‘I dreamed you were coming’

Kate Gregory
International Mission Board

CHOSICA, Peru – “God gave me a vision that you would come,” said Isabel, who welcomed a group of International World Changers (IWC) students into her home in Quirio, Peru, July 19.

Peruvian Salomon Quispe (far left) translates as Matthew McClintic from Highland Heights Baptist Church, Benton, and Amanda Webb, representing South Carolina Baptist Collegiate Missions in Columbia, S.C., pray for Isabel; her niece, Yuli; her son, Eric, and his friend, Paulo.She said, “I dreamed that people would come in two groups of three to visit my home,” which is how they arrived.

“My husband thought I was crazy,” Isabel recounted. “Why would Americans come all the way up here (to the hills of Quirio) to visit my shack? I was afraid that I would not have the proper comforts.”

Her family moved to the Quirio hillside 12 years ago. Isabel takes pride in having been able to replace a dirt floor with a concrete one.

“God has been blessing me little by little,” she said.

An orphan, she is concerned that her children have a better life. Her son, Eric, met Matthew McClintic from Highland Heights Baptist Church, Benton, earlier in the week when he taught an English class at Eric’s school.

Matthew said he felt drawn to talk to Eric, 15, after Matthew had shared his testimony with the class. The two arranged for a small group from IWC to visit Eric’s home the next day. Isabel prepared a homemade lunch for the team, while she set the family’s television to a station that was broadcasting an evangelist’s sermon.

Isabel told the team she was a Christian, but her husband was not. She said that sometimes caused conflict in the family. Her husband is only able to spend four or five days a month at home because he works out of town.

The team invited her and her children to a family festival the next day, featuring an evangelistic presentation and a showing of the movie “Courageous.”

“In the movie, a couple walks through many things to have a strong spiritual relationship,” Matthew said. “Hearing you talk about your husband and your relationship makes me think it isn’t a coincidence.

“Don’t give up on your husband,” Matthew encouraged her. “God can do anything and everything.”

Peruvian translator Salomon Quispe shared his testimony about his mother being the first in his family to become a Christian. It took longer for his father to come to Christ.

“Christ came into our family’s lives, first to our mother, then spread to all of us,” he told her.

Isabel has posted pieces of paper throughout the small home containing the Bible verses John 14:21, Jeremiah 1:9-10 and Proverbs 8:17 (NIV), which says in part “those who seek me find me.”

She said she did this to teach her children, who know them by heart, but also to protect them from evil spirits that she sometimes feels are chasing her. She asked for prayer for her family.

In response, the team and family formed a circle of prayer inside the house and prayed for the household, that the family’s bonds would be strengthened and that they would trust in the strength, power and love of God that can conquer every fear.

Isabel said she would welcome a Bible study in her home, so the team is going to introduce her to church planters from nearby Iglesia Bautista Cristo El Fundamento who are looking for people willing to do just that.

See related story in the Aug. 9 printed edition of the Arkansas Baptist News.

Kate Gregory is a writer/editor with the International Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention.