Source: God Reports, February 3, 2022
In 2013 Caleb Byerly woke up with a start and began to furiously write in his journal everything he saw in a rather unusual dream. For the previous five years, [Caleb] had been engaged in mission outreach to indigenous people and tribal areas in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.
“In the dream, I was standing on top of this mountain. I was looking out across the mountain, and I saw a tribe of people,” he told God Reports. He had never seen the tribe before and felt drawn to them, so he asked, “What tribe are you? What people are you?”
“We’re the Tinananon tribe,” they replied. Caleb had never heard of this people group and he began to carefully observe their actions in his dream.
A tribal chief walked to the front carrying a musical instrument.
“He took two small sticks, and he began to play this instrument. As he played the whole tribe started to dance and they started to worship. This kind of sound of worship just filled the place. It was as if heaven and earth just collided. After that, I woke up from the dream.”
God has spoken to Caleb through dreams previously, so he meticulously recorded in his journal the name of the Tinananon tribe. He made detailed drawings of the bowl, its dimensions and materials, a wooden ring that goes around the bowl, the strings connected by wooden pegs, and the two sticks used to play the instrument.
The full story describes how Caleb, an instrument maker by trade, built the instrument he saw in his dream, found the Tinananon tribe, and helped bring them the Bible in their language. It’s pretty amazing!
Hear Caleb tell the story in a 2019 episode on The Unseen Story, a podcast with first-person stories that build faith in God’s power and presence. Actually, Google will help you find this story told in quite a few places.
Note that Caleb Byerly and his wife founded Evergreen Missions, which includes a focus on promoting indigenous music, poetry, and more.
Watch Caleb play the salimbaa in the video below.