This is a guest blog post by Karlie Schmid, one of my beautiful nieces (sister cousin aunt).

It is more than a soccer ball. 

It’s fresh morning air and seeing smoke puffs coming off Pacaya in the morning. 

It’s the never-ending supply of coffee. 

It’s the fresh tortillas with every meal. 

It’s the glass bottle cokes and laughs at the tienda. 

It’s hiking up a mountain with your food pack following your community guide. 

It’s sitting on a rickety stool talking to a new friend in their kitchen and praying for their family. 

It’s long walks to the lava fields. 

It’s sharing a queso pie from McDonalds with your best friend. 

It’s the giggles when everyone else is sleeping. 

It’s teaching 40 kids to do the cotton eye Joe. 

It’s getting beat up playing “football” with them while they stomp us. 

It’s the hunger for the Father that can’t be quenched with worldly desires. 

It’s swapping phrases in Spanish and English while playing cards until lights out. 

It’s walking through Antigua and seeing Carlos and getting a free bracelet “for a pretty lady”. 

It’s the feeling of home in a place where your biological family doesn’t reside. 

It’s seeing the way Christ shines through their eyes when they encounter us. 

It’s being the hands and feet of Christ. 

It’s time spent actually slowing down long enough to experience God. 

It’s realizing that this is a glimpse of Heaven. 

I don’t see people that need “saving” from material things. It’s more than that. It’s more than the materials we “gringos” bring down on the container. It’s more than a soccer ball. Or bounce houses. Or birthday candles. Or CPR mannequins. Or a deck of uno. It’s not about “saving” them from the situation, it’s about opening a conversation about the One who can give them eternal life.

For example, in 2022, a mother came to the camp one evening in distress about her daughter. The caretaker of the camp came and got the nurses on our team. Me and two other nurses went to her house to check on her daughter. We found out once we arrived that her daughter had an ectopic pregnancy and just got home from a 6 hour round trip bus ride from the hospital. She was in significant pain and was very worried. The nurses with me checked her out and we gave her supplies to help the pain; then we prayed over her family. Once we arrived back at the camp, we prayed again. Since she was so far from a hospital, we were worried about her stitches and possible infection, but with the little resources we had we did what we could. In 2023, when I arrived at Pacaya and was settling in, I saw her. Or rather she sees me and one of the nurses that was with her that night a year prior. She walks up to us beaming and holding a beautiful baby. She remembered us as the women who prayed over her health and safety; she remembered the love of God in that moment. 

Why do I go? 

I go because I’m called.

In Matthew 28, Jesus gives the instruction of “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations”. I knew from the first time I stepped off a plane in Guatemala City, in 2012, that these people and place would mean more than my 14-year-old heart could understand. And I was right. I didn’t get the opportunity to come back to Guatemala until 2021, following the most difficult time of my life.  I stepped off the plane, yet again, and met the same smiling faces I left in 2013. I was met with surprise, elation, and lots of questions. “Is that Karlie?” “Where are your braces?” “You graduated high school and college? “How is your family?” to “I’m sorry about your mom” “we never forgot you or your family”. 

Now at age 23, I felt my heart start that steady rhythm that I was finally back home – but it wasn’t the place. It was God speaking to my broken heart. Speaking to me that He never forgot me. Reminding me that the girl that stepped off the plane eight years prior, with stars in her eyes about being on first mission trip, was still in there. 

That is what “go and make disciples” is about. It’s about the love of Christ that breaks every barrier. Spanning across continents, across time zones, across years. You may not want to cross the ocean or even the street, but sometimes the simplest things can open a conversation about Christ. 

To support Karlie and the Guatemala mission, please send via Venmo to @Karlie-Schmid.