Rising Voices
More than Words: A Young Leader’s Awakening to a Life of Mission
By Hannah Bemis, based on an interview with Mia Guzman
Mia Guzman was just seventeen years old when she discovered her own passion for missions. On a university trip to Jamaica, she experienced what she describes as her first deeply formative encounter with Jesus. As she and her team served children who had been abandoned by their parents, Mia encountered the reality of God through loving those the world had overlooked.
Since that time, Mia’s life has been shaped around missions, both local and global. Now nineteen years old and a student at Southeastern University, she spends her time outside of school serving in kids and youth ministry at her church, volunteering with several local nonprofits, and serving as an intern in the Southeast region of Open Bible. It takes only a few minutes of conversation with Mia to sense her passion for missions, justice, and Next Gen engagement.
“My heart burns to give people the opportunity to discover a passion for missions they didn’t even know they had.”
During our time together, she spoke enthusiastically about serving at Hope House, a local nonprofit that supports pregnant young women with dignity and practical care. She was equally animated when describing Anchor House, where volunteers show love to pre-teen and teen boys through presence, play, and consistency.
“Even in our own backyards, there’s so much we can be doing,” Mia says. “There are so many organizations that the Church often doesn’t even know about, and they have the same mission—to love and help those in need. If we want to reach our communities, I think we need to partner with our communities.”
Mia’s commitment to local missions has naturally opened doors to global service and leadership. Most recently, she helped lead a mission trip to Greece, where her team served Muslim refugees at a camp just thirty miles from Turkey. The refugees they served had fled Northern Africa, Afghanistan, Iran, and other parts of the Middle East.
It takes only a few minutes of conversation with Mia to sense her passion for missions, justice, and Next Gen engagement.
The trip stretched Mia in unexpected ways. She shared candidly about gaining confidence as she led people who were older and more experienced than she was. It was also in this context (where initiating conversations about the gospel was forbidden) that her theology of mission began to take shape.
“Although we weren’t able to tell them we were Christians, they could tell by the way we acted; we didn’t even have to speak,” Mia recalled. “I think that speaks a lot to the way the Spirit rests on us.”
She reflected on how the experience deconstructed common assumptions about missions. “We go into missions with this savior complex,” she said, “but the Holy Spirit doesn’t need us to work in somebody’s life. It’s not us that’s doing the saving—it’s Him. Sometimes in missions we’re simply called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We’re called to be Christians and Christians are kind. Christians are loving. Christians are servants.”
At one point during the trip, a woman approached Mia’s team and asked why they were being so kind. Because the conversation was initiated by the woman herself, they were able to respond honestly that their actions flowed from their love for Jesus.
“Well, I’m a Muslim so I don’t believe in Jesus,” the woman replied, “but I know that something about you is different, and you have something that I don’t.”
Missions is less about a specific place and more about a posture of heart.
While conversations like this may have lacked neat resolution, they affirmed what the team was learning: the likeness of Jesus is recognizable without words, and faith can be expressed as powerfully through character as through conversation.
Mia described this trip as a “huge learning curve,” marked by the revelation that God “doesn’t need us, but He still chooses to use us.” Rather than a performance, the experience became a work of sanctification, shaping humility, dependence, and trust in God.
“Oftentimes short-term mission trips aren’t about us going and starting a revival,” Mia said. “They’re about the work the Lord is going to do in us, and what He reveals about His character and ours.”
As for what’s next, Mia continues to serve with Open Bible in the Southeast region while stepping into growing opportunities for leadership and influence. She recently led a breakout session at Open Bible’s Movement Conference for young adults and was invited to Des Moines to speak into the future of global missions for Next Gen. She is also pursuing her master’s degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling at Southeastern University and hopes to use it for missions in the future. At just nineteen, Mia Guzman represents a generation of leaders discovering that missions is less about a specific place and more about a posture of heart. Whether serving across the street or across the globe, her life reflects a simple truth that we could all learn from: when Jesus followers show up humbly, faithfully, and lovingly, God makes Himself known.
To watch a portion of the interview, click below:
About the Author
Hannah Bemis currently serves as the editor and director of Message of the Open Bible. She always wanted to do too many things when she grew up, and God has been kind enough to let her do most of them in different seasons. After seasons of mothering, teaching, writing, and staff pastoring, Hannah’s most recent adventure is planting College Street Church in Newberg, Oregon, with her husband, Jordan. After Jesus and all her favorite people, she spends the remainder of her passion on pizza and dark chocolate in equal measure.