Sowing the Seeds : Close to 20,000 Children and Their Parents Celebrate Christianity at Harvest Kids’ Crusade

If the audience had been a bit older, one would have thought a rock star had taken the stage as thousands of screaming fans swarmed around, clamoring to get autographs or have their pictures taken with him.

But the man who drew 18,500 children and parents to Anaheim Stadium on Saturday and kept them enthralled in the midday heat was attired not in sequins or leather, but in blue foam, a fright wig and clown shoes.

The youngsters came to sing and clap to Christian music with Psalty, the singing songbook, at the Harvest Kids’ Crusade. He brought with him his “family”--daughters Melody and Harmony, dog Blooper, Charity the mouse and Colby the Computer.

“Psalty is the Billy Graham for kids,” said the 46-year-old man behind the costume, Ernie Rettino, a resident of Trabuco Canyon who for 15 years has built a worldwide following among Christian children through personal appearances and videotapes.

Rettino said he often shares billing with well-known evangelists such as Graham at children’s days during weeklong or weekend adult crusades.

On Saturday he was the star of the Kids’ Crusade, part of the four-day Christian revival that ends today at Anaheim Stadium.

The Rev. Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside is the featured speaker for the crusade, now in its sixth year.

Rettino said he and his wife invented the character and gave him a name derived from the word Psalter, a version of the Book of Psalms used for religious services.

The character, he said, was meant to fill “a need for somebody to do something for kids that wasn’t boring and finger-pointing . . . that made God fun instead of a scary thing to run away from.”

He said he “grew up in a church where I was afraid of God, and by the time I was 15 I had become an atheist.”

Later, he said, when he worked as a backup singer for entertainer Pat Boone, Boone gave him a Bible, and he began to read it. Ultimately, he said, he was called to the Christian ministry and has focused on children.

The parents who brought their youngsters Saturday from as far away as Riverside and Los Angeles counties said they were thankful for the event.

Susan Shaffer, 32, of Fullerton accompanied her three sons, ages 6, 8 and 10. “It teaches them not to be afraid to talk about Jesus and their love for Him in public,” she said of the children’s program.

The preaching was kept to a minimum during a service sprinkled with kid-pleasing diversions. Early in the show, brightly colored beach balls were tossed into the stadium from the balconies. Youngsters batted the balls and sang, “I’m happy, so very happy.”

The crowd’s enthusiasm was not wilted by the heat, which drove some families under the stands in search of shade. “We have sold a lot of Cokes and given out a lot of ice,” said Al Dominguez, a food vendor.

“The next time we’ll bring hats,” said Ellie Killgore of San Clemente, who accompanied her twin 4-year-old granddaughters, Jennifer and Brittany Hadley, to the crusade to cap off a week of Bible school.

Killgore said she wants her grandchildren to learn about the Christian faith that has helped her greatly in her own life.

The twins, cuddling in her lap, has been eager to come to the show, she said. “They wait and wait for Psalty to come out, and they love the music.”

Another 4-year-old, Genae Harrington, perched on the knee of her mother, Sandra. “I like the mouse, Charity,” she said.

The girl’s 12-year-old brother, Matthew, was more ho-hum. “He said some of the songs are too kiddy,” his mother explained. “It would be good if they had something for older kids.”

But some of Psalty’s biggest fans were well past adolescence. Debbie Lopez, 40, of Garden Grove said she and her husband were converted to Christianity through the “praise songs” on Psalty’s tapes, which she bought 15 years ago to entertain her daughters.

She said the couple, who now teach Sunday school, were drawn to “the joy of it, the excitement of it. It is alive.”

Though her daughters are now grown, she said, she came to the crusade Saturday with her husband, their 9-year-old son, two of his friends and a niece.

At the end of the crusade, after the children had raised their hands in commitment to Jesus and marched through an arch of balloons to receive Bibles, some met their hero.

“Look, Psalty has a blue beard,” marveled 7-year-old Tanje Beamon as Rettino, although admittedly sweltering in his blue foam suit, jovially signed autographs.

Tanje came to the crusade with Jenethel Smith, 30, who had chauffeured a large group, ranging in age from 7 to 52, from Moreno Valley.

Smith, like others in the chorus section, wore a purple T-shirt proclaiming, “I’m a Harvest Kids Crusader.” She said she and her children go to see Psalty whenever he appears in Southern California.

“I lose my age when I come here,” she said with a smile.