Dark Parables: Dream of church and vision of Ash-faced people

Okay, living in the dreaming visioning generation, I'm trying to figure out some of the images that present themselves to me in dreams and visions.

Was reading Jeremiah today  and came across the following. In it we see God talking to Jeremiah in two different visions. The first vision is of the word association type. The word for almond sounds like the word for hasten so God was punning.

The word of the LORD came to me: "What do you see, Jeremiah?" "I see the branch of an almond tree," I replied.  Jeremiah 1: 11


"A rod of an almond tree - שקד shaked, from שקד shakad, "to be ready," "to hasten," "to watch for an opportunity to do a thing," to awake; because the almond tree is the first to flower and bring forth fruit."  -- Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

The second is of the symbolic imagery type.

The word of the LORD came to me again: "What do you see?" "I see a boiling pot, tilting away from the north," I answered. Jeremiah 1:13


These are just two of the ways God shows things in visions. Anyway...so here I am with my two confusing dream and visions.


The first is a dream. The second is a vision.


The dream:



I dreamed I was coming down a staircase (metal, gridlike) and talking to a guy about the future deception when "all the world will be as one" and believe that peace has come. Then I heard a processional hymn being sung in an Anglican/Episcopailian church. The opening line of the hymn was either Joyful, joyful or happy, happy or joyful, happy or happy, joyful. I recognized the hymn and it made me so happy I wanted to listen to it and to see the procession. I ran down to the church and looked through at a little side door. I hid a little to the side so no one inside could see me looking in. I saw a little blonde girl passing by in the procession, heading toward the altar. She was holding a book in her hand. Might have been a hymnal or a Bible. She had on the white tunic vestments folks wear in the processional in church. I was so overwhelmed with greif at the state of my church and so overwhelmed with the beauty of the hymn that I put my right hand on the wall to the left of the little door. I almost felt I would go through the wall or that if I turned to the left I would see an angel. I just cried and cried and cried and then I looked in the little door again. I saw the priest's hand. I could see it parallel to the door where I stood and perpendicular to the altar. It was in front of a particular section of the altar near the middle and the priest seemed about to open a compartment within the altar. Not sure if he had a key in his hand. I woke up crying but I got up with a sense of anticipation. As if anticipating healing for my son, or a repairing of the Episcopalian church, or something being opened. I was crying to much when I woke up.

The vision:
I was lying in bed and suddenly three short movie type clips pop up in front of my mind's eye:
A man, a woman, an older man: All with ash on one side of their face. As if they had fallen into ash on one side of their body. Not sure if it was volcanic ash or fire ash. They seemed Latin American or Pacific Islander...olive-skinned or darker. Not sure what that means.


So, Rose-Marie says: It might be a disaster in Latin America
Jessica says, it might be about repentance... sackcloth and ashes. 


But why is the ash only on one side of the face? Must think.