Primary Hosts

Shirley & Wally Schmidt

We have come to love travel with a bias towards helpful activity.  The many people we have brought with us have had such an extraordinary experience that they often leave with a desire to return as soon as possible.  Our hope is that it may be the same for you.
(Almost half of our last group of students is looking for ways to return in some kind of missions, service and study experience.)

Our goal is to give you a custom-designed experience that will be useful to those we come to serve, hugely informative and life-giving to your team, full of beauty and then of course, fun. Our hope is that it would be a spiritually refreshing time for you as well and we will partner with you in a variety of ways to accomplish your goals in this area.  

A few notes about Guatemala. Not many of you have likely traveled to Guatemala. Unlike Costa Rica or even Thailand, it's a bit off the beaten tourism track. We have traveled a good many places in our lifetime and Guatemala has impressed us as a great destination country for several reasons:

• Real need and opportunity for volunteer partnership... and some great partner missions that are just waiting for us to come work alongside on a short-term experience.
• Beauty and diversity of landscape from ocean lowlands to the volcanic highlands.
• The breadth of its culture from Mayan to Spanish European.
• The hard-working and truly gracious Guatemalan people.  We have not experienced them looking for a handout as much as a "hand up".
• There has been a tragic history of foreign heavy-handedness that makes this new era a time where we can truly make a difference.  This is a formational time in Guatemala's history.
• The bird life is extraordinary (Shirley) with great coffee shops and Internet cafés (Wally).
• The weather is terrific.

  Shirley has become somewhat of a naturalist , with a passion for local and world bird life.  Her watercolors are wild and free with a tendency towards trees, paths and big skies.  She's just plain good company. You will find her a caring and gentle host. Shirley is in charge of warmth and laughter.

  Wally has created and developed youth projects for most of his life... from Youth Drop in Centers to missions and study assignments... most recently with the Canadian Mennonite University's Outtatown program in Guatemala, South Africa & Thailand.  His photographic skills have taken him on assignments throughout the world over the past 30 years, photographing people at work, at play, and has even taken the odd assignment hanging out of low-flying airplanes shooting landscapes at 150 mph.  Wally is an adventurer and is in charge of creating an eclectic and fascinating journey.

Travel Leadership Experience:

• Canadian Mennonite University.  For over seven years Wally designed and led study/service trips for University students into South Africa, Guatemala and Thailand. These 8-month programs became somewhat renowned for their creativity, and life learning impact. Over 500 University students have spent the better part of a year experiencing the world in one of his grand adventures.
• Parents and friends of students badgered us into designing a short-term program for them ... which led Shirley and Wally to create a series of popular, annual adult trips into Guatemala.
• Wally's international experience began with six months of dysfunctional travel and study in Europe & North Africa as a youth. His photography has since taken him throughout the Caribbean, West Africa, Taiwan and beyond.
• Youth For Christ. Wally worked with YFC for over 13 years developing street youth centers across Canada. He also took YFC teams into Jamaica... in one case 70 people... in small teams ...over three months... on a working holiday, building a youth center on the edge of a slum in Kingston.
• Wally has been a consultant to a variety of schools and universities as they have sought to develop group experiences overseas.
• Wally also works with the White Rock Christian Academy in developing spring break mission experiences for their school.
• Shirley however is the real peach, and injects a level of personal care, creativity and attention to the beauty of creation... so that the value of the experience is significantly enhanced.

"Our strategy in Guatemala is to partner with locally led organizations & talented local people to create the safety & knowledge base that makes an adventure in service like this a life-giving and memorable experience." 

Join us.