Dreamers Ink | Chapter 1

Dreamers Ink | Table Of Contents

Acknowledgments | vii

Introduction | ix

Chapter 1 | What is Dreamers Ink? | 13

Chapter 2 | What Are Dreams? | 21

Chapter 3 | Dreamers | 27

Chapter 4 | The Enemies Of Dreams | 37

Chapter 5 | Defining The Dream | 49

Chapter 6 | When A To B Is Not A Straight Line | 55

Chapter 7 | Real Dreams Are Not Selfish | 65

Chapter 8 | Dreamers Change Generations | 73

Chapter 9 | Kingdom Perspective | 79

Chapter 10 | On To Your Adventure | 87

Chapter 11 | Study Guide | 95

From The Author | 113

Resources | 117

Dreamers Ink | Chapter 1

What is Dreamers Ink?

DREAMERS INK is more than just a book, gift set, project, or concept. It is an actual journey, or even a way of life if you will. It’s a path not only of defining and realizing our hopes and dreams, but helping others along the way to theirs. When we understand that the fulfillment of our dreams is dependent on the help and the interaction with others down our path, then we will have a different focus on how we all connect to help bring fulfillment to others dreams as well as our own. We are interconnected and not simply islands in this sea of humanity. So…

Let’s take a journey together and discover a path we might not have seen yet or one that we might have simply walked on by in our life at one time or another. In the first book I wrote, which is an allegory, DESTINY PATH OF LIFE | The Journey Begins, the main character rushes toward his dream on his way to a town called Journeytown and almost misses the most important part of the journey. The man, who interrupts his journey has a key that he will desperately need soon to open some doors in the journey ahead. Will the dreamer pause and choose to spend enough of his valuable time to stop long enough to make a choice, the right choice, or will he pass it off as a delay, not that important, and just keep going? Are we watching for these things, or just blindly heading through life hoping we’ll make it, or just hoping to get through each day.

In your choosing to read this book, it’s clear to me that you are definitely searching for the truth, at least as far as it concerns you. What are these keys that will unlock doors in your path ahead?

I created DREAMERS INK because of the need I saw in our journey in helping others get through general life, depression, and suicide. In talking personally to thousands about the subject, it became clear that I needed to change my approach from a negative to a positive approach and proclamation. We’ve talked to many who were in one of the stages of depression or on the path to suicide. We’ve also worked to help those who have lost loved ones to suicide and to help them pick up the pieces. The Lord started speaking to me about a special tour at the end of 2015 and said that I should focus on the positive side of people’s dreams, because everyone has had at least one dream in their life. So, we named the tour, FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS.

We moved out of our apartment and left San Antonio, Texas on a journey into the unknown in March of 2013 with our first destination set for Colorado Springs, Colorado. Since then, this journey has taken us all over the USA numerous times over the past six years, including a summer trip through Canada on the Alaskan Highway to Homer, Alaska…and back. (A bit of laughter here because it was a very long trip. We started in Texas and ended in Florida on that particular segment. Next time by plane or ship please!)

We’ve seen and experienced many different states, cities, communities, and cultures along the way. We’ve talked to folks and listened to their hearts. Some were caught in those deep and dark places and we tried to help them through. Some of them are still connected to us through various social media and other means. Some were the victims of suicide, left holding the tattered remains of a life gone too soon. The questions of ‘Why?’ haunting their souls and hearts. I became passionate and determined to find a way to be proactive from a positive stance and this is where DREAMERS INK comes in. It is the heart and core of our FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS Tour now. It is something that anyone can do to help their loved ones, friends, peers, co-workers, and neighbors. It is something tangible that can be seen and focused upon as a daily reminder. It might just be a special ingredient to that individual’s life.

I’m planning for DREAMERS INK to be a global connection and information group, formed to bridge the gap of hope and hopelessness in our country and worldwide. While we are based in a local community in the USA, a strategic base if you will, the internet allows us to connect globally to make a difference. No matter where we are presently and the circumstances we find ourselves, we can make a difference locally, regionally and globally. Everything starts with a dream/vision.

One of the key components of this endeavor is the Dreamers Ink Gift Set. Eventually, there will be at least five versions of this set from the original we are creating, with possibly more to come in the future. Of course, you don’t have to purchase a set, you can simply make your own, but regardless, it would be of great benefit to have something tangible that you or your friends can see on a daily basis plus a journal to write in as well. The purpose behind the gift set is to help mentors, parents, and loved ones reach out to those around them in a tangible way to say ‘we care’ and ‘we want to help’. It takes personal time to help someone define and write out their dreams with much needed encouragement and help along the way. There are too many bullies and naysayers out there who want to crush people’s dreams for one reason or another. This can be individuals, groups, businesses, and those in power. We live in America – the land of dreams, and our own people are giving up and taking themselves out in the midst of temporary storms. If we can’t fulfill our dreams in America, where can we? Millions of people are risking everything just to immigrate here for a chance to build a better life and to live their dream.

I want to take this a step further though. Perhaps through this project and group, these immigrants, instead of immigrating to America or another country, might become passionate enough to dare to create the same thing we have here in their own country, freedom. America stood up to England in the 1700’s and gained our freedom and established a model for other countries. Many people gave their lives to establish this country and many since to protect and maintain it. This could be the time for change in other countries as folks begin to see how they can transform their country into a place of freedom and abundance.

In having said all of this, DREAMERS INK exists to help individuals, couples, and groups find their God-given dreams and then to encourage them to go for them. We endeavor to be part of the encouragement, denouncing bullying and the crushing of dreams through any form, to become a network of support through individuals, groups, businesses, etc., who want to help our fellow brothers and sisters fulfill their destiny and purpose in our generation and in the ones to come. By each individual realizing their dreams, the community, region, nations, and world will become a better place and morale will change along the way. I remember Martin Luther King Jr’s. phrase, ‘I have a dream!’ He went on to change the world. It might cost us dearly and in his case his life, but regardless of what we do, wrong or right, the cost is great. There is no sitting on the fence and not being touched. One individual can change society and a generation, how much more can a bunch of us. We look around for heroes to lead the way, dare we look deep inside of us?

To help make all of this possible in the funding of our national and global outreaches, this book and the gift sets play an important role for individuals and groups to purchase. The following chapters will expound on this. There are basically five gift sets for a targeted audience, grade school, teens, young adults, adults, and professionals. The gift set includes its own specially designed box, case or pouch, a fountain/calligraphy pen of varying quality based on the targeted age maturity of the set, choice of ink colors, professional certificates designed on special paper for writing and displaying the dream (5-10 sheets), journal, and this book with the study guide in back. We might also include an optional frame for the Dream Certificate to be mounted in a prominent place that can be seen everyday. It is hoped that the mentor or receiver purchase their own special frame(s), the design they want and then display it in a prominent place(s) to be constantly in view. I recommend making more than one copy and placing them in several places in the home and workplace, if possible. The more often we see it, the more it changes us inside until it becomes the focus. It also helps the isolated person think of the one who gave them the gift set, remembering in that instance of isolation and despair that they are not alone in the journey. Perhaps it will help them reach out in those moments of despair and/or hopelessness.

The main purpose of the gift set is for the giver to help their recipient start a journey in discovering who they are and why they are here. It is a journey of discovering identity and purpose in a world currently in chaos, seemingly without either. It is a journey of discovering our gifts and talents and then matching them with our passion and desire to win the race set out before us.

Chapter 2

What Are Dreams?

Merriam-Webster defines dream as, “a strongly desired goal or purpose.”

Everything starts with a dream. Dreams give us a focal point as to the direction we want or need to take in our life. They are like planning a trip from Los Angeles to New York. We can start out in a general direction heading towards the northeast and then refine it along the way, course correcting as necessary. God started with a dream/vision and when it was completed, He proclaimed, “It is good. It is finished.” In fact, Jesus shouted those same words from the cross, “It is finished!” thus testifying of the fulfillment of the plan for His crucifixion from the foundations of the earth. He also has a dream and purpose planned for each of us and…