At 36 years old, I was a guy who just didn’t know much about Campus Crusade for Christ® (Cru®). My fiancé served as a missionary for them for decades. They tried desperately to recruit me … even flying me to an out-of-state staff conference, to see if I could “catch the vision.” It didn’t work, I wasn’t interested. I enjoyed my career in law enforcement.
One day at the Cru international headquarters-while meeting my fiancé for lunch-I decided to take the Jesus Film® tour. I remember seeing the film as a 16-year-old boy at the theaters and enjoying it. So, I was curious as to how it was still being used.
Each step of the interactive tour drew me in deeper as I learned the history of the film, how translations were made, and heard stories of those who gave up their lives for the gospel. By the end of the tour, I was crying. The Holy Spirit was moving in me and the call of God was strong.
All I could think was, Who’s gonna continue this work-taking Jesus to the lost?
For several months the Lord continued to work in me. Shortly after we were married I went back for another tour, and cried again. A month later I went back a third time.
Surely this would eventually get old and I’d no longer be emotionally pulled in. Nope! I cried each time.
The Holy Spirit gently tugged. No, actually-He pulled at my heart. I heard God asking “Will you go? Will you devote your life’s work to Me?”
A few days later I said to my new bride, almost in a whisper, “I think God is calling me to join you as a full-time missionary.”
A few weeks later after some prayer, I interviewed with Cru. My application was approved and I suddenly found myself resigning a secure government job and going to Cru staff training. As I requested, they assigned me to serve with Jesus Film Mission Trips™. I’ve been on staff now for 15 years, serving the Lord full time.
So it’s more than a tour for me. It’s more than an interactive experience that helps visitors understand the work of God around the world. For me, it was the instrument through which God called me into full-time ministry.
I bring all my friends to the tour when they are in town. I sit in my office right next to the very tour God used to call me here. I hear the tour all day long and pretty much have it memorized by now. It brings joy to my heart knowing there is probably someone -a teen, a mom, a truck driver, or senior citizen-experiencing the tour and maybe even being called to “go and make disciples of all nations.”
I thank God for that tour. It’s a tool that brings hundreds of people a year to our Master Studios in Orlando to experience what God is doing through the “JESUS” film. If you haven’t yet, next time you’re near the Orlando International Airport, make time to spend an hour and experience the tour at our headquarters.
Who knows, it just might change your life.
