The swashbuckling movie adventurer Indiana Jones has nothing on the Journeymen, a force of 20-something Christians on the front lines of missionary work around the world.
...Journeymen are active in developing nations, Glenn Prescott of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board told Religion Today. The Baptist laymen travel by canoe and teach new Christians in the South American jungle, coordinate relief work and construction projects in Kosovo, perform Christian music in nightclubs in Asia, and backpack across remote areas to preach about Christ, according to Commission, an IMB magazine.
...About 300 Journeymen are serving two-year stints in scores of countries, Prescott said. The program began in 1964 as a Christian missions version of President John F. Kennedy's Peace Corps initiative. For decades Journeymen supported traditional missionaries on the field, teaching their children and doing clerical work. But in recent years their role has expanded to take on more direct missionary activity, Prescott said.
...Applicants must be 21 to 30 years old, have a college degree, and be willing to dedicate two years to missionary work. Those selected undergo a four-week orientation course; two classes of Journeymen are commissioned each year.
..."Journeymen put the legs on our long-term missionary programs," Prescott said. Traveling in teams, they identify which communities are ready to hear the gospel and recommend ways to present it to them. They follow up on converts, helping them establish weekly Bible studies that grow into churches.
...Journeymen played a major role in starting churches in Albania, Prescott said. The Baptist board and other Western mission and ministry groups sent workers to the country when communism fell in 1991. Thousands of volunteers showed the Jesus film and distributed Christian materials, and many people became Christians, he said.
...The Journeymen helped turn new Christians into committed followers of Christ. They traveled to areas where the gospel had been proclaimed, discipling converts and starting Bible studies and churches, Prescott said. "They were the ones who were out there every day, traveling from place to place. It is incredible what they started there."
...Journeymen prepare the way for evangelistic activity as part of the IMB's Rapid Advance program, Prescott said. They travel to remote areas where people have had little or no exposure to Christianity in order to learn about their cultures, assess their receptivity to the gospel, and decide how to present the message of Christ most effectively.
...Many are at work in nations where the gospel is restricted. In those places they teach school, act as farm advisers, work as nurses, and hold other secular jobs while befriending people, according to Baptist Press.
...Six American Journeymen are working with six native missionaries in Guatemala, traveling through the countryside showing the Jesus film, giving out Bibles, telling schoolchildren about Christ, and holding outreaches in downtown areas, Commission reported.
...One team started two churches among a group of poor families living in a crumbling hotel, according to Commission. Before a baptismal service, a missionary asked a boy to explain baptism to be sure he understood the commitment he was making. The boy pointed at the missionary's dirty shirt and said, "You take that shirt off and put a clean one on. That's what Jesus did to my heart," the magazine reported.
