caught.

But during the interview conducted by the Detective, he told me these scam rings send out a bunch of fake checks, but among the bunch will be a real check, and that is how they make their money, and bilk thousands of dollars out of nave people.

My day in court came and I was found not guilty, an incident that should never have happened. If I had remembered the dream when I received the check I would have recognized it as a sign and tore the check up. It would have come to me it's a trap, a setup from some bad people, determined to rip off innocent people.

Now when I have any problems in my life, I have learned to look at every sign shown to me. The smallest detail can mean something and contributes to the whole. Even if the signs or dreams do not make sense to me, or I tell myself, "It was just a dream"-It is a message warning me that trouble is coming, and to heed the warning signs. The Creator sends these signs. God will use any means necessary to get His message across to us. Dreams are very powerful and designed to make us pay attention. If we heed our dreams, they can save us from untold heartache and misery.

Joseph, Mary's husband of the bible listened to God when he was warned in a dream to take Mary and flee to Egypt?

Matthew 2: 13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.