In the chronicles of iGo History you would find that at one time we had two different kinds of interns. Well, we actually still do have two different kinds of interns. But we used to also. The difference was that back in those days (and I’m still not sure if they were the good old days or just the old days at this point) we called our interns that stayed here in our office interns. We also called our interns that served overseas interns. It didn’t take long to get confused.

So we no longer call anyone interns, even though we still have interns. Following? Good.

Jimmy is our iGo Mobilization Internship. Jimmy stays here all summer and helps us train and mobilize. This post is not about them so I will move on now.

JSI’s are what we decided to call our overseas interns. What it stands for is not important. If you need it to stand for something to satisfy your inner need for information, then go with Just Summer Interns. If you like things more spiritual sounding, you could try Jesus’ Summer Interns. In light of that, you could just say JSI’s…for Christ. That always works.

What is important is what a JSI is and what a JSI does. JSI’s are the backbone of our mobilization strategy in Western Europe. When we show up and recruit at Falls Creek, Kansas/Nebraska Super Summer, Texas Super Summer, and Louisiana YEC, we are hoping for students to respond in bulk quantities to the opportunity to make Him famous in one of our partnership locations. We put these students on large teams (we once had 189 students on a team to Tokyo felt a little more like an invasion than a student M trip).

To send large teams to our partnership locations would be a huge burden on the workers that live there and serve there. Most of the workers are on a small team themselves (2-3 families), and a large team of students could potentially derail their current work significantly.

Enter the JSI. JSI’s are students who are ready to learn how to lead other students, ready to learn how to live the overseas M life, and ready to develop leadership skills that translate into any setting.

Our JSI teams arrive on location a couple weeks in advance. They learn the city and areas being targeted. They learn where to eat, how to get from A to B, and all the insider info they can glean from the workers.

And then our first timer teams arrive. The workers set the tone and our JSI’s lead. They lead these first time students through the city. They lead them in focus time in the Word. They lead them in engaging people from this culture. They lead them in embracing and applying the core values. Day in and day out.  JSI’s learn to lead others by leading others .

While all this is going on, these JSI’s are building and investing in relationships with people from that city. They are living on mission in a cross-cultural context while being invested in as leaders.

What I’m trying to say is this whole JSI thing is pretty cool. 

So what about you? Are you ready to take the next step in your journey to become the leader God calls you to be? Are you ready for 6 intense weeks of living on mission, building lifelong friendships, and making Him famous overseas next summer? The time to apply is NOW.  Check out the application on our website.

Former JSI’s: Help me out. Hit the comment button and let someone know how being a JSI impacted your life. Your testimony might be just someone needs in order to take that next step.