"Whitehead!" The young woman's shout broke the hypnotic song of crickets, barking dogs, and the distant muffle of reggae music. She called again from the darkened street, hoping someone in the house might answer. "Whitehead!"

Inside, an elderly man crossed the foyer and pushed open the heavy, white gate. He shuffled onto the graveled driveway under the Jamaican summer moon and approached the woman in the street.

Squinting through his eyeglasses, Ray Whitehead, 84, stopped a few feet away from the stranger and child. He asked what they wanted.

Estella McNish, a 30-year-old Jamaican, explained that she had met Ray and his wife, Burnette, several days earlier at the JESUS film showing in her neighborhood. Tonight, Estella came hoping to talk. "My spirit liked [Mrs. Whitehead]," she explained. "I went home after the film and said, 'Jesus, please let me see her again. I want her to be my friend.'"

Ray let her in and wakened his wife--they've been married 61 years. Burnette came down the stairs in slippers, tying her house coat over shorts and a blouse. After glancing again at her watch--9 p.m.--her first thought was to ask this stranger to return tomorrow, but reasoned instead that Jesus would have greeted her. "If you don't want to see these people," says Burnette with a shrug and a smile, "then you don't tell them where you live."

The gentle 81-year-old rested a hand on Estella's back, escorting her through the house and back into the privacy of the night. In the backyard, she and Estella talked while hanging wet laundry up to dry. Ray stayed behind in the dining room with Estella's 5-year-old niece, Nicolla. Short on smiles, the girl quietly ate a bowl of freshly cut mangoes while Ray brushed her cheeks with his age-worn fingers, digging for a giggle. "Never in my life had I thought I would be doing this," admits Ray. "I always thought I would be working with the 'up and outers,' the top men."

Throughout their 30 years of working with Campus Crusade for Christ, Ray and Burnette have met all kinds. They've hobnobbed with political giants and business leaders, as well as people like Estella. The call to mission work carried them from a successful construction company in California to Latin America, Africa and now Jamaica. Growing older has not changed that call, merely slowed down the couple's response to it. A little, anyway.

Ray and Burnette's first connection with Campus Crusade dates back to 1963 in La Habra Heights, CA. The Whiteheads opened their expansive home every Sunday night to 200-plus students from Southern California universities.

Three years later, while in their 50s, the couple took a three-month mission trip with Campus Crusade to Cuernavaca, Mexico. Accustomed to the finer things of life, Burnette wasn't sure what to expect. "I remember taking an electric popcorn popper that I could warm soup in," she says. "That is how I began in missions, fearful of the food and the living situation."

Despite Burnette's initial reservations, they both grew to love missionary life, and decided to leave everything to serve God full-time. Today, you can follow a trail of people holding the Whiteheads' business cards and an accompanying Four Spiritual Laws booklet to find Ray and Burnette at the other end. Ray says he buys about a thousand of the evangelistic booklets each year; he's always ready with at least one in his shirt pocket, tucked behind the suspenders.

By way of Ray's ambition and God's favor, the Whiteheads have talked with South African President Nelson Mandela, dined with Chief Minister of KwaZulu Mangosutho Buthelezi, and now, in Jamaica, meet regularly with the Governor General, Sir Howard Cooke.

One Sunday afternoon, at the home of ambassador Avadne Coye, Burnette introduced herself to the ambassador's friends by calling herself an ambassador as well. "We're ambassadors for the King of kings, and like all ambassadors, we are here to make our King known."

Since coming to the third-largest island in the Caribbean two years ago, the aptly named Whiteheads have shared Jesus with people of poverty as well as with the powerful. Last spring, Ray hired a taxi driver to take him into the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica's capital and home to the couple. Undaunted by the obvious distinction of his white skin, the ever-increasing threat of violence and a limited understanding of Jamaican culture, Ray shook hands with several dons in the ghettoes. Marijuana--or ganja, as the locals say--abounds on the island, and that day Ray spoke to several smoking the illegal drug.

The three-hour day trip into the slums was an effort to develop relationships, in preparation to later bring the JESUS film to them. A natural networker, Ray chose a well-known, respected taxi driver named Louis to take him. Because of Ray's bold visit and his friendly association with Louis, the people immediately accepted him.

His wife calls Ray a pioneer--he's constantly exploring new avenues for evangelism. Considering their age alone, both Ray and Burnette stand in front as leaders or pioneers: They are more than twice the median age of missionaries with Campus Crusade--only one other staff member is older.

"Age has complemented our ministry," suggests Burnette. "People respect age in Third World countries [like Jamaica]. I don't think our ministry in the States would ever be like it is here, because if you're not young and a mover, you can be left behind."

But age has its downsides. Within the last two years, Ray suffered a severe ear infection and was hospitalized for pneumonia. Burnette had two operations for skin cancer; both had cataract surgery. They each wear hearing aids and suffer many sleepless nights. "I am up with this aching and that aching most every night," says Burnette. Her hazel eyes grow big and she leans forward as if revealing a secret: "But I marvel that when I get out of bed in the morning, God restores my strength for the day."

Their director and housemate (see sidebar), Piet de Beer, often reminds the couple to pace themselves. "Ray has slowed down a lot. He cannot move at the pace he used to and that bothers him," he says. But Piet describes the couple as "Psalm 92 people," who, as verse 14 puts it, "bear fruit in old age."

"We really respect their zeal and their fervor," says Millie, Piet's wife. "Goodness me," she adds, laughing, "I love the lord, but I don't think I would like to sit in Jamaica at 80 years old, no!"

May it never be said Ray Whitehead lacks fervor. "When he came to Jamaica, Ray was not thinking of the island alone," says Eric Wafukho, Jamaica's campus director. "He was thinking of reaching the whole caribbean. He wanted to get an appointment with Castro."

If you ask Ray or Burnette, life for them holds no other options but the mission field. "I can't see myself pushing a little white [golf] ball around," says Ray.

"Only one man in the Bible retired," agrees Burnette. "He built barns to store his things and he died the next day. That's quite a caution to us."

Besides, how could retirement top this? "We've seen the world," says Burnette. "We don't need to go on cruises." So the Whiteheads keep right on talking to people about jesus. And in between seeing lives changed, they prioritize time for naps.