More than 100 families of the Cabécar and Bribri Indigenous communities received food, rubber boots and hygiene items in an effort carried out on December 1 and 2, 2025 in the Talamanca mountains, province of Limón, in southeastern Costa Rica. The initiative, in its eighth consecutive year, is coordinated by the Costa Rican Union of the Adventist Church in partnership with the country's Caribbean Mission.
According to the Adventist Virtual Library, the Inter-American Division portal that published the account, many families traveled from three to more than twenty hours — on horseback or on foot, leaning on walking sticks and carrying sacks for the supplies — to reach the distribution points, in regions where there had previously been no Adventist presence.
What happened in Talamanca
The distribution was concentrated in communities scattered across the Talamanca mountain range, in eastern Costa Rica — among them Veréh, Charabata and Chinaquichá. These are hard-to-reach places, accessible only by mountain trails, where peoples of the Cabécar and Bribri ethnic groups live.
According to the Adventist Virtual Library, more than a hundred people gathered during the church leaders' weekend visit. Each of the more than 100 families served received a package with rice, legumes, pasta, cornmeal, sugar, oil and hygiene products. Beyond the food, rubber boots were distributed — an item of real necessity in mountainous, humid terrain — along with toys and candy for the children.
Part of the distribution took place at the Grano de Oro Adventist Camp, a meeting point to which the families traveled. Young volunteers, including high school and university students, helped with the distribution and told Bible stories to the children.
Who coordinated the effort
The initiative is led by the Costa Rican Union, the administrative field of the Adventist Church that brings together the work in the country, in partnership with the Caribbean Mission of Costa Rica, directly responsible for the region served. They are joined by local churches and the support of the literacy and development programs of ADRA, the Adventist humanitarian agency.
For the Pathfinder reader, it helps to place the terms. A Union groups together several fields of the same region; a Mission is a field still being formed, still dependent on outside resources, which serves churches and groups in a specific area. Costa Rica belongs to the Inter-American Division, one of the thirteen world divisions of the Adventist Church, spanning Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and the north of South America.
ADRA — the same agency that, in Brazil, is a frequent partner of Pathfinder clubs in social campaigns — enters this work through the educational front, with literacy efforts that accompany the material assistance throughout the year.
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The December effort is not an isolated event. According to the Inter-American Division's account, it is the eighth consecutive year of a missionary effort that has grown across the Indigenous mountains of the country's east.
Today the church serves eight Indigenous congregations in the region and has set the goal of opening two new congregations per year. In the community of Veréh, about 40 people gather weekly, on Saturdays — a figure that helps measure the reach of a work that began where, according to the leaders, there had been no prior Adventist presence.
"These are places where there was previously no Adventist presence," said Ricardo Marín, president of the Costa Rican Union, in a statement reproduced by the Adventist Virtual Library. The leader sums up the initiative's philosophy in the idea that true evangelism is proven through action, and not by theory alone.
Voices from the field
The work depends, on the front line, on volunteers who moved close to the communities. One of them is lay leader Maritza Masís, who summed up to the division's reporting the personal cost of the mission: "I left my home, my work, my family and everything I had to preach the gospel."
The president of the Caribbean Mission, Jeremy Espinoza, stressed that ministry among these peoples requires patience and continuity. According to him, once people embrace the faith, they become "faithful stewards" of the church — reinforcing, in the leaders' reading, that material assistance opens the door to a lasting relationship, not a one-time visit.
Context: who the Cabécar and Bribri are
The Cabécar and Bribri are among the largest Indigenous peoples of Costa Rica. Both mainly inhabit the Talamanca region, on the country's Caribbean slope, in mountain territories marked by geographic isolation and limited access to services — which helps explain why items like rubber boots and food baskets make a concrete difference.
It is that isolation the effort seeks to overcome twice: first on the material level, bringing food and footwear to those who walk for hours along trails; then on the community level, with the formation of study groups and congregations that remain after the distribution ends.
What this says to the Pathfinder
Efforts like the one in Talamanca reflect the same spirit of service that drives the Pathfinder Club in fundraising campaigns, community work days and outreach projects. The logic is similar: identify a real need, mobilize volunteers — many of them young — and turn faith into a concrete gesture.
For clubs seeking inspiration in social projects, the Costa Rican case offers two practical lessons: continuity, since eight straight years produced eight congregations where there had been none; and partnership, with the Union, Mission, local churches and ADRA joining efforts instead of acting alone. It is the difference between a visit and a presence.