Two drifters wend their way through villages from Pakistan to Papua New Guinea, carrying hand-held digital cameras with them. The pair are recording as they get lost in the jungles of Laos, have a nasty encounter with some leeches and nearly become lion chow.

It’s all grist for a reality television program, but this isn’t a race around the world and no one gets voted off the island.

The two wayfarers are Christian missionaries. Their goal is to connect with local people who are likely never to have heard of Jesus Christ.

Taking a cue from its secular competitors, Trinity Broadcasting Network — a Santa Ana, Calif.-based television ministry — has started airing its first reality show, “Travel the Road.” The 12-part series began in early May and will run through Aug. 16.

The program follows evangelical Christians Tim Scott and William Decker through a year and a half as they preach in 16 countries.

Along the way, the two share stories of conversions, events they consider miraculous and some plain old adventures. They travel in and out of war-torn countries like Burundi, where they sleep in tents as shots whiz around them.

The show is a big step for TBN, which airs on various cable systems and affiliates, reaching about 70 million viewers nationwide. The network’s programming generally consists of televangelists such as T.D. Jakes and Benny Hinn, along with a smattering of health and talk shows.

Inevitable forum

Roger Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, said it was “absolutely inevitable” that reality TV would be adopted by Christian networks.

Its dawn, he said, was only delayed by an aversion to the lowbrow antics of some of the reality pioneers on secular TV.

Thompson cites Christian soap operas, rock ‘n’ roll and talk shows such as “The 700 Club” as examples of other genres that Christian media have successfully emulated.

EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES Tim Scott, left, and Will Decker edit videotape in their production studio in Torrance, Calif. The world's largest Christian television ministry, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, has started airing its first reality show, Travel

Scott, 24, was on track to become a stock broker when he sold all his possessions to go overseas in 1998. As they set off on their third mission trip — traveling independently, without the backing of a particular denomination — he and the 28-year-old Decker intended to create a travel-log Web site that would encourage youth to try mission work.

But as the footage from their cameras multiplied, and the stories became more compelling, the two realized they might have the genesis of a television show.

“We really wanted to just document, just show the power of God working … churches forming … whole villages coming to the Lord. It’s the testimony of the people back there,” Scott said.

They approached the Discovery Channel, Travel Channel and National Geographic Channel, among others, about airing the series. Responses were positive, they said, but there was concern about finding sponsors for a show with such a strong Christian message.

Supported through donations

Paul Crouch Jr., vice president of administration at TBN, welcomed the show. TBN is supported primarily through donations, and its audience is typically Christians aged 40-55, he said.

“Travel the Road,” could give the network, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, a vehicle to reach the all-important youth market.

“TBN is a huge ship,” Crouch said. “You don’t turn it on a dime, but we’ve been gradually trying to increase our audience through the use of more contemporary shows than preaching.”

Other Christian broadcasters also have been experimenting with reality TV.

“TruthQuest: California,” the brainchild of Todd Starnes, director of communications at Union University, just completed a run on the Southern Baptist Convention’s FamilyNet TV network.

It followed teenagers around California as they explored their faith and shared it with other young people. One of the most dramatic episodes used secreted night-vision cameras to capture “Truth Questers” sharing Jesus with teenagers in a San Francisco club who called themselves vampires and, at one point, pulled out razors and sucked each other’s blood.

Starnes, who developed “TruthQuest: California” after watching MTV’s “Road Rules,” argues the show was less contrived and more “real” than its secular counterparts because it shows young people “being themselves.”

He hopes the program helped ease the stereotype that Christian programming is mainly “big gospel hairdos, lots of polyester, makeup and weeping.”

But keeping Christian TV current is tough financially.

For secular networks, reality TV is a bargain compared to dramas or sitcoms that can be expensive to produce, Thompson said. Christian shows, however, are often created on a very low budget — significant production costs can be prohibitive.

There are no plans for a second season “Truthquest,” for instance, because of production expenses. And some worry that Christian reality shows will be hit by audience drop-off as the genre’s overall popularity wanes.

Still, Starnes remains confident. He said that Christian reality TV has an advantage over other evangelical programs: Instead of simply telling people to come to church, the shows depict Christians in action.

“There is hope for Christian television,” Starnes said. “I think that people are demanding more, they’re demanding excellence.”