The plan was simple.

Go to Guatemala.
Serve well.
Make an impact.

For Lizzie, it wasn’t her first time. She had been there before, two years earlier, with the LIFT Program, serving at the Women’s Social Work site. This trip felt like a return. A chance to reconnect. To continue something God had already started.

For others, like Kristen, it was stepping into something new, unsure what to expect, but willing to say yes.

The team had different starting points, but the same general expectation: That the week would be about what they would do. And in a lot of ways, it was, but not always how they imagined.

There were moments early on where things didn’t quite line up.

Bill admitted that his expectations of the work left him feeling “a sense of unfulfillment” at the beginning of the week…until something shifted by the last day.
Kristen found herself doing something different than others on the team. She spent most of her time on house visits, while others shared stories of more visible activities. At first, it was hard not to compare.
And Jim wrestled with wanting to help more in his professional role, feeling limited by time and cultural differences.

The team reflected on these honest moments of tension where expectations met reality. But looking back, those were the moments where something deeper began to happen.

It’s easy to walk into a mission thinking it’s about what we’re going to do. But in his patience, God begins to gently shift our perspective. For this group, this happened in the in-between moments:

A conversation that went longer than planned.
A visit that interrupted the schedule.
A moment where the task quietly faded into the background so the person was the focus.

“Be open to interruptions—they are opportunities to share the gospel and pray,” Betty reflected.

Joe put it this way: “Learning to be ‘interruptible’ and intentional with the people right in front of you became one of the most meaningful parts of the week.”

And Lizzie noticed it in the way the Students International missionaries lived it out daily.

“They take the time to care for others even if it takes away from a task… the people are the priority.”

Slowly, almost without realizing it, the definition of “impact” began to change. For Lizzie, that shift became personal. Before the trip, she printed out a photo of herself with a woman she had met two years earlier in Guatemala. She wrote her a letter, hoping she might see her again…and she did! They reconnected that week, getting to talk, laugh, and share stories. At the end of the trip, the woman surprised Elizabeth with a gift: a pair of pants she had sewn by hand, along with a letter of her own.

Moments like that began to define the week:

Joe talked about playing soccer with kids in El Tablón, where laughing, joking, and building relationships didn’t require a shared language.
Betty remembered sitting in a home learning how to make tortillas, sharing a meal with a family that welcomed them with warmth and joy.
Liz B. described simply walking through the community, stopping to talk with people, hearing their stories, and being present in a way she hadn’t expected.

None of it felt rushed, and that was the point! It became clear that God was already at work. Bill said it best: “God is at work… whether I went to Guatemala or not.”

By the end of the trip, no one was really talking about how much they accomplished. They talked about the people. The relationships. The conversations. The moments that didn’t go according to plan but ended up meaning the most.

And maybe that’s the clearest takeaway: The mission wasn’t found in the perfectly executed plans; it was found in the interruptions.

Once home from the trip, Bill shared that he was already beginning to think differently about how to engage in ministry in his own community. Kristen reflected on the importance of carrying this mindset into everyday life, recognizing that “every day is like a mission trip…you never know who God will put in your path.”

Ultimately, living on mission isn’t always about doing more. Sometimes it looks like slowing down, paying attention, and being willing to be interrupted.

When Interruptions Become the Mission

What LIFT 49 Carried Home from Guatemala