Youth in Missions
- timothy martiny
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
When the Students Become the Teachers
On a small street in one of the communities we serve, a group of children sits together on plastic chairs, listening carefully as their instructor opens a Bible and begins to teach.
She’s not a teacher, she’s not a pastor, she’s a Cadaniño student.
Just a few years ago, she was the one sitting in a chair like theirs at a Cadaniño Community Impact Center, learning Bible stories, asking questions about faith, and discovering that God deeply cared about her life.
Today, she is the one sharing that same message with others.
This is the quiet miracle we are witnessing more and more at Cadaniño: our students are becoming teachers and instructors of what they have learned.
How Transformation Begins
At Cadaniño, leadership doesn’t start with a title. It starts with formation.
Week after week, students participate in Bible studies, discipleship classes, mentoring conversations, and times of worship, prayer, and reflection. These moments of reading Scripture together, discussing life, and asking questions help shape how young people see themselves and the world they live in.
Over time, students begin to see their lives, their communities, and their future through the lens of God’s truth. These steady rhythms of discipleship form the character, compassion, and faith that prepare them to serve others.
But learning alone isn’t the end goal.
We believe young people grow most when they are given opportunities to live out what they are learning.
One of the first major opportunities to do this came during the COVID-19 crisis in Guatemala.
When the pandemic hit, many of the families we serve suddenly lost their jobs. Through generous donations, Cadaniño distributed emergency food bags to the families of our students. But the need was great in the areas where we serve, and before long, those same families were coming to us asking if we could help others in need as well.
But we had a small staff at the time, and could not reach everyone. After prayerful consideration, we asked our students if they would be willing to help deliver food to elderly and infirm neighbors in their communities.
The response was incredible.
Students received training and began delivering food, reading Scripture, and praying with people who were isolated and afraid. For most, it was their first experience going from being served to serving others.
When the pandemic ended, we could see that something had changed in the lives of those who were serving, so we challenged them with a simple idea:
Find children in your community and teach them about God on a regular basis.
That challenge became the Cadaniño Youth Missions Club.
Through this program, youth organize Bible classes in their neighborhoods, gathering younger children to sing worship songs, hear Bible stories, pray together, and learn about God’s love.
At Cadaniño, we believe the youth we serve are not just the future leaders of their communities; they are leaders right now, and our mission is to empower them to become true changemakers in their neighborhoods by stepping forward to be the hands and feet of Jesus, bringing hope to a lost, lonely, and broken world.
Many of these youth are also being equipped through partnerships with the Genesis Foundation, which provides leadership training focused on character, responsibility, teamwork, and servant leadership, and through the Identify ministry, which provides evangelism training that prepares them to share their faith with others.
Today, 41 Cadaniño youth are teaching Bible classes to more than 130 children in their communities each month.
Watch the video of how it all started
Here are some of their stories.
Salma (17)
What motivated me to join Youth in Missions was the opportunity to teach children about the Word of God and remind them that even when they feel alone or are going through difficult situations, God is always with them.
Many children feel like they don’t have anyone who listens to them. But when we teach them about God, they learn that they always have a faithful friend who hears them and guides them. When they truly follow Him, they can feel peace and joy instead of loneliness.
One challenge for me has been learning to be patient. The children I teach are between six and ten years old, and they are very active. Teaching them is a big responsibility.
What has impacted me the most is realizing that some children look like they are doing fine, but in reality, they are going through very difficult situations. Some have told me their parents abandoned them, and now their grandparents or relatives take care of them but struggle to provide enough food.
Darlin (19)
Since I was little, I have always been interested in working with children, so I started by helping my sister teach her Bible classes in the Youth Missions Club. At first, I felt it was easy because I was just helping, but later I started teaching on my own, and I saw that it was a lot more responsibility.
One big impact I have seen in my kids is that they are like little sponges, absorbing everything they see and hear. A special teacher–student friendship also grows when the children open up and express themselves in ways we never imagined. Sometimes they can brighten your whole day with just one word.
What motivates me to keep serving is knowing that I can change lives. There are children who do not attend any church, and knowing that we can be the door for them to know God and learn the Bible means a lot. It also motivates me to know that we can be a good example for them by sharing the Word of God with love and patience, so that later they can also share what they have learned with others.
Shaila (18)
What motivated me to join Youth in Missions was the opportunity to serve, teach, and share the Word of God with others.
One of the biggest challenges for me has been believing in my own abilities. There are days when everything goes wonderfully, and the class goes exactly as planned. But there are also days when things don’t work the way we hoped. Through those moments, I’ve learned that even when things don’t go perfectly, God still receives our service with joy.
Serving has taught me something very important: even when we think we have nothing to give, we always have something we can offer. While we teach others, we also learn from them. It doesn’t matter where we serve or how many people are there. What matters is that we are doing it for the Lord.
I’ve learned that God can use our talents and strengths to plant seeds in others. And even when we feel incapable, God is the one who calls us and equips us for things greater than we imagined.
What motivates me to continue serving is the passion in my heart to serve others with humility, patience, and love, following the example of Jesus. I want my life to reflect His love and grace. I feel deeply that loving others without limits is the greatest response to His calling.
Jefferson (15)
What motivated me to join Youth in Missions was the opportunity to share the Word of God with the next generation. I wanted to answer God’s call to share the Gospel and help children understand that God can help us in every situation.
I also wanted to thank God for what He has done in my life, not just with words, but through serving others.
At the beginning, one of my challenges was teaching classes and learning how to be a good teacher. I wanted to set a good example and show children that God is with me everywhere I go.
What has impacted me the most is the relationship I’ve built with the children. They grow fond of you, and when they greet you as their teacher, it feels very special.
What motivates me to continue serving is knowing that God is always with me and that I was created to serve Him by sharing His love with others.
A Gospel That Multiplies
What is happening through the Cadaniño Youth Missions Club is something truly beautiful. The children who came into Cadaniño to learn are now turning around and teaching others.
The message of the Gospel that we share daily in our classes is spreading from one student to another, from one neighborhood to the next, and from one generation to the next.
This is how the Gospel multiplies.
It begins with a child learning about God’s love. It grows through steady discipleship, mentoring, and leadership development as that child becomes a teenager. And eventually that young person can become someone who says, “I want others to know this too.”
The impact does not stop when students graduate from Cadaniño.
Recently, Dora, the mother of one of our students, shared that her younger daughter has been receiving tutoring from Ruth, a former Cadaniño student who is now a school teacher.
Ruth has been visiting and helping her improve her reading and writing skills so she can enroll in Cadaniño with her brother.
This simple act of kindness reflects something powerful: the seeds planted through years of discipleship continue to bear fruit long after students leave our classrooms.
This is the model we see in 2 Timothy 2:2, passing on what we have learned to others who will also teach others.
Because when young people discover that their lives matter and that God can use them to impact others, they begin to realize something incredibly powerful: that God has equipped them to be the changemakers in their communities, the hands and feet of Jesus who are called and empowered, to bring hope into a lost, lonely, and broken world.
Sincerely,
Timothy and Sharie Martiny
Partner with Cadaniño today and impact lives for eternity!
