Cultural Exchange | Every time "the JESUS boys" go out to record another language, they mingle with an unfamiliar culture. On a recent trip to Cap Hatien, Haiti, Ryan K. (with beard) and Jesse walked the streets. "It's always important to watch for cars," says Jesse, "even on the sidewalk."

Jesse, while a senior at Oregon State University, heard about a chance to travel to exotic places, meet fascinating people, and live life "Indiana Jones" style—all in the name of advancing the gospel. He told his roommate Joel about it, and both said, "Let's go."

For the last three years, Campus Crusade for Christ's JESUS Film Project® has been looking on college campuses for people just like Jesse and Joel: adventurous young men willing to raise their own support and pour a year of their youth into traveling the world and recording new translations of the JESUS film.

In fact, Sir Winston Churchill, in his book Roving Commission: My Early Life, could have been writing about Jesse and Joel and others like them when he wrote the world "was made to be wooed and won by youth."

With somewhere over 4 billion viewings, the JESUS film is easily the most-watched motion picture ever, and more people have been wooed and won to Christ as a direct result of watching it than from any other gospel tool. But hundreds of language groups still live without the JESUS film in their mother tongue, and many have yet to hear the name Jesus.

Until recently, The JESUS Film Project relied on teams of fulltime staff members to record the voices for new translations of the film. But few can stand up to the long-term grind of recording language after language. And weeks of travel can be difficult on families. Thus the search for these bold young men to go short-term.

Officially, the young men who apply, and assemble in Orlando, Fla., are called the JESUS Film Travel Team. But their friends affectionately call them "the JESUS boys." And these guys definitely don't fit the usual missionary image; among other things, some of them ride motorcycles.

They come from various backgrounds and regions, but two common threads run through this group of 10 to 15 young men. They love God and they want to give a year of their youth to serve Him by zigzagging the world, in teams of two, recording voices for new language translations of the JESUS film.

During that year, life is fast, rigorous and rewarding. Jetting to a different continent every month. Living and working in some of most undeveloped areas of the world. And making a big mark on eternity.

This year's JESUS boys share two apartments where the two neat freaks—Eric "E-Dog" and Ryan C.—keep the places at least navigable.

Each does his own laundry, and successfully too, despite Jesse's formerly white socks: one stained green and the other purple. Apparently no one told Jesse—who has a degree in mechanical engineering—"Never mix whites and colors."

All these bachelors cook for themselves, more or less—lots of pizza. Some of the women in the office have taken them under their wing, providing lunches for the JESUS boys on home soil. One morning an "office mom" brought in a crockpot of potato soup. It cooked all morning until lunchtime, leaving a wonderful aroma and making people in surrounding offices jealous.

	Camaraderie | Every Sunday afternoon, the non-traveling JESUS boys gather for a game of unltimate Frisbee. While they definitely play to win, the games provide more than just physical release—they lead to team-building and communication. "Satan wants nothing more than to get us all angry and bitter," says Jesse, "then have us [try to] work with someone we are angry and bitter with."

Despite jet lag, rotating schedules and a dozen or so different personalities, they are amazingly cohesive. Every week the guys who are not traveling pray for those who are, and on Sunday afternoons the home-berthed JESUS boys compete in an aggressive game of ultimate Frisbee.

Campus Crusade staff member Greg supervises the crew—having eight children of his own, no doubt, helps prepare him for the challenge. Sometimes minor irritations erupt, but, says Greg, "As iron sharpens iron, they really do sharpen each other and grow to depend on each other. They have to. Sometimes they are the only ones around who speak English."

"Whatever comes up out there, you gotta deal with it," says Ryan C., a University of Indiana graduate with a degree in accounting.

And Ryan K., a Campus Crusade staff member on temporary assignment with the JESUS boys, says, "I feel like there is nothing I can't handle now."

After a two-week training period, the JESUS boys go "out there" with an experienced teammate. Two trips later, they venture out on their own.

And they really go "out there." Josh, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse with a biology degree, typifies the secondary motivation for this commitment. "A lot of it was the adventure," says Josh. All of the JESUS boys wanted the opportunity to travel to exotic places and see things that most people only see in National Geographic.

And they all have National Geographic-type stories of spitting cobras, lizards, scorpions and warfare in neighboring countries.

Brent, a 1999 graduate of Ball State University in Indiana with a degree in physics, tells of one experience in an African hotel. All of the rooms except his were infested with huge, seemingly mutant cockroaches. A late-night trip to the bathroom allowed Brent to see why his room seemed to be a "no-cockroach zone." On the tile, next to the baseboard, a spider—at least six inches across—waited for the cockroach du jour. Meanwhile, down the hall, John, a 1998 graduate of Cornell University, engaged one of the mutant roaches with a can of bug spray. After chasing it under the bed, John sprayed blindly but only succeeded in awakening the denizens of the under-the-bed-netherworld. Dozens of insects in assorted size, color and species evacuated their nests. John contented himself thereafter to let sleeping bugs lie.

While the bug stories make great conversation, they only footnote the real reason the JESUS boys each commit a year or more to record translations for this film. Their primary motivation is following God and doing something significant for His kingdom.

And that significant thing makes an incredible tool for the gospel available in places otherwise unreached by it. "These teams are translating languages that would not be done if these guys didn't go and do it," says Greg.

In the year 2000, these teams recorded voices for 69 new languages in 23 countries representing over 137 million people, many of whom will join them in eternity as a result. But these Africans and Asians, Muslims and Buddhists, and others in remote tribes and sects will not be the only people changed.

Long after the mementos and souvenirs are packed away, and the stories are told for the last time, these young men will still be marked by this experience. "I used to see God as a white American God," says Josh. "Now I see him as the God of the world and I can't imagine ever being the same again."

For more information contact Tammy Wolbrink at (407) 826-2443 or Tammy.Wolbrink@ccci.org. You can also log on to home.ccci.org/jfpstint (no www).