The Third Degree

A string of lively bars, rooms to let by the hour, drug dealers and a distinct whiff of marijuana mark the entrance to the University of Costa Rica in San Jose. Known to locals as 'the street of desperation', it is also home to various strange philosophical groups and lesbian and gay societies. As we drive through the entrance to the university, our host explains that this street represents one of the big issues among students in this lush green country of Central America.

Fernando Montera, General Secretary of the Costa Rican CU movement, the Estudiantes Cristianos Uniodos (ECU), has brought us to his alma mater, where he also lectured for four years, to share some of the needs and encouragements from his involvement in the ECU. He explained about the desperation and hopelessness which characterise so many university students in Costa Rica: 'They feel hopeless, when they see a world that doesn't satisfy. They feel disorientated, because they are guided by a generation who themselves are disorientated. They are superficial, because they are not going deep into anything. They are individualistic, because they have no causes to follow. They are indifferent to everything, whether it be politics, religion, society or ecology, and put their energy into amusing themselves.' The result of this is seen in 'the street of desperation'.

Secret agents

These issues are not exclusive to Costa Rica, and are familiar to those involved in the student scene in the UK. So are the issues facing 'tico' Christian students similar to those of students studying in our universities and colleges? 'The main problem for the ECU', Fernando explained, 'is the pressure on Christian students to not identify themselves as followers of Christ, but to fit in with the crowd. There are many Christian students at our universities, but many of them never make their faith public. They might be very involved in their church, and not give in to the obvious temptations, but at the same time are not faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ in their student community. We have many "secret agents", who have succumbed to the great temptation to be anonymous.'

Fernando suggested this was in part due to being ashamed of the gospel or afraid of rejection by their peers but, most significantly, it comes out of the formation of an evangelical subculture: 'Students come to university with the belief that serving the Lord takes place within the four walls of their church. Consequently, they make a division between their life as Christians and their public life as students.' Some pastors fear 'losing' their young people from involvement in the church, so don't en-courage ministry on campus. The ECU has therefore had to make a conscious decision to invest time in persuading church leaders of the need to have a witness on every university campus and (as the ECU also works in schools), in local high schools. Pastors who were part of the ECU as students are obviously more supportive, but: 'the majority of pastors we meet say, "Congratulations. A very nice work. All the best with it." We are not giving up, this is a key area if we are going to develop, so we are still working at it.'

Different format

On the ground, the format of the ECU is quite different from, say, the CU groups in this country. The University of Costa Rica has four cell groups which meet each week for Bible study, and plan evangelism together. The cells sometimes work together for special events, such as the forthcoming guitar concert, that will intersperse musical items with gospel presentations. At the start of the year the Christian students 'invade classrooms' together. The ECU members ask the professors if they can do a three-minute presentation before the lecture begins. They stand up in class, welcome the new students to the university, introduce the ECU groups, and give each student a gospel booklet with a bookmark outlining details of the cell groups. Last year they prepared hundreds of mini-parachutes, which included cheap gifts and a Bible verse on the base. These were dropped from the roof of a building onto an area where students meet to chat, and members of the ECU group were there waiting to start conversations with the recipients!

Evangelism is very much at the heart of the ECU, and is obviously a personal passion of Fernando's. As the General Secretary, and only paid worker for the ECU, he certainly has his work cut out. Yet, he has enrolled on a degree course at the National University in San Jose so he can keep up contact with non-Christian students. When asked what excited him most about his job, he put 'seeing students make a decision to follow Christ' at the top of the list.

He shared about Sonia, a Christian girl at the National University who prayed she would be given a Christian roommate. She turned up at the halls of residence to find she'd been put in a room with Rebecca, a girl who hated Christians. As Sonia tried to present the gospel to her, Rebecca became more defiant, and purposely did things to offend her, such as putting grotesque pictures on the walls and playing dark music. Fernando's eyes lit up as he shared how by the end of the year, Rebecca had 'given herself up to the feet of the Lord'. Sonia was given another unbelieving roommate this year, and within the first month, roommate no. 2 had accepted Christ. 'It is stories like this that fill my heart with much joy and motivate me to continue.'

Fernando himself owes much to the ECU. As a new Christian at high school, it was the ECU that helped tie his Christian faith together: 'If it hadn't been for ECU's presence in my school, I wouldn't be here today.' His vision is for every high school and university in Costa Rica to have an ECU group. There is a long way to go: there are around 80,000 students in the universities and 500,000 in Costa Rican high schools. This contrasts with just 200-300 students involved in ECU groups across both schools and universities. To make steps towards his vision being realised, the pressing need is for three part-time paid staff workers to support the ECU groups, and for churches to grasp the need for student witness in the universities and high schools of Costa Rica.

I'll be leaving the land of coffee in a fortnight, and be back to writing this column from the shadow of Victoria station in London, but, in the meantime, while you're drinking your mug of instant, please remember to pray for Fernando and his vision for the students of Costa Rica.

Emma Balch

© Evangelicals Now - April 2004
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