Serving Together and Growing Together

Every year, we have the incredible privilege of welcoming brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world who choose to serve alongside the Cadaniño team in Guatemala. Some come for just a day while others serve for a week, but every team becomes part of a much bigger story.

So far in 2026 alone, we have welcomed 23 mission teams and more than 350 volunteers who have served alongside our staff, investing in the lives of children, youth, and families through home visits, Vacation Bible School, Family Day outreaches, STEM activities, and countless personal conversations with those we serve.

Throughout the week, teams experience many aspects of serving vulnerable children and families through our after-school programs. They join our staff on home visits, where they sit with families in their homes, listen to their stories, read Scripture together, pray with parents and children, and often deliver food bags to families facing difficult circumstances. They help lead Vacation Bible School, partnering with our teachers through Bible lessons, worship, games, crafts, and small-group activities that build genuine relationships with the children. Many teams also participate in our Family Day outreaches and women’s groups, where entire families gather for worship, fellowship, games, and encouragement. Even something as simple as sharing meals becomes ministry, providing opportunities to build friendships with our staff and translators.

These experiences are meaningful, but we believe the greatest impact often isn’t what gets accomplished during the week.

The greatest impact is what God accomplishes within us when we step out of our natural context to serve others.

Something changes when you sit in a family’s one-room home, hear their story, pray together, and witness their joy in the midst of hardship. Something changes when you watch local believers faithfully investing in children day after day, year after year, and see the tremendous love they have for the children in their care. You begin to realize that missions is far more than a trip; it’s a lifestyle.

Our prayer has never been simply that people would come to Guatemala and have a meaningful experience. Our prayer is that serving at Cadaniño would inspire every volunteer to return home asking, “How can I live more missionally where God has already placed me?”

Because the Great Commission doesn’t begin when we board an airplane. It begins when we faithfully love our neighbors, invest in people, and share the hope of Christ wherever God has called us.

If serving at Cadaniño encourages someone to mentor a young person at church, volunteer in their community, pray more intentionally for the nations, support missionaries, or simply become more aware of the needs around them, then the impact of that one week extends far beyond anything we could ever measure.

We have seen this happen time and time again.

Nikki Barrios:

“Serving alongside the team at Cada Niño has forever changed me. It was my first international mission trip with my son… We really enjoyed meeting the families during our home visits. I left a piece of my heart in Guatemala, and I am excited to return next year with my entire family.”

Deb Planchard:

“Our team is forever changed as a result of this mission trip alongside Cadaniño to Guatemala.”

Renata, who spent a month interning with Cadaniño, shared how her perspective on ministry was transformed:

“Throughout my time in Guatemala, I watched teachers and staff invest in children far beyond the classroom. They faithfully prayed together, visited families in their homes, celebrated birthdays with incredible intentionality, stayed after hours to encourage students, and took time to listen when a child simply needed someone to care… Watching them changed my understanding of ministry. It reminded me that lives are rarely transformed through one extraordinary moment. More often, they are changed through thousands of ordinary moments of faithfulness.”

Jessica, Mission Team Leader:

"If I had to sum up Tim and Sharie's vision for Cadaniño, it would have to be one word: intentional. The way they care for the students and their families, the staff, and the missionaries is intentional. The children feel seen, cared for, and are taught that they are capable and made for a purpose beyond what they can hope or imagine... The families are taught that they are never alone and that the Lord walks with them... And the missionaries understand that they were called for the mission."

There is another beautiful aspect of serving that is difficult to fully capture in words.

Imagine being one of the families we serve. Someone you have never met leaves behind the comfort of home, uses their vacation time, travels hundreds or even thousands of miles to another country, walks the dusty roads of your neighborhood, sits in your home, listens to your story, prays with you, and simply wants you to know that you matter.

For many of our families, that reality is almost unimaginable.

Again and again, parents ask us, “Why would someone come all this way just to spend time with us?”

The answer is simple.

Because they are loved by God.

Every conversation, every prayer, every shared meal, every game played with a child, and every home visit quietly proclaims the same message:

You are seen. You are valued. You are not forgotten. Your life matters.

In many ways, this is a beautiful reflection of the Gospel itself.

God did not remain distant from us. He entered our broken world through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus willingly left the glory of heaven, took on human flesh, bore the weight of our sin on the cross, and made a way for us to be reconciled to our Heavenly Father. He came to us when we could never have reached Him ourselves.

No mission trip could ever compare to that incredible sacrifice. But when God’s people willingly leave behind their own comfort to love, encourage, pray for, and serve people they have never met, they become living reminders of the God who first came to us.

That is why serving matters.

Not simply because of the activities we accomplish, but because every act of humble service points beyond itself to the greatest act of love the world has ever known.

Mission trips are not simply about what we do for one week in another country. They are opportunities for God to broaden our perspective, deepen our faith, and remind us that every follower of Christ has been called to live on mission.

Whether that mission takes us across the street or across the world, we are all invited to participate in what God is already doing.

To everyone who has served with us over the years, thank you.

Thank you for walking dusty roads to visit families. Thank you for praying over the children. Thank you for encouraging our staff, laughing with our students, and reminding families that they are seen, valued, and deeply loved by God.

Most of all, thank you for embracing the truth that God’s Kingdom is built through partnerships. We are grateful that Cadaniño has become one small part of your journey of following Christ, and we pray that what God begins here continues to bear fruit wherever He leads you next.

Sincerely,

Timothy and Sharie Martiny

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