Thursday, September 19, 2002

Story and photos by GREGORY RUMMO

What do you envision when you think of college-age kids spending a school break in Latin America? Scantily clad men and women engaging in debauchery in a packed singles bar? Judge not, and you shall not be judged.

This summer, my 13-year-old son John and I traveled with about a dozen single adults to Costa Rica.

We did have a great time -but not like the one you may be picturing. We explored the rain forest and volcanic mountains, visited with the locals, and even went white-water rafting on the Río Sarapiquí.

But more importantly, wherever we went - from the crowded marketplace in San José, Costa Rica's bustling capital, to the quiet and sparsely populated mountainous countryside - we gave out the word of God. We handed out thousands of copies of the Gospel of John together with the book of Romans and a simple Gospel tract explaining the way of salvation.

In many instances, we did this by throwing them -literally -from the open windows of our bus as we traveled from place to place. We rolled up the booklets tightly, using two rubber bands. Then, taking careful aim, we tossed each a few feet behind the intended recipient.

To some, throwing God's Word from the open windows of a speeding bus may seem sacrilegious. But several years ago, during a mission trip to Peru, I witnessed the results of this tactic. People would always pick up our literature, often before it stopped rolling. And invariably, they would wave to us joyfully, with big smiles when they realized what it was.

There was one exception this time along the Pan American Highway on the way to San José. A police officer waved the driver over. We thought we were in big trouble until we heard him say: "Dios te bendiga!" (God bless you). It turned out he was a Christian. Although he didn't approve of our Gospel rockets, he waived the 100,000 colones fine ($280 American) and told us we were free to pass out the Gospel, as long as we didn't do it from a moving bus.

"It was a vacation with a purpose," explains Gabriel Bustos, who along with his wife, Mary Beth, and Rich and Claudia Brunner lead the single adult group at Madison Avenue Baptist Church in Paterson. They had worked together for months to organize this trip to Costa Rica to assist the Rev. Russ Turner and his wife, Lynn, the missionaries our church supports in San Ramón.

Turner told us that there'd be children everywhere. "Be prepared and bring lots of candy," he said.

He wasn't kidding. They were everywhere.

Along with candy, we gave out Gospel bracelets -five beads, each a different color, strung side by side on a piece of hemp.

Jesus often referred to everyday objects when he taught his disciples. A grain of wheat or a mustard seed, a sparrow or a lily - they helped listeners understand the deeper spiritual truths in Jesus' preaching. The Gospel bracelets we handed out by the hundreds helped us to illustrate the message of redemption in simple terms a child could understand.

The first bead on the bracelet is black to represent "those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons" because of their sins (Psalms 107:10). The next bead is red, symbolic of the blood of Jesus Christ, which "cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). This is followed by a white bead, a reminder to those who after receiving the forgiveness of Christ are made "white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18). A yellow bead is the promise of heaven, where "the street of the city [is] pure gold, like transparent glass" (Revelation 21:21).

The last bead, which is green, reminds us of the need for continuous spiritual growth here on the earth.

In Bajo Tejares de Barrio Belén de San Ramón, a small village where several hundred tin-roof shacks are scattered along red clay paths carved out of the jungle, children swarmed us. Each was given a bracelet if he or she promised to come to church the following Sunday, when we planned to explain the mystery of the five beads.

Sunday dawned a bright and glorious day in San Ramón. Almost 70 little giggling kids showed up that morning wearing their bracelets. They heard a presentation of the Gospel in Spanish followed by a puppet show aimed at helping them understand the power of the cross to transform lives.

During an afternoon on Isla del Venado, a small island in the Gulf of Nicoya, we spoke to a group of boys and girls in the Rev. Eladio Barahona's church. After school let out at around 3 p.m., about 50 children showed up in front of the small white building. As they filed into the pews, we handed each child a bracelet. After the puppet show, we gave out Tootsie Rolls and Airheads.

The distant rumble of thunder was our cue to head back to the dock. We piled into 22-foot fishing skiffs and motored back to the mainland for the bus ride to the ferry that would take us across the Gulf of Nicoya to Puntarenas. Once there, we would again board the bus for a 90-minute ride to a bed-and-breakfast in San Ramón.

By the time we walked into our rooms, we were exhausted.

Every time I travel to Latin America, I am moved by the sheer numbers of children living in abject poverty. Their photographs adorn the walls of my office. But even if they didn't, the memories of their beautiful faces would be more than enough to remind me of my responsibility as a Christian to reach out to them with the message of the Gospel.

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it" (Luke 18:16-17). n

Gregory Rummo belongs to Madison Avenue Baptist Church in Paterson. He is the author of The View From the Grass Roots (American Book Publishing). You may e-mail him at TheRecordReligion@northjersey.com, or directly at GregoryJRummo@aol.com