While most students will go home for five weeks of winter break, one student will do a mission trip to Guatemala.

Cody Bly, junior bio/chem major from White Oak, will go to Guatemala with Orphan Outreach, a nonprofit which partners with orphanages. A friend’s family member invited him to serve as a translator and games coordinator. He went to the same orphanages on a previous trip and said he’s looking forward to seeing the children he met there, including a boy named Diego.

Bly said he and Diego would play soccer and archery and Bly would teach him Bible stories. Diego even named his stuffed bear “Cody.”

“This is a sentimental part of my missional experience and it encourages me to serve the less fortunate while getting to know them on a personal level,” Bly said.

Bly said his interest for missions began his freshman year of high school, when he saw videos about Christian martyrdom and the need to serve others in impoverished countries.

Bly has been on three medical mission trips since he graduate high school.

“I have a passion for working with children, so visiting orphanages and serving people in different types of ministries gave me a fulfilled desire to continue missions,” Bly said.

He also plans to colead a university trip to Guatemala through Health Talents International, during spring break. He will serve as an intern at a medical site in the Dominican Republic this summer.

Bly said he wants to continue being involved in missions each year and said he wants to serve during portions of the year as a medical missionary while maintaining a medical practice in the United States.