{"id":23898,"date":"2026-02-27T07:57:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T12:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openbiblemessage.org\/?p=23898"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:40:08","slug":"more-than-words-a-young-leaders-awakening-to-a-life-of-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openbiblemessage.org\/es\/2026\/02\/more-than-words-a-young-leaders-awakening-to-a-life-of-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"More than Words: A Young Leader’s Awakening to a Life of Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hannah Bemis, based on an interview with Mia Guzman<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since that time, Mia\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy heart burns to give people the opportunity to discover a passion for missions they didn\u2019t even know they had.\u201d<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>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.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mia with her Jamaica missions team.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cEven in our own backyards, there\u2019s so much we can be doing,\u201d Mia says. \u201cThere are so many organizations that the Church often doesn\u2019t even know about, and they have the same mission\u2014to love and help those in need. If we want to reach our communities, I think we need to partner with our communities.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mia\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes only a few minutes of conversation with Mia to sense her passion for missions, justice, and Next Gen engagement.<\/mark><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough we weren\u2019t able to tell them we were Christians, they could tell by the way we acted; we didn\u2019t even have to speak,\u201d Mia recalled. \u201cI think that speaks a lot to the way the Spirit rests on us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mia with her Ireland missions team.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

She reflected on how the experience deconstructed common assumptions about missions. \u201cWe go into missions with this savior complex,\u201d she said, \u201cbut the Holy Spirit doesn\u2019t need us to work in somebody\u2019s life. It\u2019s not us that\u2019s doing the saving\u2014it’s Him. Sometimes in missions we\u2019re simply called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We\u2019re called to be Christians and Christians are kind. Christians are loving. Christians are servants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point during the trip, a woman approached Mia\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m a Muslim so I don\u2019t believe in Jesus,\u201d the woman replied, \u201cbut I know that something about you is different, and you have something that I don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missions is less about a specific place and more about a posture of heart.<\/mark><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mia described this trip as a \u201chuge learning curve,\u201d marked by the revelation that God \u201cdoesn\u2019t need us, but He still chooses to use us.\u201d Rather than a performance, the experience became a work of sanctification, shaping humility, dependence, and trust in God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOftentimes short-term mission trips aren\u2019t about us going and starting a revival,\u201d Mia said. \u201cThey\u2019re about the work the Lord is going to do in us, <\/em>and what He reveals about His character and ours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To watch a portion of the interview, click below:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n