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Billy and Laurie Drum share Christ’s love with the people of rural Peru. Both having spent many years as teachers in the United States, they have a heart for education and are called to help children and families who do not have the ability to obtain an education in Peru. They founded the Kuyay Talpuy program, which means "sowing seeds with the love of God" in Quechua (the language spoken there). Through the Kuyay Talpuy education centers, the Drums are able to touch the lives of children, their families, and their communities.

Here, Laurie shares a story of a woman in their village and the transformation that occurred in her family.

Jenny has been a mother in our Kuyay Talpuy program for three years. Her daughter, Emilia, graduated from our preschool and kindergarten program and is now in second grade. Jenny’s second daughter, Margarita, is four years old and is currently attending our preschool program. Jenny also has a infant daughter, as well as an older son from a previous marriage.

Last year, Jenny’s marriage became unbearable. Her husband was verbally and emotionally abusive to the family, especially to her son (who is from a different father). In this culture, it is common for the stepfather to completely ignore the existence of stepchildren or to treat them very poorly. It is not uncommon for stepchildren to be fed last and least and to be denied educational opportunities. Her husband was also openly cheating on her.

Jenny became more and more depressed with this situation until, finally, she decided to separate from her husband. Because the family had no economic resources for a legal divorce, they decided to split their assets.

Jenny took the children and moved to a nearby town. Her husband took the house. They divided their farming field in half.

When it was time to plant the fields, the husband went out and bought seed potatoes and fertilizer and planted his half. Jenny went to town and used her only money to buy the leftover potatoes in the market. Her potatoes were full of bugs and worms and were half-rotten, but it was all she could afford.

Jenny hand-plowed her half of the field. Then, she prayed over her field and her wormy potatoes, “God, you know that this is all that I have. I’m planting these potatoes in faith. If I plant wormy potatoes and all I get in return is wormy potatoes, so be it. But I’m asking you to bless my field and my potatoes.”

Jenny’s husband made fun of her for planting the potatoes that she had. He lived with his girlfriend in their home and often ridiculed his wife when she was working in the field.

In the months that followed, Jenny waited and watched her field. Her potatoes grew and flowered, but potatoes are formed underground, so there was no way of knowing if anything was happening below ground. Much like our hearts, there is no way of really knowing what is truly going on inside until the fruit begins to show on the outside.

April was potato harvesting time in Patarcocha. Jenny’s husband harvested his half of the field, and his potatoes had not fared well. His harvest was not the yield that he had hoped for. His potatoes were small, and the bugs had attacked many of them. It was not a good crop.

However, on Jenny’s half of the field, the potatoes were enormous! A miracle had occurred! Jenny pulled up plant after plant that yielded several pounds of potatoes each. Jenny harvested single potatoes that weighed in at one kilogram a piece! Gigantic, plate-filling potatoes! They were beautiful, shiny, healthy potatoes—not a worm in the bunch! Truly, it was a miracle!

Jenny invited some of the teachers from Kuyay Talpuy over to have lunch. She shared the potato story with them as she served them giant potatoes. She related how life had changed for her family in the last couple of months.

Jenny has moved back to Patarcocha. Her husband now accepts her son in the family. He has changed his ways and is no longer abusive. Instead, he is kind and honoring to her and the children.

But the best change of all his been in his statement to her after the harvest, “Jenny, I now believe in your God. He is real!”

He wants to begin a Bible study with our teachers. He wants to open the family home to Bible study for the community. He has been transformed.

Thanks be to God for a pile of wormy potatoes, and the faith of a loving mother.

“Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." (John 6:27, ESV)