Prophecies for America

By Jim Rowh

This book, "Prophecies for America", is based on a series of dreams given to the author while on a mission trip to Costa Rica. They give a sobering picture of what may be on the horizon for the people and land of America. Other stories in the book are taken from ministry experiences through the many years of preaching in prisons and revival settings. Can the prophecies be altered through prayer? "if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land."

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543972702

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CHAPTER 1

THE LORD SPEAKS IN 

THE SECRET PLACE

In 2009 the Lord opened up the door for me to go to Costa Rica to minister to the Cabecar indigenous people, a group of about 10,000 people who live in the rugged Chirripo Mountain region of Southern Costa Rica. I wasn’t even thinking about going to Costa Rica, it was really the farthest thing from my mind, when I sat down by some old friends from a neighboring town in church one Sunday morning.

They were not regular attendees of the church where I worshiped, so I was quite surprised to see them there. What are you guys doing here? I asked, thinking they were just up for a casual visit. Little did I know the Lord had something much more interesting in His mind.

Oh, we were out camping at the lake, and the rain from last night and this morning drove us out of the campground and we decided to come in to church, said Anna, as we struck up a conversation before the service started. Then Darius, her husband, jumped in with a question that I wasn’t prepared for, Hey, Jim, we’re headed for Costa Rica on Wednesday to go down to the Cabecar Reservation, how would you like to go with us? I swallowed kind of hard and thought to myself, Wow, it would be really fun to go, but it’s pretty short notice. I don’t know how I could get everything arranged to go three days from now, or even if this is what the Lord wants me to do.

As I listened to Darius describe the mission trip, I knew it would certainly be a challenge, but clearly ordained by the Lord. I had some knowledge of the Cabecar Reservation from one of my daughters who had been to visit the Cabecars a few years prior with this very same couple. The reservation is in a remote area deep in the forests and jungles of southern Costa Rica, very difficult to access. The last six or so miles into the village of La Colonia had to be navigated on foot or horseback, down rugged mountain trails, across creeks and eventually the Chirripo River. The Chirripo is a raging river about one hundred feet wide, ranging in depth from a couple of feet in the dry season, to as much as twenty or thirty feet in the wet and flooding season.

In addition to the trek in, there was no electricity or running water once we reached the village of La Colonia, the village where the mission would be taking place. Darius went on, we’ll be painting the church and setting up a little solar lighting system for them at the church, and then of course, holding nightly meetings at the church for all the Cabecars. They will come down out of the surrounding mountains.

Though my heart was tugging at me to immediately say Yes! Yes! Yes!, I decided to be more prudent and at least give their invitation some time in prayer. So before we parted that Sunday after church, I told Darius and Anna, I’ll pray about it and see what the Lord says. If He gives me the green light, I’ll give you a call and you can count me in! However, my heart was starting to beat a bit faster already, just thinking of the trip to beautiful Costa Rica, as well as wondering what all the Lord had in store for me to open this door on such short notice.

That night I went home and had a serious conversation with the Lord. Lord, if you want me to go on this trip, I ask You for an unmistakable sign that this is where you want me to go. And furthermore, I would like to have You confirm the sign by allowing me to get a good price for the air fare down to Costa Rica, given that I’ll be buying the ticket two days before departure. I was doing my best to recount and duplicate the story of Gideon in the Bible, where Gideon twice asked the Lord for a sign regarding a mission the Lord was sending the reluctant Gideon into battle against the Midianites. (Judges 6:37-40).

That night the Lord answered my prayer, but it was in a rather mysterious way, as the Lord is often known to do. There was no dew on the fleece involved as with Gideon, but the results were just as profound and I knew without a doubt the Lord had spoken. The Lord sent me a dream, and when I awoke early in the morning, I wrote the details of the dream down, then went to my secret place in prayer and began to pray about it.

In the dream, I was going down a mighty, rushing river, in a wooden, hollowed out canoe with about six other people. The people looked like the Cabecars, or some other indigenous group, as I had seen pictures of them from the mission trip my daughter had went on several years before. As we floated down the river, I was paddling with a huge feather. The feather went down into the water and up over the top of my head. I paddled and directed the dugout canoe over to a sand bar on one side of the river. From there, we all disembarked, and pulled the canoe up onto the shore.

After praying about the dream for a while, the Lord began to speak to me about the meaning. He said, The river represents the river of life, and My Spirit flowing through the affairs and events of man. The deep and turbulent water represents the difficulty of the mission, and the trials and obstacles you will face in trying to reach and minister to these people. But you will make it to the still waters of the sand bar, where there will be peace and great reward for the struggles you encounter to reach these people.

Now I knew without a doubt the people with me in the canoe were the Cabecar people, and the Lord was showing me for certain that He wanted me to go. There was only one question I had unanswered about the dream. Lord, what is all that business about using the feather as my paddle, with it going clear up over my head? As I prayed about it some more, the Lord had me to search the scriptures for the answer.

The Lord highlighted for me a verse in Psalms that summed up the meaning of the feather. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. (Psalm 91:4). So the Lord was saying that I was to go, that the trip would be full of trials and difficulty, but He was also giving me assurance that He would be my covering and my shield every step of the way.

Now I knew that I had to say yes to the Lord, as He had unmistakably shown me His desire in the matter. So I decided to check on travel plans and see if the Lord would confirm the dream by allowing me to get a ticket to Costa Rica at a good price. Considering I was buying just two days before departure, I was shocked to find out I could get a ticket for twenty five dollars less than what Darius and Anna had paid, and they had purchased their tickets over a month ago.

After calling Darius and Anna to let them know about all the confirmations from the Lord, I decided to go ahead and order the roundtrip ticket, and I was officially on the bus to Costa Rica, along with four other missionaries, to minister to the Cabecar. To say that I was excited was certainly an understatement, as well as amazed at how quickly the Lord had answered my prayer.

After flying into Alajuela International Airport, we proceeded to rent two four wheel drive cars, and then headed south for the Cabecar Reservation, about a four hour drive to the southeast of San Jose. We had lots to pack: sleeping gear, clothing, food, Bibles, and children’s gifts sufficient for a ten day stay in the jungle. In addition to all that, construction tools, paint and other materials, as well as a small solar collector, battery, and auxiliary wires needed for the solar lighting system we planned to install at the church. It was a load!

After driving for a couple hours, it was getting dark and we decided to pull off and spend the night at a restaurant and guest house that was on a high mountain overlooking the beautiful Turrialba River Valley. After securing our rooms and taking a short rest, we went over to the restaurant that was perched on the edge of the cliff overlooking the valley. It was a beautiful sight, seeing all the lights of the villages in the valley, as darkness had fully enclosed the area.

But I was in for even more of a surprise as I entered the vestibule of the restaurant. There, sitting against the wall of the vestibule, was the very same dugout canoe that the Lord had shown me in the dream! It was about ten feet long, just wide enough to hold a single file row of passengers, and though dried out and cracked from being out of the water, it was certainly the boat, or one just like the one He had shown me in the dream. It was as if the Lord was giving me a boost of confidence and rewarding me for the step of faith that I had taken.

* * *

Bright and early the next day, we headed for the reservation, and eventually for the village called La Colonia. The village was reached only by foot or horse travel after going down miles of rugged mountain trails, crossing the raging Chirripo River, then going back up the mountain about a mile on the other side of the river. The trip could take about four hours, depending on the physical condition of the team. The crossing of the river was an adventure of itself, and varied by the time of year and depth of the water.

Some of the men of the village had come up to the top of the mountain to meet us. It was a joyous reunion for Darius and Anna, who had been into the village several times before. We then packed up the gear and headed down the winding mountain trails. It quickly became an arduous trek because of the steepness of the terrain, the sliding nature of the rocks and dirt on many passages of the trail, and the fact that all us of have to carry our packs loaded with provisions for the week’s stay. So each person was carrying fifty pounds of gear, including clothes, food, water, cooking utensils, and gifts for the Cabecar people.

As we rounded the last bend before actually seeing the Chirripo River, I could hear the rushing of the current as it blasted its way over the rocks and downhill towards the sea, a never ending river of life. Then the river came into sight! It was a beautiful sight to behold! A mighty, rushing torrent coming down out of the mountains, about one hundred feet wide and three feet in depth, it was easy to see how the Cabecar had escaped the persecution of the Spanish and hid themselves behind the river for over 400 years.

But just as I was captivated by the physical beauty of the river, I was also jolted into the spirit realm while standing there gazing at it. This was the