Uninspired and in a rut, the Rev. Donna Rose-Heim didn’t expect she’d soon be guiding others in how to dream.

But this is exactly what happened after a prayer inspired her to write a book. After a discussion of dreams with her husband, while taking a walk, just what that book should be was illuminated in her mind. The Rev. Rose-Heim self-published that book, “Dream Walking,” in 2007 and this fall came out with a related book, “Dream Walking for Kids.”

“We sometimes can go around like zombies, feeling oppressed and I don’t think that’s God’s desire,” noted the Cameron, Mo., woman, who is an interim transitional pastor currently serving at First Christian Church in Independence, Mo.

The purpose of both books is to help people “have a dynamic, life-changing, ever-present friendship with God,” according to www.dreamwalkingwithgod.com, and to realize God’s dreams for their lives and the world. The original “Dream Walking” was written for women (but has also been used by couples and men, the Rev. Rose-Heim noted), while “Dream Walking for Kids” is meant for parents to use with their children. Both contain meditations and activities to help bring dreams to life; and the Rev. Rose-Heim also leads retreats aimed at the same purpose.

“Dreaming, I’ve found for some people, is really hard,” she said. “But reality is not all that God has in mind for us.”

For Judy Standley, it took a little time to mentally break out of the box and discover new dreams for herself. The 64-year-old Independence, Mo., woman attended one of the Rev. Rose-Heim’s retreats at First Christian in Independence with one of her daughters and found that initially, the dreams she conjured were for her family and their happiness.

“But then it became more inner-directed,” said Ms. Standley, who has been married for 44 years and has two adult children. “It was OK if I had dreams about the rest of my own life. That there were dreams beyond mothering, teaching, being a wife and outside of church activities.”

For her, one new dream was a return to an old one: Poetry.

“For the first time since 1988, I pulled out my well-worn black diary and wrote my very first poem since so long ago,” she added.

Cristie Sharpsteen was similarly inspired after attending one of the Rev. Rose-Heim’s retreats and going through her “Dream Walking” book. The Kansas City-area woman began writing a book on spiritual principles and also began leading workshops at her church.

“It creates energy to recognize your dreams again,” Ms. Sharpsteen said of the Dream Walking retreat, noting that the book she purchased there helped her maintain that energy and added depth to her Bible study. “It fosters momentum you didn’t have before. It helps that creative you to come out.”

Ms. Sharpsteen has also gone through “Dream Walking for Kids” with her 8-year-old son and described one activity in particular that was illuminating — revealing to her that her son, who is in competitive gymnastics, has ambitions that go beyond what she’d had for him.

“I thought maybe we’d get college paid for,” through gymnastics, she noted, “but he wants to be an Olympic gymnast. If we hadn’t taken the time to go through this book and to go on this walk, I may not have learned this about him. I may have limited him.”

It’s a big dream, but one that fits well with what has come to be a sort of focus statement for the Rev. Rose-Heim and her fellow dream-walkers: “Every miracle began because someone dared to dream that things could be different.”

An example of this she gives came out of a dream that a group of women at a Kansas church formed after attending a Dream Walking retreat. They decided they wanted to end world hunger and started by preparing a monthly dinner for people in their community who were struggling. This resulted not only in food for the hungry but also in connecting people who — due to different economic demographics — may never have come to know each other otherwise.

“Did they solve world hunger? No,” the Rev. Rose-Heim said. “But did they solve some aspect of hunger? They sure did.”

In many senses, “Dream Walking” has exceeded any dreams the Rev. Rose-Heim had for it — improving marriages, encouraging career changes for people who have felt stuck in their jobs and even making it all the way to Africa, to a missionary who is using it with teenage girls.

Anyone interested in buying the book locally can find it at Hastings Books Music & Videos in St. Joseph, as well as on Amazon.com. “Dream Walking for Kids” is also available on www.authorhouse.com. Both books can be found on the Dream Walking website, too, as can contact information for anyone who would like to get in touch with the Rev. Rose-Heim about scheduling a retreat: drh@dreamwalking.com or (816) 617-7016.

As for her own life, the Rev. Rose-Heim feels far from that rut she found herself in several years ago and now is experiencing how one dream can lead to another, then another.

“When you teach something, you have to live it,” she said. “And when life gets a little heavy, there’s still that part of us that’s like God and can take chaos and make something out of it.”

Erin Wisdom can be reached at erin.wisdom@newspressnow.com.