How did “Clara’s House” start and who was Clara?

Many folks ask me this. So allow me share my story with you!

I was very fortunate to have many family members living close by, growing up. One of these family members was my great-grandmother, Clara. We called her “MomMom.” I remember many nights sleeping in her very large Victorian Second Empire house in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.

I remember many afternoons helping her get dressed and helping to put on her makeup. I even remember helping her put on her corset! I remember how she taught me the old church hymns, how she recited very long poems (Tommy’s Prayer), and how she loved having her tea with two full heaping teaspoons of sugar! I remember her old wooden rocking chair and how it would creak as she rocked (and I often wonder what happened to it). I remember her faith in God and her hoping to “go home” one day soon to see her Jimmie (her husband). She had a very special place in my heart and I in hers.

MomMom was a very active and prominent woman in her community, and for her time period! She was a businesswoman, wife, and mother of five children (with a lot of grandchildren and great grand-children). She was very active in politics, in social circles, and in civic organizations. Everyone knew of her! She ran several businesses from Christmas Trees, to homemade ice cream, to restaurants to lodging. And she remained very active until her death at (almost) 104 years old!

Someone in my family told me she had the first motor car in Saylorsburg. And her house was the first to have electric lights. I've also been told by someone that there was a small home-made “still” hidden in a wall somewhere! Now I would have liked to have seen that! As you can tell, she was a special woman to me, from my infancy up until my mid-twenties. And that leads me to what happened one night…

It was around 1992, and one night I had an astonishing dream (keep in mind that MomMom had been gone for about five years now). I dreamed that I was in MomMom’s house standing by her door. A knocking was at the door, and I went to answer it. I opened the door, and there was a woman there, or I should say a female being (it could have been an angel or a person). This “being” was holding a bundle in her arms. As soon as we made eye contact and I saw this bundle, she turned around to leave. She carried the bundle away from the door and headed to a large field near the house. I started to yell, “No, no, no!” because when I looked at the field, I saw hundreds of white cross markers as gravesites. I must have known somehow that she was going to bury this bundle.

At the next part of the dream, I was standing next to the wall by the door, and I looked up at the wall. About now I was starting to wake up from the dream but still being in the half-sleep/half-awake stage, I saw something on the wall. It was the initials “C-L-A-R-A.” And this phrase was forming in my thoughts—“Children Looking for A Rest Area.” I woke up totally and started to weep. I cried for several days after that. I knew the dream meant something; I could feel it in my spirit.

It took several years, a lot of prayers, and then research to understand the dream and its implications and purpose. But, because of this dream “Clara’s House Maternity Shepherding Home Ministry” was born. Thanks be unto God! The story continues with “A Time For Rest.” Check out that website, too!