Meet Jesse Marcos

It was the summer of 1992, and my wife Tricia and I had been asked to lead the Campus Crusade summer project to Cordoba, Argentina. Our children were four, six and, eight. It would be our first international adventure as a family. We were also responsible for fifteen students! Can you say overwhelmed!? As we planned, we saw our fears grow as we wondered how our children would do. Our prayer life increased dramatically, and I wish I could say our fears finally subsided, but not even close.

Flying into Buenos Aires, I kept thinking, there is no turning back. On the first morning at breakfast, our children all cried in unison because the hotel didn’t have cereal. I thought, wow, we’re off to a great start!

Our team began ministering on campus, and our kids came with us. We thought about things we could do with them so they wouldn’t be bored. For example, our son brought his T-ball set. Late one afternoon, we set it up on campus, and suddenly, we realized we had drawn a large crowd of students, partly because baseball is not a sport that is played in Argentina. T-ball became one of our best outreaches of the summer.

Two weeks later, we boarded a bus at 10pm and arrived at 2am where we showed The Jesus Film. By the way, have I mentioned that Argentina is in the southern hemisphere, which meant it was winter? Our housing had a couple of broken out windows and no heat! We literally had to put on every piece of clothing they had. The children laughed, saying they resembled “The Michelin Man”.

It was nearing the end of the summer, and I had a morning with the kids while my wife Tricia was gone. While playing our usual game of Uno, my son Brett began asking questions about Jesus. The Lord gave me the privilege of leading my son to Christ that day!

As the summer ended, my wife and I were struck by how much we allowed our fears to control us, and yet the Lord took care of us and our children, too.