Come. Come, all of you.

A few days before our team left Las Moras, Andrea told me about something she had dreamed. Dreams are very important to the Nahuatl people, and they often find meaning, signs, or omens in what they see while they sleep. Andrea said that she and a handful of others were standing on an outcropping of rock, looking down. Far below them was a path, and many were walking downhill, getting further away from the rock on which Andrea stood. She and her companions above called to them. “Shiwál! Shiwaláh!” Come. Come, all of you. But those who were walking refused to acknowledge those who were calling. Andrea said she was afraid for them, because she sensed that the path they were taking was not good, that they were in danger.

When Andrea woke up, she kept mulling the dream over. When she recounted it to me, she wanted to know if I thought it was true or not. And while it doesn’t take a literature major to see some obvious symbolism, I wanted to be careful not to say something that could be interpreted as a blanket statement of approval or dismissal of dreams. Instead, I reminded Andrea that God is the author of Truth, and that Satan is described as the Father of Lies, in Nahuatl “the one who-is-lying-continuously.” Anything we think, or dream, or feel must be compared to what God says. If it “truly matches” what God says, it is true, but if it has even a little bit of a lie, we must be careful, for we remember that Satan started his conversation with Eve by mixing a little falsehood in with the truth.

After we talked a bit about these things, Andrea said she believes that her dream is true, because it matches what God says is true: that many do not believe him and cannot be saved unless they do. That they are walking a bad path and that the ones who believe must tell them, “Shiwál.” Come.

Our team is currently out of the village until early August. It was difficult to leave the brand-new church at this point in time, but we trust that the same Holy Spirit who fills, helps, and emboldens us will sustain the believers in Las Moras. And while we look forward to returning and continuing to evangelize and disciple, we rejoice that the village is no longer in darkness and that the church there is burdened with sharing the Light.

I will close with one more thought. We don’t put a great deal of stock in dreams in our Western culture, often blaming strange nightly visions on our snack choice before bed. But the conversation with Andrea reminded me that the thoughts that pop into my head while I’m awake and the emotions that I feel need to go through the same filtration process as my friend’s dream. We live in a culture that tells us to follow our heart and that we can’t deny our feelings. But just because something is real does not mean that it is true. The Word challenges us to take every thought captive until it results in obedience. We are to be transformed by renewing what is in our mind. That is my prayer today for my friend Andrea, for the other young believers in Las Moras, and for my own walk: that my mind will learn to default to truth and that that truth will bring about the kind of life that brings glory to God.